@SiberianThunderT, didn't see one from you but you can update this thread with your tables and analysis when you are ready We have essentially sold out for @HoustonDash opener but will open up more seating. Statement from club with details to come out soon.— Chris Canetti (@ChrisCanetti) April 10, 2014
haha, beat me to the Twitter message by a nose! X-D Today was my day to start posting threads; working on a stats one at the moment, was gonna to attendance next, and then the P/I/P thread.
No worries, it's good! To answer my own question from the News thread: yes, Houston is looking in to opening up extra seating: We have essentially sold out for @HoustonDash opener but will open up more seating. Statement from club with details to come out soon.— Chris Canetti (@ChrisCanetti) April 10, 2014 And, for the record, here are Kenn's final numbers from last season (my spreadsheet with all my extra statistics is on my home computer, I'll post those when I get home this evening): http://www.kenn.com/the_blog/?p=5593
As a data nerd, the outlier that is Portland drives me nuts, but with only 8 data points from 2013 and 9 from 2014, it's not like we can just throw them out! RAWR. Personally, I'd like to take a look at the changes teams've made in venue and see what the potential for seating is there. I'm a Breakers season ticket holder and last year, at Dilboy, we were almost always sold out, but it was a tiny venue. Adding in % sold from total venue ability would help broaden the picture (it's not like all teams are working with what the Thorns have for a venue). And this year I know there're at least a few teams who aren't using the full capacity of their stadia, so that's another factor. I'll try and get to this math later.
Well, you don't have to throw it out, but you can say "this is obviously a different paradigm, it's fair to do an analysis with POR and without POR". That's part of my spreadsheet. Seeing how change in venue affects things will be interesting, but not in the way anticipated, I think. http://equalizersoccer.com/2013/08/20/nwsl-attendance-watch-week-19/ BOS's % attendance was fairly high, but still below 90%, so I'm not sure the expanded capacity will have a *huge* effect on their attendance. Same with SEA, who had a woeful 64% attendance at the smaller Starfire. Now, I could see other factors - e.g. location, better familiarity - increasing attendance for both teams, but the expanded capacity won't be the driving reason in either case. Suck for KC, though, who moved to a stadium with lower capacity than their average for last year.
Well I think one of Boston's problems last year was that although they put in the temporary expanded seating to get it up to 3,500 capacity, they only used if for 3 games (if I recall correctly, BostonRed would know for sure though). So fans were never sure when they could use it. Thus they never got a full 3,500 out for any of those games. But they did have multiple games where they got over the originally listed 2,500 capacity, even when the expanded seating wasn't available (which means there were many standing room only fans). So I take that as a positive sign, and expect they will average higher this year (although probably a lower percentage of capacity). Edit: Actually I went back to look, it turns out Boston only used the expanded capacity for 1 game. So that 89% capacity quoted by the Equalizer is wrong, it should be 94%. They sold out 5 of 11 games. And if you take their median of 2,634, they were at 102% of capacity.
The Daily Dash @TheDailyDashWS 5h The Dash have officially opened up 200-level sections are to accommodate demand for the inaugural and season opener against the @ThornsFC.
So what are the 1.) "attendance goals" and 2.) "minimum attendance needed" for each franchise? Have any guesses?
No word on KC's attendance? They should've had a sellout, tweets from the team were saying it was standing room only.
Well, according to the match report KC had 3,107. Less than half of their opening game last season (6,784). I thought they were expanding the stadium to 3,200 seats. Did they not expand that much or did the 3,200 include standing room only capacity?
FCKC may have had less than 50% of the attendance they had at last year's inaugural match, but I believe they're charging a few dollars more per ticket this year. It still ends up being less revenue overall, but maybe they'll get more revenue from sponsors this year.
Hmm... let's see. To do a rough estimate... I don't know the exact amount of seats per section, so I'll just average them. Last season, season tickets cost $200 for Elite Section and $150 for General Admission for an average of $175 (disregarding front row & supporter). This season, it's $480 for Elite, $264 for Fieldside, and $192 for General Admission for an average of $312 (disregarding front row and the supporters price). $175 x 4,626 (last season's average attendance) is $809,550. $312 x 3200 (this season's supposed max attendance) is $998,400. So, theoretically, they could still make more money on tickets this year than last year. But that's if there are 3,200 seats... I guess even if there's only 2,600 seats it'd still be more money, though. But it still looks bad to have that smaller attendance, IMHO. Especially when that was the team with the best average attendance other than the Thorns, of course (who are incomparable).
But sponsors like to see the stands full. It attracts them. And if FCKC can average their max attendance (3,000+), then it will work out for them. I didn't know the price differences were that much more significant this year (almost 100% increase in ticket prices).
Only 3,021 in Seattle; I was kinda expecting more, though maybe they have the spectre of last season still lingering over them.
Washington will need Morgan Brian (more than Houston, Boston, or Los Angeles). They'll need her to help attendance again, to push it back over 3,000+ on average.
If Dunn (dynamo) don't pull, she (just another mid-fielder out there) sure isn't. They finished at the bottom like Tampa Bay (NFL), so they have to rebuild the base. It's just how the sports game goes.
Yeah, but Dunn and Brian (together) is the way you would want to start building a new team around. They should keep Huster, Nairn, and Angeli around them. Add in the allocations of Krieger, Averbuch, Matheson, Gayle, Veronica Perez, and Harris. Get rid of everyone else for new personnel. Even Weimer is getting old. Grow the team from youth up. They already have enough older veterans among the allocated players. Trade Cuellar (for a 2nd round pick if you can). Get a solid draft pick for her. Use that draft pick on a forward. Acquire a highly skilled forward from Europe as an international free agent. Get it done. Schelin ain't gonna happen, but find the younger version of her that is about to blow up in Europe. Get ahead of the other teams in acquiring whoever that player is, even if she's barely 18 or slightly older. Make a push for Ramona Bachmann as well. She had hinted at one time that she may want to come back over. Rebuild the defense. Krieger, Huster, and Gayle are the base. They would need to acquire more through free agency and draft picks. Making a trade of Danesha Adams and a lower draft pick, for another team's top reserve defender, who would become a solid 4th (starting) defender in quality for the Spirit, is not a bad trade. Also, scope the Australian W-League, American USL W-League, WPSL, etc., for the next Marissa Abegg type, who can step in and have an impact for a low salary.
Morgan Brian won't attract many more tickets. The "stars" of the USWNT are still the motor behind big attendance, other then Portland. And the TOP tier of those "stars" are Solo, Wambach, Morgan. Period. Everyone else is second tier and that includes Rapinoe and Leroux. Morgan Brian isn't even on the radar to attract major attendance. We hard core soccer fans know who she is and will go to see her play but your average "clueless" soccer dad with his daughter will not flock in mass to go see Morgan Brian.
Agreed - for Washington, which has generally had a good deal of support, I think they just need to win some games and 3,000 in attendance is not going to be an issue. Goal for this year for Washington should be to win 8-10 games.