Now the big question is can they keep those numbers up this time around or will they return to the 4-6k numbers.
Ouch. Good thing the rest of the league is stepping it up so far. I guess every league has to have one of these clubs.
I just don't know how to get fans out in this ciy. The club's early years turned a lot of fans off by being disorganized, and cutting some influential local players. Additionally, not winning very much hurts. I think playing on the weekend is the hardest part. Friday night games might have worked, but the CFL (Canadian football) club next door has some sort of agreement with the city which doesn't allow the eddies to play then. Marketing to families doesn't really work (as we all know). Currently, our big local hype machine (Hanson Boakai) doesn't even make it in the 18 man game day squad due to discipline issues with the coach.
I think it's time to start questioning the long term viability of soccer in Edmonton. People in the city just don't seem to care about anything but hockey.
Not sure why San Antonio just doesn't tell NASL that during Fiesta that they should not host. Its a wasted home date. Fiesta is just a huge draw to where they will not get the walk in fans. So why not be smart and plan ahead. Would of been a perfect weekend to be away.
It didn't work well back in the old NASL Driller days also. It just won't resonate everywhere for whatever reason. The bigger issue is that NASL needs all the markets they can get right now, so here'shoping they hold on for a while.
Well it is not they (NASL) this is up to the Edmonton owner, if he ever gets sick of losing his money, then Edmonton would be done, sure NASL could take over the team like in Atlanta, but I imagine that would not last for more than a year or two.
Problem is FCE doesn't do any major marketing or much real marketing at all. They need to hire a professional marketing company and solid ticket reps and then we could truly see if Edmonton is viable long term. They saw progressive increases in attendance the last 3 years (aprox 1500 to 2400 to 3300) but need to really increase & improve their marketing to continue to build attendance upward but the Fath's don't seem willing to do that.
Very doubtful. As brentgoulet pointed out, the next home game is at another stadium with a 7.5 k capacity (why are they doing that?). But if they can get to a 7.5-8k average, at Hofstra anyway, they'd be on the way to showing that they can still be(come) relevant
To be fair, attendance in all Edmonton sports are down significantly right now. Attendance for the Rush is down 16% from last year (where they only lost 2 of 18 games). Attendance for the Oil Kings was down 11% from 2012-13 to 2013-14. Attendance for the Eskimos is down 20% from a decade ago, although it did go up in 2014 from 2013. It's just a market that, I think, is a two sports town. And despite fans of one of those sports (Oilers) being incredibly jaded Edmontonians continue to throw their money at the product because, hockey. That being said, corporate support appears to be way up, which is good news as it should mitigate losses. And all things considered, even with this decrease they are back at 2013 attendance levels not 2012 levels.
No idea, but IMHO I guess 1) target a different crowd or 2) Ottawa is a hard sell or 3) maybe the lacrosse team needs Hofstra that day
It must be number 3. For any team in any sport opening day is one of the biggest numbers, no way you follow a sellout of 12K by taking the next game to a smaller venue, Hofstra was probably not available. If they wanted to reach out to people on BK they could have waited a bit and ride out the momentum from opening day.
I thought this was discussed before and it was because of scheduling conflict... Regardless I think it will be a great event and well attended. There is easy access to Coney Island and honestly I think will be a great follow-up to the home opener last week. It could be a great chance for folks who are interested in the Cosmos but haven't made the trip out to Hofstra to see the Cosmos in action. If they sell out the 7,500 as a follow-up to last weekend then I don't think you'll see a break in momentum. In all likelihood the optics of the Cosmos at Coney Island would easily make for a net-positive.