Total attendance for tonight's game is 3,340! #WeRepKC #KCvsBOS— FC Kansas City (@FCKansasCity) April 16, 2017
First week, 2017 - 5,978 for five games First week, 2016 - 7,820 for five games Same five cities, too, oddly enough. (Though not the same five venues - FCKC played at the big yard for last year's opener.)
I have a feeling the Red Stars attendance will not be good, especially early in the season. Too many games in the middle of the day. Heck, I won't be able to make it this Saturday and a couple of other games because of middle of the day on weekend commitments. Youth Club teams in Chicago area have games during that time. 2;00, 3:00, even 5:00 is too early to have a game, IMO. An example would be May 27th against Carolina Courage. The game is at 3:00 with Memorial Day Weekend Tournaments all over Chicagoland. I will be at The Libertyville Tournament myself way on the north of Chicago and I don't see how I will be able to get to the game on the South Side at 3:00. I don't see how they will be able to get any kind of reasonable attendance with so many Club Teams in tournament mode, people having commitments, etc. And it's too bad because it should be a great game! If the game was at 7:00 pm at Toyota park, I would be able to make it for sure, and probably many people and Club teams. By luck I was able to go to the Chicago Fire game a week and a half ago against the Columbus Crew. The Fire now have Bastian Schweinsteiger, they won 1-0 on a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon, game started at 1:00 pm. The official attendance was stated as 16,434 out of a 23,000 stadium and to me it didn't even look like that many. I saw many seats unfilled. I don't know about other cities, but middle of afternoon games in the Spring do not work attendance-wise in Chicago, IMO (unless you are the Cubs playing at the world's biggest beer garden called Wrigley Field). I hope I'm wrong, but I don't foresee good attendance for the Red Stars this season with so many games in the middle of the day on the weekend.
Today's attendance: 14,452Excellent support from the Pride faithful. #FilledWithPride pic.twitter.com/CgsiV49AsQ— Orlando Pride (@ORLPride) April 22, 2017 Official attendance for #NCvPOR is 6,298. @TheNCCourage— Neil Morris (@ByNeilMorris) April 23, 2017
Tonight's attendance is 2,727. Thank you Reign FC fans! #LetItReign #SEAvHOU— Seattle Reign FC (@reignfc) April 23, 2017
I barely got to the stadium to watch the last 30 minutes of the game. Traffic in Chicago is horrible during this time of day on a Saturday afternoon. These games are too early in the day and it will hurt Red Stars attendance all season. There are a couple of games for sure I won't be able to make and maybe more, and I'm a die-hard fan.
Not Easter this weekend.... and so many teams down in the 2k zone. Granted, everyone aside from Seattle had drawn under 3k at least once last year, but still.... Getting under 3k for a home opener in so many cities is a bit worrisome.
The schedule isn't doing the Courage any favors. 7 of 12 home games at 4pm. Can't really complain about April (it was abnormally hot today) - but all 4 home games in July and August at 4pm. That alone should knock a grand or so off of the attendance. A retired member of the media that used to cover the international women's game begged off today because he didn't feel up to the heat. And as bad as 4pm from May-September is here, I can't imagine anyone showing up in Houston for day games in the summer. Not only that, it makes the games crappier.
What's the humidity like there in July/August? I remember July/August in Philly where I grew up, the temperatures were high but it was the humidity that made it awful. (As a matter of interest, just looked to compare the latitudes in France and Cary, since the Women's World Cup will be in France the summer of 2019. They're pretty close.)
Summertime in Cary is usually humid, about the same as Philly except a few degrees warmer. I don't know where you looked, but from a latitude perspective Cary (~36 deg N) is quite a bit south of France (Paris is ~49 deg N, Marseille is ~43 deg N). To put it in perspective, Cary is about the same latitude as Gilbraltar. KC and Raleigh are not the same latitude. To put it in perspective, KC (~39 deg N) is about the same as Baltimore/DC and Raleigh (~36 deg N) is about the same as Fayetteville, AR. FYI...1 degree of latitude is 69.172 miles. Of course, latitude is only one of a number of factors that determine an area's climate.
Ocean currents play a big role on the weather. The Gulf Stream of warm water coming up from the equator passing along the east coast, which accounts for the high humidity levels is much different then the much colder water coming down from the Artic that passes along the coast of France.
Amid all this detailed talk of latitudes and such, bottom line is the league screwed up with the scheduling this season. Admittedly, they are limited with the Lifetime games by the time window negotiated with the network. But for the other, non-televised games, there is no reason to schedule so many games in mid and late afternoon. 1) Like it or not, children and families are still a big part of the fanbase. Many of them have youth soccer leagues and other commitments during weekend days. Evenings is when they are free. This will put a dent in attendance. 2) The summer heat in at least three NWSL cities, possibly more, will be oppressive. It will a) deter fans and b) sap the energy of players = less exciting on-the-field product.
Saturday, 4/29 attendance numbers (per NWSL website); home teams bolded Portland vs. Chicago: 14,471 (down 1,674 from season home opener) North Carolina vs. Orlando: 4,586 (down 1,712) Washington vs. Houston: 3,154 (up 747) Boston vs. Seattle: 2,315 (down 14) Boston averaged 3,672 last season, and the lowest attended game was still above 3,000. Concerning. If the Breakers continue to be a decent team perhaps some fans will come back? Washington was bound to struggle after the offseason turmoil and departure of many beloved players. Like Boston, Spirit fans have always been reliable despite on-the-field results. In 2016 they averaged 3,782. A lower number this year would not be surprising, given the negative hit to club image. Today is Sky Blue's opener, historically the league's lowest attended team.
May 27 attendance numbers, home team bolded Houston vs. Seattle: 5,312 (about normal, impressive given the heat) Chicago vs. North Carolina: 2,618 (bad but not surprising) Sky Blue vs. Orlando: 3,451 (this is really good by their standards!) Kansas City vs. Washington: 1,728 (bad) Portland vs. Boston: 18,637 (amazing, once again PDX fans bring it home)
Wonder how many of those at the Thorns' game were players from the Friendship Cup? I know at least 9 teams from WA EPD attended.
Teams ranked by percentage change in average announced attendance over the same number of home games as in 2016: Team......................2017....2016..Change Sky Blue FC..............2,830...1,699..+66.5% North Carolina Courage...4,663..*3,998..+16.6% Portland Thorns FC......16,353..16,735...-2.3% Houston Dash.............5,055...6,271..-19.4% Seattle Reign FC.........3,323...4,189..-20.7% Washington Spirit........3,115...4,302..-27.6% Chicago Red Stars........2,178...3,047..-28.5% Boston Breakers..........2,560...3,588..-28.6% Orlando Pride............9,856..15,807..-37.6% FC Kansas City...........2,345...4,136..-43.3% NWSL TOTAL...............5,042...5,986..-15.8% *As Western New York It's not a completely apples-to-apples comparison, obviously. Orlando had the benefit of a huge outlier as their inaugural and Kansas City had their 2016 opener in the big yard. The "league" average for 2016 is for this group of 10 teams, collectively, at those varying stages of their seasons. The first 36 games this year (consisting of a different mix of teams) are down about 12% from last year. If every team held their current averages, the league would finish at 5,228, about 300 a game under last year. Still early, though. 70 percent of the schedule remains.
Wow, two months later, attendance is not an issue? Okay, then. Here's where the teams are at the moment: Team....................G.....Total..Average...Median...High.....Low Portland Thorns FC......8...133,630..16,704...16,468...18,637..14,471 Orlando Pride...........6....41,943...6,991....5,487...14,452...5,185 Houston Dash............8....39,716...4,965....5,325....6,095...3,332 North Carolina Courage..8....32,771...4,096....3,749....6,898...2,383 Seattle Reign FC........9....33,261...3,696....3,730....4,464...2,727 Washington Spirit.......7....25,073...3,582....3,190....5,200...2,400 Chicago Red Stars.......8....23,510...2,939....2,883....4,742...1,827 Sky Blue FC.............7....18,592...2,656....2,529....3,451...2,091 Boston Breakers.........7....18,408...2,630....2,435....3,321...2,276 FC Kansas City..........6....12,972...2,162....1,844....3,340...1,703 NWSL TOTAL.............74...379,876...5,133....3,576...18,637...1,703
5,249 in Cary. By far the best weather we've had for a game this year. Our other August game in two weeks is a 3:50 Lifetime game. That has the potential to suck donkey balls. Late August can be 82 degrees and nice, or it can be 95 and humid. The Courage should not play any day games from mid-June through August as a rule. This year the late May games were grueling.
However, a footnote to the good attendance. After the previous Seattle game -- which was delayed for 2 hours because of lightning -- the Courage gave free tickets to ticket-holders for one of two games -- of which this was one. So, probably 1,000 or more were taking advantage of the free tickets. I was there with my free ticket.