It seems that the camera never shows the other side of the stands at SeatGeek, but that side was PACKED from one end to the other and at least half of the upper deck was full. Good job Red Stars!
People are listening. @mPinoe using her platform to talk up #NWSL matters.(Source: https://t.co/uAdHlnGn3Z) pic.twitter.com/OXpBWEUpEK— Meg Linehan (@itsmeglinehan) July 22, 2019
No reason for them to move. They're a completely independent organization with a completely different lease agreement. Besides, I don't know how long their current deal at SeatGeek lasts, but I'm guessing they want to stay there since I highly doubt they'd get a better deal at Soldier Field.
Bingo. The Fire are almost certainly going to lose money at Soldier Field, but they need to get out from under SeatGeek and the contract with the Town of Bridgeview before they start working on building a new stadium. If they try to build a stadium first, they'll lose almost all bargaining leverage with regards to breaking their Bridgeview agreement and negotiating with potential new locations. This is a strategic move for the Fire that will look bad on the bottom line initially, but hopefully pay off in the end. The Red Stars, however, are just a tenant. With the Fire gone, it's doubtful that Bridgeview/SeatGeek will be worse for the team. In fact, there'll probably be some incentive to play up to the Red Stars. All the Fire iconography will go away, and it's possible that some of it could be replaced with Red Stars. They'll probably get the main locker rooms and in-stadium offices. They'll possibly get a better selection priority for match days. And if the Fire do get another stadium built, you might see the Fire and Bridgeview bidding against each other to woo the Red Stars to fill dates in the calendar. The one thing you won't see is the Red Stars moving to Soldier Field. Frankly, as money losing as it likely will be for the Fire, it would all but bankrupt the Red Stars. Large NFL Stadiums like that generally cost over $150k just to turn on the lights and open the gates to fans for a game. Rent costs are usually above that. Per game. There's no way the Red Stars could afford a couple million/year in game day rent. If an MLS team were a local fast food restaurant, then your average NWSL team would be the twelve year-old next door with a lemonade stand. The economic gulf between teams in the two leagues is huge. Obviously Portland is an outlier, and Utah is encouraging, but even MLS struggled at the start in NFL Stadiums. Kansas City and New England worked due to cross ownership. The MetroStars were hemorrhaging money at Giants Stadium. The other teams in large bowls survived for much the same reason why the Red Stars may actually due better in Bridgeview with the Fire gone - the original NFL teams had left the Rose Bowl, RFK Stadium, and the Cotton Bowl. If you look at the history of MLS stadium construction you can see the oppressive pressure to stop renting expensive 50k+ bowls and start paying a mortgage. Columbus literally had nowhere to play in 1999 due to construction at Ohio State. The Rose Bowl, Mile High Stadium, the Cotton Bowl, and old/new Soldier Field were all amongst the worst financial situations in the league. If it were possible to build easily in the NYC or DC metro regions, those teams would've moved a decade before they did.
To the 17k who turned up last night. It doesn’t matter where you have been or why you showed up, it just matters that you keep showing up. So many reason why but I will choose a selfish one..The players run harder in the final 15 with u driving them on compared to when we do!😬👊🏻— Rory Dames (@dames_rory) July 22, 2019
I saw this from Rory Dames thanks to a retweet by Jonathan Tannenwald @thegoalkeeper on Twitter To the 17k who turned up last night. It doesn’t matter where you have been or why you showed up, it just matters that you keep showing up. So many reason why but I will choose a selfish one..The players run harder in the final 15 with u driving them on compared to when we do!😬👊🏻— Rory Dames (@dames_rory) July 22, 2019
Good article by Sarah Spain at ESPN on the Chicago/NC game at formerly Toyota Park (now Seat Geek Stadium). The US national team seems to be appealing to people partly on the basis of being larger than a game, of being part of a movement, words that are anathema around here and which I've tried to tiptoe around in the past. Ms Spain gives the example of a friend of hers who isn't a sports fan who brought a book with her to a watch party for the semifinal match against England in case she got bored. She got hooked instead and wound up going to the watch party for the final and then to the Chicago Red Stars game. quote from Morgan Brian: quote from Arnim Whisler, owner of the Chicago Red Stars:
...okay, while I still think that renting RBA long-term would be a bad idea for Sky Blue, if they can sell out Rutgers tonight and at least one or two more times this season, that's certainly a somewhat good reason for them to look for a new (bigger) place to play.
5003... It’s officially official - S E L L O U T. THANK YOU FOR ALL WHO ARE IN ATTENDANCE TONIGHT AT YURCAK FIELD! #NJvWAS #NWSL pic.twitter.com/v48i4lFfUq— NJ/NY Gotham FC (@GothamFC) July 25, 2019
New high for the Thorns: Tonight's attendance: 22,329.The largest crowd for a Thorns game in club history. Forever grateful for you, Rose City. #BAONPDX pic.twitter.com/xJsUTbZIWh— Portland Thorns FC (@ThornsFC) July 25, 2019 I'll also point out that these numbers for Sky Blue and Portland are especially impressive for a weeknight.
Now, if they could only join that with a win, there would be a chance that more people could show up again in the subsequent weeks...
And we're still a full month away from the first North Carolina Courage home NWSL game with USWNT World Cup players.
All these stories of great attendance, sellouts, etc is fantastic news for those of us who support the women's game. We should all be excited for all the teams in NWSL.
For the league to thrive, though, there's the need that these sellouts are not just spectacular one-ofs. The trend has the last over time. I remember the impressive crowds in Nadeshiko League in season 2011-2012, just after the World Cup win; now, 8 years later, those crows are just a memory and some teams have a hard time selling their places. An healthy league shouldn't have to rely on winning the World Cup each four years to get a boost: it can help, but it can't be enough.
Impressive numbers for Wednesday games. Surprised even at the Thorns record. WOW. I hope this can keep up, and Sky Blue can find a better home.
A look at how Chicago got that big crowd: https://equalizersoccer.com/2019/07/25/how-the-chicago-red-stars-made-the-world-cup-bump-a-reality/
The facts that they got TV ads for their local FOX station and geotargeted online FOX ads, on top of geotargeted Facebook ads, really impresses me. I don't know what they paid to get those three things done, but if they were aiming for 10k and got 17k, I'm guessing that whatever the cost was, the dividend was way more. Not sure if such a perfect storm of circumstances will be available again, but these sorts of marketing procedures might be what's needed to independent teams to consistently get above 5k attendance numbers. Of course, the literal footwork they did helped a ton too. Also really cool to hear their Elevated kits are already on their fourth run!
Really impressed with these post-World Cup numbers. Wasn't expecting them this big. Utah, Reign FC & Houston have home games this weekend, let's see what kind of crowds they get.