Yeah, we knew the league was trying to avoid weeknight games this time around. Last season was sort of an exception due to the late start, Austin not having a home game until summer and the first half of our home season with only a small number of home games.
This was at the footer of the schedule they emailed me: Interesting. Probably this year's marketing theme. Certainly better than CBJ's "Out of our Blue we rise" or whatever it is. And I get that there are only so many clever pitches you can come up with. What I find particularly interesting about it is that they're obviously trying to play up the new digs specifically and not the Crew, or soccer in general. But, as crappy as we were last season, can you blame them?
https://www.massivereport.com/2021/...ew-announces-2022-mls-regular-season-schedule May 21 vs Los Angeles FC UniMas July 17 vs FC Cincinnati FOX Sports 1 Aug 21 vs Atlanta United FOX Sports 1 Sep 18 vs Portland Timbers ESPN "Decision Day" Oct 9 Orlando City SC (potentially national TV?) In a blow to Crew fans who stream, no away games will be on national TV.
Did you notice that that email you got about the schedule didn't include the, uh, schedule? Or even a link to said schedule? Or a printable PDF of the schedule graphic? Or the link to add the Crew schedule to Google Calendar/iCal? Or anything related to the schedule, really? But hey, they sent an email.
Wasn't this referenced in a recent Dispatch or Massive Report piece? The club is selling "the experience" first, the soccer product second. I'm very old school about such things. For me, the soccer product makes up most of my experience.
Modesty forbids me from referencing a rather long post on BS where a learned sage opined that the Crew had MLS soccer for sale for many years and getting 10,000 people a week to pay for it became increasingly difficult. So the new management with a pricey boutique building sells the sizzle, not necessarily the steak. Their advertising from the beginning has been about the excitement and the experience. Tri State Marketing plan
This isn’t surprising, is it? Let’s be realistic about what a sporting event really is. You think all the people with their special foods and gear tailgating for an OSU game really understand the game? Or even the people in the suites? No, they are there for the experience. That’s what you sell.
Not a bit surprising. It goes back to Bezbatchenko's ill-advised " swap 8000 fans for 15,000" quip. It was a stupid thing to day out loud but it's true, it makes sense and I think it's still operative. The Crew had 8000 hard core fans and the team was headed to Austin Now nobody suggested TRYING to jettison them all but if the price of filling LDC is kicking each one of them in the ass with steel toed shoes then from a business standpoint that's what you do. Bottom line, the team is still here. You and I can still go watch soccer, thank Dee and Jimmy. I dont care why the rest of the tickets got sold. Not one bit.
This is where I am with all the front office, rebrand, etc - I still get to watch top flight domestic soccer in Columbus and apart from that I don't really have any needs otherwise.
Selling Sizzle is a temporary solution. In three to four years LDC won't seem unique or interesting anymore.
I mean, fine, there's sizzle. It's meaningless to me, and in fact rather annoying. But sure, I get it that some folks lap it up. What is meaningful for me, though, is the team's play, and that was miserable last year. I'm not necessarily asking for Waygu ribeye with my sizzle every week, but I do need a decent cut of meat. Last year's sizzle was accompanied by the unmistakable scent of flaming dogshit, and that product isn't worth the increased price of admission, For me, anyway. The unfortunate reality in 2021 was that the marketing hype stood in stark contrast with the product it was linked to. To the point where the juxtaposition became absurd. Too, some of that sizzle was terribly ill-conceived to the point of being damaging, and here obviously I'm taking about the de-brand fiasco. I mean, I dislike the jackhammer... thing, but whatever. But the logo just makes me angry every time I look at it, reminds me of the attempt to drop "Crew" from the name. It really just made clear (again, to me, anyway) that the "we're mere stewards of the club" is what I guess I always knew it was; a line ownership says to mollify the masses. In this case, the masses hated the idea enough that there was some modest back-tracking. But I'm under no illusion that, left to their own devices, this team wouldn't be called the Crew, and would have dropped its colors early in the new ownership's tenure. Takes more sizzle than I can imagine to get beyond that sense of betrayal.
Trying to decide if I want to stay in state an extra days to try and go to the match on the 12th... Was planning on leaving Ohio on the 10th so I'd have 4 days to travel back.
We were 10-4-3 at home this year. Plus a win in the Cameones Cup. That may not be filet, but it's a far cry from terrible. Unless you expect tOSU level results
I just don't find that true at all. Nationwide Arena is one of the best hockey venues in the league - even all these years later. I'm someone who would be considered a casual hockey observer and I still love heading to a game or two a year regardless of how good the team is. I'm not alone in that. LDC, imo, is a better venue than NWA and as long as the Nordecke keeps adding atmosphere, casuals will continue to come. Regardless of how successful the club is.
Anecdotal, but all the non-soccer people I brought to a game last year said it was fun and they would be back. A far, far cry from HCS, which was only selling soccer.
Columbus - and the metro area - is a city of frontfunners: They do expect a tOSU level of results. Anything short of perfection is abject failure to most Sportsfans in these parts.
Fair enough, but as I hate college football, it's not a comparison that resonates with me. I was referring to the overall product, not just their play at home. Obviously, they finished the season well, but I'd largely disconnected from the club by then after their mid-season swoon made it clear their year would end with the regular season. I did attend the final game, which was a nice afternoon out. Oddly enough, the unusual sunny 60 degree day in November made me think how enjoyable an experience it would have been at the old stadium. Anyway, no season tickets for me next year. But I will attend a handful of matches, as I assume getting reasonably priced tickets on the secondary market won't be that hard. I really look forward to seeing how things feel outside of the Nordecke. In the new stadium, it just wasn't my cup of tea. Curious if I'd like the vibe any better in some other part of the stadium, like the SW corner.
Not the upper SW corner--it's where the visiting fans go. Why we're now in the upper SE corner for next season. It wasn't that bad, but I'd rather be cheering with Crew fans.... And at some point, there may be incidents. Why ask for trouble?
Looks like the Crew are playing Denver in August. Maybe I'll make a weekend trip of it and see them as an away supporter.
Bingo. The experience includes advance communications with the FO, traffic and parking around the venue, stadium ingress, cleanliness of stadium, friendliness of security/staff, the comradrie of the fans/tailgate situation and more things that many people may not realize.
I tend to doubt that to a degree. If there's a lean spell where we don't make the playoffs 3-4 years in a row, start vocally calling for the coach's head and start chanting how awful the team/players are, stuff like that will definitely keep many casuals away. Look at the situation between 2003-2007. I hope we never go back to that era. It got nasty. You want to prevent that and keep the crowd happy? Win. The casuals won't want to spend money if they know the team is going through the motions and losing by 2-3 goals more often than they scrape out a 2-1 or 1-0 win. You can't sell shit on a plate and call it soccer.
Maybe you want to say 2005-07? We did win the shield in 2004 with lots of ties. The new stadium feel will eventually wear off but the organization has a chance to build some support before then. It's the highest level of soccer regularly available in person in the US. The atmosphere is usually good (though I'd say it was sometimes too loud). If we field a team that wins 2/3 of home matches and is consistently in the upper half of the conference and eliminate the unforced errors like the POS terminals going down or locking fans out in the rain, we'll be fine.