Also, keep in mind they really do not want more seating so (I) do not expect to see us getting a 30k+ seat stadium. Remember that financial growth for the team and league does not lie in more butts in seats - it lies in "broadcast" revenue sharing and always has. That is why almost all (and especially new) MLS stadia are in the 25-30k seat range. This way they are purposely, with malice aforethought, able to manufacture scarcity and drive up per seat revenue on a game by game basis (dynamic pricing - thanks TikatDICKtator!) and thereby force more eyeballs to streaming. Yes, 5k more seats will provide for more local revenue, which is important, but not nearly as important league-wide revenue sharing. It is, after all, not sport - it is entertainment bidness. Streaming is why we will see MLS become a top 10 league in terms of player talent in the next 15-20 years - when the current appletv deal expires and the next deal is worth $6,000 - $7,500 million instead of the current paltry $2,500 million. When they are getting that kind of cash, team budgets will rise as well (thank you, mlspa) and then we should see quality footy on a week in week out basis.
Speaking of TV deals… Premier League agrees record £6.7bn domestic TV rights deal https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67619756
One of the really stupid initial restrictions imposed on the club was not being allowed to build out over the sidewalk on their side of the road. Could this be one of the things they're trying to change?
Back in the day when the stadium was being built and they were trying to sell me season tickets I attended one of the events at the Union Market sales center. My friends and I asked a lot of questions about the stadium design and its shortcomings. The person we were talking to (I can't recall who it was, but he was an executive with the club) basically admitted that some things like a roof all the way around were just not technically going to be possible from an engineering standpoint. Of course if you have a big enough pile of money you can do lots of things, but the message was pretty clear to me that they did not expect to add much to the place. Most of the new stadiums in the 18-21K range. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Soccer_stadiums But given how many empty seats there are at pretty much every DCU match I wonder why they think they need 5000 more. But I suppose if they can sucker the District into paying for it, why not? Doesn't seem likely though.
One other basic design flaw of Audi Field is that a conscious decision was made to take away big sections of normal seating for smaller sections of extremely high priced premium seating.
empty seats does not necessarily equal unsold seats... for DCU games, anyway. But remember that EagleBankArenaEast is home to several other teams and many events that do not have significant media rights deals so butts-in-seats (BIS) is all important for revenue (tickets and advertising). Higher capacity also adds to the ability to draw more events.
Yes, of course, because it's like premium seating on an airplane - the margin on premium seating is around 5x or more than for "normal" seating. Ex. The largest area of "normal" seating behind the south goal (opposite the SG end) has an average price of $50 while the average midfield C-section seats are $324. I don't care how expert one is at pre-gaming - no one is eating/.drinking $270 worth of "Andres-curated, Levy-cooked" chicken fingers/mac&cheese/brownies and draft beer/wine for each game. In comparison, the prime West-side midfield seats average $81 while Most of the sideline and field level suites average more than $500 per ticket (but hey, that does include even more Andres-curated, Levy-cooked chicken fingers, too).
FWIW in an interview last year Levien said he wanted to add more roofing, Goff said he thought that mean finishing the existing roof and adding additional coverage.
yes, and they actually did it, before the beginning of this past season. Promises kept! (of course, some fans experienced the execution of the project as a analogy to the actual play on the field...)
We. Have. A. Chance. Some where, I have a video of my daughter unwrapping a present that was the exact thing she’d wishing for and she was screaming yes … yes … yes. This is almost that moment for me. Only Levien leaving could be better.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/12/05/dc-united-front-office-changes/ Goff has a piece up too. Mentions a few coaching candidates too(Dome Torrent was an intriguing name to hear).
holy heck, talk about burying the lede: look who they are whispering about in the coaching search: Potential candidates include former MLS head coaches Robin Fraser (Colorado), Giovanni Savarese (Portland), Bruce Arena (D.C., New York Red Bulls, Los Angeles Galaxy and New England Revolution) and Caleb Porter (Portland, Columbus). Also under consideration, according to one person familiar with the search, is Domènec Torrent, who guided New York City FC to MLS’s second-best regular season record in 2019. Since leaving NYCFC, the 61-year-old Spaniard has coached Brazil’s Flamengo and Turkey’s Galatasaray. Between 2007 and ’18, Torrent was a chief assistant to Pep Guardiola at FC Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City. According to another person familiar with the process, United might also consider Mark Warburton, who has coached Scotland’s Glasgow Rangers and England’s Brentford, Nottingham Forest and Queens Park Rangers. Most recently, he was a West Ham assistant before departing last summer. In my mind, "under consideration" means "DCU has recruited and is awaiting a reply." I wonder if we could get the coach who had a winning record at Birmingham City...I hear he is available.
The much-needed housecleaning getting underway is certainly a good thing. But there's only so much dead weight they can clear out at once I suppose. Porter is a total dick. So I presume that's who we'll end up with. Seems very interesting that no one has been willing to sign him since his latest firing.
"Under consideration" could very well mean, "This guy was mentioned in a brainstorming session by our interns" as well given how this team has been run.
Yes, Title 11 of the DC Municipal Regulations and the associated zoning codes which specify the distance of the setbacks from the public street line. Please correct me if I am wrong, but other than the portion of the west facade of the Kennedy Center that hangs over Rock Creek Parkway along the Potomac, I am not recalling other buildings where the upper level of the building sticks out significantly over the sidewalk or other parts of the setback. Aside from aesthetic reasons for having consistent setbacks - the other purpose is for firefighting/rescue operations. But they are not going to expand the footprint of the building. The stadium design included expansion of about 5k more seats - the space for the additional seats is already in the stadium. Leviathan is just trying to glom on to the scam of Leonsis and the Lerners getting the taxpayers to pay for their desired "updates."
I guess if you removed that dirt-bag cheater Savarese from it. I'd also prefer Porter to not be on it, we have already dodged that bullet once already, but I would not boo him from the stands like I would Savarese.