New England one of only two original teams without a new soccer specific stadium to call their own. Of course the Tampa Bay Mutiny no longer exist. Columbus are on their second and San Jose moved to Houston for a new stadium but the original team and history stayed with San Jose for expansion and they also have a stadium now. Yes last year when Apple changed the schedule to mostly Saturday at 7:30 it has done wonders for the Revs. Miami this year broke their attendance record with over 65K and right now they are averaging over 30K because of that game and the next biggest opening week at 29K. . Last year was the high water mark for their average and almost every team in the league. Hmmm what was different last year? No Covid restrictions? People wanting to get out of the house? Some guy from Argentina joining the league? Other than that they haven't changed much since 2015.
Well, one thing that has changed is that the Revs are at least a reasonably priced event that a lot of people can afford without taking out a second mortgage. Look at the price of most any event--concerts, theater, other sports and the tickets are in the hundreds of $$.
yes- i think the fans are waiting for the MLS to begin- also its mid-week and a great summer time of weather
They have to fix the scheduling for this event. Again I'd suggest the group stage is played over 8 or 9 days earlier in the season. That gives them time to schedule and plan the knockout stage. There were probably a couple of thousand at Tigres v Pachuca. If it's not America or Chivas no-one really cares.
They need to play in Mexico in the future. I get there's more revenue in the US but at some point I think it would grow the tournament more to play games tied to league standings and reward those teams with first round games.
Sure, the drunks who spent the night in detainment after last night's Patriots' game will still be there.
Club America drew 21K in San Diego. Also a bit underwhelming given that it was known for months that las aguilas would play there, even if the opponent was unknown. A “World Cup style” tournament may be fun for the TV viewer but is hard to pull off successfully in terms of attendance with such short turnaround times. And if the stands are empty it ultimately won’t look like a valuable “product” for the TV viewer either.
The lack of games in Mexico really seems to be bothering you. Almost as much as it is bothering me. But it won’t happen. They will pull the plug first.
I think Leagues Cup is in need of a scheduling overhaul too. Maybe if the group stages were played the last week of April and first week of May. Set aside a week for the Round of 16 and Quarterfinal games the second or third week of July. Semi-finals, 3rd place, and Championship matches could be played in late August or early September. If it were more spread out, then teams eliminated in the group stages wouldn't have so much down time and sit around doing nothing for upwards of 2-3 weeks.
And teams that didn't make the knockout stage could reschedule a weekday game or two for a weekend during the knockout stage, with plenty of notice, to avoid the long break. For instance, San Jose get knocked out during the group stage. They then reschedule a game originally scheduled for the third Wednesday in September for the second Saturday in August. I don't think anyone would object. Maybe I'm wrong.
The NBA does reschedule games for teams eliminated from the NBA Cup. And even NBA teams have trouble filling their arenas on such short notice.
1. The CCC is played in the first half of the calendar year. 2. The Liga MX liguilla (playoffs) starts in May.
The tournament isn't going to be an instant success with packed crowds every year. MLS took 15 years to average more than they did in the first season. It took them 19 years to get over 20K. Please tell me with billionaires backing in both leagues who thinks they won't be patient? Start getting some games like they had the last two nights in Colorado and San Jose and you'll start to build some history. Club America looked like they wanted to play last night.
As long as the sponsors are happy and the money keeps flowing the owners will be happy. They have to work on the scheduling though. Crowds of under 10k on a Friday night then an entire blank Saturday and Sunday.
Club América is on the board first against Atlas in tonight’s #LeaguesCup2024 match at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego. pic.twitter.com/KHXUaBpj9W— The Sporting Tribune (@SportingTrib) August 10, 2024 I wonder where the 11k empty seats are? Maybe they had a whole stand closed or something...
Is part (a small part) of MLS' thinking concerning the timing of Leagues Cup to fill the Dog Days of summer with games that won't pull down MLS' attendance average?
Moving matches to weeknights in September and October to accommodate the Leagues Cup can't be good for attendances.
I would think Copa America played a little into it. It would be nice if they could have at least 12 games left on the restart but the transfer window open a week or two before LC starts. I can't understand why they just don't do 1-3, 1-2 & 2-3 all games at the higher seed and giving the third seed a week to travel. You could even have all three teams in the number one city before hand for press conferences and such. Maybe a Leagues Cup experience with youth teams and fans in the area.
Some of these Leagues Cup figures seem fishy. The Dynamo-Toluca game on Friday had an "announced" attendance of 13k, which would be about 60% of capacity. Seems reasonable on its fact but a) it wasn't in the STH package and b) any visual view would think at best it was 40% full. On 4 days notice and with 100 degree weather, that's quite an aggressive announcement. I'd also note that the prices for these games seem higher than for normal MLS games, at least in Houston they try that dynamic pricing scheme which leads to tons of empty seats.