Lest we forget, we got Sigi as head coach because the Galaxy fired him when they were top of the table.
Toronto had almost 10 players unavailable between suspensions and injuries, along with their HC being suspended. I didn't watch but the result isn't very surprising given the context. I am curious who they will find. It's not a good job. The stadium is in a horrible location, the fanbase is tiny, and the roster needs to be mostly stripped down to the studs and rebooted. It's a ton of really expensive or overpaid parts that don't fit together, and Mukhtar and Zimmerman are starting to show their age. The whole operation seems very Chicago Fire to me.
They're the prime example of why a team with a large fan base needs to do good. Once you lose the fans, they might as well be lost forever.
What do you mean by the fan base being tiny? They’re in a 30,000 seat stadium and have averaged 28,530 through 8 home games. Fifth best in MLS.
I mean 50% of their supporters section is empty most games. They were given an MLS team because of the market, not the local fan support. A big chunk of the tickets going into that figure are corporations that were locked into multi-year contracts and either giving away their seats or having them go unused. Once those contracts come up for renewal, it will start to look like Red Bull Arena imo.
Well, maybe, but then there's this: https://www.nashvillesc.com/tickets/season 24,000 season tickets and a wait list. Sounds like pretty robust fan support to me.
I have to agree with @ColumbusFTW on Nashville. It really is a terrible location - exactly the sort that Garber said long ago was unacceptable, but then ignored when he got a sniff of a couple hip, swinging towns like Austin and Nashville, at which point he forgot all.about it. The numbers that MLS announces are a joke. (see: Columbus Crew, raping). The corporate partners who bought all those tix can't even give them away. Beating a team that showed up 10 players and a head coach unavailable does not erase the last 12 months of awful results. Now that they're past the huge pile of cash that they give new teams - see the out of the gate performance of St Louis, Austin, etc. - they are left to their own devices and discovering that it's a cold hard world out here. And I like Nashville - well, used to like before it became bridesparty central paved with wall to wall crummy bars owned by fading country stars and replete with fatass tourists in Disney t shirts - but they should never have put a team there. And then there's Charlotte. Wait until David Tepper has enough of a chance to work his special magic and see how bad things can get. That team should have gone to Raleigh
Again, a big chunk of that season ticket list is companies that had to sign multi-year deals when the stadium opened. It's not something they're choosing to renew for 2024, it's something they're on the hook to pay after signing a deal a couple years ago. I have told this story before, about a year before LDC opened I got a call from the premium sales team. They must have confused me with the owner of the practice where I worked (though he still wasn't making nearly enough to be getting that call). They wanted to discuss whether my company would be interested in one of the remaining corporate field club suites. These field club suites include 12 tickets with access to boxed field seats outside and your own "green room" type area inside, plus four parking passes, for every event each year held at LDC. The cost was $90,000 per year. The minimum term was seven years. The rep said a lengthy multi-year commitment like that was in line with normal practices for new MLS stadiums. I kind of zoned out for the rest of the call as he walked through other "cheaper" corporate options so I can't recall those prices but each still required 3-5 years of term. There is a difference between tickets sold/distributed and fan support. The Blue Jackets sell a lot of tickets every year and it's not because Columbus has a great fanbase. It's primarily because of corporate accounts. Nashville SC is the same. The problem for Nashville as compared to the CBJ is the location. Nationwide Arena is right in the middle of the Arena District. It's walkable and there's plenty of things to do before or after. That's also a big reason why the Predators have always done well in Nashville even during long stretches of suckitude; Bridgestone Arena is right in the middle of Broadway. Geodis is very much like HCS, there's nothing to do except go to the game and leave. It's not a fan-friendly experience for anyone other than the soccer diehards, of which there are far fewer than in most MLS cities. I don't see the corporations down there renewing after their initial contracted term.
You're sure right about Bridgestone Arena. It's in the middle of everything. Walking distance from every major attraction, every bar, a ton of restaurant. You couldn't dream of a better location. The same thing happened to Geodis as happened in Austin. There was a pretty good location just south of everything that they assumed they could get but ended up going across the river where there's nothing. Austin had a downtown riverfront spot that Don and Fatso were slobbering over ( they even paid for a semi decent artists conception to help sell the rubes) but there are 2 public softball fields and the city wouldn't give them up so they ended up 12 miles out with lousy access. In both cases what MLS should have done was put on the brakes and said this isn't good enough, it doesn't meet our requirements. But they never do. I dont know about Austin, but I strongly suspect that it's going to come back to bite them in Nashville.
I have been to Nashville twice for Crew road trips. First in 2021 at Nissan Stadium, and then last year, 2023, at GEODIS Park. (I have also been to Bridgestone Arena years ago). In 2021 it was a weeknight match at a football stadium, I thought the crowd was decent. Then last year was on Memorial Day weekend, and was an announced sellout crowd, and it looked full to me. I actually like GEODIS better than Cindy’s TQL Stadium. TQL is cooler looking on the outside, but the bathroom situation (or lack thereof) puts GEODIS ahead of TQL in my book.
Agreed. I still do not understand how Charlotte got a team (well I do, David Tepper $$$). Playing in a football stadium, a 25 year old one at that, with artificial turf put in, and no plans for a soccer specific stadium.
Nashville fired Smith for a few reasons: 1) his style is boring as hell, and if it wins is acceptable. They were not winning. Speaking of that… 2) since the Leagues Cup final v Miami last year, they’ve been on a death spiral. 3) smith did well to get what he could out of this group, but honestly it was clear last year (maybe even the year before) that he had gotten all he could’ve out of this team. Change has been needed for a while.
I just tuned in to the Nashville-ATL game with about 15 minutes to go, and there are a ton of empty seats. Supporters section maybe half full. Upper deck is quite sparse. The empty seats aren’t super obvious because their seats are randomly colored, but when you pay attention you can tell. Pretty surprising when you consider this is supposed to be their big rivalry game.
What the hell is going on with Philly? They only have one win in six home games, but they're unbeaten in seven on the road.
Cincy keeps winning, Miami doesn't look like they're slowing down, and the Crew are getting their mojo back. The East is going to be a meat grinder in the second half of the season.
I don’t care what the announced attendance is. The fact is the stadium looked maybe 75% full, at most.