7,114 A The FO lied (at least to krupp) about 5K full STH. That must mean at least 2K partial STH which means they sold close to ZERO single tickets?! Something stinks now matter which way you spin it. B Weather was fine for early April. The sun was out all afternoon. A few light showers in the evening, cold but it was cold in MLB stadiums too. C A new low for the Krafts/Organization? Yes.
Other thread rules: 1. You cannot sarcastically use the phrase " the sky is falling". 2. Yes, I know it will be better "when school let's out" or the weather is warmer. 3. Remember Toronto, LAG, and Seattle before you counter, because I will counter with their fan base. 3b. I will also counter with MLB turnout and they play 80 home games, so one game isn't as special an event as a MLS game. Minor league ownership equals minor league turnout.
What do we expect? It's not a very good product right now, both on and off the field. This team needs someone or something to get fans excited again.
New England-Portland Attendance: 7,114 Weather: Partly cloudy and 48 degrees San Jose-Seattle Attendance: 10,276 Weather: Partly Cloudy and 68 degrees New York-Houston Attendance: 13,664 Weather: Clear and 58 degrees Toronto-Chivas Attendance: 18,968 Weather: Sunny-and-50-degrees Vancouver-Kansas City Attendance: 20,518 Weather: Partly Cloudy-and-50-degrees LA-Philadelphia Attendance: 24,998 Weather: Cloudy-and-61-degrees
The 7,114 number is all that matters. Every market presents unique challenges for every FO, and the only thing that matters are customers entering your establishment. Comparing the New England Market to other markets is a waste of time. The bottom line is that the FO has to use their brain matter to outflank, outmaneuver, outsmart whatever obstacles, competitive factors, challenges exist in their market to grow their customer base. This capitalism game is played on the margins, and the Revs are a fail whale with this result of attendance. Like any business, you have to assess what you are doing, and not doing, assess effectiveness of current strategy and tactics. If deemed appropriate, focus and redouble on execution. Else, change tactics, or change strategy. At the end of the day, why aren't people buying your entertainment product?
I feel like we're witnessing WCW post fingerpoke of doom... too obscure a reference? ......NYRB should be drawing much more though, thats worrysome
It's not great but keep in mind theres three home games in a row - not everyone can commit three Saturday nights in a row to going to Foxborough. Also the weather on opening night was so bitterly cold it may have scared away some folks from the second game. It was a nice day out but a lot of people finalize their weekend plans during the week and with the snow we had late in the week I can picture a lot of people opting out of that second game due to weather.
Cleveland Indians had 9,853 show up on a Saturday afternoon, and it looked absolutely deserted on TV.
I am not sure if it is worrisome. It is probably ineptness. I lived in Manhattan for five years. I can imagine what it would take to get people out at your games. MLS is a start-up. Start-ups only succeed when they disturb the established order on a sustained basis. You know you are succeeding when the establishment tries to rip you to shreds. This is not even happening as MLS is largely ignored by the sports market. Most start-ups fail for the lack of these factors regardless of the value proposition. You have to go in front of people, where they are, and relentlessly market your stars, and whatever else you have, to them. Everyone that joins the league has to be on the same page with this effort. They have to be all over the community all the time. Google, Zappo's, Go Daddy, Southwest Airlines, Whole Foods, UFC, WWE, etc. tread this path and continue to do so.
OF course, survival requires re-invention. Baseball is vulnerable and wasting opportunities, but the NFL looks wide awake to me.
Slightly tangential, The following is a picture of TEPCO "senior officials" kneeling in apology to customers forced to evacuate. Understand cultural factors and differences to US, but interesting what works in that market. http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201104020226.html
I think it's funny that people are angry now. I think it's natural to be angry when you realize your team is terrible, but personally, I confronted that reality after the LA game. Maybe I'm just ahead of the curve . At this point, I'm just laughing at everything. It's quite funny how inept this organization is.
Sorry to nit pick but, while they may have sold 7114 tickets, far fewer than that actually entered the establishment. I'm thinking 4-5K tops were there last night.
Cleveland is a franchise in a desperately bad situation. Horrible team, local economy in the toilet, fanbase that has seemingly given up. No one wants to be the MLS equivalent of that team, though Columbus might be headed that way.
If you're really disturbed by the ineptitude of the organization, file some formal protest or direct your messages to the proper authority. Whining on BigSoccer isn't going to get you anywhere, and frankly, I'm tired of seeing it here. There's a large enough group of concerned voices to make it heard loud and clear what we do not like about the way this club operates. BigSoccer was created for discourse, but nothing will get accomplished unless you make sure your voice is heard by according ears.
First off, is the 5,000 season ticket holders or season tickets? Do I, for example count as one of 5,000 or four (the number of tickets I have) of 5,000? Is the 7,114 based on tickets sold or the turnstile count? Assuming that 5,000 of those tickets are accounted for, you have to remember that going to a Revs game is basically an impulse buy. How many people are just going to randomly pick last night's game to drive out to Foxboro to see the Revs?
It's not the FO's fault if people don't want to go and don't care. They can market all they want but if people aren't willing to come out to Gillette to watch the Revs than they won't. It's that simple. I am not defending the FO cuz i think they do a bismal job marketing the team. The whole situation is just really unfortunate and the people who suffer are the ones who still come out every week and show their support. I hear that this was once a passionate fan base that was at the top of the league attendence-wise. I didn't get to experience that because i was just an infant. That once passionate fan base has diminished into what it is now. This team is starting to be a joke in this growing league. Everyone talks about this team failing to change to the proverbial MLS 2.0 but i also think that the fans have failed to switch to MLS 2.0. I'm not talking about the people that still go to the games. I'm referring to the people that have stopped going to the games. I know everyone has their reason as to why they stopped. No SSS. Hate coming to Gillette. No DP. No jersey sponsor. etc. I think people would complain less if 15-20k consistently showed up but that doesn't happen. People can go ahead and complain about the FO all they want but if you let them get in your way of supporting your team then you have let them win. I say screw em'. I love this team too much to let a bunch of suits get in the way of that. I'm in the minority who have an easy time getting to Gillette. It's an easy 20-25 min drive. I do, like everyone else, want this team to get a stadium in Boston. It would make my commute longer but i wouldn't complain. It would be worth it. And that's the thing, people just don't see it as worth it to come out to Gillette to watch the Revs. I just wish that people would realize that they are missing out on a chance to support this team by staying home. I fell in love with this sport because of the passion that surrounds it. I just don't see that passion anymore in regards to this team, except for the few that continue to show up. P.S. I was one of the 7k that showed up last night.
Par for the course for the Revs this time of year after the opener. The best season in recent memory for attendance was 2007 and the second home game in early May drew 9k with great weather against a bitter rival. The second home game two years ago had about 2k less actual fans than last night. The type of fan that fills out a "normal" attendance night in Gillette doesn't show up to these games for whatever reason. Until the team attracts new kinds of fans out to the stadium who want to see the team, it will stay like this. It says a lot about the state of the franchise, but it's not like this is anything new.
The Revs attendance has been bad for about a decade, and they were terrible on the field last season (I am optimistic about this year). This attendance does not surprise me in the least. On the league wide forum people are worried about the Red Bulls getting 13,000 fans! That is 6,000 more fans than at Foxboro (86% more). This is why the Revs will move to the Boston area and need to get better players. Foxboro and the status quo do not work.