7,359: Who dropped the ball?

Dallas Cup (annual international youth tournament, now in 25th year) opened this weekend with Saturday night events and early Sunday games, siphoning off core fans. Hispanic fans probably taking a wait and see approach to the new season, especially since 2004 squad was not remade around a Honduran or El Salvadorean centerpiece. We'll do better, now that we're back at the Cotton Bowl and team chemistry clearly much improved.

 

You know the Burn's got problems when Dallas Cup pre-tournament Saturday night "events" are used as a possible reason for low attendance.

 

You would think that the Dallas Cup crowd would be a reason that opening day Burn attendance was up.

 

We were there and it was very disappointing. But I will back on the 24th against KC.

 

I think the Dallas Cup excuse is lame.

The South Dallas Hispanic crowd feels alienated from the team and it probably won't change because Frisco is seen as part of the alienation. The whitebread transplant suburban crowd doesn't like the Cotton Bowl, but will probably begin attending games upon the arrival of Frisco.

So, for the time being the Burn are left with the 7,000-10,000 fans who'll go to soccer games anywhere.

 

I am one of the "whitebread suburb transplants" that was at the Cotton Bowl. You are right more of us will attend once the team is in Frisco. The biggest reason for that is logistics.

 

This I predicted and was slammed. I stated that the "whitebreads" would be more plentiful if the Burn had stayed in the suburban Southlake. But, even with a move to the suburbs you will lose a percentage as you gain a percentage. those shifts away from the middle will tend to somewhat cancel each other out as you inevitably move away from some group. If the team is content to say goodbye to the ethnic walkups, then they will have to budget for a team that will AT BEST hover around 10,000 in attendance. These type of numbers will support a nice A-league type of team. When I stated this the first time I was not being condecending. I think that the target market that this franchise is aiming at would not know the difference. Is this enough to keep the Burn name and stadium? Time will tell.

 

Who dropped the ball? Well luckily not Garlick (sorry couldn't resist). But seriously, it was the move to Southlake. That was like Communism, it works on paper but it was a bomb in real life. Its going to turn out to be one of the worst decisions in this teams history. That combined with the fact that we went from having 50% hispanic players to 5%, doesn't help.

Now one of 3 things could happen...

Worst case: Things stay this bad, average 7K a game, no hispanic fan base, and we go into Frisco with no sell-outs (minus maybe the first game) and a nicer Southlake scenerio with kids crawling everywhere shudder .

Best case: Hispanic fans are won back and we get back up to Andy's 9 years of hard work, 17k+ average. We get a nice mix in Frisco, basically like the Cotton Bowl of old at a new location.

probable case: Things get A LITTLE better, 10k average. Some hispanics return when we start kicking ass. Once Frisco comes, we have mostly whities but its not as bad at Shitlake and we all live happily ever after except people like Oman and theo who wish we had Chivas USA here in Dallas.

 

Fortunately, I don't think it's imperative that a franchise average over 15K to be profitable. Not every profitable and competitive franchise sells out 70K venues. Many, many franchises have modest facilities (15-30K) and do just fine.

W/ more SSS on the way, the league will be in a position to begin improving the product by keeping more USMNT players and bringing in better foreign talent. Hopefully the improved product will assist in bringing up attendance.

For those that were there on Sat., what was the % of Latinos at the game? Was it markedly lower than previous seasons at CB?

 

I will tell you who dropped the ball.... WE DID, THE FANS!

The suburbanites should be ashamed that we have one of the largest and most successful youth soccer cities in the country, but we can't make it to Cotton Bowl on a beautiful spring evening on a Saturday.

The Hispanics should be ashamed for caring more about the ethnic heritage of the players than the team itself. I am sorry, but this is simply racist.

All fans should be ashamed if they failed to attend because Dallas was bad last year. Every team is bound to have a bad year and failing to support them after that is the fans fault, not the teams.

Fans who did not return because of the one year move to Southlake should be ashamed. I suppose you have never made a mistake in your entire life! I give the Burn credit for recognizing the mistake and being big enough to admit it and move back to the Cotton Bowl.

I brought two people with me who had never been to a Burn game... needless to say I was embarrassed by the crowd. Fortunately they had a good time and will probably attend half a dozen or more games this year.

All of you who are on this board who did not attend for the above reasons should be embarrassed by your lack of support for the team. Those who know supporters who did not attend, should do everything they can to encourage, cajole, or embarrass them into returning.

The Dallas Burn can do some things to help, BUT WE ARE THE FANS, ATTENDANCE IS UP TO US!!!!!!

 

You would think so, wouldn't you?

Nice post drace.

 

I agree 100%. I brought 3 people with me that have never been before and I had to explain to them why there were so few fans. It was embrassing. I felt bad for the team also. It is up to all the fans to be a part of the solution and not part of the problem. I plan on going to every game this season. I think what has been lost in all of the talk about attendance is the fact the team itsself looked pretty good. The 2nd half was all Dallas and I think they will continue to round into form as the season advances. The week off this week should really help that. Bottom line is the Burn are my team and I will root for them thru think & thin.

 

The big reason for the Hispanics not being there is not completle related to not having a hispanic player on the team. It might, though, have something to do with two key people not being with the Burn anymore, and the ************ way they feel they have been treated in the last year. Not only with southlake , but other issues as well..Possibly open tryouts??

 

The Frisco Complex will solve all the attendance problems

 

Please explain further, I am intrested to know more and do not want to make assumptions. Specificially which two people and why? and what other issues specifically about how they have been treated? What specifically about open tryouts? I have some idea what you are talking about but don't want to make a bad assumption.

 

DMN reported 11,000 for the Sidekicks game, out drawing the Burn... oops.

There maybe a significant portion of the Sidekicks fans that are also Burn fans. The Sidekicks are finishing their regular season and starting the playoffs soon. Many fans clearly chose the Sidekick's game over the Burn game.

 

The "decision" was to opt out of the Cotton Bowl before McKinney was guaranteed. That was the "decision" that put the Burn/HSG between a rock and a hard place. Screwed by small town politics.

 

I would guess that the 7 K attendance was purchased tickets.

It appeared that there were less than 1,000 people in the stands when the game started, perhaps 3,000 total in attendance max.

It was empty.

 

I think that's a bit of a stretch. I came in at the half...and I was disapointed with the crowd, but my guestimate was 5 - 6k.

 

I gotta think that playing the Rapids in your home opener didn't help either. Not exactly a team with players that gets the casual fan to come out.

 

I meant to say in 15 years when I'm telling my son the story of the Burn, that would be one of the worst if not the worst decision even that far in the future. But nonetheless I really miss the old days

BUT it could be worse, the 7K could be in shitlake consisting of mostly bratty kids and uptight parents, ewww.

 

WOW 5-6K for a MAJOR league soccer game's opening attendance when all other games are at least 20,000! MLS needs to hire about 100 sales rep and send them marching through every Dallas neighborhood pleading with people to come to games, give them huge discounts, buy one get one free, SIGN A MAJOR LATINO FORWARD, switch back to the major spanish radio station, start advertising Burn games during the other 4 major sports teams games in Dallas, and have a public hanging for the people in charge of moving the team to Soutlake...maybe Garber and a leading member of the hispanic community can be the ones who kick out the bench that the people are standing on before they are hung. Seriously that has to be one of the single worst attendances of all time for MLS, not the actual number, but when you look at the number along with the occasion of the game it just blows my mind.