You could compare this to being a Yankee fan and going to live in Japan(a country with a sucessful basebal league) would you all of a sudden start following a Japanese team if you were still able to watch the Yankees on tv. Some people would but I would venture to say that most Americans wouldn't. We have to remember that when the Cosmos played in the 70's European and South American soccer was not as available on American tv as it is now. I don't even think bringing in foreign stars would help as most of these people are fans of teams and not necessarily particular players.
Speaking in economic terms, holding prestige of clubs and prestige of players on said club constant, if the Metros advertised the hell out of their matches, yes they would draw 70K. It all makes sense.
The Difference is about 40-50,000 buts in the seats. If the Metros consistently had those numbers at their games it would eventually translate into sponsors paying more, more $$ and exposure for the team, and eventually players like Luis Figo and Roberto Carlos instead of Mike Petke and Andy Williams. The difference is enourmous. I really hope the metro's can learn from this. It sounds like it was a great show. I would have loved to be there.
The next time I hear someone say, "I'm going to the game because this may be the only chance I'll get to see Petke or Mathis," I'll agree with you.
Holding player clout and club prestige constant, the entire league would draw like that every game. I was there and it was a madhouse. Pretty good atmosphere for an otherwise dull game. However, the clubs and players in MLS are NOT at the level of the two teams on the field last night, which is the quintessential problem to begin with. Figured something out though last night. Revenue. It's the chicken or the egg syndrome applied to soccer. You need money to make money. From an economic standpoint, assuming all else being equal, the two teams last night were Metros and Colorado. Revenue from Parking: 70,600 fans = approx. 20,000 cars @ $15 equals: $300,000 Revenue from Tickets: 70,600 paid attendance @ $45 avg. ticket price equals: $3,177,000 Revenue from Food, Concessions: Estimated at $200,000 Total Revenue from 1 game: $3,677,000 Subtract expenses and such and you're left with a good chunk of change. That means you can AFFORD more high caliber players, increase team prestige and draw like this every game. It's simple. You need money to make money.
Guess you don't want to address the other part . I'll guess I'll have to break it down for you Barney style . To improve crowd size the Metros can 1 Market themselves alot better than they do 2 either lower the cost of going to a match or improve the product dramatically to make the product worth the cost of getting to the game . My comments on the Mets were to compare the cost of going to a Met game to the Metros . Feel free to respond with your typical sarcasm rather than address the issue .
A question for you . Do you think the Metros are doing a good job at marketing themselves ? The way things are going with him constantly being injured the fan won't get to see Mathis .
WHO CARES ABOUT REAL MADRID OR ROMA THIS IS A METROS BOARD !!!! THIS IS THE LAST TIME U WILL EVER SEE THOSE TEAMS AGAIN SO DONT GET USE TO IT 70K LOL THAT WAS THE WEAKEST 70K I EVER HEARD WERE THEY EVEN AWAKE AT THE END OF THE GAME?
Could be better, could be worse. An interesting thing to do would be to ask a marketing professional who'd they rather promote: Real Madrid/Roma with a UN charity cause thrown in or a US domestic league soccer team and what they would call a successful promotion for both, in terms of attendance, because obviously the expectations for each are different. 18-19,000 people attending games during a mediocre season with another 50,000 watching via MSG isn't so bad. A 25-30,000 seat stadium sounds about right for the team.
Actually most of the Metros stand alone games on Saturdays are in the 12 - 15K range . That really sucks for this area . In the 1st season when the Metros actually did market themselves a bit with TV commercials etc. the lowest attendance was in the 14K range . They even drew 50K once on a stand alone game against LA . That was after it was apparent the team was crap . They've had some pretty big teams come in on games like this and they've never even come close to 70K in the building . They need serious help .
You can't have it both ways, asking the Metro do marketing/promotions and when they do not count the figures in their attendance. If you go through the attendance for this year you'll find the vast majority of ALL games for ALL teams are below 16,000. This suggests to me that first and primarily a 70,000 seat stadium is totally inappropriate, especially when you don't share in parking and concession revenues. It's a huge drain on limited resources which could be used elsewhere. Secondly, with fans such as yourself believing the Metro are a crap product, no amount of marketing in the world is going to help. What would you suggest? TV, radio and print saying "The Metro: We Ain't Crap"? It's going to be slow growth.
1. Saying that the rest of the league has bad attendance does not excuse the Metros for doing a bad job at marketing . 2. As far as Giants Stadium goes , I agree with you they should move to a smaller venue but until they can/do what's the point talking about it . The main problem is that they do nothing in the way of TV commercials outside of MSG . The people watching MSG already know and are interested in the Metros . To grow you need to try to appeal to those who don't know or currently aren't interested . Preaching to the choir isn't going to help . AC Milan , Bayern and all the other clubs they brought in to play in Friendlies but they've never come close to bringing in a full house . I'm not saying they can ever draw 70k for a stand alone league match but there is no reason they can't average 20 + K on them . Then get the spikes up to 40-50K on Friendlies and doubleheaders . If it was slow growth I would agree with you . Stagnation or crowds that are shrinking isn't good for anyone . My "crap" reference was about the 1st year Metros . Come on, going into that LA game they were 3 - 6 if I remember correctly ( with 2 of the 3 wins from shootouts) . They proceded to get beat 4-0 and had many of the 50k people tossing garbage on the field by the end of the match . I would classify that as "crap" .
A lot of people still do which is why they'll come out to see Real Madrid v Roma but not the Metrostars.
Sorry, I'll just have to take your pie in the sky easy scenario answer then. So...the Metros should SPEND MORE money doing a hell more advertising AND REDUCE ticket prices to make it cheaper for the fans. And who's the one bantering on about economics 101.
IMO that was the game that officially killed off any momentum that the Metros might have had remaining as part of the "novelty" factor. (It pains me to see that Stillitano is still killing the MetroStars with this ChampionsWorld.) But I digress................. Went to the game. Electric atmosphere (at least up until halftime) and Zidane is un frickin believable. That being said : 1) Reading in another Real-Roma thread : (the one in B & M). CW paid about 750,000 in fees to Roma and RM. MLS/SUM/Metros just can't/won't pull out that type of money. 2) Both teams brought full line-ups. This never happens at a Metro produced friendly (not their fault mind you). New York leads the country in EuroSnobs who turn their noses up at MLS - so it is no big shock they got 70+. (I was expecting 60-65 for this game.) Of those 70+, maybe only 20 would even consider going to a Metro game. 3) Take it from a NYC Metro supporter, NJ Meadowlands is a nightmare to get to - the stadium didn't fill up until midway through the first half because NJ Transit didn't have enough buses (for the record, the long wait coming home was due to the sheer volume of people taking buses back to NYC - the buses were running constantly, leaving 4 or 5 at a time, there was not much else they could do) 4) Mitchell field could get 10K + for a Saturday game, but never for a weeknight game, especially considering that the more loyal fan base is in Jersey (LI has much better public transportation) 5) ManU-Celtic : Sell-out. But all my favorite pubs will be empty (BTW, Bigsoccerites ARE stuffing the polls ) 6) Even if the Metros promote the hell out of their games, they'll never get 50K for a very long time : -The NYC market is big, but mostly EuroSnob -MLS can't pay the fees to bring real teams over -The quality of play isn't high enough to bring the EuroSnobs over (which in NY, and ONLY in NY, is a demographic factor to be reckoned with) --Tom
The Metros hardly play stand alone games. They can do more advertising and bringin more people when they have teams like Boca Juniors, Roma, Benfica, Glasgow Rangers. Attendance for some of these games has been very low especially if you compare it to Real-Roma game. You cannot give much credit to Metros Marketing when 45,000 people go out for a Mexico game or Colombia game. You don't need much marketing for that. The Mexicans and Colombians will show up simply through hearing about it through word of mouth. However, when you bring in top Euro or S. American club teams you really need to advertise and let people know the significance of the teams coming. For example when Boca Juniors were here, the Metros could have put up a big billboard(like Champions World) and let people know that this is the S. American champion. There are alot of soccer fans that don't follow MLS and don't hear about it when a top club team is visiting. If you advertise in many places these people will come out. I wouldn't necessarily worry about the ticket price when top club teams come here. You can raise the price of the tickets somewhat. Maybe not as much as Championsworld but a little more than what it is now. Granted it may discourage some regulars from ESC who spend alot of money going to many games. However, most of the people that attended the Real-Roma game don't go regularly to MLS matches and they don't mind paying an extra $10 to come out once a year.