Note for all Charlotte fans who may drop by from the USL board. This thread is about attendance. Don't click on a thread about attendance and then complain that people are only focusing on attendance! Thats just plain stupid. Tonight in Virginia Beach. A whopping 785 fans for the FSW broadcast. Thats showing 'em!
It's really sad that more people aren't turning out in Va Beach to see some really good players. Dante Washington and Roy Lassiter alone should draw a few k. Va Beach supporters need to organize some grassroots support. You have a nice stadium that isn't being used.
Seems like they have an owner willing to spend money. Maybe it just isn't being spent in the right way. Buying 4 FSW games costs some dough that could be spent on outreach to youth teams, newspaper ads, etc
Its amazing how few people go to the games in Va beach. that is such a big soccer area. Old Dominion always drew lots of fans to their games. They must not be marketing the team correctly.
Chareslton Battery 1-0 Charlotte Eagles attendence:??? Indiana Blast 2-2 El Paso Patriots Attendence: 3,987 (NOTE: It was "Freebie Friday" eveyone got in for free) Va Beach Mariners 3-0 Rochester Rhinos Attendence: 785
One thing I noticed about the field (besides the quality of the match on it, which was quite well played, and which did the A-League proud in that respect) was the paucity of signage. There were something like 3 signs around the field. Now, unless attendance increases, you can't really sell too much signage, but that's a way to make money and to get some interaction with the local business community.
1,429 in Richmond heavy rain and thunderstorms earlier in the day and drizzle at game time, so I vote it a plus after the sub-500 rain game a few weeks ago.
It's also highly exaggerated. According to both Montreal and Toronto fans the grandstand wasn't full, and their grandstand only has a capacity of 2200. Probably one of the reason they won't let you take phtographs in their stadium. They don't want the truth shown!!
Week 4- Saturday games Charleston 2-2 Charlotte Attendance: 4,235 Richmond 0-3 Pittsburgh Attendence: 1,429 Toronto 0-2 Montreal Attendence: 2,555 Cinncinati 3-0 El Paso Attendence: ???
Re: Re: A-League attendance week 4. One Montreal fan was taken down to visit security because he took some pictures. I couldn't believe that the fans were not allowed to take photos! I ended up taking about four or five pictures and didn't get caught.
The stadium Cincinnati plays in has a capacity of only 800. Since they haven't released the attendance one can assume that it was horrible.
Re: Re: Re: A-League attendance week 4. That is an absolute disgrace. Only in Toronto would they try to prevent fans from taking photos of the games. Almost makes me want to take a trip to Toronto to take some photos. I'd love to make a stink over that. I guess Toronto management doesn't like people taking photos because they are against free publicity.
Re: Re: Re: Re: A-League attendance week 4. I think it has more to do with the overzealous security than the TO management.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: A-League attendance week 4. Well it's up to the Toronto ownership/management to set them straight. If they don't then it's just as much their fault. I don't know of any other A-League teams that don't allow fans to take photographs.
It's so frustrating to have to deal with over-zealous security. At the Timbers home opener, the Timbers Army were told by security that they could not display a skull and crossbones flag that they have been displaying since sometime during the 2001 season: Then there was the situation in Seattle where security was telling the Timbers supporters (who had bought their tickets specifically in a section where they could stand up) to sit down. It's pretty funny seeing 5,000 fans in a 70,000 seat stadium who complain that someone is standing up in front of them. Hint hint: MOVE!! Overall, the security situation is getting better in Portland, but sometimes I just have to wonder if security at many sporting events is there not to control any problems in the crowd, but to prevent any of the fans from enjoying the game.
supporting you havent seen any trouble with security until you try and support in rochester. Luckily the stampede [whom i am a member of] have been able to use the bull pen behind the goal once again this year, and this is after we got kicked out of the stadium once last year, and were warned many times for offending soccer moms. We also arent allowed to use loud mouths, streamers, or anything else really except our voices and some banners.
Check out this link for an explanation of why the crowds tend to be sparse for Richmond and Va. Beach. It's near the bottom of the column. I live in the area and can tell you when t-storms are forecast in the spring and summer, they can get quite nasty. I still make it to most of the games, but anybody who has kids won't think twice about skipping the game. http://onthesidelines.org/hindsight051203.htm
So, was Richmond immune from that last year? The Kickers' announced attendance figures by game for 2002 were: 2,742 2,342 3,116 2,878 2,691 2,693 2,307 2,288 2,210 1,279 4,410 2,413 2,145 515 Virginia Beach's problem at the beginning of last year were the morons who were running the show (as opposed to the morons running the show now), but they did a little better at the beginning of last year than they are now (again, announced numbers, grain of salt, all that): (under first management) 1,594 1,110 544 (new management came in) 1,955 937 805 669 1,070 1,187 788 1,336 787 701 766 Seems like they've been having pretty bad weather in Virginia Beach since last Memorial Day. Unlucky. BTW, updated A-League attendance stats are here and will always be there on a weekly basis. Still missing Atlanta and Cincinnati from this past weekend.