Will MLS fans please pick up the white curtesy phone please? Not going into specifics and I am jost posting from pure observation as an longtime MLS fan. Having followed the league from day 1 I am becoming increasingly concerned about MLS and the path it is going down right now. There are some serious operational losses going on in certain markets and the fans just aren't showing up. As to what is contributing to fan losses I am not entirely sure and I wish to hear opinions from fans of certain markets as to what is happening and what can be done to help the situation. 1) New York Red Bulls - you have a fantastic team, they are winning (although losing in USOC to LA) but in season league play you are solid. Where are the fans? Will they start to show up for JPA? He is a bigtime player, will he draw in some fans? He should, do enough people know he is there? Has MLS killed the fun in Giants stadium? The Meadowlands used to have decent large crowds in the past, its time for many to come back... NOW!!! 2) Columbus Crew- you have a decent team, record is decent right from the start, you are getting Guillermo Barros Schelotto. Guille is a big deal, will the fans start to show up? Its time to support this team like never before, where are the crowds, its time to stop neglecting them. 3) Kansas City Wizards- you also have a decent team, strong wins in some tough early games, where are your fans? Its time to get to Arrowhead and make some noise. You have some players that are definitely worthy of watching. 4) New England Revolution- where is everyone? 5) Houston Dynamo- seen some dwindled crowds early, its looking like... #6. 6) Dallas FC- Pizza Hut Park has rarely come close to sellouts lately, what gives? New Stadium still, new team spirit, why aren't there more people? 7) Chivas USA- WHERE ARE YOUR FANS? 8) Chicago Fire- you used to be so mighty, is the new stadium that bad, that out of the way? WHERE ARE THE DIEHARDS?!?!?! I am not worried about DC United fans, they show when it matters, the team is playing poorly lately. Just naming a few, calling out the teams whose fans are largely staying home. This is supposed to be a better year for MLS, its pretty easy to feel gloomy about this season already. The weather in the first month has been nothing short of a nightmare. April is gone, good ridance, terrible attendance mostly from acts of God. Now its May and the weather has impoved, the fans have not, what gives? Where are the diehards? Where are the MLS fans? Why has 2007 started with a sputter out the gates? Is everyone just waiting for Beckham to suddenly start watching? I am desperate to feel better about MLS, I want this league to do well, I want fans to catch the fever for the game like never before... I don't see it. I see attendance going down the tubes, many fans are not coming back, WHY? This season we have some big names, personalities, what should be turning attendance into a success story is sputtering out the gates as well. I pray every market wakes up, where the fans that do give a crap continue to do so and even more so. Those of you that are going need to continue to bring others, continue to shove the sport, the team, and what is happening in front of others and explain why they should care. Take them to the games, get them tanked, have a blast. Don't sit in the seats that are assigned you, join in the ultras if you can, make some freaking noise. I hate feeling like I am watching a dieing league as I have convinced myself each year things are turning around, they will get better, etc. Every year MLS starts slow, usually with big opening day crowds and then an immediate drop off, but we didn't even have huge opening day crowds this time? I am genuinely worried about the health of our baby league. God Bless Toronto, its too bad they are not allowed to play the USOC I bet because LA has shown it doesn't give a rats ass about it. A powerful NYRB team +1 Pablo Angel showed up and lost, but in front of 2k in attendance Tuesday night. Shoot me...
I'm with you.... everything about this league has been negative... it's time to shut the doors up... We got enough Mexican League and Euro soccer to watch on Tee Vee to satisfy our love of the sport. If we need our local fix of soccer, simply go to the closest under 10 girls game you can find.... The sooner MLS goes away, the better things will be for all of us.
10.774 reported attendence which is quite good when you consider the fact that it's a USOC game and 3 people knew about it.
Right now attendance is down 2.31% from last year (14,759/game this year vs. 15,108 this year). throw out the 3 doubleheader games that drew more than 50,000 fans last year, and MLS attendance is up by about 800 fans/game.
Given the contoversy over the article that gave out the supposed difference between reported crowds and actual crowds. Have you ever considered that this season MLS might be actually giving out the figures for people actually in attendance in the stadium rather than distributed tickets. I have read in quite a few threads that people were saying that they thought there was more there than the attendance figure given. Just a thought looking from a neutral point of view. I have to say looking on the video on MLSnet I have actually been thinking the crowds look better this season, but having said that it is a bit difficult to tell on a video stream.
Attendance will pick up in the summer, when school is out. Youth soccer/parents and their kids crowd is a huge factor. Attendance will pick up in the summer, when the most high profile DPs arrive (Blanco, Becks). Attendance will pick up in the summer, once all the Euro leagues are done, NBA playoffs are done, NHL playoffs are done. Attendance will pick up in the summer, when teams start having doubleheader games, big Euro teams start touring the U.S. Attendance will pick up in the summer, when the weather gets better...tons of games have been in bad weather this year. Attendance will pick up in the summer, as the season starts to play out (some people still have that...oh its still early, feeling), and teams start getting more competitive for playoff spots, Superliga, etc. ^^^ Not making excuses or light of anything, just saying...not so worried 6 weeks or so into the 30 or however long week season.
Statisticly attendance is lowested during the summer. But it will probley pick up for one factor only and thats the new players coming in.
was this thread really necessary? You lose all credibility when you call out almost every team in the league then say "I'm not worried about DC, their supporters show up when it matters" just because you support DC United doesn't mean they get a freebie from your criticism. Well you know what, almost none of the regular season matters, so maybe that explains your attendance concerns right there.
This has been my thought also. I've watched games and been wrong on the high end nearly every time. I was used to the inflated numbers. I've been over every week in the "guess the attendance" game. I honestly believe that the league has stopped with the inflated numbers. If they haven't stopped altogether, they've at least cut out a huge chunk of it. With that in mind, I think the numbers are actually really good. I believe that if they'd still been inflating at the same rate as in the past, our attendance average would be over 17 thousand right now. Not the whole world, but all three New York area teams made it to the second round of the playoffs. Buffalo made it also. So you're looking at quite a few sports fans who's focus is squarely on hockey right now. They are getting fairly deep into the playoffs. I believe this has to affect attendance of other sports. The NBA playoffs have had fans occupied as well. You don't think the sports fans in Dallas, Houston, Salt Lake and Chicago have their minds elsewhere? It's not just the games themselves either. The media coverage is still engrossed in these playoff teams. Sports talk radio is still talking about them nonstop. Once the teams are eliminated, then they shift out of focus and the only competing factor is the baseball team/s. The combination of NHL, NBA and MLB all at once has a huge effect. I think there was one weekend in Dallas when the Mavericks and Stars both had playoff series going on and the Rangers were at home and FC Dallas had a home game. There are only so many sports dollars out there and only so much time to be spent.
Toronto - no problem here ... LA - as strong as ever DC United - no problem here either. we did fine even in the Hudson years. Houston - again I don't see any trouble here. having a slight sophmore slump is inevitable, it's not exactly unprecedented. but Houston's attendance thus far is acceptable. Colorado - the new stadium is definitely having a stabilizing effect. Columbus - all things considered this club is doing well Salt Lake - same as Columbus. Considering the crappy team they still had 15K on a Monday night Chicago - again I don't see anything to be alarmed about here. Maybe 2K lower than expected, but they're fine Chivas - Like Chicago, maybe about 2K lower than expected. With only Mendoza and Suarez the only 2 Mexicans on the field I think 10-15K is reasonable. If they get another Palencia it will go up slightly. Dallas - the verdict is still out on this one for me. i'll give them another year before I give up on them. The recent Telefutura game was pathetic. New England - I expect more from a championship caliber team in a big diverse city like Boston. New York - It's a bit much to expect thousands of New Yorkers to come suddenly after just a month of good football after 10 years of crap. This team though has the biggest upside in MLS. Their new stadium, the new coach and their willingness to sign DPs will make them amongst the league leaders in attendance next year. KC - Very disappointing. This is a team in transition. New owners, new coach, still waiting for a stadium anouncement. I'm willing to give On Goal a couple of years at the helm to make a difference. It won't happen overnight. So by my count I have : Good : Toronto, LA, DC, Houston, Colorado, Columbus, Salt Lake, Chicago, Chivas - 9 teams Bad : Dallas, New England, New York, KC - 4 teams I know I'm being a bit harsh on Dallas, I think that last game really pissed me off. The truth is they did OK the two games before. Maybe that was just a one time slip up. And I know I may be a bit generous with Chivas and Chicago, but the truth is I don't see either as really embarassing the league in any way. They're both sort of in the average zone...
We have only played 2 home matches. One was a complete washout and the other was decently attended. Not sure you can cast judgement just yet. It's too early. Besides, you should expect people to come out of the woodwork for this club becuase they played a few decent matches. This is a team stopped caring about its fan base long ago. It will take time for people to realize there is something good going on here.
Reason why I bring this up is mainly because this season MLS are making the big name signings and fans should be showing up in bigger numbers. The other thing that just gives me nightmares for some strange reason is the fact that these signings are used to playing in front of rather large and excited crowds and so far its been rather low. I will shut up now and wait for all the factors to play out over the summer for these teams to get better.
That may be true if the Revs actually played in Boston, but they don't, they play in Foxboro. While it's not incredibly far away, I don't know how many more people would come if the stadium was in Boston and accessible by public transportation. Since I'm a new fan I can't really comment on exactly why attendance is so poor, but here is what I gather. - The place is a morgue. Even with the Fort growing in number there's just so much one place can do for atmosphere, especially considering half the lower bowl is tarped off. - It's not accessible by public trans (that I know of since I drive anyway) - "12 Years of Marketing, Total cost: $27.93" 'nuff said. I just get the impression that the organization has burned too many bridges. I feel that a lot of Revs fans see it like this: they don't take good care of the people they have (players and fans), they cut costs at every corner, they have shown little to no aspiration to build the Revs a stadium, and they just treat the Revs like a second class organization and in the wake of the Beckham announcing just hope to ride the coattails of the rest of the league for as long as possible. The Revs have consistently performed on the field and yet attendance keeps dwindling. At some point you have to treat the fans too.
they are probably in a stadium since they're not affected by how team plays at the moment, what weather is or what fancy princess club signed up last.
From what I understand, this thread has a lot of clout among the masses. They will surely get their act together after this scolding. I just love it when people expect linear progress when it comes to MLS attendance. At this rate, MLS attendance will be down 3 million percent in 2017!!!!!!!!!!!!
Let's say you went for rice beans and plantains at a restaurant in town. You went a bunch of times and it just wasnt good, so you stopped going. Now lets say a couple years later a new chef is hired and the lackluster meals once served, are now replaced with a delicious feast. It might take you a little time to hear about the changes. It might take more than just one persons hearsay to get you back into the joint. You are, most likely, not going to race over there full sprint. It just takes a while for word to get out; especially with low profile MLS. For example, this weeks match was aired on a channel that like 3 people get. How are people supposed to get excited over something they havnt seen much of? Clubs that have been burning bridges will need to spend some time rebuiding them. To expect alot this soon is a little too much to ask. Especially in NY's case.
Part of the perceived problem is that the ESPN2 game is on Thursday nights. These games will not be as well attended as weekend games for obvious reasons (school night, most people have jobs to go to the next morning, etc. etc.). Everything's going as I expected. I anticipate a big bump this summer once the Beckhams and Blancos arrive. Hell, Adu's presence led to a bump. Personally I feel teams are also saving their marketing dollars until Beckham comes this summer.
Like it's been discussed in other threads, the percentage of games under 10,000 is at 16% which is the second lowest at this point of the season since the beginning of MLS. This is a good sign. In the past many MLS teams would have a 20,000 night followed by a 5,000. There was a time when a weeknight game was always 5-7K. I see us stabilizing our base significantly. I also see supporter clubs growing league wide which signals growth in the core. The reason our overall average isn't up is because we haven't had those 50,000+ doubleheaders like we had in the past.
Love your logic, rice and beans, hey wait a minute... did you read I was from Puerto Rico and just start writting about rice and beans? Oh the nerve!!! Your right, I freak out every season when things don't go perfectly in MLS and I start this kind of thread only to get snide remarks which I probably deserve in a way. Its just when you are a soccer junkie like I am, the only team you can see live are the Puerto Rico Islanders in USL-1, you watch a ton of Champions League and Premiership, you watch a ton of La Primera in Argentina, and then you watch an MLS match... it just rarely if ever lives up to the level I wish it could reach. I have seen some fantastic crowds in MLS, its just never consistent and now that MLS is making the effort to reign in the fans I just expect this switch to click in some people and the fans to at least start to show signs they are coming back. Its still early, the weather has only been nice for a week in some places, patience I need. Just wish I didn't feel like everyone is just waiting for Beckham to show up.