I know you guys will be playing in a downsized college stadium but do you think you will sell out most of your games? I hope so, because St. Louis will be calling for your heads if you can't cram 12k into that stadium every night.
Who cares what St. Louis thinks? Are they going to take our team away again? I will try to play nice. Answer: Depends. Buck Shaw is an adequate stadium (parking, food, etc.), team doesn't suck as bad or worse than the Clash, Quakes get the youth programs running again. etc. Then, yes. Otherwise, it will be a slow process getting back some of the core fans who were crapped on by MLS/AEG during Quakes II.
Repped. And I agree. F St Louis. Our attendance is our issue, not yours. But to play nice, if the promotion of the team in the next few months goes well we may be able to fill Buck Shaw, but it will be a slow process trying to convince those that are anti-MLS after the league shat on us to come back. And to bring in the new fans of course.
Advertising is a MUST! AEG failed when it came to advertising, and then they were the ones who bitched at the attendance. Sure, there were signs on buses.....cool. That pretty much raps up AEG's attendance. TV commercials, i'd put that more on FSN than AEG. There needs to be flags on the light poles around the city (especially downtown). There needs to be signs on buses. TV commercials (good ones too, one that catches people's attentions so they remember it). Just........MORE! Plain and simple. You advertise and the fans will come. As for me, my attendance prediction for 08? Better. No way in hell we'll sell out each game, as the Sharks can't even do that nowadays. Let's face it, its an expansion team. But it's OUR expansion team, and I want to see the hardcore fans at each game painted blue and losing their voice. Go Quakes!
Hopefully the new TV ads coming in the next week or two are similar to the A's ads. They're always memorable and funny.
I've not seen a single ad anyplace, so far. But, apparently they're on the way. But, simply stating "we have a team, come watch us" won't bring out too many newbies... ...as has been mentioned, we're going to need to get hardcore fans and casual fans (alike) energized with one or two marquee signings... ...otherwise it's going to be tough even selling 12k. I bet our hardcore base is probably 4-8k, tops.
Having only one mid-week game will help. The three games at McAfee should get more than 20K each. They'll average about 12K.
You know what would really kick ass... if we set an all time single game attendance record with one of the 3 games in Oakland. All it would take is slightly less than 30k since Spartan never held more than that. And The Coliseum could take 30k and still not look that full thanks to Mount Davis.
I'm guessing 22K for the Oakland games vs Chicago and the first LA game. After that, 18K for second LA game. At home, nearly a sellout each time because the games are mostly Saturday nights and are convenient. I know there is a group of fans who are hard core about the Quakes but I don't think the general population is or will be anytime soon.
I will be doing my best to have a big group from Davis for the first game. The Capitol Corridor is an excellent transportation option for a 1:30 start.
I drove by First Bank at Santa Clara and Almaden and the electronic marquee out front had "Earthquakes kick off season at PAL Stadium" followed by ticket info. It was nice to see and pretty random, to be honest.
Capital Corridor doesn't stop near Buck Shaw, it passes right by. Caltrain stops across the street, though. Your best bet if you're taking the train from Davis is to go to San Jose Diridon and transfer to a northbound Caltrain.
Train details at www.capitolcorridor.org. There are more trains daily than several years ago even on weekends. Look up the website of the VTA to find out bus service from the train station to the game. I used to take a bus from the station to Spartan getting off at Alma and Monterrey. I am sure there is a bus that goes to Santa Clara U.
The Oakland games it should drop you right outside the stadium. The train station is located about midway between the stadium and the BART station on the bridge connecting those two.