These 4:00PM starts are killing average attendance, especially in New England where this is prime-time for youth soccer competition. The Magpie
Absolutely right! My older son will miss 5 games this season due to youth soccer conflicts. My younger son's games has made it race for every home game as it is. Tail-gating? Forget it! Then again, there's also the question of the Patriots...oops, make that "Revolution" sales staff and lack of advertising. Does anyone know whether they're counting attendance different this season? Last year, they would include the season ticket holder no-shows. 11,000+ seems light (and pitiful for such a great day and a opponent with so many great storylines to follow), even accounting for the 4:00pm start time.
quote:Originally posted by The Magpie These 4:00PM starts are killing average attendance, especially in New England where this is prime-time for youth soccer competition. Absolutely true. A saturday night version of the thrtee 4:00 PM games would have brought in between 3,000 and 6,000 more people, I should think. On the other hand, we now have the best starting record for a Revs team ever, despite our previous two awful home performances and we have been on national TV three times (which may account for the starts to begin with). It will be interesting to see if the 6:00 PM starts make any difference. I'm not sure that the marketing is actually any worse than in the past. It really does strike me that the times are a bad choice. I often bring as many as ten people with me to Rev games and it is hard to find anyone with an open schedule on a Saturday afternoon in the spring. JIM DOW
Really 16,555. I would have guessed far less. Usually when the upper reserves are empty on the sides, I'd say about 12-14K. Good number though, considering three hours before the game there were T-Storms and Tornado watches. The attendance really emphasizes the bad attendence that the second home game of the year at CCS gets ever year. I wonder what the difference between the third game and the second game is. Kenntomash or Andy B, how many of the Crew's second home games have been day games or is there another correlation I'm not thinking about. I know this year it was mainly due to the OSU spring Game and last year it was due to it be extreamly cold at a night game. But what ever it is there seems to always be a 8-10K drop off from the first game, that picks up again on the third game.
Good to see another overflow crowd at Chicago as well. Isn't that the last game they will have to play without the added capacity? When they do get them up I think they'll fill it up as well and the three games in SF will pick up for the low capacity of the first two games. I can see Chicago averaging 16-17K this year which would be a huge boost from the 13K they averaged last year.
Average for the week: 12,382. Superdave, I like this two separate threads idea A LOT. I have a feeling if the Metrostars keep playing like they are their attendance may be solid all year.
I like to think that attendance average will increase a bit once more games are played in the larger venues and the home teams begin to win again. Metros attendance was way up from 11K last week. Three home wins and one draw this week ought to help things for the next round of matches.
Code: TEAM ATTENDANCE REPORT HOME GAMES ROAD GAMES DATES TOTAL AVERAGE DATES TOTAL AVERAGE Chicago Fire 2 14,968 7,484 2 31,907 15,954 Colorado Rapids 2 42,334 21,167 2 27,624 13,812 Columbus Crew 3 50,778 16,926 3 55,619 18,540 Dallas Burn 3 25,958 8,653 1 12,758 12,758 D.C. United 2 30,079 15,040 3 61,855 20,618 Kansas City Wizards 3 52,995 17,665 2 25,349 12,675 Los Angeles Galaxy 0 0 --- 5 71,422 14,284 MetroStars 4 72,590 18,148 1 12,165 12,165 New England Revolution 3 40,827 13,609 2 15,686 7,843 San Jose Earthquakes 2 26,219 13,110 3 42,363 14,121 MLS Totals 24 356,748 14,865 24 356,748 14,865 (source MLS/Elias)
I think its clear that with the reduced venue size, the dismal play of United, and continued lack of response to the Earthquakes, average attendance will not match last year.