Attendence numbers

did no one read my posts where I linked to the two job advertisements for both a director of ticket sales & a ticket account position? sniff. sniff. I give and I give. sniff. sniff

Given that the two jobs were posted fairly quickly after the new GM was hired, I thought it was pretty obvious she gave them a game (or two) to improve sales and then (rightfully?) canned them.

 

The Independence organization really needs to advertise that their team even exists. I can't tell you how many times I have talked about the team or been someplace with a team jersey on only to have people ask who the Philadelphia Independence is. There is next to no press coverage, you never see them on the 11:00 news. Every major sports team in Philly at least gets some acknowledgement by the local news outlets. If people don't know this team exists, they can't expect to sell a lot of tickets. Putting Paul Riley on at 11:45 at night after a game and having an interview doesn't sell tickets. Don't get me wrong, Paul is fantastic and has done great work with the team. He's an awesome coach and Philly is blessed to have him here but they should be showing game footage, interviewing players and such.

Let's face it, with World Cup and the Union, there's been a lot of other soccer in Philadelphia to talk about. But in reviewing the philly.com blog "The Goalkeeper", there have been only two blog entries since June 1st that even mention the WPS at all. One was about the disbanding of St Louis, the other for Amy Rodriguez's recent Player of the Month award for June. Other than that...nothing. In that time, the Independence have played six games, four of them at home. And yet there is not a single mention of any of it in the blog. If our own local press outlets don't think that Women's Pro Soccer is worth even a mention, how on earth do we think the team will be able to sell tickets. News outlets are free advertising. The Independence just needs to find someone that knows how to work the media. I'm at every home game, we have season tickets. I have yet to see any major news network on-site at the stadium with a news van, a reporter, a camera crew, anything. It's rather disappointing and it's not like the players don't deserve the recognition. They play hard. The games are entertaining and good to watch. It's just great soccer that no one seems to know about.

 

Good for you for wearing your Independence jersey & promoting the team to folks you see. That is hugely important for "minor league" (ie not NFL/MLB/NHL) pro sports.

 

Uh-oh the dreaded "N/A" attendance figure on the boxscore. I think its clear that putting the team on the western fringe of a sprawling metro area was a tragic decision. Any chance of the Indy going to a more centrally-located site for 2011? I would suggest Widener's football stadium (not far from PPL) or the Camden ballpark (KC Wizards currently grounds-shares with an independent minor league baseball team). A lot of folks have gone to Union games from the shore on summer weekends, but that option is untenable when you have to drive clear across the region to get to WCU. This is a good team that plays attractive, attacking soccer in a league where the standard of play has advanced from WUSA. It deserves better marketing and better support.

 

philafan, PPL is a wonderful soccer stadium but I'm afraid a good WPS crowd (lets dream and say 6K) would look wan there.

 

The Comcast broadcast on Saturday night was, on balance, the best advertising the team has had since press reports of the opening game.

Good -- The Independence won, and were by far the dominant side for roughly 65 minutes of the match. Moreover, we saw Riley's brand of attractive soccer at its best.

Bad -- The image of the stands opposite the player benches. Nearly empty. Yikes. Couldn't they turn the cameras around to show the side where people were actually sitting?

On the whole though, the most important thing is that the team won in entertaining fashion and a lot of folks were introduced to A-Rod and Seger in a very positive way.

 

Yes, I thoroughly agree with this. I think the big problem might be that if the cameras were to be on the opposite side of the field, there might be a lot of sun/glare issues. The games are always played near sunset and the sun sets behind the main seating area. Plus, they may not be able to run the cameras all the way over there.

The two upcoming Boston games will be televised on Fox Soccer Channel. They tend to have a few more camera placements than Comcast did so maybe they can try and get more angles on the main seating area. The downside to FSC in this area is that if someone doesn't know about it, they won't flip to the channel. In this region people are much more likely to flip on Comcast Sportsnet just to see what is on. And FSC is a premium channel on DirecTV anyway, so only people that pay for the premium sports pack will even get the channel. If the team could manage to work out some kind of deal for Comcast to carry all of the games, that would be awesome.

 

MAR2010, you might be right about even a good WPS crowd looking sparse at PPL. But that might not be the worst thing in the world. I think Chicago has a similar arrangement with its MLS counterpart at Toyota Park, which holds 20K.
I think the Widener football stadium's 4K capacity is almost selling the team short in terms of what it could possibly draw.
I do find your suggestion of Campbell's Field in Camden, NJ (for those non-Philadelphians, it's right across the bridge from Center City Philly and is a minor league baseball park) to be really intriguing. I checked and it holds 6,400, which is perfect for WPS, and is in a great location for all but those in the far western suburbs who have been catered to with the current WCU location. I have been to Campbell's for an office outing and its a great little baseball park but never envisioned it for anything else other than concerts. I guess you could carve out a soccer pitch there — and it would be grass without all those football lines.

 

Here's the Wikipedia page for CommunityAmerica ballpark, where the Wizards play:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CommunityAmerica_Ballpark

 

I could never envision the Independence (or any other soccer team/league) playing in a baseball park. The seating would be horrible and half of the spectators would end up behind one of the goal lines. I don't think location would win over bad seating and sight lines. I don't ever see something like this happening.

 

That was the case for sky blues' first two games in '09 at a baseball park. The seats on the first base side was behind one goal, with the second goal in deep left field.

 

OK but KC is drawing well, and the Portland Timbers got their start in a AAA ballpark.

The best long-term solution would be to partner with, say, Temple or Villanova to build a 5K-seat stadium at their current soccer fields, on the Villanova campus or at Temple's Ambler Sports Complex. I'd suggest Temple would be a more likely partner, since Villanova really gave the Charge a horrible leasing arrangement back in 2001-03.

But I think the Independence need to find a short-term solution that will turn around the attendance problem in 2011. And that includes exploring all of the reasonable, if not perfect, options.

 

I am a big fan of soccer, and am a member of the Son's of Ben for the Union. I have attended 3 Independence games this season. It is a good fun family atmosphere, people should give it a try. I do believe location is part of their problem, and a lack proper marketing has hurt their efforts. As a person that spent 10 years working in sports management, including minor league baseball and hockey I do not think enough has been done to generate enought excitment for this team. I was a big supporter of the old Charge, and they where all over the airwaves and TV. The team has hired a veteran Ticket Sales Director Erik Hansen. In fact I filed out a card the other night to attempt to win two field seats for wednesday's game, and he called me to today to ask my thoughts about the game, why I came, and if I would be interested in season tickets, or flex plan for next season. So I do believe they have the right guy in place, and things will improve. I definitely think the fans of the Independence need to mobilize and get involved. I think a supporter's group would be imperative. Using the Son's of Ben as an example. They were the key in convincing the league that Philadelphia had an existing fan base, and they helped generate excitment for the franchise througout the region. They also occupy 2,000 seats at PPL. So I hope to see the fans get involved as well. I hope the Indepence is a permanent member of the Philly sports scene.

 

I agree with you. The atmosphere was better. I think a group of fans sitting/standing together, with some organized chants would be great. If I can make it out to the last 3 games, count me in.

 

I'm not sure the exact details about the DOB, but you can get an idea for it by reading
https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1002178

There was definitely enthusiasm early on that fizzled out. Part of that may be due to the Union starting to play and taking up all the time and energy of the DOB organizers. But I think part was a lack of interest and cooperation from the Independence. At first, things looked good:

But, then this followed:

I emailed the team when season tickets went on sale because I wanted to buy season tickets in a supporters section and didn't see that option mentioned anywhere. I waited and waited and when I didn't get a reply I didn't end up getting season tickets. I've been to two games, but certainly would have bought season tickets if I had been met half way.

 

Why, if you were interested in buying season tickets in the first place, would you have to wait for a supporters club to step forward before you would buy tickets? I'm 100% sure that if you bought tickets in what turned out to be a section other than where the supporters were, the team would work with you to get you moved. Meanwhile, no supporters club has ever materialized at the games and the team is struggling to get fans in the stands. Just buy tickets and go watch some great soccer. The team needs the support of dedicated fans that will buy tickets and come to the games.

 

But a team that can't get ticket sales staff to do the basic leg work (ie calling interested customers back) is cutting its own throat. Pro sports are a business not a charity and part of being a successful business is having the wherewithal to go out and sell the product. No business worth its salt should just expect people to throw their hard earned money at it. They have to earn it. For a sports team, the on field product is only one part of the equation. If the off-field stuff isn't handled properly -- you know, like calling potential customers back -- then the business isn't going to succeed because people aren't going to buy tickets. And that has little to do with the location of the field.

I think the numbers at the gate clearly demonstrate significant shortcomings in the Philly front office.

 

I wish I had just bought tickets anyway and it makes sense that I should have, but I'm sure I'm not alone in that things don't always work out cleanly and simply for me. I am extremely busy so the extra complication of figuring out the supporters section business meant that I never got around to it.

 

Was I seeing things or were A-Rod and Lyndsey Patterson at PPL last night? I saw two women, about the right size, wearing their jerseys as I was driving to the Union game last night. As we were running late, I didn't go to see if it was them promoting the Boston match. Hope that some of the folks at that game maybe got the notion to make the drive to WCU on Sunday night.

 

From what I've heard, the Sons of Ben plan on being at the Philly/Boston game on Sunday!

 

THAT would be totally awesome! The more the merrier!