How am I whinning? All I am saying is I hope the Seattle fans learned how to treat our fans when we go to Seattle.
No you're right. Thank you Seattle for not only showing me how to support my club and be a knowledgable fan but for also showing me how to be humble. Also thanks for letting me know what talking points are acceptable in the galaxy forum.
Considering I started this thread, I think I can comment in it. I guess if you do not understand simple business sense, which is to sell your product to your loyal customers and keep them coming back time after time, then I could see why you call it poor planning. In reality, selling out your stadium prior to the start of the season means you have the money in the bank and don't have to worry about single match sales. Yeah, that's just dumb.
I'm going to agree with Sounderfans on this one. If I can sell all my tickets to home fans, why set aside seats for any visiting fans? That would be the ultimate home field advantage: no away fans. I would expect to sitting in the rafters on the road. If LAG could sell out the Home Depot Center one hundred percent to Galaxy fans, so be it. Let away fans buy 'em for a premium on ebay, stubhub, craigslist, or from scalpers in the parking lot.
Ya, gotta go with Sounderman here as well. Business of it obviously comes before visiting fans. The atmosphere they want is achieved by having a stadium full of ranting raving, chanting and drinking Seattle fans, not visiting fans as well. Plus, it's cool to hear such loud crowds on TV. Especially when they are silenced when LA comes to town.
Had a great time last Sunday and all the Sounder fans that showed up were all class. I talked to two that flew down from Seattle while waiting 40 minutes in the will call line. Two years in, and two years in the postseason. Be proud---you guys will be competitive for years to come and have a great ownership. See ya next year!
+2 It may be the hospitable thing in England---but this is America dammit. If you can sell all the seats up front, you do it.
And yet we don't. We have a section set aside specifically for away fans. It's in the corner, the same quality seat I personally pay for every year and whether it contains a few thousand Sounders fans or a dozen Smurfs, it's assigned to our opponents. We were full last Sunday and yet we had fans on the grass berm and the upper tier, while Seattle got good lower-bowl seats. Interesting that when it suits them, they emulate soccer tradition by having jumping, singing fans, but when it doesn't "it's business". Well if it's "business", I propose we shove the Sounders fans up on the top deck. I also propose we go back to the negotiating table and request a bigger cut of the 500% uplift in jersey sales produced by a DP our FO pays for. I think the point made here is valid. Nobody's asking the Sounders or NYRB to sacrifice season seats, they're asking for a section that already exists to be relocated to a better part of the stadium. BTW, for all the shortsighted comments, this would actually make "business sense". Clearly the Sounders pride themselves on heavy support which sees Qwest Field full each week, regardless of section. Presumably that would be the case regardless of where the away fans sit. Right now you're actually defying "good business" by making the only tickets in the house that don't sell themselves, far less sellable.
Good point, Barroldinho. Still - the fact is that Galaxy can provide a good space for visiting fans because they don't typically sell out, regardless of selling out for a playoff game with seattle or not. Seattle has less of a problem selling out, right? Seems like overall - it makes more sense to just sell 99% of your stadium to your fans. I don't know actual figures, so I'm just throwing some conjecture out there. Based on this single game, ya its kind of a shady scenario - but overall it seems like it makes more sense and they certainly aren't hurting their bank much if at all.
Honestly, I wouldn't have a problem being put in the upper tier at HDC... those aren't bad seats, and being nearer the roof makes the sound amplify even more. When we travel to RSL that's where we get put and a couple hundred of us sounded like much more than that. Look, when you travel, you get what you get... RBNY and DC also put away support in the upper deck... but if you think those are bad, you should see where Newcastle Utd put away support in St James' Park... way way WAY up in the nosebleeds!
This thread was started by a fan from the team we just beat to give us a classy congratulations, but it evolved into a complaint thread about away fan seats! I know we need to vent our issues, but how about putting this to rest and thank the Sounders fans for the congrats and ask them to cheer for us in Toronto. (Yeah, we'll be there).
Hang on... I think the issue is getting confused. Am I wrong in thinking that each MLS stadium has an allocated section for away fans - because this is the standpoint I'm arguing from? If they do have a number of seats assigned to away fans, then the number of STHs or home fans in general, doesn't come into it. I've seen the HDC filled to the rafters and that section is always for away fans. I'm assuming that if only for security reasons, they wouldn't start selling seats in that section to home fans if the away attendance is expected to be low. The point I'm making is about the position of existing, assigned seats, not about the FO selling as many tickets as possible to home fans first, at the expense of away.
Good point again, actually. Maybe the idea is to give cheaper seats to people who have to spend $$ to travel and more expensive seats to people who live in town?
That could be true. I've never been to Qwest Field myself, but I know some who have and unfortunately, while they were impressed by the passion and atmosphere that the Sounders fans generate, they were also put off by a few issues, a big one of which was the seating assignment. Sadly, some of those individuals don't intend on returning anytime soon as a result.
Think like AEG for a second. If they could sell the entire lower bowl out with season tickets---they would. Never for a second would they force fans to the upper decks at a lower season ticket price just so they could accomodate road fans. Do you expect the Sounders FO to move their season ticket holders to the upper decks just so Galaxy fans can have a better seat? That's how you lose business.
The seats assigned for away fans are in the lower bowl. They are good seats. They are corner seats. they are not "nosebleeds". So that is a bunch of bullshit. They offer a great view of the field. If people are still complaining about the MLS Cup seating arrangement, then I can understand being miffed about having to buy seats in the upper deck. The problem there,however, was it was made part of a season ticket package that had most of the lower bowl already sold out. Seattle's F.O. is not going to relocate loyal fans to accomodate fickle away support. If LA is at the top of the league we might see large numbers travel, but if they are sucking hind tit, we might see very few. I agree with GMan, you get what you get. Some places offer better seating than others. Accomodating away fans is not going to take priority over a season ticket base of 30,000 plus. If LA had 27,000 people willing to buy a full season ticket package they would not be offering that section to away fans.
In 2008, the average attendance was 26,000. Where did the away fans sit that year? If that's the case, I misunderstood. People seemed to be suggesting that you and New York were both in the upper tier. I apologise.
I don't think that's right. If you have seen something official, I would love to see it. Really, Seattle's situation is just different from the other arenas because Seattle has a larger season ticket fan base. They DO NOT even reserve tickets for walk up day of game sales as I understand it. That's a marketing strategy, and it makes sense if they can make it work. LAG has a large part of the stadium sold on a day of game or single ticket basis. Consequently it is easy for LAG to set up an "away" section on an ad hoc basis, but those same seats are available to locals if there is no away commitment to buy. That's why the corner section is not empty when a team comes without many traveling supporters. So it's not really a "designated away area" like you see in many Euro stadia.
Only for the MLS CUP Final. It was shameful where they put the LA AND RSL fans last year. Especially disrespectful to their own STH who were right in front of LARS. Not sure how Seattle handled the Cup Final ticket purchase, (if it was included in their season tickets, and guaranteed to be their same seats) - but our game v FCD on Sunday was not included, and season seats are not guaranteed either. Having said all that - which needs to be it's own thread - thanks for being such classy visitors to our house. It's always great when you're in town, and you made us feel pretty welcome last year for the final!
It, MLS Cup, was part of the season ticket package. I also think the blame falls as much on MLS as it does Seattle's F.O. The game was the 3rd "friendly" in our package. It wasn't announced until after the season had begun and nobody expected two Western teams to be in the final. The seats were long sold before we even knew who the finalists were. The League and the club should have never made it part of the season ticket package. They did so to ensure a huge crowd. Which they got. Most of us went to the game because we had tix and we wanted to represent the city.
The MLS Cup has been at the HDC three (3) times, and all three time sections were reserved for the Western and Eastern Champs regardless where one's season ticket was, twice my season ticket was in section 102 and I got moved, the last time my ST was in GA and our group got moved.
Were you happy about being moved? Did it make you feel like a valued investor in the Galaxy? Were you moved to comparable seats? Seattle did keep a section reserved for each club and they were in the lower bowl. LA's was in the southend near ECS. I am uncertain where RSL fans were., but they brought several thousand that ended up in the upperbowl. Once again, nobody expected 2 western teams in the final. They didn't again this year. Toronto will be happy if all of their fans show up. Otherwise it's gonna look pretty bleak at BMO. If the Front office would have bought my tickets back to accomodate LA or RSL fans I would have done it. The problem is, I am just 5 seats out of 22,000 season tticket holders. They couldn't move me to comparable seats because other season ticket holders occupied them. The bottom line is that MLS teams have not seen season ticket fanbases at levels like Toronto and Seattle and there have been a few mistakes made when it comes to MLS Cup. How do you relocate 22,000 people? Who do you piss off? The ECS, the big money ticket buyers at midfield? The mistake was making it part of the package. This year Toronto fans were being forced to buy Cup tix as part of their 2011 package. When it comes to regular season games though..... don't expect awesome seats when they are occupied by full season ticket buyers. It ain't gonna happen. We don't sell game day seats and walk-ups are bought from scalpers. It wouldn't happen in HDC if you guys had a season ticket base that filled up your lower decks.
From all the other MLS Cup matches what your stadium should have done is had Sections 104-105 for the Western and 139-140 for the Eastern, or 113-114 for the West and 130-131 for the East, with the ticket holders in those sections being moved to the upper level just for that match. If your team would have played then the ticket holders in those sections could have been in their seats. Being your team was not playing what difference would it make it fans were in the upper level or not in lieu of putting the playing fans in the upper level where their team could not even see them? The only reason I saw was your fans heckling the Galaxy when they wern't even playing your team. I am sure if your team were to be playing in the MLS Cup and the venue were the Home Depot Center you would rather be in the section your fans were in than in the upper level cornor.