So the DC United supporter groups showed up, where were the other fans at? 13,000 anybody else feel a little embarrased for that? Half the stadium rocked hah!
Re: crowd Not embarassed at all. This is pretty typical of Wednesday night crowds of seasons past. I don't see why Thursday would of been different.
Re: crowd yeah i guess your right, in was still thinking we would of had at least 15 or 16k, based on how well we usually do.
Re: crowd Good point. Let me also add that the start of the game was scheduled for 7:00pm. This earlier starting time made it much harder to get to the game (one has to go to the game during rush hour). With the weekday 7:30pm, I can get away with coming in at 6:30-6:45pm and missing the rush hour. We were in our seats by around 6:50pm (popcorn, etc.) and I noticed that most of the supporters were in their seats by then. Ten minutes before the game starts is normally unheard for the majority of the supporters. Then the game did not start until after 7:15pm. I think they should just keep the 7:30pm starting time (unless of course the ratings for the broadcast were very high for the earlier starting time). Sunday will be much better, but we will have to rush back from a Travel game (hopefully traffic will not be too bad at the very odd starting time of 3:00pm).
Re: crowd I think we can safely say that we pulled in as many, or more than most other teams would have on the same night.
Re: crowd well actually we had lowest of the 4 so far (how much their numbers are inflated is other thing), it just sounded far better.
Re: crowd Well, I think there's counting and then there's MLS counting. I think our announced crowd from last night was fairly honest if not spot on...the other Thursday night games on ESPN2.....not so much.
Re: crowd Volleyball ran over time on ESPN and they delayed the match start. Kickoff will usually be more around 7:05 for those matches.
Re: crowd The attendance was not particularly surprising IMO. I believe that one of the key impacts on DCU individual game attendance is whether a given game happens to be a "Plan A" or "Plan B" game, as it seems that DCU sells a lot more of the Plan A packages than the Plan B ones, so there's a built-in difference of several thousand on that basis alone. Plan B + weeknight = Bottom of DCU's attendance range.
Re: crowd Speaking as a Plan A person. I agree. I usually make a good number of non Plan A games but a weeknight with a 7:00 start makes it hard. I didn't make the journey last night but already planning my Sunday trip to RFK.
As a former DCU ticket rep, 13K on a Thursday night is not ok. Not horrible, but I guarentee that we would get yelled at by KP. It's 1:15 pm at the time of this post, so they have probably already had "the meeting." He likes to have them early in the day. However, here are a couple of reasons that you guys haven't mentioned yet. It's not summer time. You have to understand that the attendance goes up and then goes down when school is not in session Ticket announcements were not that great. There was a half price ticket thing for plan holders, but even that wasn't pressed too hard. There was no promotion, no advertising, no nothing. Normally, there is an ad in the weekend paper, mentions on the radio and TV, etc. They don't put money into something that is going to be a dog anyway.
I had a good time. The loud side was well attended. Mostly a young adult crowd, with the booze flowing freely. Much more young-adultish than normal. I'm not sure why this was the case. How did it show on ESPN? Did it look dead? Lively and fun? Actually, that's not the case. I saw a half-page (or full-page, can't remember) spread in a local Spanish-language newspaper for yesterday's and Sunday's games.
I know in my tickets and marketing experience, when you have a one game a week standard situation, on a two game week, both games usually suffer below avg attendance. You split the occasional fans in half.
Re: crowd I was not complaining about ESPN delaying the start time, but rather I think Thursday night games should be starting at 7:30pm so that people can avoid the rush hour traffic as much as possible.
That's huge. Not many youth soccer coaches are going to ask 15 sets of parents if it's OK to take their kids out on a school night. And with the traffic in this area, getting into the city by 7:00 is asking a lot of harried commuters, many of whom have had a bellyfull of area traffic by Thursday evening.
I was not surprised by the size of the crowd. Weeknight traffic is a beast, and the 7:00 PM start time made it even worse. I was there, but I also fall into the hardcore fan category. Still, I was dreading the drive in. It took me 1:45 to get to the game from Bristow, VA (roughly 30 miles). That on top of 4 hours in the car for work yesterday, plus the drive hopme after, made for a long day. By the way, the noisy side had a lot more people than the quiet side. Was the half-price promo limited to sections on that side of the stadium? If so, was that to project a better image on TV? Brilliant!
They should honestly move the matches back to 8pm EST. Especially as Summer approaches and things heat up.
Hehehe. I'm having flashbacks to Chivas at home year before last, and Owen and me and the great water brigade.
I remember that!! Summer time match and they ran out of water, that the one you're talking about? Something like 115 degrees in the Barra section.
I really, really wanted to come to this game. The weeknight games, the US Open Cup games, etc. tend to draw a more hardcore crowd and it's more fun. But I just couldn't get away on this particular Thursday in a timely fashion to make it downtown by 6:45 (e.g., leaving Tyson's Corner before 5:00). I think the league has made an eyes-open decision to accept lower gate revenues for more TV exposure. Here's hoping that they know what they're doing.
Bill the beerman sold his last bottle of whatever it was and we asked, "can we have the ice and water in your tray?" and proceeded to douse the Barra with it.
No, looked and sounded good. DCU, MLS, and ESPN should be thanking everyone who made it for saving the bacon. About the "young adult" crowd, it seems the loud side/tailgate/young adult crowd is feeling out DCU games kinda like a happy hour. I think it shows more on weeknights and has and may serve to hook in otherwise perhaps uninterested casual fans. Someone who can get to more weeknighters could comment on this better than I could. Just what I've noticed from the games and talking to people.