http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/soccer/stories/011003dnspoburnmove.5f2cb.html "As part of the deal, the Burn won't be able to sell alcohol or tobacco at games."
It seems as though most of the credit (blame) for this move lies with Hunt Sports Group president John Wagner, a resident of Southlake. Guess he didn't like having to drive all the way to the Cotton Bowl to watch Burn games.
I was willing to go along with one season while the Frisco thing gets built, but 2, maybe 3 is bad news. The fact that there is an option for a third year indicates that the frisco thing may not be a sure thing yet.
From the article it sounds as though total capacity will be about 12,000. Dragon Stadium has a permanent capacity of 7,500 and they'll be adding 4,500 or so in temporary bleacher seating.
13,000 and yes the markings will be on the field long after we are all dead and buried. With all due respect to the valid reasons behind this move: THIS SUCKS And I will stand behind that statement until I actually go to the stadium, which will probably be fewer times than last season and an opinion which I doubt will change. THIS SUCKS.
It's hard to see how the Burn are saving that much money by moving to Southlake. Reportedly, the Burn paid $15k per game in rent at the Cotton Bowl. At Southlake, they'll be paying rent of $1/person/game, so if the Burn average 10,000 or so at their new digs, that's $10k per game. So over the season, the Burn look to save about $75,000 in rent by playing at Southlake. From a revenue standpoint, the Burn might break even on the move if they're lucky. If attendance drops on average by about 3,500, the Burn will lose about $40k/game in ticket revenue (assuming an average ticket price of $12/ticket). Presumably that will be balanced out, though, by the bigger cut in concessions the Burn are supposed to get at Southlake.
How utterly depressing. And I was really looking forward to this season. Now, every home game looks to be a slap in the face. Living in Dallas, I'll still go to the games, though I'll be too embarassed to admit it. You think the local media laughed at MLS before? They're going to have a field day with this one.
This absoultly BLOWS!!!!! I hate to think of the players playing on turf and having the match ruined by football markings on the turf. The Hunts are trying to bring the BURN's attendance down to the level of K.C's. I think this is a truly bad decision for the players , fans and the game!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE someone wake me from this nightmare. This is comming from a season ticket holder(opens up the question where the HELL am I going to sit next season) and even though it cuts my drive time to about half I still think this will hurt the Burn in the long run!
I hope that someone in the Burn front office is reading this thread. Not that they cared that much about the fans anyway. How will this affect the season ticket holders? Will I have as good of a seat as I had in the past? My prepaid tickets were for a real statium with seats, not bleachers. Will the reserve ticket holders get the best picks? And will the GA ticket holders be forced to the end zones? Will be be worth a 90 mile round trip to see a game? Lot of questions to be answered...........And soon!
Earlier, I supported the move (because I thought they were saving a good amount of $$).. If the reported numbers are true, the move no longer makes sense...they could whack off 75k in payroll just as easy... Doesn't make sense...something else must be going on (either reported numbers wrong, or...)
Does anyone think HSG would have done this if they thought Frisco might fall through? I mean, if this REALLY is a two-year thing, is it that bad? I'm not from the area, but isn't Southlake closer to Frisco? Maybe attendance will go down this year, but at least the team would be able to build its suburban fanbase before moving into the new stadium. I don't know, maybe I'm grasping for straws. I'm just happy the Revs aren't going anywhere
One more thing: The team will save much more than 75K. They get ALL parking (probably over 200K for the season) and all concession revenue (no idea how much that could be). If this team averages 10-11K per game, they'll probably make an extra 500K for the year. I don't know too many people who can blame the league, or HSG, for trying to save some money while the new stadium is built.
One disappointing thing about all this is that there was no apparent attempt by the Burn to work out a better deal with the City of Dallas at the Cotton Bowl. Perhaps there were some talks behind the scenes between the Burn and the City of Dallas, but I can't imagine there was too much or I'm sure we would have read about it in the newspaper. My guess is that the Burn would not be in their current situation had HSG never gotten involved with the team. Hunt's been on poor terms with the City of Dallas for decades now, and while the Burn may save a bit of money by moving to the suburbs, there seems to be quite a bit of the you-can-take-the-Cotton-Bowl-and-stick-it-up-your-*** going on here.
Good thing I only bought the 6 game sweeper deal then. Oh how I feel like I have been lied to. I bought them after 6pm too. At least I'm getting a jersey.
Good luck trying to sell parking at a high school stadium for $5 a pop. I wonder what all the Southlake folk will think when they end up with a bunch of folk from East Dallas parking on their streets on game days.
Or, if HSG never got involved, perhaps the burn would no longer have been there. A lot of teams have faced uncertainty. In DC, we have the annual "Will basball be coming to DC?" thread and, if so, United becomes the non-major tenant at RFK.
I think it means Frisco or some other alternate location is further away than it ever has been. Not closer to Frisco. Southlake is just as far from downtown Dallas only in a different direction. Where do they plan to put this supposed increase of suburban fanbase? The crowds at the Cotton Bowl were at least 80% suburban based. Even a great percentage of the hispanic fans are suburban based in the mid-cities. We all are at this point.
Sounds like you're in line for one of the 1,500 paved parking spaces. Undoubtably a fair amount of the parking will be on grass fields. And while that should work out OK during our typical summer drought, I can't wait to see what happens after a hard rain in the spring or fall when the lots will turn into a sea of mud.