Like many, I suppose, I went in with my best soccer buddies to buy seats together for the AUFC inaugural season. One of them, my brother in law, came up with a great idea and I wanted to propose it here to see if there was any mutual interest. His idea was that, at some point in the season, we should try finding others who had a similar block of tickets in other parts of the stadium and trade tickets for a game. It would be a good way to mingle and to get a different view of the stadium.....perhaps a view that might change considerations for buying tickets for the following season. I decided to post the idea here to see if it got any traction. What say you?
Interesting, though I'd be hard pressed to give up my seats. I'm not against something that might foster more meet-ups and such among fans, though. Perhaps we could have a BigSoccer tailgate event one day?
out of curiosity, where are you seated? I'm Sect 127 Row 1 .... basically (facing the field) just to the right of the "traditional" MLS home bench. I doubt, now anyway, that I'd ever give up those seats but, I'd like to know what the view is from the 200 level midfield (a more FIFA view, if you like). I'd like to know if I like the views better from the opposite side of the field as well. It'd be fun see what life behind the goals or in the corners would be like also. I wouldn't suggest doing a bunch of bouncing around during a season but 1 or 2 games would be interesting to me. I think our group would take the approach of using a few seasons of this kind of trading to both meet other supporters and get to experience more of the stadium. I think the idea works for us because we feel that most would enjoy the opportunity to sit front row behind the benches at least once.
Front row (not the party suite) of section 103. Corner of the supporters' end. It's my hope the whole end is standing throughout.
I hope you get your wish. Out of curiosity, do you know many people who pledged to and bought tickets....or are planning to buy tickets? On of my small worries is that the 29,000 tickets "sold" that we've been touting for some time now is going to wind up being a huge overstatement. Not that the club lied but that when it came to spending their money, those that had promised changed their tunes to some degree. I mean, it's certain that the number of tickets will come in short of that amount. It's akin to how one plans on a party - prepare for around 2/3 of those that have said they'll come to actually show up. I'm just wondering how that'll play out. With so many, like Twellman, spouting off about how bad a sports town Atlanta has been and how he didn't believe that it was a good city for the league to invest in (so to speak), I just worry about a public blowback if we fall well short of that 29K. Got opinions? I know this is a tangent but, since no one wants to get to know each other by considering trading tickets one game a season, I figure it's fine to go off topic.
I know 6 different people who pledged to buy. Two people dropped their plans for 2 each, but one of those joined in with me. One other still hasn't been called. I'm sure the amounts pledged won't be realized straight away, but I suspect the amount will turn into at least 80% of the number, or something around 24-25k. Then we'll get the additional folks who'll jump on board as the season comes closer to kick-off. I'm confident the team will average over 20k and may come close to 30k, which I'm sure some folks will chide but considering naysayers pegged Atlanta for 12-16k when the team was announced anything exceeding the league average should be considered a huge success.
My group is gonna by part of the problems there. When we first pledged we each said we wanted multiple seats, but it was always going to be for each other. So in the end we each got our own seat and nothing else, so the extra was dropped. Probably around 6 seats.
If we can sustain attendances of 20K and have season ticket sales near that, I have no problem at all. It'll be awesome and it will grow - so long as we don't have extended runs of poor seasons a la Chicago or Colorado recently. I just can't handle an I told you so from Twellman. That would cause me to spend beer money to find out where he lives and have some kid hit his house with red, black, and gold colored eggs nightly. By the way, I'm contributing to the lowering number of ticket sales as well. I got a single rather than the two I initially pledged. My group all came through with their money and I didn't need to cover for anyone.
3rd Row, Section 103. Originally signed up for 2 seats, bought 1. I will be standing the whole time, and making a fair amount of noise. I'm not as young as I used to be.
We don't know what season ticket numbers will be, and we don't know what individual game sales will be, but whatever those numbers are, it is very reasonable to expect a decline in attendance after the 1st or 2nd year. Everyone who wants to see the stadium for a cheaper-than-NFL price will have seen it, the newness of the league and the sport will have worn off, and the team will likely be bad for a couple of years, so by 2020 we'll get a better idea of what regular attendance will be. I hope the numbers are huge, but we won't know for a while. Will there be 20,000 paying fans at a game in September of 2019?
Yeah I'd be willing to bet a lot of people changed their numbers slightly. The original number is only going to go down, but don't forget that there could very well be people who sign up for season tickets between this summer and next spring. Not a ton of people, but people who won't be included in the original founder's club number.
I'm hoping that those who buy late will go a long way toward offsetting the downward trend of that original number. I don't mean to make it into a negative topic but, I just get so tired of sports press making our city out to be a poor one for pro sports teams and I want for Atlanta to show up for AUFC. Really chomping at the bit for the team news to build up a head of steam and for that roster to begin taking shape. Know it's a while off yet but,.....
Seconded. Really nobody knows what the culture is going to be like in support of AUFC, and I hope above all it is a dedicated fan base that shows up no matter what. I don't care if the culture around the club is young or family-oriented or just a hodge podge of fans, as long as the dedication is there.