If there was an anti-jesse jackson demonstration there I would be a bigh part of it too. The guy is a schmuck!
I won't be there but my brother, brother inlaw and 4 nephews will be making their Fire debut in the NSF. Maybe I've missed it but any TV yet?
I think the nay-sayers will be (pleasantly) surprised. I expect a number near to what we've had the psat 2 games. Both times, with about 30K at each, the whole place has been electric. Whatever problems we have in S8 working out the bugs, the stadium in general has had an atmosphere I know we never got in that past 2 years. That said, that kind of atmosphere will draw back just about the same number. New fans have been converted and that No-Go-Naperville types have been reconfirmed. Why, with such an intense, stadium wide atmosphere, would we loose half the population? Bears game or no. Baby!
Does anyone know the amount of tickets sold yet. I know its a couple of weeks away, but just wondering. My guess is going to be 15,333. I would be a big part of the rally against Jesse Jackson too...
I'm hearing from a number of people who aren't regular goers that just went to one of the first two games to see the team come back to Chicago and a game in the new stadium that they bought tickets for the playoffs. I hope that's indicative of a lot of folks' experience the first few games.
If only a partion of the stadium is open like last game I say same exact number of people as the last game, but if more is open I say 34,591.
They decide whether to open portions of the stadium based on ticket sales, so yours is rather circular reasoning. My sense is that they'd never turn anyone away, although it's possible that there's a more sophisticated flow chart of options along these lines: If we've sold fewer than 25,000 by four days out, then we keep the upper sections closed, limiting us to 29,000 or so, but if we've sold 25,001, then we'd better open it, in order to take advantage of the chance that we might sell 31 or 32,000. Just a guess. I'd bet the forecasting is down to a science, because the profit/loss margin of the food vendors depends on knowing how many people to bring on for a given game, how much perishable food to buy, etc. Remind me, does the Fire get a small portion of this revenue stream? If I were Soldier Field management, I'd want them to have a piece of the action, so that they'd provide me with the best possible predictions on crowds for my vendors.
Peter Wilt mentioned in a Sun-Times article I read some time ago the Fire get 50% of concessions and parking. The other 50% goes to the Park District. The old contract had all of that amount go to the Park District.
Dunno if I will be there, haven't ruled it out yet tho. I'm guessing somewhere in between match 1 and 2 at NSF... around 29,500.
mls confidential states that peter wilt does not expect to match the 30,000-28,000 crowds for the 11/9 game, with the quote from peter that playoffs don't draw as well as regular season games but that he still expects a "good crowd".
I would imagine that the attendance would flucuate with (1) the weather; and (2) the results of the 1st match of the tie. That said, assuming a decent day, I would say around 25,000.
The question is.. is Peter trying to downplay things incase the playoffs trend of the past continues or is this the reality?