I'm watching the TFC vs CHI match right now in Direct Kick and I see a lot of empty seats. As the saying goes, is the honeymoon over for TFC?
i was kind of thinking the same thing. all of this talk about the weather being bad doesn't hold water. over 3 seasons there has been bad weather before and the crowds have never been below 19K until last week and mostly entirely packed out to the max. (i understand that TFC is the only team that announces actual people thru the turnstiles and not the sold tickets). depending on today's number it might mean two weeks in a row of sub 19K crowds at BMO. is all of that construction still going on? if not i think this could be a sign of unsettling things. you don't go from a fervent packed house every game for 3 years to two sub-par crowds in a row without having to ask questions. and the weird thing is that TFC, Mo controversy and all of the turmoil going on aside, is far from the worst team in the league right now. they actually are really good at home and not in a bad position overall right now. i have to say, as much as people might hate SSFC, nothing stops those fans from filling 36K into that stadium every game day. no "it was a weekday", "it was a Sunday", "it was bad weather" ... nothing stops Sounders fans from attending the game. will WC games finally put a dent in the best attending fans in the league? some how i doubt it. thank Zeus that Portland, Vancouver and Montreal are on the way ... otherwise in a few years the league would likely be SSFC drawing 36K a game and the rest of league struggling to get 15K to their stadiums (and some struggling to get 10K ... not mentioning any names, ahem ... NER, COL, FCD ... cough cough cough). let's hope today is an aberration and BMO will be full for the rest of the year. maybe winning this game will help get TFC fans off the "we hate Mo" ledge for a second and see their team isn't all that bad. fingers crossed. the league desperately needs TFC to be an attendance juggernaut and not slip into slightly above average or mediocrity. EDIT: at least the fans that are there are loud! of course seeing Chad Barrett actually score once is a good reason to get excited and twice is reason to throw a Mardi Gras. plus it looks like more people are there now than during the first half? did people see TFC was winning on TV and come rushing out to BMO?
No, it's the weather! Wind gusting 75 to 100KM per hour plus rain with no roof = a lot of empty seats.
Can we flip around their stupid hockey arguments and say that soccer doesn't belong in Canada? I mean, look at the weather! Duh!
Despite always having "max" attendence every game there are always plenty of empty seats. They have good crowds, better then most, but i think everyone can stop the assumption that they play in a full house all the time.
Dude, you have absolutely no idea how shitty it was out there. 100 km/h winds and freeeeeezing. i was actually pleasantly surprised at the turnout. if you have followed tfc over the years, u would see that this is not anything new. the crowd has always been weaker on days like this, even year one. oh and one more thing, im pretty sure the announced attendance was slightly over 20 k. judging from my experience in the seattle game, a lot of people hide under the north stand when the rain/wing pick up. it was actually pretty funny to see all those people crammed under that thing.
turns out you are right. good show then 20,060. i have to say tho that last 20 minutes of the first half looked pretty bad on tv. maybe everybody was pissing or hiding like you said but it was kind of a shocking image to see so many empty seats. glad to see it was just an odd aberration.
If you had that kind of weather in these cities there attendance would of been horrible. They would be lucky to get these numbers for there game, I'm just including the cold weather cities. Chicago 10,000 New York 9,000 Kansas City 9,000 New England 7,000 DC United 10,000 Columbus 10,000 Colorado 8,000 RSL 10,000
yea its kind of a wierd routine at games like this lol.... if u watch the highlights it looks sorta like this: 0-20 min : not full, still filling up 20-40: near capacity, apart from season seat holders who dont bother to show up 40-50: people leaving to take a piss/get food...taking forever to get back 50-80: full 80-90+: people leavin to catch the train and get out of the crap weather (some of the strongest winds ive ever seen today. im still numb lol)
i have to ask. is the team going to do anything about making more tickets available to fans for each game day instead of so many going to ticket resellers? i have heard it is a problem. if there is a waiting list for season tickets like i have heard (12K or more) wouldn't it make sense to A. sell a few more than 16K season tickets, or say half/partial packs so more fans can become "regular" attendees or B. do something about tracking and revoking season tickets from those who consistently don't show up ... maybe who's tickets get used for less than half the games? not that they have to be used by the holder but just used by somebody. i would just hate to see that passion eventually deflate as so many aren't able to get a regular taste of TFC fandom (or maybe not any taste at all).
problem is that a lot of these season tix get in the hands of scalpers. tfc has set up a ticket exchange, where season seat holders can sell their tickets if they cant go. its not very advertised though so a lot of people dont even know about it. one thing i can say forsure is that the passion is not deflating. the diehards are there every game and the experience remains the same. its just the casuals who dont bother to show up when its raining and cold. april is always a shitty month here in toronto, so im expecting things to pick up soon.
oh. sorry. i didn't mean the passion of the regular 20K or so that attend the games i meant the overall passion of the entire city and the peripheral fans that are on the wait list or can't get into games regularly. i don't imagine that after 3 seasons of not getting to purchase season tickets (part or whole) or even attend more than one game here and there that the passion of those people would be sustained. how much of that 12K waiting list thing do you think is just bs? what sized stadium do you think that TFC could regularly fill and is there any possibility of more expansion soon? i mean SSFC needs help keeping the leagues average attendance from looking pathetic and it sure would help if another team like TFC were chipping in 25-30K a game ... maybe Vancouver can do that with how they might set up BC Place ... Portland is going to be limited to 20K most games and it looks like Saputo is going to cheap out and only expand Stade Saputo to 20K (which seems insane for a team that can draw 12K in D2 and has all the same good predicates as SSFC had, established team, passionate core fans, not too many other pro teams in the market to squeeze them out of media coverage, great MLS demographics).
theres def some bs on that waiting list. but id say that a large portion of those people legitimately want season seats. personally, i think that tfc's stadium is perfectly sized. With the new north stand, the stadium not only has more seats, but it also feels more intimate and complete. It actually makes a hell of a difference. Although tfc could probably get 25-30 k per game, i think its better to keep demand high. as the weather gets better, and the team improves on the field, tickets are going to be really hard to come by. montreal could probably do 25 k as well, but i think its a smart move to start off at the 20 k mark and build up demand.
Toronto's FO needs to tear down that stadium and build those fans a real stadium with a roof. To me any team that has good fans like Toronto and Seattle deserve a State of the art stadium.
yeah, they must have a stadium with a roof...just like EUROPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! give me a f*cking break.....
If the honeymoon is over, Chad Barrett is lying suggestively in heart shaped water bed wearing only revealing little lingerie thingy and a pearl necklace.
Actually, I was at the RSL game vs TFC and with 40 degree weather and rain from half time until the final whistle we still pulled in 12,600. So not what I was hoping for but to say that we'd be "lucky" to get 10,000 in poor weather is inaccurate. Also, how many more people do you think we'd have if we were going up against LA instead of Toronto? (no offense intended, there just isn't a big draw for casual SLC fans)