And it continues. Even after the fact they are going to break the all-time professional soccer season attendance average in the US in their first year. Sold out ever single game, most weeks in advance. Yep, maybe no-one will come next year, because there was a hockey team in Atlanta once. Good grief. None of what you said changes my post that you quoted. This year still happened and it has been epic beyond measure. Literally like nothing the US has ever seen in terms of professional soccer. If it dipped into the 20's it would be failure? Especially considering mid 20 (half what they averaged this year) would still be better than all but 3 other teams (including your team). Also, please note they have over 35k season ticket holders.
Updating our predictions for Atlanta: Based on the last few games at MBS if Atlanta gets 42,500 for remaining weekday games, 45,000 for game this Sunday, and 70,000 for their last game they will average 48,108! Cosmos (all-time professional soccer) record is 47,856. Also, take note that would mean ever single game was a sell-out. Something Cosmos cannot say (unless they were restricting capacity). This means the demand was much higher than 48k+. I would assume the Cosmos record also equals their demand.
My experience is soccer fans in the US/Canada are in a natural state of cynicism in regards to the sport succeeding. I saw this happen with Toronto, Seattle and Atlanta in MLS and Orlando, Sacramento and Cincinnati in USL. "They give tickets away" "They do promotions or discounts." "They pad their numbers" "It is a one off or event." "It is that newness." Eventually it is accepted after years when the evidence becomes overwhelming. My advice is just enjoy it and well done Atlanta in every regard for showing the potential of the sport in the country.
All true, but I think the chances of sustaining the fan interest are strong for the following reasons: Soccer can appeal to transient Atlanta residents better that other sports because they don't have to overcome all the loyalties that transplant fans have to out-of-market teams. No matter where you're from originally, if you live in Atlanta now, you can embrace ATL UTD as YOUR soccer team. This fan base is different. For the most part, these aren't the same people that attend Falcons, Braves, and college football games. It's urban millennials, Hispanics, and the crowd is 40% women. So, they aren't really competing for the same audience as all the other sports, thus the 70,000 turnout on a college football Saturday, the day right before the Falcons' home opener. People are moving back into the city in droves. After decades of suburban sprawl, we're now seeing the opposite. Downtown apartments are going up all over the place. Any club is prone to have down years, but I think ATL can stay above the playoff line most seasons. The deep-pocketed and highly-committed ownership, combined with the much higher than average ticket and merchandising revenue, will allow ATL to spend big bucks on top DNPs and keep the team winning. We haven't even seen the high-water mark yet. Year 2 attendance should be even better than year 1 because they now have a winning product to sell and a ton of local buzz. That wasn't the case when they sold 30,000 season tickets before the first game was even played. Plus, they won't have to deal with the compressed schedule and all the extra weeknight games next year. Seattle is in year 9 and they are still making the playoffs every year and drawing 44K on average per game. So, I think ATL can do the same.
Not MLS related, but..... Average attendance figures..... Toronto 13,621 vs. 27,544 Toronto FC BC Lions 20,058 vs. 21,322 Vancouver Whitecaps Montreal 19,523 vs. 20,273 Montreal Impact
Interesting note: The BC Lions Home Game last night, the Curtains were in use, so the upper decks were closed.
Today's the big day. With NYCFC's relocated match in East Hartford, this could be the first sub-10k crowd in a couple years, and possibly the last one for a long time. Let's see what the number is, but i'm not optimistic. They ended up closing the opposite sideline from the TV view, so they are limited to probably 10k seats open, and they didn't sell them all. So unless they had group sales in other sections, we should see less than 10k. It's sad, they had an opportunity. They could have just done a small Pirlo marketing campaign in Hartford and drawn 10k easy. They did not do much to sell to Hartford as far as I saw.
I thought they were doing that all season....no? I believe, however, they are using the entire lower bowl.
Remind me.....since the other user of Yankee stadium is here in Toronto....why could this match not have been played in NY?
I think it is because there was a Yankees game there yesterday or the day before. Whenever it was it was deemed there wasn't enough time to convert the field.
What would have been better, playing in Hartford or a non converted Yankees stadium No grass on the infield). Unless there is more they do than just sodding the infield.
Yankees last home game was Wednesday (off day Thursday, In Toronto Friday-Sunday) Would have given them 2 days to get stadium soccer ready and then 2 days to convert back to baseball. Perhaps that is not enough?
It takes 3 days to get it baseball ready. They tested having it ready in 2 early in the year, grounds crew said no go. LOL at 10k
I wonder historically how many matches have come in at just over 10,000 as compared with the number of matches that have come in at just under 10,000. Something tells me if it's close to 10,000 a way is always found to get it over.
What's the "LOL" for? We're adults. We know how attendance is counted. I'm shocked the number isn't significantly higher. It makes me wonder what NYCFC's season ticket base is. Attendance isn't turnstile count. We've known this for 30-40 years if you've been following most of professional sports in the United States.
Didn't season ticket holders get refunds for this one if they wanted? I would imagine those taking the refund weren't counted.
All season tickets were refunded automatically. I know about turnstile, i've been around here long enough. The LOL was because I had expected them to "distribute" just over 10k. I spoke briefly with Jon Patricoff, the head of NYCFC, and mentioned how embarrassing it would be the first team in a couple years to have a <10k crowd, he laughed and said "that won't happen."
What would be better is having their own place to play or at least finding another location closer than 100 miles to play. You act as if it was Hartford or bust. There were lots of other options with one being RBA.