But you're assuming none of those added fans would have come to another game. How many peop-le decide that the 4th of July game is going to be the game they go to in a year because of the fireworks, but if there were none still wouldn't have come to a game? Clearly we don't know, but assuming its none of them, which is the assumption being made by not counting "gimmick" games, is probably very wrong.
Disagree 100% A gimmick to me is when the vast majority of the people in the stadium are there to see something other than the MLS game. That doesn't make the gimmick bad of course. MLS was forced to do this years ago as they needed to introduce people to the games but they have been dramatically reduced in recent years.
By that logic, double headers aren't gimmicks either... Realistically there isn't a difference. Just instead of a second game, you've got fireworks.
Of course none of us know so this is all just opinion. If you consider the fireworks game legit, that is fine, no skin off of anyone's nose. However there is one item that makes it awful hard for me to swallow the fact that the people showing up in Denver on the 4th were MLS fans who just decided that was the one game they wanted to go to and that is the knowledge that the majority of the crowd took there seats during the second half.
You may have a little bit of a point in terms of the overall attendance during a year, but not on the daily basis. Its not that gimmick games aren't counted, its that in this context of the highest attended games they aren't regular games. Your assumption about the assumption seems to be wrong here. At least it is for me and probably for a few others. I actually love the idea of a 4th of July games when lots of people get out to see an MLS game (even if its not the main reason they're all there). Anyone who comes to the stadium is a potential fan for the future and highly attended games are generally more exciting and good for the league.
Agreed. You either consider both gimmicks or neither. We just need to be consistent. And this is the same phenomenon I mentioned in a post above. The vast majority of the people don't even get to their seats for the MLS game until the second half because they are not really attending for the MLS game.
this post introduces an important point. The word "gimmick" for some people automatically has a negative connotation and then they feel like they need to defend it. But in these cases, it was not negative, it had a specific purpose. We will never know but I like to think that some of those gimmick games introduced people to the league and they stayed as fans.
Nice crowd tonight at the Whitecaps game. It took a while to fill in, but I was surprised there were not a lot more no-shows. Canucks opener was across the street vs the Penguins.
not to mention they seemed very lively from the highlights, pretty cool to see that from a team that is in dead last.
I filled in some event details I know of for those matches, the ones blank are 7/4 fireworks, as you noted.
25,186 - NY v LA 20,113 - VAN v RSL 9,111 - NE v SJ 36,304 - SEA v PHI Great week for everything but the <10k.
Do you expect anything different at this point when you have apathetic ownership, players blaming players, players blaming supporters and a club that has barely managed to look competitive for most of the season?
Wow! Other than the players blaming supporters.....I think you have a pretty good outline for a book....."TFC The First Five Years"
So.... Where does The Fort go? I haven't heard anything on the Support The Fort front for months. Has it all been washed away? If you guys still show up and YSA has been squashed, my guess is that the team and security will see it as a successful operation. Trust me. As a member of the media I have PTSD when it comes to stadium security in the Boston area. The incident with the black professor being arrested at his own front door happened shortly after my most recent run in with stadium police in Boston, and I found myself nodding my head knowingly, and with my blood pressure skyrocketing as I followed the story. But, where do you go from here? At what point does Kraft run off those that want to be soccer "supporters"? He can't be blind to what is happening around the league, but he's also not got unlimited finances - I don't think Patriot Place is helping. Is he just squatting on the Boston market to keep out possible competition? I always felt that he used the MLS team as leverage to bring in a steady stream of USSF and CONCACAF international soccer events. As the number of major soccer venues increases around the country and the ability get events into Gillette decreases, I've wondered if his interest in keeping the Revs will wane? Those of us around since 1996 remember the crazy, random, 20/30k crowds that would show up at Foxboro Stadium. The Revs had the potential to be what the Sounders are. I was there, you were there. We both know that the market has the potential. But right now, it's nothing short of distressing. Most of the local media coverage has disappeared, most of the fans are staying away. It just seems to be a mess.
To make things complete, we need to start getting TFC players blaming the Leafs and the Leafs blaming TFC. EDIT: Hey, any chance we can get you to take Paul Maurice back?
So basically, you're currently getting a sneak preview of TFC in 10 years if things don't improve. And no, I don't think that having a stadium at the CNE mitigates things much.