That's nice and all, but we are talking about a place where some people will try to tell you that crossing the Hudson River is simply an intolerable situation. And you want them to go all the way to Philadelphia? Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeit, you might as well ask them to go to the moon.
Yes it is. The 17K includes significant padding (more padding than other teams). The team has spent a ton of money and is seeing no returns. Do you think Red Bulls are making an operating profit, let alone recovering any of the costs of the stadium? If we were to compare to Europe, this team essentially is like Man City in terms of wasting money. The difference is that they've spent it on a stadium (plus Henry/Marquez). This is supposed to be a premier flagship team, drawing 11K to any game is not what such a team does. They have built it, and the people have not come (or at least not enough).
Aren't all those STH's still showing up? Isn't the bigger issue that NJ just does not have enough soccer fans willing to watch MLS?
Aren't rivalries something that come about organically? I know that having two teams in the same city is almost a guarantee - but just let it happen - don't force it. I don't like this gerrymandering. We are trying to create something real by artificial means. And besides, rivalries in the US landscape are different, due to the size of the country, than rivalries in Europe. Take for instance the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins rivalry: nothing to do with geography, everything to do with history. Don't get me wrong, cross-town rivalries would be fun - I grew up in a city with five teams from the top tier playing in the same stadium (imagine that). And it was fun. But that happened as a result of promotion/relegation and was real. I am not a proponent of promotion/relegation or the highway - there is actual promotion/relegation in our league -- but it is financial. And that's fine, I don't think MLS would ever have taken off without that. But since this is the case, the league should just prefer the team with the solid financials to join -- not try to influence it for some hoped-for rivalry. This method does not preclude two teams forming in the same city.
I always been hearing it's the the RB's FO is fault that the stadium is half full game day, why the FO hasn't done anything about it as yet after all these years. I am not buying it. There's no excuse for real soccer fans not to show up at the arena in droves. It's pretty sad to see it's happening.
You are aware that padding isn't new to the NY franchise, right? The only change is that the actual attendance is now higher than it was before.
I really dont get the hand wringing here. I just looked at last years attendance figures and of the original franchises they were second after the galaxy in attendance. So they drew 11k for a midweek game in May with the knicks and rangers playing the same time in the playoffs, big deal.
Because certain people don't like the Red Bull brand and because of that they will always think the Red Bulls are a failure unless every single game is sold out and every single person shows up.
At the other end of the spectrum, you have people who'll excuse Red Bull from any sort of criticism on the basis that they built a nice stadium and spent a few bucks on players people have heard of, and who'll castigate anyone who makes the point that Red Bull often gets things wrong.
it didn't look like a sellout!! LiveStrong had a more Memerable opening game!!and our Welcome Montreal fans for selling out you stadium!!
I was going to mention that... Great atmosphere, but what was with all the no-shows to opening day? Bad sign for Houston?
It was definitely a sell out, did you watch the entire game? There was about 10 minutes in the second half where there were a ton of empty seats but people filled back in. The stadium was brimming with people. Also since there are quite a few luxury boxes many fans were in those instead of in their seats which are outside of the luxury box. The heat has that effect.
At Even at about the 50th minute you could see quite a lot of empty seats dispersed throuout the stadium.
You say 'even'.... at the 44th minute all those seats were full. What you saw was halftime effect. They came back after checking out the team shop and such.
Same as every stadium in the league, except for CenturyLink (which has enough facilities to avoid a prolonged halftime crush). Also worth mentioning that new stadiums often have trouble with keeping the concessions moving at first. Or in the case of Red Bull Arena, forever.
There were some late arrivals and some early departures (I would imagine due to the heat; United were pretty much tapped out by the hour mark because of it), but it looked packed to me. There might have been scattered empty seats, but those could have been anything; a guy with a ticket might have had a family emergency or gotten sick or any number of different things. You're bound to have a few of those at any sporting event anywhere in the world. The Dynamo have nothing to worry about at all. It was an entertaining game (I thought; Houston definitely created some excitement trying to set Ching up for a goal) with a very enthusiastic crowd. I see no reason why they could't replicate that atmosphere at a prime-time game.