It should be obvious: New England, Chicago, Colorado, etc, would start out the season playing most of their games on the road. To balance that out, they'd be able to play a higher percentage of games at home during the key stretch of July and August.
Good post... I suppose it is all about what kind of league MLS wants to become. If they want to become a league that appeals to families and youth teams, they are doing a pretty good job right now. They should stay the course. Although, if they want to become a league that attracts more of the 'impassioned' fan, they are gonna have to make some changes. Atleast I think so. Last weeks DC United game showed MLS could appeal to more soccer fans. They just have to make these experiences more of the rule, rather than the exception. At this point though, MLS is still trying to figure out what it wants to be and which master it wants to serve.
I agree with you, but just out of curiosity, do you think its possible to "serve both masters"? There are plenty of seats in the stands, except in LA. Will crowds like the one in DC make soccer moms and families feel less comfortable and turn them away from games? We already know a stadium full of soccer moms and their kids can discourage a minority of 'impassioned fans' from returning. Is there a balance that can be struck, and if so how would MLS achieve this balance?
That is a really good question. These two groups are so different that the actions of either, bother the other. Can they somehow coexist though? Perhaps on some level they can, but who knows. IMHO, to have a chance, there would have to be a more equal representation from both parties. It can't be 80-20. Generally, an 'impassioned' fan doesn't want to cheer on his team sitting amongst distracted youngsters more interested in cotton candy than the match. Likewise, a soccer mom and her son would feel equally out of place in a group of drunk, foul mouthed and over zealous supporters. I have heard plenty of complaints from both sides. The 'impassioned' fan is much harder to convince, but far more valuable. I would hope the league would spend some more time focused here. Serving both demographics will not be easy. Perhaps, if these rabid Chivas fan materialize next season, we will get a closer to answering this question.
Why can't teams sell playoff tickets well in advance, and offer a guaranteed refund if requested by X days after the actual game date/time is announced if the date/time is not convenient for the person who purchased the ticket. The buyer would also get a refund in the few cases where the team does not make the playoffs.
I thought that DC United did a pretty good job marketing the playoff games with their big "Blackout" promotion, encouraging all fans to wear black. They even gave out free Blackout t-shirts (with no commercial endorsements on them!) They had prominant ads in the Washington Post Sports page and they had a "guerilla" marketing campaign that had people making banners to put up around the city and suburbs to advertise the match. You really have to market the hell out of the playoffs because you don't have all of your normal guaranteed season ticket holders and you only have a one week time frame to make people aware of the game. In most cities, the majority of people probably didn't know that they had a playoff match coming up. But in DC, if you read the Sports page at all, you definitely saw the ads Better yet (and someone may have to correct me on this) I think our per-game playoff attendance was a good bit betterthis year than it was back in the old glory days.
I think so, you're missing the fact that there is a difference between fans and hardcore fans. I wouldn't miss an FC Dallas/Burn playoff game if the Rangers were in the World Series (haha) and I had a free front row ticket; but I wouldn't say the same for anyone else other than my fellow hardcores. The problem with MLS is that its almost like we gotta talk people into going. We get ok to good attendance during the regular season, people get a set schedule and they know when they can and can't go. But they aren't really going to find playoff fixtures/times/dates unless they look. We aren't going to have exceptional attendance until people want to go to these games and they get marketed better. People don't give a sh!t.