only 8,630 for a playoff game...this is a national embarrassment.

Hmm. The Internet is a great thing:
Baseball's "World Series" began in 1903 - the American League began play in 1901. http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/history/postseason/mlb_ws_recaps.jsp?feature=1903
NFL started division & a championship game in 1933. http://www.nfl.com/history/standings/1933
NHL had divisions in 1927, 3rd season with American teams.
http://www.nhl.com/history/fstand20s.html
Stanley Cup has been around since 1892. NHL began format experimentation in 1918. http://www.nhl.com/cup/formats.html
NBA began in 1947, had both divisions & playoffs:
http://www.nba.com/history/standings/19461947.html
http://www.nba.com/history/playoffs/19461947.html
6 of 11 teams qualified.

This is your explanation for sold-out arenas & millions watching on TV? Paging Kenn Tomasch!

 

But you got to remember soccer dates back to ancient Rome. Or the Han dynasty, whichever Wikipedia article you're reading. I mean, one of them had pro/rel and everything, right?

 

I once had to translate "The Relegation of Carthage" from the original Latin! As Cato the Elder said, "Carthago releganda est"!

 

I didn't read about that in the Cliff Notes.

 

it will be a constant problem as long as the fan base and the marketing stays the same. You get soccer moms and dads and no really rabid fans. I have a desrved rep in my section of going a little overboard. I loved it yesterday when the stadium was so quiet that you could hear the ESC chanting a$$hole. I think it was for that whiny little bitch Olsen.

 

for about 50 years 4 out of the 6 NHL teams made the playoffs. There is another lesson here. The NHL, survived until 1967 with only 6 teams. Give MLS a chance.

 

8,630

You needed the Sports Edition!

 

Agreed. Even as a casual observer on this board I am surprised some folks thought the numbers would be much different. In particular, given the current MLS playoff format its tough for any team to bump much about the 10k mark in only 4 to 5 business days of selling.

I would also say that some individuals are becoming just too pessimistic about the Red Bull's future, not only in terms of the team but also its impact and following in the NY area.

 

I'm suprised that no one has mentioned that the minimum ticket price actually increased for this game from $20 during the regular season to $25. Not exactly an inducement for a large walk-up crowd.

This really is a no-win situation for any MLS team. If the game was at night, they risked going up against either the Yankees or Mets and would gave gotten $3k. If they went with the international schedule, and had the MLS Cup in May, you'd have a decent crowd. This is the worst time to be having soccer playoffs. You have the World Series, College Football, the NFL and hockey all conflicting with the games (not to mention the NBA, which starts next week).

If you go with the international schedule, you have the MLS Cup in May and you're not really going up against as many conflicts and you're actually playing the playoffs in warm weather.

 

I had to miss the game, and it KILLED ME! I am a rabid fan. Unfortunately, I had already made a commitment to do a benefit for a local cop with bone cancer, and I couldn't back out of that. Silly me......I assumed that IF the team made the playoffs, the game would be in the evening. Well, I watched it in the evening anyway, thanks to DVR. But it sure would have been better to be screaming in 132.

Gotta believe I'm not the only loyal fan who got stuck by the weird game time.

 

And you are playing most of the regular season in cold, very cold, and wet and windy weather.

 

The "Olsen sucks" chants in 133 were worth the price of admission. Not to get off topic, but I hate him.

 

That's the point though - anyone who has been paying the slightest bit of attention knew this was happening - it's that very fact that we can't expect mopre than 10k to show up that is unacceptable and a "national embarrasment" (hyperbole aside)

 

Post enhancements in bold

 

he makes a point though - sports leagues (especially in America) are not of the "instant success, just add water" variety. It took at least a generation for every major professional sport to get up off the ground.

Why dismiss this out of hand?

 

Newsflash! Agreed. But this has been going on for quite a while.

Given the time (and I do somewhat understand the logic of the perceived timing conflicts, which didn't actually pan out - but it was tough leaving straight from training in Westchester and making it in thirty minutes only to deal with an absurd line to pick up extra tix at will call), I was pleased with the crowd. [Side note: how many of the 8,630 tix were reserved at willcall? It shouldn't take that bloody long!] And yes, Once in a Lifetime has served as a childhood flashback to a time when I sat up in the tippy top to watch soccer on artificial turf (and didn't complain), but I am now confident the club and league aren't about to fold any time soon and I will take great delight when the packed crowds in Harrison cheer the champions, knowing me and mine were there.

Despite the obnoxious officiating and the frustrating result, I had a great time hanging out one last time this year with several of my dear friends at the Swamp. No playoff bandwagon? I really don't care. So long as Didi doesn't either, I didn't mind the elbow room.

The best days of this club still await us. Nostalgia for '96 is a most misplaced sentiment.

 

to paraphrase a quote about the Elder Bush : "It's the Front Office stupid."

 

I think the start time had a lot to do with it. I had 6 people set to go to the game - then we found out the start time was 2 p.m., which conflicted with our kids soccer games at 2 p.m. & 3:30 p.m. If what Garber says about the MLS market is true - 1/3 of fans are youth players/families, 1/3 Hispanic (questionable) and 1/3 die hards - then the start time killed a third of the market since Saturday, during the day, is when most of the rec leagues and a lot of the travel leagues play

What I can't figure is why can NJSEA turn the stadium around for 1 p.m. football games following a Saturday @7:30 RBNY game in Sept. & early October, but can't do it now.

 

the real embarassment was mike crispino's play by play on tv. "guevara CENTERS!"

 

Santino, the turnaround for the JustEndTheSeason crowd had nothing to do with the 2:00pm kickoff. They had to make this choice when the forecast for the local sports scene looked rather different.

At least the weather wasn't like last year's.

 

Right, if they played at night against Game 1 of the Tigers v Mets World Series, um, well, yes. No, the Mets didn't make it, but that wasn't determined until Thursday.

Even the NFL doesn't schedule against the World Series, note the lack of a Sunday Night game last night.

 

Although I would have preferred 4:00. this start time was good for me. It was chilly and windy, I think there would have been lots of frozen people if this had been at night.

 

Well, point taken on the NHL and NBA, it's clear I was mistaken.

However, for the NFL and baseball, I wouldn't categorize a single Championship game as a 'playoff.' For baseball, there was no proper playoff until what, 1969 or something, when the leagues split into divisions? And how many years was the NFL perfectly happy with a single Championship game before they added more teams into the postseason? Wasn't it after the merger? If there were one single Championship game in MLS for the two division winners, I believe that would make the regular season more intense in terms of level of play and urgency.

I just wish we could see the kind of speed of play that we see in the playoff games throughout the regular season, and I really believe that the lax playoff qualifying system has something to do with that. The cooler weather might also have a lot to do with that. I also would love to see opening-day type crowds at playoff games, something the other sports seem to have no problem achieving. I do not think poor attendance can all be blamed on late scheduling. Surely that has something to do with it, but I believe having 80% or, now, 66% of the teams in the tournament doesn't help. Once this league expands so that an 8 team playoff is equal to or less than 50% of the teams in the league, I think the whole competition will be much better off.

 

In baseball and football they realized that many teams couldn't draw fans, because they weren't playing for anything. DC clinched around the all star game. If you think attendance was bad, can you imagine it if RB wasn't playing for anything?

 

A perfect example is the NBA. Until Magic and Bird came on the scene in the early '80's the NBA was a second tier league. The playoffs and finals played on weeknights were shown on tape delay after the late news.