soccer in the dirty south

Dirty?

Okay, you've mentioned them.

 

Charleston averages around 3,500 attendance with a SSS. Not MLS material.

Atlanta strikes me as a really bad idea.

 

If you put an SSS in a good location (North of the city) I think you would be pleasantly surprised at the crowds Atlanta would get. The only reason the Silverbacks don't draw is because their stadium is 45 minutes to an hour away from where the soccer hotbeds are, and it is in a sketchy part of town.

The fact that some of the best youth teams and high school programs are based in the Metro Atlanta area should tell you what kind of support they would get.

And from what I hear, the Beat gets some of the better attendance in WUSA.

 

There was an article on the Silverbacks a few weeks back that was linked to from BigSoccer. The article interviewed the Silverbacks owner who had some ambitious plans underway for the team. One was building a soccer complex with a stadium in an area referred to as "Spaghetti Junction". Is this north of Atlanta? If so we will get to see whether you are right or not. The article said the complex would be ready for the 2004 Silverbacks season. The owner had already purchased the land.

 

I don't think Charleston would want to move to MLS, in fact many of the players here probably make more than they would in the MLS. I know the owners don't like the single entity idea and wouldn't want to throw away what they have spent the last ten years building. I think the A-league is prefect for Charleston. Charleston average around 3,500 and I don't think we would see much of an increase in fan base by moving to the MLS.

Believe it or not, their is alot of sports competition in Charleston. Recently the Battery attendence (3700) out drew both the local baseball team, the Riverdogs (3300) and the Arena Football team, the Swamp Fox (3600) on a Saturday night game. Take in to acount the golfing, boating, fishing, beaches and other things to do on a Saturday in the Charleston area, I think we do very well.

mikey

 

MN plays at least that far from its core base of soccer hotbed suburbs and they draw much, much better than Atlanta. At least to my knowledge they do. Often in excess of 4,000. Sometimes in excess of 5,000. And for one time events like scrimages against Chivas or a game with the Earthquakes they'll draw more than 8,000 paid and have the bleaches away from the grandstand half full - meaning there's probably over 10,000 in attendance. And no, I'm not proposing MN get a team. I'm merely using them as an example to show that location is not necessarily and excuse for attendances. MN is a solid A-League draw and they play in the absolute sticks. North and east of Minneapolis - with all the soccer hotbed suburbs generally being West and South of Minneapolis.

 

It's northeast of downtown. It's on the eastern edge of the "Soccer Crescent," that extends from Fayette, Cobb, and Douglas counties over to Gwinnett and DeKalb. It would probably be close enough to get the folks from the North, and some from the Westside. It's way better than where they're playing now.

The 'Backs' main problem this year is that they raised the ticket price to $15, and segregated the seating, putting the season ticket holders in the middle, but it still costs $15 to sit on the ends. Also, they've focused on the 20-something male crowd, and have more or less abandoned the family-types, and the "dreaded soccer moms," who have bought the bulk of the tickets over the last few years. They did away with the kiddie park, and brought in a Howard Stern-wannabe PA announcer (who's a rock station DJ in his other life), and have almost made a place "not" to take your kids. The attendance has tanked, except for the Open Cup game with the Burn. I've only been to one game this year, for most of the above reasons.

I think the stadium is a good idea, but the jury's still out on the training center, IMO. It seems like a good idea, but...

 

$15 is not an outrageous price. MN charges $12 for general admission and some games VIP seating costs $20. And anyone who markets to just one segment is an idiot.

Sorry, but I'm gonna say it again. Atlanta just isn't a sports town. They love themselves some college football and some Nascar. And everything else? Piss poor support at best. And don't bother attacking MN. I'm not from here and I really could care less. I'm merely calling a spade, a spade.

 

Damn, i pay 10 bucks a ticket per game.

 

Battery tickets are $6, $8, $10, and $12. Parking is $3 bucks though. Still, I think is great price to see professional football in a Soccer Specific Stadium. $15 bucks is a bit step for the family crowd your looking at 60 buck plus concesions for a family of four.

mikey

 

I remember when I was there for USA Cup and the Wizards came to play the Thunder there. It was and is a gorgeous A-League stadium - perfect size, great pitch, nice surrounding facilities and all. It's just nowhere near anything, which was the reason they were able to build all those (50+?) fields for the complex

 

Atlanta has teams in all four major professional leagues (i.e. - NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL). Somebody certainly must be supporting something. I doubt Atlanta would be near the top of a MLS expansion list, but I am curious to see how the Silverbacks do with their new owner.

Playing in the "soccer suburbs" strikes me as a nice counterprogramming idea with all the other teams playing in the city. Especially given the suburban sprawl around Atlanta.

 

The Braves draw at least 3 million every year, and the Falcons have sold over 40,000 season tickets for this season to date. It's not our fault that the majority of Atlantans are now Yank transplants that can't turn loose of their former hometown affiliations. A bad NFL/NBA town isn't necessarily a bad MLS town.

I won't dare knock MN. The Twins are a perfect example of Butt Selig's idiotic running (and ruining) of baseball. Contract a team that had a serious run at the playoffs last year, and now are in first place (and on a very low budget at that)? S-T-U-P-I-D. Can you say "stupid," boys and girls?

But you're right, I believe the 'Backs has shot themselves in the head, not the foot, with this one. Contrary to what the "serious football supporters" (yeah right; where were you BEFORE WC '94, when all we had was the USISL?) think, the 'Backs may have done themselves in.

 

It is when you have to drive 35 miles one way to listen to a Howard Stern wannabe, and sit from the 35 to the endzone, because they blocked off the entire center section for all 50 season ticket holders.

 

Yes, but you don't have to drive on I-285 to a bad part of town to get there...You are talking about driving out to the sticks (i.e. Not alot of traffic) I am talking about driving into Atlanta...and not a great part of the Metro Area either!!

 

I know it has been mentioned before, but what about Birmingham? What is going on there?

 

Yes, the tix are a rip-off at 15 dollars, but what's even worse is that the stadium and the atmosphere is terrible. It's a miserable high school football stadium with concrete blocks for seating. Only four years ago, the tix were 8 dollars. To me, this was about the right price to put on the Backs experience. 15 dollars, however, is a foolish decision that management made over the past off-season, along with targeting the male 20-something crowd with Southside Steve (yeaah cuum awn) and abandoning the family.

 

I've determined that Garber is to make Houston last

Houston was one of the original MLS franchises back in Spet. of '95...then FIFA mandated that no top level league can have matches on Astroturf. Thus Houston's club was moved to Tampa Bay. MLS has always had a hard on for Houston, its just we don't have a big money investor now
Robertson Stadium is a beautiful soccer venue, JB at ESPN even said so as it looks good on TV.
Our new Houston Texans have posted on their web site that their new indoor grass Reliant Stadium--"meets MLS standards for play"
So that's a good sign. But I've never held my breath on MLS and my Hurricanes filled that outdoor niche.

 

I haven't heard a thing. They would be good for an A-League team, if they could play at Samford or UAB, and get good advertising. I don't think they'd be a big enough market for MLS.

 

I know this has nothing to do with soccer, but what was USFL and XFL attendance like at Legion? Is Birmingham a good sports town?

 

It's a pretty decent minor-league town. They really put out for soccer in the Olympics, and should be a regular on the NT docket (one of the few places where the US team is actually the "home" team). USFL and CFL attendance was good (at least for USFL), but I don't have a clue about the XFL. It's a college football mecca, but baseball and hockey (until the team left) do/did okay as well.

An A-League team would do well, if it was done right, but I don't think the market's big enough for MLS. Atlanta fans, for the most part, wouldn't go, especially if B'ham got picked over Atlanta for expansion. I think sour grapes is one of many reasons people don't turn out for the Silverbacks ("when we get MLS, then I'll show up"). That mentality only serves to hurt us worse.

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one on this board who feels this way. I'm going to give them one more chance, and see how things have changed from the first game. I hope I'm pleasantly surprised. i have fond memories of the Magic/Ruckus/Silverbacks, and I really like the fact that they're truly "contendaz" now. I'm hoping the ownership wll take a long look over this year, keep the good parts, and toss the bad.

 

MY stadium have concrete blocks for seating... and i have a lot of good times there....... you USIANS are a bit picky about stadiums...

i prefer to have a stadium with concrete blocks for seating than any stadium at all

 

I lived in Birmingham so I belive I can speak with some (ok little) authority.

Would MLS work in Birmingham? Difficult to say. Birmingham and Alabama in general is football, football and more football. It's all about Alabama and Auburn. High school football is also huge. So you have the typical "soccer is not a real sport" from most of the people. However, as popular as football is, no pro team has ever succesed in Birmingham. We've had the Americans, Vulcans, Stallions, Fire, Baracuddas, and Bolts since the 1970's. Some have done well, others have not. Most of them went under when their leagues went under.

Heres the deal with Birmingham, we have a inferority complex with Atlanta. Their was a time not to long ago that Birmingham and Atlanta where about the same size and compeating for the place as the South's most importaint city. Then Birmingham was hit with the civil rights riots and at about the same time the steel mills went under. Since then Atlanta has grown and Birmingham has not.

I said that to say this, Birmingham is sick of being a minor league city. As seen above, every crack-pot football league in the past 30 years has come to Birmingham and has fallen flat. Is it because its a bad sports town? It it because we dont like football? Is it because of transplanted yankees cheering form their hometown teams? No, No, and No. It's becouse we want a set at the big table and can't get it. A NFL team would sell out every game and would be bigger than Alabama and Auburn. A NBA/NHL/MLB team would be very succesful. Another minor league team will not. An A-League team would go under after one season in Birmingham. But an MLS team?

Birmingham is desperate for Major League Anything. Soccer is a growing sport in Alabama. Rich suburbs full of soccer moms (Hoover, Homewood, Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills, Shelby County, St. Clair County, northern Jefferson County.) Tell the people that the Birmingham 'place nickname here' are a Major league team, the best in the world, on ESPN/ABC, playing teams from New York, Los Angles, Washington, Chicago, and Dallas, build a SSS in the right place, promote the team in the right way, then you could have a Columbus type town. The state could embrace the teams as our first legit major league team.

It could work and be a great success, but it would be a gamble.