I am not really sure that it was that heavy of advertising. I hope that they are able to draw a better crowd over the corse of the season. They should be able to sell that place out a few times this year.
I've seen billboards on buses, practicaly an ad a day in the sports section of the Sun-Times, sponsors of sports headlines on WMVP, sponsoring of traffic and the like on WLUP...I've seen and heard as much advertising for this team this year as I have for the Fire, if not more.
Well I know the Power, under Peter Wilts guidance managed to averae about 6,000 a game in the 90-91 season at the old Horizon. They managed to have a few games with 10k plus. One was 14k and one 12k in among those and several in the 6-8k area. Its not out the realm of possibility but they are gonna have to work hard to get people to come out to the UIC Pavillion. There best bet in stadium choices would have been the allstate arena. The place is located better to attract the suburban fan base but who knows, maybe they will straighten out the glitches in their current setup in order to make it a success. They definately need new carpet. That is just ugly under that lighting. A nice dark green carpet would look better under those strobe lights!!!
Here's what previous Chicago indoor soccer teams averaged in attendance over the years (I'm missing data for two seasons): Season...Team................Lg.....G....Total....Avg. 1980-81..Chicago Sting......NASL....9...55,472...6,164 1980-81..Chicago Horizons...MISL.....NOT AVAILABLE.... 1981-82..Chicago Sting......NASL....9..119,813..13,313 1982-83..Chicago Sting......MISL...24..220,815...9,201 1983-84..Chicago Sting......NASL...16..189,228..11,827 1984-85..Chicago Sting......MISL...24..255,073..10,628 1984-85..Chicago Vultures...AISA...20....8,531.....427 1985-86..Chicago Sting......MISL...24..176,287...7,345 1985-86..Chicago Shoccers...AISA...21...20,667.....984 1986-87..Chicago Sting......MISL...26..152,861...5,879 1986-87..Chicago Shoccers...AISA...22...40,393...1,836 1987-88..Chicago Sting......MISL.....NOT AVAILABLE.... 1988-89..Chicago Power......AISA...24...97,652...4,069 1989-90..Chicago Power......AISA...20...72,043...3,602 1990-91..Chicago Power......NPSL...23...67,491...2,934 1991-92..Chicago Power......NPSL...22...99,347...4,516 1992-93..Chicago Power......NPSL...20...98,189...4,909 1993-94..Chicago Power......NPSL...20...90,300...4,515 1994-95..Chicago Power......NPSL...20...66,668...3,333 1995-96..Chicago Power......NPSL...19...54,101...2,847
additionally, this game might have been more of a dress rehersal for the staff. Similar to a resauraunt opening. Initially it isn't advertised as much until the kinks are worked out. There were definately were a lot of kinks.
1988-89..Chicago Power......AISA...24...97,652...4,069 1989-90..Chicago Power......AISA...20...72,043...3,602 1990-91..Chicago Power......NPSL...23...67,491...2,934 1991-92..Chicago Power......NPSL...22...99,347...4,516 1992-93..Chicago Power......NPSL...20...98,189...4,909 1993-94..Chicago Power......NPSL...20...90,300...4,515 1994-95..Chicago Power......NPSL...20...66,668...3,333 1995-96..Chicago Power......NPSL...19...54,101...2,847 __________________ LOL looks like I am suffering from a bit of dementia. LOL Oh well, I do remember the team having some good nights though. Oh well. Thanks for clearing it up Kenn.
I did see a Storm ad on the back of a CTA bus. That's the only advertising I've seen so far. As I asked before, does anyone know what the "break even" point is for the Storm?
I saw a TV spot during the last regular-season MLS game locally inserted on ESPN2. I heard a spot on WMVP last Friday night while driving back from downtown Chicago. Frank Klopas was also interviewed that night on ESPN Radio and was supposed to be on Chet Coppack's national show on Sporting News Radio. WGN Morning News had him on last Thursday morning. I've seen print ads and seen billboards. There's advertising. Advertising alone doesn't sell tickets. It helps let people know there's a team, but telling someone there's a game isn't the same thing as selling them a ticket to the game. You have to teach the sellers to sell and you have to teach the buyers to buy, too. It all takes time. And no, I have no idea what the "break even" point is - you hear that a lot on Bigsoccer, and it's simplistic. There are too many variables in a team's budget (which we don't know, either) to put it in terms of x number of tickets per game based on the information we have. If tickets were the only income source you had (they're not), you'd take your total budget (I have no idea what the budget is for an MISL team) and divide it by 20 home games. Then you'd figure your average ticket price (I don't know what that is, either. Is it $18? Don't know) and that would give you an average number of tickets you'd have to sell in each of those opportunities to make your budget. But any team usually receives some cash from sponsors (or trades for goods and services they'd normally have to pay for) and you'd hope you get a cut of the parking and concessions. Then there's merchandise and (for most soccer teams) camps. All that stuff is potential revenue. I don't know what the numbers are for the Storm. But like any team in any sport, they'd like to get more people to the games.
Fair enough. I was just hoping someone would ballpark it. For example, as a York City FC fan, I follow the discussions going on over there regarding attendance. Apparently, the Trust that runs York City FC has budgeted for an average attendance of 2,000 per game sitting in "average" seats this season as part of their business plan - with due allowance for various forms of sponsorship and the fact that there are varying ticket prices and a season ticket can be worth more than the same seat sold separately at each home game. I don't know if YCFC has some figure for what they expect the average fan to buy in terms of merchandise and concessions but I assume they have some kind of formula for budgeting purposes. I was wondering if the Storm had a similar yardstick in their business plan by which to judge success or "needs improvement". I guess not or at least that you don't know if they do, but thank you for your answer.
Oh, I'm sure they do. I just don't know what it is. I've known teams that don't set an average ticket per game goal, but instead set a total ticket revenue goal for the season. Like any business with sales goals to meet, they hope to sell $X of tickets total over the course of the season, which could work out to an average if you choose to go that way. But they don't obsess about getting 2,000 people in the building each and every night. They try to sell $x amount of tickets over the course of the fiscal year, however that breaks down.
Considering that the Storm is trying to develop a fan base do you think Kenn that they somewhat overpriced tickets? $20 -$25 for all tickets in the lower level and including first row in the balcony.I know they have some cheaper seats in the high balconey but should they have been more realistic?
I think finding the right mix of ticket prices is a challenge for any team in any sport that isn't in the Big 4. The market decides, eventually. I would like to go to a Rush game, but their tickets are just outrageous, especially if I'm going to take my kids. I thought Wolves tickets were overpriced as well when I went last season.
"1984-85..Chicago Vultures...AISA...20....8,531.....427" Kenn, it sounds like there's a story here? Certainly a pretty apt name for the team.
There probably is a great story to be told there, but I have no idea what it is. Their coaches were Ricardo Casteneda (who went 4-17), Jovan Marino (who went 1-3) and Angel Bernaz (the best of the bunch, he was 9-6). Their leading scorer was someone named Salvador Valencia, who tallied 44 goals and 26 assists for 70 points, fourth in the league.
It was an all latino team who played at the odeum. I actually went to one game. You are also missing one other pro indoor soccer team the Chicago Wind. They played one game at the Odeum and then folded. My wife still has their T-shirt.
No I'm not thinking of the american football team. It was some new start up league.It wasn't the AISA or leagues we know about. They played that one game at the Odeum, won handily but folded after one game. They played a very exiciting style. They had T-shirts and charged money so I'm calling them pro.
If I remember correctly they were started by Alex Mihalovich and he is a guy who runs a bunch of soccer camps in the area. He oddly enough like Victor Jakovlevich also was invloved in realestate and did quite well for himself. I think they played a game in the old AISA. Hmmmm!