The K.C Wiz $5.00 / ticket playoff night got me to compile some numbers. LA Galaxy attendance numbers 2003 - Total 329,752 Average 21,983 3 sellout games 2004 - Total 357,612 Average 23,840 5 sellout games 2004 playoff numbers Western Conference Semifinals: Game 1 Los Angeles at Colorado COL 1, LA 0 att - 8,028 \ - 12,2k average D.C. United at MetroStars DC 2, MET 0 att - 11,161 \ - 16,2k average Kansas City at San Jose* SJ 2, KC 0 att - 8,659 \ - 11,4k average MetroStars at D.C. United DC 2, MET 0 att - 15,763 \ on average San Jose at Kansas City KC 3, SJ 0 att - 10,022 \ - 13,6k average Colorado at Los Angeles LA 2, COL 0 att - 20,026 \ - 23,8k average New England at Columbus NE 1, CLB 1 att - 15,224 \ - 16,3k average Los Angeles at Kansas City KC 2, LA 0 att - 11,931 \ - 13,6k average New England at D.C. United DC 3, NE 3 (4-3 on PKs) att - 21,201 \ 15,8k average playoff numbers show to be down on average of 20% across the board these playoffs. with MLS Cup tix typically higher priced w/ 2 long distant teams coming... is a sell-out expected? noting that K.C. fan pays $5.00 for western confrence playoff tix, will they pay $30.00 a seat tix? last years MLS Cup between San Jose and Chicago drew a mild sell-out as the crowd was around 60 percent local and 40 percent fans of either team. with lower than expected playoff attendance this year what does that culminate for next weeks MLS Cup?
I think we'll see an "official" sell-out with lots of empty seats. The novelty of seeing the MLS Cup final without the home team has died a quick death, and lots of locals who got final tickets as part of their season package will leave their seats empty. I have a feeling the D.C. turnout will be much stronger than the K.C. turnout. My guess is that the official number will be 27,000 but only about 22,000 will pass through the gates.
Would it help if the MLS cup was a home and home series instead of a soccer version of the superbowl? Maybe it would help if MLS cup final was played at one of the two competing teams home, preferably the team with the best record. Partly what made MLS cup 02 so appealing was that it was played in front of one of the competing teams home crowd, so the crowd was REALLY into it. Thats why almost 70K people showed up.
My guess is that when more teams have SSS, this will happen and should happen. If the Galaxy had made it to the MLS Cup Final, HDC would have solde out immediately. Holding hte final game on the west coast with two teams between 2000 and 3000 miles away doesn't make a lot of sense. I'm off to see the final, so let's hope for an exciting match.
Yeah I agree I think that should be one of the things MLS strives to do once the majority of the teams have their own stadiums. A couple of things that will be hard to do about that are: To get another time slot on ABC. You cant promote and put more resources into one game or the other. So as much as MLSCUP gets out of ABC for reasources they would have to do this for both games, it's hard to get a good times slot this time of year. Getting fans to come out and be as excited for game 1 of the series. I know this might not end up being a problem but i could see people being less excited to see essentially the first half of a game.
Not playing the game at a neutral venue makes sense. You could get alot more out of a championship game as far as local attention and attendance numbers if there is a host team playing. However going to a two game format doesnt really to me. It takes away alot of the excitement that is associated with a typical cup final.