You heard it here first. Here's how MLS will average 17K this year. Team Average Attendance Chicago 13,500 Colorado 17,000 Columbus 20,000 D.C. United 20,000 Dallas 10,000 Kansas City 15,000 Los Angeles 22,000 MetroStars 20,000 New England 20,000 San Jose 13,000 League Average 17,050
Re: Re: The BIG prediction: MLS Attendance to top 17,000 in '03 lol.... you beat me to it.... i hope it is 17K, i really do..........
A bit ambitious. Right now the cap on Dallas attendance is 10,000, 9,000 would be great. 1,000 more in San Jose would be HUGE. That makes 12,000. KC at 14,000 would be supreme. Chicago can do 13,000 with those last few games at Soldier Field. DC at 17,500 would be nice. Revs staying at 17,000 is good. Crew at 17,500 is do-able. Metros at 18,000 - I guess so. LA 19,000 will be tough - but maybe. Colorado drops back to 17,000 despite black and blue uniforms. 15,400. Slight drop in 2003, dues to constraints in Chicago and Dallas. Plus only 2 July 4th games and a drop in Colorado. Could get an increase if San Jose surprises (highly doubtful) and if KC can get a doubleheader or two.
Won't be tough at all, AEG is already thinking of expanding the stadium to 27,000 because the demand is so high. We have one of the best walk up crowds in the league and we'll be 1st or 2nd in season ticket sales, and the 5 and 10 game plans are selling very well. If we don't expand, the capacity will be 23,5000. The opener will sell out, July 4th will sell out, and the last home game last year against San Jose had over 33,000 and they are the last home game of the year this year, that will be a sell out. The only thing I can see really dragging down our attendance is 3 Wednesday games, but hey we got over 15,000 on Wednesday last year in the playoffs.
I would also expect Chicago to be higher. They squeezed effect of Naperville was paying off at the end of last season. The reduced capacity of the first few games should only pressure folks into filling the place up the rest of the season. If they do play there last three games at Soldier Field there could be a very big bump. Final games around the league have been doing very well, plus the first game they play at Soldier will likely be the first sports event at Soldier Field - which means there could be a relatively massive crowd of folks wanting to check out the stadium, regardless of what is going on (we've seen this effect before). 15k in KC is not unthinkable this season, even without any doubleheaders. Heck, they've never played one (though a WNT one was scheduled, for the end of 2001). The opener is looking at 24k or more (a team record), and the uptick in season tickets, combined with at least 14 of the 15 home games being on the weekend, should continue the upward attendance swing. Despite perceptions here, the Wizards did lead the league in shots last season, and are not the 2000-2001 bunkerball team of the past. The addition of Josh Wolff will hopefully increase the attractive play seen in KC. I thought Dallas was stuck at just north of 9k capacity. That makes it tough to average 10k. Hopefully some more seats can be added during the season. I'm guessing LA will be over 20k. If they can roll a few sellouts early, then they should be able to keep the momentum going. If folks get used to "seats being available", then it'll be little different than the Rose Bowl (attendance-wise) except that there won't be 55k on July 4th.
My question is this: Will soccer be counted as one of the major sports in America if league wide attendence reaches 20,000 in a few years?
The first event at NSF will be a Bears game on September 28th. As to soccer being a major sport, there is no attendance threshold for that. Depending on who is doing the enumerating, we're already a major sport. Frankly, media respect is a much larger factor than anything else, because some people use media mentions as their only source of information on what is important and what isn't. (For instance, a spree killer is "important" while thousands of people dying in car crashes or from lung cancer, or of Malaria are not. The relatively small number of AIDS deaths in the US are important, while the huge figures in Africa and Asia are not.)
I was under the impression that LA was going to have its July 4th game at the Rose Bowl. I don't remember where I picked up the idea. Any LA season ticket holders have the answer? If July 4th is at a large venue, LA could have a very respectable average.
that's never been the case it's been the case of bs posters to suggest it or say it's the case... but it's not the case who knows, maybe they do it in future years if the deal is good enough... but not this year
I have been told that the bleachers will be up on Lalas Hill by the begining of July. They aren't just thinking about - it is already planned.
Soccer on the whole already should be considered one of the major spectator sports in the US in terms of the size of its national audience. Whether or not MLS will be considered one of the "big 5 leagues" is a much trickier question.
The most regular season games the fire will play in soldier field is two and more likely only one due to Bears schedule, which hasn't come out yet.The first 3 games at naperville will be at a capacity of only 7,000-8,000 hard to make that up with a 15,000 capacity.
I've seen a couple articles in the past year that mentioned the Galaxy will play at the Rose Bowl for games that have an unusual high demand; they used the 4th as an example in at least one of those articles. I can't recall where I read it.
A couple of questions: Is it true that Naperville's capacity is only 8,000, now? Did some temporary bleachers get taken down? Also in Dallas, is capacity only 9,000? Even w/ the end-line bleachers going in? (I Had also heard about July 4 matches still being held at the Rose Bowl, but perhaps that's for future years.) If the first two items are true, I might have to back off the 17K prediction. If this were a WC qualifiying year, I'd hold fast because of some big attendances associated w/ doubleheaders. I do think the league can improve upon last year's mark, but 17K may be another year off.
Front office letters to season ticket holders tell us that July 4 WILL be at Victoria Street this year. The Rose Bowl rumor should be put to bed.
Yeah, that was cleared up a while ago - even though there were reports last fall from the team saying that they were open to holding some future big demand games at the Rose Bowl. I could definitely see future July 4th games, as well as things like Gold Cup double(triple)headers at the Rose Bowl. I would hope, however, that any WCQs in LA will be held in Carson. We may actually be on the verge of playing a WCQ in LA with a predominantly home crowd! Who woulda thunk it?
The other thing to look at is revenue generated. Very roughly speaking, the ticket prices at Victoria Street are about twice what they were at the Rose Bowl. Consequently, a crowd of 27,000 at Victoria Street will generate a gross close to what a crowd of 54,000 would generate at the Rose Bowl. I have no idea how that nets out, because I do not know what the operating costs and rent are for the two facilities, but even assuming that that the cost of operating Victoria is higher than the Rose Bowl, there is an offset for parking and concessions which are now the team's or league's (depending on how you look at it.) As to whether the USMNT can get a home field advantage in Carson - maybe against Jamaica. Even if season ticket holders of LAG get advance purchase rights to USMNT games, a lot of LAG regular fans have their national team loyalties elsewhere than the U.S.
Rent for the Galaxy at the Rose Bowl was near $100,000 per match. The Galaxy stands to lose money should they play there again. As far as I know, the Galaxy will never play in the Rose Bowl again. On another subject, why is it so bad that some teams are playing in small stadiums with capacities of only 10,000 or so? MLS needs to create ticket demand and playing in smaller venues is what will accomplish this. The Galaxy is experiencing this right now. I never considered buying season tickets before because I knew I could walk up and get them. That will not be the case this year at Victoria St. Answer me this: Would you rather sit in the Cotton Bowl, or the Rose Bowl, or whatever cavern with 15,000 other people and 60,000 empty seats, or a small intimate filled stadium? No brainer...
Only for the first three games as they conflict with colleges track season.The rest of the games there will be at 15,000 capacity. It was announced today that the fire will play all 3 october games in soldier field although one will have to be switched from a saturday to a wednesday.
Which means 3x8,000 capacity + 9x15,000 capacity + 3x60k+ capacity If the three 8k games sellout, and the team average 90% occupancy at the 15k games, and 20k for the three Soldier Field games, that gives them 24k+121.5k+60k=205.5k or 13,700/game YMMV
No. CART...err...Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford averages more than 20,000, but isn't considered a major sport. It's going to be a long time before soccer's considered a major sport. People aren't just going to wake up one day, see an attendance table in the newspaper, and decide soccer's big time. Frankly, I don't really care what people think. I just want this league to be around in 50 years. Screw perception, gimme reality.
I hate to be a craven optimist, but the game is growing in this country despite a savage media resistence. One day we will see a 20,000 MLS average attendence and that day will be much sooner than a lot of American pundits expect. MLS right now looks very promising, especially since the Burn's new stadium approval.
i think three teams will have to average 20,000 to make the league's average 17,000 because some of the stadium limitations. maybe the galaxy, crew, and metrostars?