Can't say I'm surprised. There's a large chunk of Gen Z who couldn't care less about real sports and who've whole heartedly embraced eSports. I had no idea before COVID, but got exposed to it early on in the pandemic and frankly I believe it. There's two and a half whole generations now for whom a large part of their peer interaction comes through some form of video game play, be it in person cooperative or online. That they'd then carry that personal interest over to a pro interest isn't terribly shocking. Not when you consider youth sports participation has been in steady decline. The kids had to do something. Honestly I'd expect that number to grow and rival even the NFL at some point as the in person sports are going to continue to take hits in the west.
I spent quite a while looking for stats for another purpose, and it ain’t easy to find. I can’t vouch for the accuracy - particularly wrt the e-sports!
Surely you are thinking of average attendance... MLS has higher average attendance than NHL and NBA, of course those sports are both played in indoor arenas with around 18k capacity, and they have just over double the number of regular season home games, and much higher average ticket prices than MLS, and maybe a few other caveats that I'm forgetting at the moment, but it is still a fact that MLS has overtaken them in higher average attendance. MLS television viewership, on the other hand, is not even close to those other leagues.
Yeah, I clearly got that wrong. I’ve already been scolded, but another helping is not misplaced. That said, MLS needs to figure out how to get more money out it’s TV contracts. Not that I have any brilliant ideas in that regard. It annoys me that even though the league is successful, our financial condition remains vulnerable. Go Quakesfans!! - Mark
You live near Kingston, NY? I spent 4 years in Saugerties when I was a kid, late 60's early 70s. Still remember my Mom and Dad arguing about my mom and the neighbor lady wanting wanting to go check out Woodstock! My wife and I went there a few years ago and was blown away how much the area looked exactly the same. Even the Jolly Cow ice cream place (Route 9W?) was still hopping all these years later.
As a matter of fact, the first time I had ever played soccer was there! Many of the residents in my neighborhood were Italian-American we played lots of baseball and soccer...
I live south of Kingston and I've been here about 2 years. The city is a disaster. The main mall is down to two flagship stores, Target and Dicks, the tech startup center, formerly IBM, stands empty, the road system was designed by two people independently, apparently both drunk (5 way stops!!!) and raw sewage flows directly into the river after a rain storm. The good news is that despite the poverty and urban decay its got a pretty low crime rate.
Maybe everyone is too depressed to bother committing crimes. I travelled a little bit in upstate NY once briefly, looking at colleges with my daughter. I was a little shocked at how distressed / depressed some of those communities seemed to be. They had a certain feel about them that felt foreign to me, as a bay are native. Just wanted to get out quickly. Ithaca was kind of nice though.
TV contracts are based on viewership, if they want more money from them they need to get more people watching. The only way to do that is to increase the quality of the product. To do that they need to get better players. To get better players they need to spend more money.
Ha! Yeah, we went through Kingston and it was pretty depressing. My dad worked for IBM back then as did many other residents. We were surprised, however, how well kept my old neighborhood in Saugerties was, though. It is town of about 2,000 near the Hudson River. We actually went to the 4th of July parade "downtown". It was a trip after living in the Bay area all these years. Small town Americana. Everyone in the parade new all the folks watching. Later that day I was showing my wife my old fishing spot on the river when a young couple paddled by on kayaks and asked us if we wanted a beer. We hung out and talked for awhile. I enjoyed my visit, but, I'm probably looking at the area through nostalgic lenses! Sorry for the digression, but, damn, this has got to be the most depressing Quakes pre-season that I can remember. Even worse than last year!!
Two minutes of the light show @WestEndStadium. @Enquirer #FCCincy pic.twitter.com/NY06MTj6M6— Kareem Elgazzar (@ElgazzarBLVD) March 19, 2021 Love ourselves some #VERDE. pic.twitter.com/Wtdzzuv3qr— Q2 Stadium (@Q2Stadium) March 18, 2021
Wow i don’t understand how Cincinnati rates a stadium display like that. Wouldn’t that lighting cost at least $250k? Even without COVID would they sell out that place every week?
How do we NOT rate a lighting display like that? In the tech capital of the solar system? How do we not at least have a cool exterior to our stadium, instead of allowing it to look like an ErectorSet stadium? We suck!! Go Quakesfans!! - Mark
Santa Clara County should move to the orange tier this week, according to SFGATE, which allows for 33% capacity at Earthquakes Stadium. 6000 spots will probably allow any returning STH who wants to attend to get tickets to home matches.