The USL 2018 home openers are out so it looks like no more of the NASL teams are making the switch: http://www.uslsoccer.com/news_article/show/875213?referrer_id=2333971 2018 USL Home Openers Friday, March 16 Rio Grande Valley FC vs. Saint Louis FC Seattle Sounders FC 2 vs. Portland Timbers 2 Saturday, March 17 Charleston Battery vs. FC Cincinnati Charlotte Independence vs. Ottawa Fury FC Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC vs. LA Galaxy II Fresno FC vs. Las Vegas Lights FC Louisville City FC vs. Nashville SC New York Red Bulls II vs. Toronto FC II North Carolina FC vs. Tampa Bay Rowdies OKC Energy FC vs. Tulsa Roughnecks FC Orange County SC vs. Phoenix Rising FC Reno 1868 FC vs. Swope Park Rangers Sacramento Republic FC vs. San Antonio FC Sunday, March 18 Bethlehem Steel FC vs. Richmond Kickers Saturday, March 24 ATL UTD 2 vs. New York Red Bulls II Las Vegas Lights FC vs. Reno 1868 FC Nashville SC vs. Pittsburgh Riverhounds Phoenix Rising FC vs. OKC Energy FC Richmond Kickers vs. Indy Eleven San Antonio FC vs. Saint Louis FC Swope Park Rangers vs. Seattle Sounders FC 2 Tampa Bay Rowdies vs. Bethlehem Steel FC Tulsa Roughnecks FC vs. Real Monarchs SLC Saturday, March 31 Indy Eleven vs. FC Cincinnati LA Galaxy II vs. San Antonio FC Pittsburgh Riverhounds vs. Penn FC Real Monarchs SLC vs. Portland Timbers 2 Saint Louis FC vs. Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC Toronto FC II vs. Ottawa Fury FC Saturday, April 7 FC Cincinnati vs. Louisville City FC Wednesday, April 18 Portland Timbers 2 vs. Rio Grande Valley FC Saturday, April 21 Penn FC vs. Charleston Battery Ottawa Fury FC vs. North Carolina FC
The current USL breakdown with some questions still to be answered: MLS owned teams (9) Atlanta United 2 (Atlanta United) Bethlehem Steel (Philadelphia Union) New York Red Bulls II (New York Red Bulls) Toronto FC II (Toronto FC) LA Galaxy II (LA Galaxy) Portland Timbers 2 (Portland Timbers) Real Monarchs SLC (Real Salt Lake) Seattle Sounders 2 (Seattle Sounders) Swope Park Rangers (Sporting Kansas City) MLS managed teams (2) Reno 1868 (San Jose Earthquakes) Rio Grande Valley Toros (Houston Dynamo) Affiliated teams (9) Charlotte Independence (Colorado Rapids) Pittsburgh Riverhounds (Columbus Crew) Ottawa Fury (Montreal Impact) Richmond Kickers (DC United) OKC Energy (FC Dallas) Orange County SC (Los Angeles FC) San Antonio FC (New York City FC) Tulsa Roughnecks (Chicago Fire) Fresno FC (Vancouver Whitecaps) Non-affiliated teams (13) Charleston Battery FC Cincinnati Penn FC Indy Eleven Louisville City Nashville SC North Carolina FC Saint Louis FC Tampa Bay Rowdies Colorado Springs Switchbacks Las Vegas Lights Phoenix Rising Sacramento Republic ---------------------------------- MLS teams with no known affiliation at this point: New England Revolution Orlando City Minnesota United
Didn't see this mentioned yet, but the full schedule was released on Friday. 561 games over 31 weeks.
Team Average Week 1 1 Sacramento Republic FC 11,569 2 Louisville City FC 7,933 3 Fresno FC 7,750 4 OKC Energy FC 6,757 5 Seattle Sounders FC 2 6,049 6 Rio Grande Valley FC 5,910 7 North Carolina FC 4,197 8 Bethlehem Steel FC 3,284 9 Reno 1868 FC 3,224 10 Orange County SC 3,127 11 Col Springs Switchbacks FC 3,023 12 Charlotte Independence 1,438 13 New York Red Bulls II 717 14 Charleston Battery 0 0 0 0* TOTALS 4,998 64,978 13 WEEKLY AVERAGE 4,998 *Could not find data for Charleston Great first week across USL. Hopeful that the 5,000 barrier can be broken this year. We will know better in a couple months once everyone has a few matches how it is shaping up.
There is going to be an interesting data point this week. RGVFC is hosting Reno on Wednesday, March 28, at 10:00 am local time. There are no public ticket sales for this game but it is apparently open to school groups. The game will be streaming on YouTube. It will be interesting to see what kind of turnout they get and what attendance they announce.
I was wondering what was going on there. I honestly thought it was a typo on the schedule, but 10pm doesn't make sense either.
No, doesn't make any sense. RGV control their own stadium and there is no reason why their Dynamo affiliation should affect what time they are playing. Either a typo or they are having some sort of school promotion?
Never mind. The RGVFC v. Reno game on Wednesday has been postponed. https://www.uslsoccer.com/news_article/show/901948?referrer_id=2333971
Sounds like good marketing and trying to build a long term fanbase. Also sounds like a bad idea unless it's timed to coincide with vacation days from school.
My understanding is that the crowd will mostly be school groups. Spring break around here was last week. I'd guess it was the same in the Valley so they are not aiming to have this during vacation days. The team wants this to be convenient for the schools to bring groups. Back when we had an AHL team here in Houston they would have 1 or 2 of these mid-day mid-week games each year. They would give the schools a cheap group price (or free with sponsors) and bring a whole bunch of school groups in for the games. The schools used it as a motivational prize for the kids. I would take a long lunch from work to use my season ticket. Our STH rep would usually move us down by the scorer's bench so we weren't in the middle of the school kids. On the other hand, I think I have still have a ringing in my ears the exact pitch of middle school girls screeching.
https://www.uslsoccer.com/news_article/show/902551?referrer_id=2333971 This is the game originally scheduled for 6:30 pm on Saturday, March 31.
Game wasn't played. I was planning to attend and will attend Saturday vs Sac Republic. I know from the games I've attended in the past that they announce crowds of 5,000 or 6,000 and knowing it sits 10,000, most of the times the actual crowd looked like 1500. I don't believe any announced attendance figures from RGV Toros. I might be moving to the Albuquerque area, and I hope they get a USL team in the future, which I've seen there's a good chance of that.
Very curious to see Indy Eleven home opener as expecting a big crowd and know 1200 traveling fans have bought tickets to go. Love the closer (under 3 hour) road trips to foster rivalries and support.
Was at the game. Announced attendance of 17,535. Quoted as a sell-out. In terms of actual butts-in-seats the lower lower at Lucas Oil Stadium, where the team is playing for the first time this year, looked ~85%-90% full.
Really hope that things like Indy-Cincy take hold even if neither city moves up to MLS. Right now I'm watching RGV v Sacramento and thinking I may need to plan a trip to the southern tip of Texas to watch a match.
Agreed. Can't speak for Cinci, but at this point most of the other XI fans I know don't see the MLS prospects as particularly good, however in spite of that the team is actually fairly popular. I see a lot of Indy XI gear around town, one of the local over the air broadcast stations actually broadcast home games, the local paper covers the team. Honestly, based on today, if the team can keep up 15,000+ attendances, and assuming the financials work, I'd be fine playing in Lucas Oil Stadium and compeating in the USL long term.