Westchester is at 1,389 average right now, a bit behind last year, but we also have absolutely no clue about their club finances or how much ownership is willing to lose each year, so we have no idea if they'll make it or not.
They'll be losing 7 figures but I'm not sure their owner will care. Crowley said that Stockade had revenue of $100,000 in 2023 and expenses of $115,000 on $0 in salaries. That was when they were temporarily in Poughkeepsie. They've switched from NPSL to Wilt's League for Clubs this season, so I guess we'll find out if it makes a difference. Travel must have gone up a bit as the other 4 clubs in their division are on Long Island.
I did see that Madison is turning a profit in League One with around 4,000 average attendance the last two years (4,056 in 2024 and 4,019 in 2025). I'm not sure if that translates to 7 figure losses for 1,300ish.
Credit to him for his commitment to transparency. That said, he lamented the fact that to really grow his franchise, he'd have to sell some part of it, even though ( a ) that's how startups grow and ( b ) dude's net worth is $600M. (Obviously, that does not mean he can go access $600M tomorrow, but he doesn't need to do that, either.)
Forward Madison are also for investors to take the club to the next level. I misspoke above, the Stadium is owned by the city and operated by Big Top Sports and Entertainment, who own Forward Madison and a USL Super League team.
What these people seem to not get is that no matter if you have aspirations to go to "the next level," you are still in Madison, Wisconsin, MSA #86, 700k people in the metro. Market. Size. Matters. There are no Bournemouths or Brentfords in MLS and not many in USL-C (Charleston is bigger than Madison...though Monterey is smaller than both). It just doesn't work that way. That plucky little club that wins and is in an ABC After School Special is largely a myth. Hudson Valley has a large population, but are they really going to exploit that without serious investment that they likely will never get back?
Hudson Valley is a big place and the only population center between the NYC suburbs and Albany is around Poughkeepsie. I don't think a fully pro club could survive there.
Not sure about that. But my knowledge is Patterson is about 20 years older than my knowledge of Poughkeepsie. Poughkeepsie is nowhere near as bad as Newburgh but then Beacon used to be a crime-ridden dump and now it's Brooklyn Heights North.
Not sure if you remember going back or not...but there was a top-notch USL W-league team which played out of Newburgh. They recruited from all over the country! Yep, best donuts around can now be found in Beacon and the art museum there is also pretty good!!!
I don't remember the Hudson Valley Quickstrike Lady Blues. They were a feeder team to Sky Blue FC no?
not sure about them being a feeder, but I did attend their semi-final playoff loss to Pali from California and I would guess they had nearly 1,000 in attendance that day in Newburgh. Once they lost their grant to house their players at Mt. St. Marys, they folded up shop.
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