Minor-league baseball is no longer about selling a connection to the Majors. It's about selling t-shirts.
True that though I will give credit to the organization. The Flying Squirrels have a very good logo and they have done amazing job of marketing themselves. They are constantly one of the highest selling teams in the minors and top of attendance.
That's what I meant(AA). They were top of attendance their first year but they lost the attendance title due to some canceled home games I believe. Every time I check the stats in our local newspaper they have 7,000 or more people(9,000 capacity). Weekends they sell out usually. I wish the Kickers could pull the same marketing. A new stadium would help.
Seriously. Every time I'm in Richmond (about once every other month), I always want to buy one of their hats or some sort of their merchandise. They've done a fantastic job.
I know I was joking, Rochester unearthed Indian artifacts when they built there stadium which delayed it. It would be just typical of something similar to happen to Pittsburgh
More soccer specific stadiums in the USL would be great. I can see why high school stadiums are necessary but they're not exactly ideal with gridiron lines, and possibly athletics tracks, doesn't really do much for the atmosphere. I really love the Lusitano...here's a kind of murky picture of the main stand there if anyone's interested.
New soccer park going up outside Charlotte NC. Plans show an eventual 5,000 seat stadium. Don't know if this affects Charlotte USL-Pro, but I hadn't seen it before. web site here
Is it finally happening? I know its been on and off for years now. I know the Eagles were interested in playing there when it was proposed a few years ago.
Richmond is saying a soccer specific stadium in 3-5 years right now. Something similar to pittsburgh or Carolina design wise. 4 sided and probably around 10,000 seats. Not much other detail right now though.
Inside the organization. It may come sooner than later now that Richmond council seem to want to work on the site. The area around it is opposed to any commercial or anything like that but they don't mind if a new stadium was put in. Plenty of room for one on the current site if they wanted to demolish city stadium(which is looking more and more like the plan). City stadium is 22,000 seats but Richmond could definitely roll with a 10,000-15,000 seat stadium(soccer specific) with like a 4 side design. River City Red Army supporters would finally have a real section to themselves (right now they just cluster into a corner). Very South American influenced supporter group with the chants, flares, bandanas, smokebombs,etc. Draws DC United folks from Washington because of the loan deal with the Kickers plus the atmosphere being very similar chant wise.
10-15K seems too big. They might pull 4K on a good night now. I don't see a shiny new stadium tripling that. And I doubt they could handle anywhere near that in parking (given what it is now). The supporters definitely do need their own stand, especially given the family-centric environment the Kickers have embraced. I could see a 3 sided design with an open endzone for a kids area. Seems like something they would do. But if they do build it bigger they might be able to attract bigger events, like maybe bringing the College Cup back. I don't foresee a WCQ ever returning to Richmond.
I think if this stadium is built it might be pushing for say NASL. I know if they said MLS (not gonna happen) Richmond city council would jump immediately. Any pro team gets first priority (ask the Redskins). Kickers are actually bringing about 6-7K now. Supporter section has been big on causing the attendance to jump. People saw them on commercials and stuff which caused people to come out to see what they were all about. I think the attendance would spike up again with a new stadium since there isn't anything new here besides VCU soccer stadium/Siegel Center. Richmond Coliseum, The Diamond,etc are old as dirt. My idea was if they go 3 side they do two sides, supporter section behind a goal(with a beer garden), and a make shift bar behind the other goal for people to watch. The supporter section is bit more hardcore now but there has yet to be a issue with that. Usually a few security guards hang around just as a precaution. Though last year a Orlando City player tried to jump into the section to fight them (He falsely accused them of crap on twitter and such. He charged their section and threatened their lives during the game. He went noticeably quiet when people figured out he lied). Kickers said they want the stadium host big events besides just their games so things like the college cup could be in their plans. Sadly I agree about the WCQ. Would be cool though.
Here is the mock-up of the 8,000 seat stadium that Sac is scheduled to move into in the next couple of months...