One thing that hasn't been mentioned (and why many of us complain) is the 20-30 mile one way trip to the stadium that some of us drive, and the $5 parking fee "on top of" the $15 to get in. Count the time it takes to get there (Atlanta freeways are a joke), and all the other intangibles (crap stadium, lousy PA announcer, crappy team --wait, that's all tangible; sorry), and it costs way more than that to go to a game. DMS is on the other side of town from a lot of the soccer fans. Come down here for a month, nay, a week, and you'll know the significance of this. Would you pay $20+ (about $60 CDN --just kidding) to see a team that won four games all year, who could have done better if the ownership had not screwed around with the team so much? Read the other posts on here and the other board to see what I'm talking about.
I can laugh about you currency quote, what with the US dollar on a downward spiral. But I will compare what it's like to go to a Whitecaps game. In Vancouver it costs $22, $18, and $12 to buy tickets. There is no discount for kids but seniors can get a ticket for $8 for the cheapest seats. The fact that it's Canadian dollars doesn't mean a thing, as we all get paid in Canadian dollars. It costs $7 to park in the parking lot. Personally I don't drive. So going to the game I pay $3 rush hour fare for transit. I either catch a bus, or walk 20 blocks to the seabus (ferry). As it is I usually walk. Then after the ferry from the north shore of Vancouver takes me to Vancouver I catch the train that takes me to Burnaby, and get off at the station closest to the stadium. Then there's another 10 minute walk through the forest (the stadiums in a park) to get to the stadium. The walk back after the games is not that fun especially when it's dark, the Burnaby parks board is too cheap to install lights in the path through the park that takes you to the station, so it's pitch black. It can be from an hour to 90 minutes to get to the games. I have season tickets to the cheapest seats Vancouver has, which enables me to watch the game from the bleachers or the southside. I choose the southside where me and fellow southsiders stand at field level for the whole game. Being that it's a season ticket the ticket price is works out to $10.54 per game, public transit costs me an extra $5, then there's the extra I spend the crap beer they sell for $5 a cup. For those that do drive they are paying $7 to park+ $15.50 per game for season tickets in the good seats (not really good but the best the stadium has to offer). I can understand that it must be bad in the fact that the team has won only 4 games all year, but perhaps if more than 1200 fans per game were showing up the team would play with more heart. Would i show up if Vancouver won only 4 games per year? Sure, because it's fun to go to games in Vancouver and hang out with the guys. The only other alternative is to not go, and that would not be fun.
Damn! I just wish I had a team to go watch right now. --- Atlanta: Might have the worst front office bar Indiana and Cincinnatti in league history. They have no idea what they are doing, well they have some idea - its better to market to adults than kids. Its also better to have a sales force that targets the soccer clubs in order to get the kids there as well. They should pay me to consult for them, because God knows I don't want to live in Atlanta.
Re: Atlanta. I'd have to agree with Panic re: our front office. I live in the southern tip of the metro area, Fayetteville/Peachtree City (a 40-45 minute trip to DMS stadium BTW) we have very good club soccer down here, two national championships in the last five years, three active MLS players and good many more in various levels of USL. A big strong club and almost none of them are aware of the Silverbacks. Our players used to get schedules and discount tickets and you'd see bumper stickers on the cars and now.... nothing...most of them don't even know the team exists. I have heard that the team was trying to market to adults, that the youth players didn't really support them and I'll try and understand that. But how much would it cost to give schedules to all the youth players in the metro area? Cheap little paper schedules or something so that they know the team is there and where they play. I refuse to believe that they couldn't affect our attendance in some way. As far as what David P says about the drive, I don't like it, mine is longer than his but I'll chalk that up to Atlanta's size. But I will say that for the first time in the 10 years of my watching Atlanta's franchise (Magic, Ruckus, Silverbacks) I missed more that half of the games. I don't want to make that drive and pay that kind of money if I feel the powers that be aren't doing a good job. We've had 27 coaches in the last few years, 875 different players and 0 consistency. I have not soured completely, but I'm close. The team is in danger of becoming what the Falcons were before their new owner, and even some the most loyal supporters will question if it's worth it to make that drive and pay what they ask. I'd pay $20 a ticket if the team showed signs of a plan and had a decent place (doesn't even have to be the new stadium they plan to build) to play other than DMS. I hear people jump Atlanta all the time about how we support our sports teams, but Atlanta’s a different kind of place. People here have a thousand choices and will choose everyone but yours unless they have a good perception about what you plan to do. As soon as the Falcons got rid of the ownership (that obviously wasn’t concerned about winning) and got someone that was willing to change things around we sell out every seat. With all the crap some people try to give us about the Braves we’re still in the top 3 in attendance every year. And look at the attendance the Beat had. We were in the top three every year without Mia Hamm or MLS double headers to pad attendance. We’ve got soccer fans here, or at least people who will pay to see soccer on a regular basis. The Backs just have to find a way to get their share!
Here is a public service announcement to all USL clubs Advertise, Advertise, Advertise 1) Advertise towards the adult audience (do the unusual) 2) To attract the youth soccer players under 12: Group sales geared towards youth clubs and non-soccer groups.
That's over simplistic. The USL is littered with failed clubs that overspent on advertising and player budgets. Until teams get boatloads of money, advertising, while necessary, should be tightly focused and not exceed a realistic budget.
No argument on that, but what is a realistic budget? Player budgets are easier to control - if you budget for attendance of 3,000 a game at $10.00 per ticket - you have $30,000 in revenues. Then back out the other expenses and you can figure out what your player budget should be. Advertising....the more you advertise, and if done well, should get you a return of 4:1 on your dollar. If done poorly or haphazardly - well hire someone else.
I agree with your comments about advertising. And the funny thing is that when things get tough/lean it's usually the first thing that teams cut. I would think that you would want to increas the awareness not decrease it to increase butts in seats. I worked for a team in the ASL version 3 back in '88. A few games into the season and our attendance wasn't where they thought it should be and one of the first things that they cust was the advertising. So even less people could find out that we were there.
Regarding somebody mentioning Detroit and the Mid-Michigan Bucks (to be known as the Michigan Bucks in 2004) moving to the A-League. Probably will not happen. Happened to be in a Detroit suburb area bar watching one of last year's World Cup matches. One of the owners of the Bucks was part of a group watching the game. After the game, the conversation turned to the Bucks, MLS and pro soccer in Detroit. Somebody mentioned the Bucks moving to the A-League and the ownersaid something to the effect that the A-League would never fly or succeed in Detroit. That was a year ago and maybe he has changed his mind since then, but he was pretty adamant about it. My guess is that the Bucks organization does not have a ton of money at their disposal. I think they see themselves as a catalyst to attract an investor(s) and ultimately, an MLS franchise. They have held a couple of public meetings in the Detroit area with MLS and MLS club officials to kinda get the ball or process rolling. But as much as I'd love to have an A-League club here, I don't think it's going to happen unless there is another investor lurking. But, if I'm not mistaken, the Bucks owned the rights to the territory or something like that.
Same thing happened in New Orleans. We spent $1,250 a week on tv commercials. Before the commercials ran we were averaging about 600 fans.. Attendance went up every week 1,200 > additional $5,400 in gate 1,600 > Additional $8,000 in gate 1,900 > Additional $10, 400 in gate 2,200 > Additional $12,400 in gate So the owner quit spending money. Makes a lot of sense doesn't it.