Why are the playoffs pulling in fewer fans than the playoff games? Why are there 30k for the last 2 regular season games, & only 15k for a playoff game??
Playoff games are always harder to sell because of short notice. The front office had 6 months to sell to groups to make the 30,000 crowd.Soccer does not get the publicity and hype that other sports do, so to get the word out that there is a game on a week or two notice is much harder.
1- Sunday at Noon. 2. It was cold. 3.Bears played same day. 4.It's not on the schedule 5. It didn't get press/hype.
I'm going with 'They marketed the hell out of the actual return to Soldier Field.' These games allow for less time to market them to the general public and up awareness.
Short answer: The game was not on the schedule. Long answer: Well, it's long, but basically what it boils down to is that the game was not on the schedule.
I think 30k sounds overly optimistic. I'm thinking 23k. But I'm just guessing. Anyone heard anything from the front office?
The night we had 30,000 there was great weather, evening weekend and many were curious to get their first look at the refurbished stadium. For the 15,000 playoff game we were up against the Bears, it was much colder, noon start time and a 2-0 lead on D.C. going into the game. If you combine all that plus little time for marketing, I think we did fairly well.
Look at it this way, at least the 15K at Soldier Field plus the Fire fans watching on ESPN2 came away much happier than the Bears fans.
NSF is now OSF The new Soldier Field mystique is over. Back to reality. DMB will put two in the back of the net tonight. Zach will post a clean sheet. Onward
MLS playoff attendances always suck. If "it wasn't on the schedule" was an issue, then put the damn games on the schedule back in March as "tentative." Then rearrange the dates if need be. The Football League teams of England and Wales don't seem to have problems rearranging their fixtures... I'm guessing 12,819 for tonight's semi-final. I hope I'm way off.
It's not on the Schedule? That's the reason soccer doesn't draw in the postg season? That's crazy! Every other pro team (and college) goes nuts for the playoffs. Not the MLS. The MLB playoffs weren't on the schedule for the Cubbies, but they did pretty well in attendance! And they increased the ticket prices! Even the Marlins did well in the post season! Yet the MLS attendance takes a dive! I don't know, it justg doesn't make sense!
14,610...sure, a little disappointing, but the crowd sounded and looked great. Congrats to all the fans who made it out to Soldier in the cold tonight!
Re: It's not on the Schedule? Nope, it makes no sense at all. Everyone has an excuse, though, it seems. I'd hate to see the playoffs scrapped, but if only the hardcore fans care, does it really matter from a business standpoint? It's a shame that after eight seasons, the "casual" fan doesn't care about the playoffs. They seem to go to the meaningless regular season match on a summer night in June for the novelty aspect, for something somewhat cheap to do with their family, etc. etc. I know we have to "build our fan base," but how long is it really going to take for people to catch on to playoffs or the Open Cup or the Champions Cup and so on and so on? Are people dumb, preoccupied with other things, honestly couldn't care about soccer? It's frustrating as hell when I'm asked about my weekend plans, and when I say I'm planning on "watching the soccer playoffs" I'm met with look of confusion and a question of "there's a soccer league in the U.S.?" despite my scarves and pictures on my office wall.
I also can't fully understand why pro soccer popularity hasn't expanded faster. I started potential fans along with me to games. I took 4 to matches this year and believe I went 3 for 4 in creating new MLS fans. These folks have families and will probably buy 30 MLS tickets next year. Mainstream media coverage for soccer is still so minimal. Think about how much media coverage the Cubs had for the playoffs. Literally like 5,000 times what the Fire have. The SunTimes literally came wrapped in an 8 page Cubs section every day.
The Playoffs don't do as well as regular games because there's no time to advertise and the media doesn't 'pump' the games. The Fire pulled in nearly 15K and that's good for a Friday without much advance warning.
MLS soccer and especially the fire rely so much on group ticket sales and short notice to get the word out doesn't help. Only in the last couple days did we get any media coverage.