attendance

neophyte · 08-15-2005, 10:25 AM

Yeah, the streamer factor can't be underestimated-- it took me ten minutes to extricate myself and I got a little claustrophobic.

Hopefully, when people get back from vacations, back in school, youth soccer starts up again, then people will be thinking "soccer" again.

One of the assistants in my office went for the first time Sat. and loved it (free tix through a Carsmart connection). Although her husband said he couldn't understand what was going on in the game. We'll have to give him a little soccer fan training... Rule #1: The Ref is wrong (a fairly reliable rule for most of our games). Beyond that, it's fairly self-explanatory.

I'm a little worried about the "other" football crowding us out, though. I personally would love to see RSL and the Runnin Utes (are we still allowed to say that?) in the same week, although I wouldn't have a voice for several days afterward.

Aerick · 08-15-2005, 10:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by neophyte

Hopefully, when people get back from vacations, back in school, youth soccer starts up again, then people will be thinking "soccer" again.

Soccer for my kids has just started up, and now I have soccer on the brain like no other time before now! I hope you're right.

We've gotta evangelize people!!! Wear your RSL gear around town - to work even (if you can). People will see it and the more they see it, the better. Some of those people may even talk to you about it, and when they do, you can sell them on it. As a supporters group, we should consider ourselves the unpaid marketing arm of RSL, and should take this job seriously!

the cup · 08-15-2005, 10:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aerick

We've gotta evangelize people!!! Wear your RSL gear around town - to work even (if you can). People will see it and the more they see it, the better. Some of those people may even talk to you about it, and when they do, you can sell them on it. As a supporters group, we should consider ourselves the unpaid marketing arm of RSL, and should take this job seriously!

Good point!

the cup · 08-15-2005, 10:46 AM

Here are the attendance figures so far this year.

April 16th 25,287 (vs Rapids)
April 30th 16,254 (vs San Jose)

May 14th 18,621 (vs LA Galaxy)
May 18th 12,581 (vs CD Chivas)
May 28th 17,861 (vs Chicago)

June 4th 40,589 (National Team & vs FC Dallas)
June 8th 8,044 (International Friendly vs Universidad Catolica de Chile)
June 22nd 15,112 (vs LA Galaxy)

July 4th 20,121 (vs Metro)
July 23rd 20,218 (vs FC Dallas)

Aug 6th 14,163 (vs CD Chivas)
Aug 13th 12,305 (vs KC Wizards)

For a grand total of 221,156!

Aerick · 08-15-2005, 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the cup

Here are the attendance figures so far this year.

April 16th 25,287 vs Rapids
April 30th 16,254 vs San Jose

May 14th 18,621 vs LA Galaxy
May 18th 12,581 vs CD Chivas
May 28th 17,861 vs Chicago

June 4th 40,589 National Team & vs FC Dallas
June 8th 8,044 International Friendly vs Universidad Catolica de Chile
June 22nd 15,112 vs LA Galaxy

July 4th 20,121 vs Metro
July 23rd 20,218 vs FC Dallas

Aug 6th 14,163 vs CD Chivas
Aug 13th 12,305 vs KC Wizards

For a grand total of 221,156!

That's probably around $4,000,000 in ticket sales so far!!! Although, I'm not sure who got the money for the WCQ. I wonder what the financial outlook of RSL is at this point in the season? Does anyone know what the "rent" is for RES? Wouldn't it be cool if we turned a profit this year?

bordelais7 · 08-15-2005, 11:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aerick

Wouldn't it be cool if we turned a profit this year?

Kind of. On the other hand, it would be fuel for those that argue that staying in RES wouldn't be all that bad.

the cup · 08-15-2005, 11:09 AM

Looking at the numbers can be fun but what I would really be interested in is knowing which games actually brought in the most money. (Too bad these are figures we would never be able to get our hands on.)

How does the game with the US National Team work? What portion of the ticket sales does RSL get? Does RSL have to pay the USSF anything?

How do the international friendly matches work? Do we loose money on those by paying those teams to come here? Or do we make money by including those in the season ticket packages?

Plus, those attendance figures can be misleading. How many free tickets are given out to each game? Or does RSL bring more fans in by giving out some free tickets but sell more by having family members pay for tickets to accompany those that somehow got a free one?

Finally, I think if you were to look at the league as a whole, August games probably are always low attended games. You can knock yourself out here www.kenn.com/sports/ if you want.

What strikes me is how low attendance dipped right after the home opener and for the first CD Chivas game. We went from 25k to 16k from our home opener to our second game and then we also went from 18k for LA Galaxy to 12k for CD Chivas.

the cup · 08-15-2005, 11:37 AM

So this is how I am predicting the rest of the year.

(I'm going to count the other two up-comming international friendlies because I think if you are going to pad your numbers with the USMNT double-header then you also have to un-pad them with the friendlies.)

August 20th vs San Jose 13k
August 24th vs Harbor View 5k

September 3rd vs New England 12k
September ? vs (Morelia ?) 16k
September 24th vs Crew 14k

October 5th vs DC United 16k
October 12th vs Rapids 18k

For a regular season total of 315,156 and a game average of about 16,500. Not too bad.

I think the numbers for the New England game and Crew games could be higher if we really get into playoff contention. Also the DC United game could get bigger numbers if the local media make a big deal about Freddy Adu comming to town. And finally, the last game of the season could get over 20k if the playoff picture comes down to that final match.

taytay33 · 08-15-2005, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aerick

Soccer for my kids has just started up, and now I have soccer on the brain like no other time before now! I hope you're right.

We've gotta evangelize people!!! Wear your RSL gear around town - to work even (if you can). People will see it and the more they see it, the better. Some of those people may even talk to you about it, and when they do, you can sell them on it. As a supporters group, we should consider ourselves the unpaid marketing arm of RSL, and should take this job seriously!

Wearing your gear really does help. I was at Seven-Eleven one day wearing my RSL hat and some guy was like, oh, how do I get tickets? It was pretty cool.

clarette · 08-15-2005, 03:35 PM

We have a lot of Wednesday night games coming up -- two friendlies and two league games -- which will likely have an effect on attendance.

I know I'm going to have to invent some creative stories to get out of class two Wednesdays in a row for DC and the Crapids. I tried everything to get out of taking this class (to no avail) because I was so worried about it.