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What’s up with MLS attendance?
How about that attendance at Thursday night’s RSL-Crew game in Salt Lake City?
Officially, it was 11,806. From what I could see from the television camera angles of the far side of Rio Tinto Stadium and the two end zones, the actual number of butts in seats may have been half that.
Weather played a part. Snow was forecast, and the game started out partly cloudy and 48 degrees. It got increasingly dark, cold and wet as the game wore on, and the hardy souls who stuck around for the entire 4-1 RSL victory were drenched by a driving rain at the end.
But it was Real Salt Lake’s home opener. So far, the team sold 11,806 tickets at home and played in front of 28,548 in one road game. That was the number of fans Seattle drew to see the Sounders play RSL, and it was Seattle’s second home game.
I’m not just picking on Salt Lake City.
The Rapids have been in the same boat. Saturday’s opening victory drew 11,885. And it was a cold night, too. Denver had just been dumped on by a storm that left 12 inches of snow around much of the metro area. And the field still had plow marks on it.
Saturday’s game was so cold that Colin Clark, Mehdi Ballouchy and Omar Cummings of the Rapids, Kansas City strikers Abe Thompson and Claudio Lopez and the entire Wizards back line wore gloves. And everybody on the field wore long sleeves (except Rapids Jordan Harvey, Kosuke Kimura and Nick Labrocca and three of their crazy KC counterparts).
The temperature, the wind and the thought of all that snow chased people away. I doubt there were 11,885 folks at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park that night. Again, probably a little more than half that number. The word Colorado was as visible in the east stands on Saturday as Salt Lake was visible on the far side of Rio Tinto Stadium on Thursday.
So the unpredictable and often inhospitable Rocky Mountain spring weather contributed to the poor turnout at Rio Tinto Stadium and Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
But look at some of the crowds in MLS in March: 10,385 for Kansas City’s home opener, 10,335 for San Jose’s home opener, 9,177 for San Jose’s second home game, 6,524 for Dallas’ second home game.
Ouch.
Also, a recent Women’s Professional Soccer game drew 14,832, more than last year’s MLS Cup finalists, the Red Bulls and the Crew, drew in their home openers this season.
Does the MLS season start too soon? If the weather scares this many people off, maybe a later start and an earlier finish would suit teams in cooler climes. Of course that means shortening the season, and I doubt Major League Soccer’s owners would be keen about that.
Who knows. Weather may not even be the problem.
Each MLS team has a core of die-hard fans who will show up no matter what. About 500 folks turned up for the Rapids’ Burgundy & Blue exhibition against Metropolitan State College. Those people will be at the stadium no matter what. The 7,000 or so who were at Dick’s for the Kansas City game likely will attend most home fixtures. The Rapids also count on these folks for ticket sales in March, April, September and October.
But what can the league and individual teams do to sell tickets to the other folks?
The casual fan will turn out for David Beckham or Cuauhtemoc Blanco or Landon Donovan (or Cobi Jones, back in the day). But those casual fans want a Saturday night. And warmth. They don’t like conflict with school events. And they don’t like their kids staying up late on school nights. Those people aren’t showing up early in the season or late in the season.
What is the American soccer league to do? It can schedule 30 games, one a week, and look at its attendance like a snake that swallowed a pig: thick in the middle and thin on both ends.
Or it can shorten its season and have a higher average attendance. Financially, that doesn’t make sense. Those die-hard 7,000 or so are still buying tickets and gear and food and drinks.
The MLS goal, then, is to keep the long season and find a way to attract the casual fan early and late in the season.
How can they do it? Any suggestions? Let’s hear ‘em.
It’s easy to criticize the empty seats. I heard two members of the media ripping the Rapids on Saturday night for not knowing how to fill the stadium on opening night.
But it’s a difficult equation to solve, especially for those of us who believe going to the stadium to watch soccer is a good deal no matter what the month or what the weather.
How can MLS teams fill the seats? Let’s hear your suggestions. …
George Tanner is a former writer and editor for the Rocky Mountain News; the Greeley Tribune; The Daily Independent of Ridgecrest, Calif.; the Durango Herald; and the Boulder Daily Camera. He is a graduate of the University of Colorado and an associate professor at Metropolitan State College of Denver. E-mail him at ColoradoSoccerNow@gmail.com.
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I agree with just about all of this, but feel I should point out one thing…the 10K numbers in KC and San Jose are GOOD numbers, as that is all their stadiums hold. So they are in fact sell outs.
As for the Rapids, some marketing might help. The bilboards around town are nice to see, but they haven’t worked over the last few years, so what makes them think it will do any better this year?
Sometimes it seems as if they aren’t even trying, or don’t know what they are doing, its hard to tell.
I dont want to sound like I’m down on the Rapids, I am one of the 7000 you spoke of who show up to every game regardless of weather, opponents, or any thing else. I just get very frustrated at what appears to be a very inept front office, and an ownership that seems unwilling to spend any money on promoting the team.
I think the Rapids need to market to the soccer fans that exist in Colorado. I know plenty of people who love the game, follow the national team, watch the Premier League on the weekend but won’t go to Rapids games. Why? I don’t know, but the Rapids need to figure it out and address it. I think the first ten years of the league harmed the original clubs. They messed with the rules, had gimicks and music during run of play, etc. They turned soccer fans away in hopes of trying to get families to accept the newest American professional sport. In my opinion there is too much emphasis on families and not enough on people who love the game.
Bonji asks the million dollar question and it’s for MLS as a whole, not just the Rapids. There are plenty of soccer fans in America — but much fewer MLS fans. I don’t think it’s the rules, gimmicks, music or whatever — the players just aren’t as good/famous as their European/TV counterparts.
Also, this discussion is gonna spread to lots of teams — with the economy going the way it is teams in all the sports are going to feel a crunch on their attendence/season ticket numbers.
The weather and the economy cause their share of woes. Still, there is some fear that the casual fan won’t get out for an early season game with an unknown quantity team. If you want to be put tails in the seats, win games.
Much of this is the foolish decision by MLS to try to accomodate FIFA dates. This resulted in starting the season March 19, which is about two weeks earlier than the average start of previous years. That start date takes a serious gamble with the weather, and this year MLS lost that gamble badly.
Here is what Rio Tinto stadium looked like at 1pm the day before the game:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_r-0iEWfT3TM/SdQ_SKloxwI/AAAAAAAAACM /NAFJah7fmC4/s400/2632_1074877604946_1616379489_164816_5248477_n.jpg
OK, I ran that through TinyURL, since it didn’t render correctly:
http://tinyurl.com/cgrm8s
Honestly, we attended our first Rapids game because they went on the news and complained about how Colorado had one of the highest youth soccer participation rates in the nation, but they couldn’t get fans to show up at their games. We had a sense of guilt over it.
We are now in our 3rd season of full season ticket holders and are in love with them and the game.
I also believe that the marketing has much to do with it. They are not making their presence known. Additionally, we have come home from their victories and the local news stations will report every activity that occurred in the state that day, and completely skip over a Rapids victory.
Perhaps Kroenke needs to flex some muscle towards the local news affiliates.
To be fair, the attendance figures for Kansas City and San Jose, who are each playing in small, temporary facilities, were at or near full capacity. Attendance is definitely an issue so far early in the year in places not named Seattle or Toronto, but KC and SJ thus far are putting fannies in the few seats they have available.
rio tinto last thurs looked like dicks sporting goods park on a beautiful day
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Our goal at ColoradoSoccerNow.com is to cover the sport in this state like no one else, from colleges to the Colorado Rapids, from the W-League to the U.S. men's and women's national teams.
About George: George Tanner fell in love with the Tampa Bay Rowdies and the North American Soccer League while living in the Tampa, Fla., area in the mid-1970s. He got his first taste of newspapering while following the Rowdies every day in the Tampa Tribune, and from there grew the seeds of a journalism career in which he has worked at the Colorado Springs Sun; the Daily Camera in Boulder; the Durango Herald; The Daily Independent in Ridgecrest, Calif.; the Greeley Tribune; and the Rocky Mountain News.
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About Cole: Not since the days of Ace Ntsoelengoe, the Minnesota Kicks and the North American Soccer League has Cole McGinnis been so excited about soccer. Cole handles the business functions of ColoradoSoccerNow.com, and he's the man to speak with about front-office issues.
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About Jonathan: Jonathan Ingraham is a Colorado native, sports hound, outdoors enthusiast and Metropolitan State College student, working on a journalism degree. Outside of school, he works as a freelance photographer and is available for photographing places, people, events, games or artistic shoots for businesses or personal collections.
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About Tom: Tom Auclair remembers watching the New England Tea Men when he was younger and thinking what a terrible name that was for a sports team. He has worked for the Rocky Mountain News, Longmont Daily Times-Call and several newspapers in New Hampshire. He's currently working as an editor and photographer for a collection of Web sites. He can't believe how quick Omar Cummings is.
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