Comments on: Taking Attendance, 6/4/2012

By: admin

admin — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 16:17:20 +0000

And those are altruistic motives that help grow the game.

I’m just interested in watching them do it.

By: El Conductor

El Conductor — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 15:52:56 +0000

From what I understand, the smaller 4th-tier clubs exist a) to give locals (and players home from college for the summer) a chance to keep up their game, b) to help fill-out the leagues, and c) generally promote the game in their area. There also seems to be a trend of successful city/ area youth programs creating NPSL or PDL squads as extensions of their Select programs. Presumably, those organizations can offload a lot of the costs of running a semi-pro team onto the larger program’s budget. It also helps having potentially hundreds of built-in fans/ volunteers ready to help in the behind-the-scenes details that always need doing as well. I think the ability to “piggy-back” a semi-pro team onto an existing rec organization is another financial advantage the higher tiers don’t have.

By: admin

admin — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 15:00:03 +0000

Which is odd, because they had 349 at one game.

Also, I just realized that the PDL record they broke was likely their own…Portland’s U23s drew 8,029 on May 24 against Kitsap, a week before they drew 8,174 against Vancouver. Both were morning games, tied in with kids, apparently.

By: John

John — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 03:52:31 +0000

According to something I read on a different website (caveat emptor and all that), the Timbers U-23′s have 1,500 season tickets sold just for them.

By: admin

admin — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 18:25:20 +0000

Thank you, sir!

By: kebzach

kebzach — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 18:15:01 +0000

In case anyone’s interested, the first Chicago Red Stars home game had 400-500 fans at it by my eyeball count. The second home game had 700-900 fans.

By: admin

admin — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 17:46:37 +0000

Yes, the cost of player wages and (especially) workman’s comp can be killers.

But the PDL and NPSL teams that are drawing 50-100 people a game are just basically having a wank. (Some exist purely to give players a place to play, which is noble enough, I guess.)

I’m sure at the higher levels of the PDL, you can probably do pretty well financially, and if you are Des Moines or somebody like that, why would you be interested in necessarily playing at a higher level and losing more money?

But at the lower levels….I’m not sure why some of these people do this. Everybody needs a hobby, I guess.

By: El Conductor

El Conductor — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 17:41:09 +0000

On a serious note:
I think the PDL and NPSL actually have built-in economic advantages over the NASL and the USL Pro – free amateur talent. Fielding highly skilled players without a crippling payroll expense makes it possible (dare I say, “realistic?”) for 4th-tier clubs to break even with a healthy combination of sponsorship dollars and gate receipts. But once teams have to start paying their players, yes, they’re gonna lose money.

By: El Conductor

El Conductor — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 16:48:49 +0000

“I know Chattanooga draws well, but that’s only because it’s usually Chattanooga fans who keep bringing it up”

Squeaky Wheel, baby! Squeaky Wheel.

By: admin

admin — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 02:15:39 +0000

350 is not okay.

But if they’re the exception, fine. Not everybody is as bad as the Phoenix Monsoon, but please show me the last NPSL team that moved up to a higher level.