22 Responses to “Taking Attendance, 7/26/2010”

1. Kurt Says:
   July 26th, 2010 at 10:06 am

   13,585 in Columbus for their game against Houston on Saturday. From: http://www.houstondynamo.com/news/2010/07/crew-pad-lead-3-0-win-over-dynamo

2. admin Says:
   July 26th, 2010 at 10:09 am

   Thank you. You’re the second person to tell me that. That would make the Crew (sorry, The Crew)’s average 13,984 and MLS’ average 16,671, a slight drop.

3. ERic Says:
   July 26th, 2010 at 11:17 am

   Of course. Now that we’ve talked you into using the USSF website for the D2 numbers, Baltimore apparently decides to report their attendance to the NASL. According to the NASL website, they had 4802 at Saturday night’s game. Which would be an entirely different measure of which way their heading. Assuming that number is accurate. Seeing if I can find any corroboration.

4. admin Says:
   July 26th, 2010 at 11:20 am

   When the Freedom announced 4,809 at the same venue on the same night? If it was as simple as “the same number for the Freedom match, everybody was here just milling around,” that would be fine. But it’s not the same number.

   If they could get 4,802 for their games at the SoccerPlex, they shouldn’t move back to Calvert Hall. Of course, they can’t and they will move and then they’ll fold.

5. admin Says:
   July 26th, 2010 at 11:23 am

   And, of course, NOW the Philadelphia Independence announces 2,415 for their game of Saturday. Which brings them to 2,942 for the season, or less than the dearly departed St. Louis Athletica.

6. Chuck Nolan Jr. Says:
   July 26th, 2010 at 1:10 pm

   It would be interesting to know how many of the PDL teams at the low end of the attendance table are part of a larger youth program. I know Cleveland is, which may explain how so many can continue to operate with such low numbers. Not having a player payroll certainly helps a bit too.

7. Ali Says:
   July 26th, 2010 at 1:11 pm

   That cp baltimore figure is surprising to say the least.

8. admin Says:
   July 26th, 2010 at 1:14 pm

   Historically, none of those numbers are out of the norm for the PDL. Some organizations (basically) say “This is a high-level team, they’re not professionals, but this is an entertainment product in a competitive league and we’re going to aggressively go after getting your discretionary income” and some at the other end of the spectrum say, “This is just an extension of other initiatives and if you show up, you show up.”

   It would be nearly impossible to make an effort to sell tickets to a competitive soccer team in an actual national league and sell only 50 tickets a game.

9. Ali Says:
   July 26th, 2010 at 2:31 pm

   http://ussf.demosphere.com/stats/2010/1634247.html

   The ussf website is reporting 701 for cp baltimore. I have a propensity to go with that website over nasl’s.

10. John Says:
    July 26th, 2010 at 7:51 pm

    I wonder if anyone told Palace that Calvert Hall is ripping up and replacing their turf right now. Hopefully it would be done in time for their return, but with this bunch…

11. admin Says:
    July 26th, 2010 at 8:59 pm

    Yes. The reason they moved four games to the SoccerPlex was because of Calvert Hall’s renovations. They said that at the time they announced the temporary move.

12. Ryan Says:
    July 28th, 2010 at 8:14 am

    Any figures for the NPSL? I know the Chattanooga team averages about 4,000 and my local team, Rocket City United averages nearly 1,000. I’d be interested in seeing how NPSL compares to the PDL in attendance, since both leagues are amateur developmental leagues.

13. admin Says:
    July 28th, 2010 at 8:33 am

    You are not the first to ask, Ryan. See the last discussion on this here.

14. admin Says:
    July 28th, 2010 at 8:36 am

    Thanks to Steve Goff for the link.

15. Emerald_City_Jason Says:
    July 28th, 2010 at 12:46 pm

    Depending on how much free time you have it might not be worth the work, but percent-of-capacity would be interesting. Thinking for example, of the Wizards compared to the Revs.

16. admin Says:
    July 28th, 2010 at 12:51 pm

    If I could get a legit capacity number for all the stadiums, I would.

    Thing about it is – in the early days, MLS teams played in a lot of downsized NFL stadiums. So, do you use the capacity the NFL team uses (the Jets and Giants used to – I think – list different capacities for the same stadium) or do you use the “downsized” capacity (which MLS used to list)? And what about when they open up the upper deck (expanding the capacity), like would happen in New England occasionally?

    I just didn’t want to do the work to figure out percent of capacity when not every stadium has had a consistent capacity figure, either over time or (sometimes) over the course of a season.

    If someone wants to give me the actual, listed, official capacity of each MLS stadium, I’ll gladly give it a shot, but it would be for demonstration purposes only. At some point, every MLS stadium is going to be between 16,000 and 30,000 in capacity.

17. Roan Ryan Says:
    August 1st, 2010 at 5:24 am

    Dear Ken,

    Thought you might be interested in Chattanooga F.C.’s attendance for their last home game of the season;

    5,117

    The source link is:- http://ht.ly/2cZ7n

    Okay, it’s the last home game for the trop-drawing team in its league that’s also going straight into the playoffs; all the fans, even the most casual, will want to be there for the send-off party. However, a little context would be useful; there are League II (old Division IV) and even League I teams in the English pyramid that would be very satisfied with an end-of-season home attendance like this. As for the League of Ireland or Scottish First Division . . .

    Football lovers in (North) America always fret about their sport being Platini’s “weak sprout” always struggling for sunlight and oxygen aginst the “Sequoias” of NFl, NBA, MLB, NHL, NASCAR, etc. All of which is true. Nonetheless, if a second-season team that operates out of a high-school stadium offering fourth (maybe even fifth) division amateur football in a league that itself struggles for sunlight and oxygen within American soccer can draw these numbers, what is the rest of American pro & semi-pro soccer not doing that they are?

18. admin Says:
    August 1st, 2010 at 11:00 am

    Not lying?

    (That’s a joke, I’m kidding.)

    It’s definitely an outlier and all outliers beg explanation.

    If, as some have said, Chattanooga FC (puh-LEEZ) is drawing over 4,000 a night, that’s definitely out of the norm. So there has to be a reason for it.

    There’s only half a million people in the metro, right? 4,000 a night would be Seattle-like numbers based on population.

    If 600 people went to the final in Alabama, that’s a sign of tremendous support (it’s one thing to go to home games, it’s another to travel).

    Chattanooga had a PDL/D3 team from 92-97. The Express drew 151 people a game in 1996 and 69 per game in 1997. It’s not at all surprising that would be the death of them, but, really? The market has changed that much since then?

    Someone playing in a high school football stadium in a DMA of a half-million people with amateur players drawing 4 or 5k a night…well, I’ll tell you how I would look at that, barring a real good explanation: the same way I’d look at somebody who hit 83 home runs for the Houston Astros next year.

19. Mike Says:
    August 6th, 2010 at 5:42 am

    ” Speaking of WPS, The Stadium That Is Going To Change Women’s Soccer is right there in the middle of the pack.” Ok, I’m mathmatically challenged. I know 8/2=4 but with Athletica gone I’m assuming that you are talking about Atlanta. I’ve been to a Sky Blue home game and believe that they have a very nice facility but not one that is going to change the game. Would you care to expand on this statement? I’m interested to hear your thoughts on the subject!

20. admin Says:
    August 6th, 2010 at 5:47 am

    Yes, I’m talking about Atlanta. I wish I could find the tweet from whoever it was who said Atlanta’s stadium was going to “change women’s soccer.” It’s not. It wasn’t going to. It didn’t. It hasn’t. It won’t. It was a ludicrous statement.

21. Roan Ryan Says:
    August 9th, 2010 at 1:57 pm

    “…well, I’ll tell you how I would look at that, barring a real good explanation: the same way I’d look at somebody who hit 83 home runs for the Houston Astros next year.”

    Er, not sure I understood the analogy. I’m European you see (grovel, grovel!!).

    Anyway, their website says 600 made the trip to the playoffs. A local paper said “over 500.”

    From what I can gather, they’re run by a bunch of local football enthusiats who are also members of the local good food/brewpub scene – useful for sponsorship, promotion, generating a buzz and making game days interesting for reasons other than football.

    Also, their tickets are rock bottom (iirc under 5s free, $5 for under-12s, $10 dor adults). Oh, and they sell beer – real beer – at games!

22. admin Says:
    August 9th, 2010 at 2:16 pm

    Okay, Roan, I’ll put it to you this way – if a cricket batsman averaged 175 runs, that would make you scratch your head, because it’s such an outlier, right?

    Or, let’s say you hear about someone in the Bluesquare Premier who scored, say, 30 goals in 36 matches. That would be a lot, but it wouldn’t be completely unprecedented, right? You could kinda wrap your head around that, couldn’t you?

    But if I told you a player in the Bluesquare Premier had scored 200 goals in 36 matches, you’d think it was a misprint, or he was playing against 9 year olds or something, right? It’s just too much to comprehend.

    That level of play with that level of funding in that small a market in that league in that part of the country averaging a legitimate 4,000+ paid per game would be like a basketball player averaging 82 points per game or a cricket bowler with 48,000 overs or something.