MLS attendance report: Sept. 20, 2010

8 Comments

1. 

   astroboy

   September 21, 2010 at 3:20 pm

   @PeterC

   I hope I didn’t come across (too) defensive 🙂 , just as a Salt Lake resident, RSL season ticket holder, and someone who couldn’t make the game last week, I thought I’d chime in.

   I, like you, would love to see more consistent numbers week to week.

   Reply
2. 

   Charles

   September 20, 2010 at 2:33 pm

   Don’t disagree with the mini rant. People either need to support soccer or don’t
   but don’t whine about it not being good enough after spending no money.

   BUT…and there is always a big but,
   MLS needs to be a little smarter sometimes. MANY of us…MANY…watch a lot of sports and are huge Mariners fans, Seaahawks fans, etc. And while those choices are easy in Seattle right now, other cities actually have sports teams that win.

   IF they want the all around sport’s fan, and they should, dont make people make choices. The Buckeyes have been a part of Columbus a lot longer than the Crew.

   Reply
3. 

   DCLee

   September 20, 2010 at 2:07 pm

   Nice article and good posts!

   Reply
4. 

   Simple Math

   September 20, 2010 at 1:25 pm

   Why doesn’t MLS reduce its schedule to playing games only on Saturday nights or Sunday afternoons? If you look at the average suburban goon with kids (me), you’ll see that time is at a premium. I have money to spend on soccer, certainly, but keeping the games at night and on Saturdays would help me get done everything else I need to do. Even if I had a stadium to visit in the city, I’d love to go down and make it a day long event, but couldn’t do it unless it was a Saturday.

   Reply
5. 

   Pete

   September 20, 2010 at 12:39 pm

   San Jose will always draw bad on Wednesday night games. Most people in the valley work late hours. Factor in that it is a schoolnight and that traffic is bad on the highways leading to the game during the week, and you get low attendance.

   Reply
6. 

   Move Columbus to Cleveland

   September 20, 2010 at 11:52 am

   Columbus is an embarassment and should never have been in MLS. They can thank Hunt (who also gave us FC Dallas and Kansas City).

   Reply
7. 

   Peter C

   September 20, 2010 at 11:30 am

   astroboy:

   Perhaps you’re right and I was premature with my mini rant. Guess I’m just too eager to see a week to week consistency without any ‘off weeks’ when it comes to attendance.
   As for Columbus, I’ve been down that road before and have left them in my rear view mirror for the time being. It makes no sense, at least in recent years with the club’s success.

   Reply
8. 

   astroboy

   September 20, 2010 at 11:12 am

   Just want to address your mini-rant against RSL attendance (as a RSL season ticket holder).

   I agree that I don’t think the poor attendance was due to college football. I’m not sure why, but I think it has to do with it being an early afternoon match. I myself was not able to attend due to other obligations on a saturday afternoon, and I think thats the general case around Salt Lake. Had it been a regular evening game at 7pm I’d have been able to go.

   I also think that your opinion that just because they’re Cup Champs means they should be immune to poor attendance. I love that you compile these numbers, but they need to be looked at as a whole, not individual games. RSL had great attendance last season, even though they had a poor and very frustrating regular season (sometimes forgotten due to them winning the cup). A to-date improvement of 3.4%, in what I understand is the smallest MLS market, is very respectable.

   Throw in the respectable numbers RSL is pulling in the CCL, and I think your rant falls a little flat. If you feel so strongly about the premise of your opinion, rip Columbus: they’re two time defending Supporters Shield winners, recent Cup winners, and had until Saturday the most recent and longest home winning streak in the league. Their home attendance should be blowing doors off.

   Reply