World Cup

[LUSportsFan]

Doesn't look too shabby per the linked page of MLS 2014 average attendance...not nearly as much as the Sounders, but they would need to have matches at NRG to have capacity to match that.

 

http://mlsattendance.blogspot.com/?m=0

 

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[Big T]

Gotta love the Pacific Northwest! How do Houston, LA, Washington and Philly do? I'm lazy and I don't want to do the research and you know a lot more than me about this anyway. I can be willing to admit I'm wrong but the way soccer disappeared from the front page the last two times it makes you wonder.

 

Philly is a great MLS town. Houston, not so much. LA and NYC are both in the same boat in that they have great fan bases and get TV ratings but they rarely completely fill up their stadiums. Washington is a great soccer city but they play in old RFK and it's just a complete dump. They are getting their new stadium however. NE, Col, Columbus, and Dallas are all very mediocre when it comes to fan base. KC, Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, Toronto, Real Salt Lake, Orlando though they have not officially played their first MLS game, and Philly all have rabid fan bases. Chicago is a soccer town but for some reason it has not been able to build a MLS fan base. It's a very odd situation there and I think it may be best to move the fire to a town like SA and start all over in Chicago. The Fire front office just hasn't been able to sell a product there.

[LUSportsFan]

Explain why Houston support is poor.

 

Houston is averaging around 2,000 more in attendance than Philadelphia. Philadelphia has a higher percentage attendance, but their stadium has a smaller capacity; 18,500 vs 22,039 for Houston. Houston would have sold out every match this season if they were in Philadelphia's stadium. Attendance at BBVA Compass is running between 89-94% this season.

 

Houston is outdrawing New York by around 1,500 per game and at the first part of the season by 3,500 - 4,000.

 

Houston was averaging over 20,000 in the early part of the season. Attendance has dropped to a current ~19,500 over the season as it has with some of the other clubs, but Houston is having a very disappointing season, next to last in the Eastern standings. According to an MLS article yesterday, the Dynamo are "...suffering through as worse a defensive stretch as any in Houston Dynamo history...".* Even so they are still outdrawing a lot of others. Might have been good season ticket sales with a lot of no shows as the season progressed.

 

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As far as building the fan base for the game and ultimately MLS, I don't know about the rest of the city, but there are several large complexes with numerous fields here in West Houston that are always full. It has come a long way from many years ago when I was in Boy Scouts and we were introduced to this very strange game called soccer. :)

 

*Link to MLS 7/16/2014 article: http://m.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2014/07/16/goals-starting-come-back-houston-dynamo-turn-attention-leaky-defense

 

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[Big T]

Watch a Dynamo game, the stadium is usually only about half full if that. You know how you watch a Rockets game and they announce a sellout and you look at the stands and there are empty seat everywhere? That's because large corporations and businesses buy tickets and no one goes to the games or matches. Same in BBVA Compass Stadium. It is usually kinda bare. They sell tickets but no one goes to the games. Plus, there is no buzz in H-Town about the Dynamo. Houston is not a soccer city.

[Big T]

One last thing about Houston; I am a Seattle Sounders supporter. Every year for the last four years I have made the trek to Houston and to Dallas twice to watch them play the Dynamo and FC Dallas. Two out of those for years, the traveling Seattle Supporters have outnumbered the Dynamo Supporters and they always outnumber the FC Dallas supporters. I am not talking overall fans, but the Supporters Groups. The Dynamo have one of the smaller Supporters groups in MLS.

[LUSportsFan]

Good discussion...

 

I think comparing the Dynamo fan group with the Sounders fan group may not tell a whole lot except that the Sounders fan group and attendance is a statistical anomaly. There is NO ONE in all of MLS that has attendance close to the Sounders. I think the take-away is that the other clubs need to find out the Sounders' recipe and try to emulate it.

 

I look at overall attendance numbers and the Dynamo is not that far off from the rest of the league. It may be corporations buying the tickets, but that takes the market away from individuals. Paid attendance of 90-95% only leaves 1,000-1,500 seats available for purchase. I doubt Houston is the only place corporations purchase seats. I guess the corporations use the seats more at the other locations. Another explanation might be an air-condition society avoiding the heat and humidity in the middle of summer at a closed in stadium.

 

...In Houston, the advantage is the heat, something we saw the Timbers struggle with against FC Dallas at the formerly named Pizza Hut Park last year. Houston, however, has one upped their northern neighbors by not including any sort of breezeways in the stadium. In a few words, there will be no air blowing through...

 

http://www.stumptownfooty.com/2012/5/10/3012506/surviving-hell-playing-against-heat-bbva-compass-stadium

 

I'm not sure why anyone would design a stadium to be hot; especially in Houston, but that's apparently what the BBVA Compass folks did.

 

Looking at attendance figures across the league, one can quickly see that support for most of the West Coast clubs is higher than support in other parts of the country. Just about every West Coast club has capacity or near capacity attendance (except Los Angeles).

 

I think another mistake the Dynamo (as well as Rockets and Astros) made is signing a long term contract with ComcastSportsNet Houston. (The Rockets and Astros are on both ends of that since they are part owners in the network.) Only 40% of the city gets access to the network...I don't. One could make the argument that lack of TV would increase the attendance, but a counter argument would be that lack of TV closes off access of a casual fan to acquire an interest in the sport.

 

[eagle eye]

Your reference to the attendance of MLS game on the left coast sort of explains itself. The left coast states are sort of touchy-feely types who would embrace soccer because little Trevor is too frail for flag football and not worth a damn at baseball. They always give participation trophies in soccer so it boosts his self esteem. You've got your surfer crowd and skateboarding blew up there and the tree hugging nation was born on the left coast. Washington state gave us Starbuck's ($5 coffee), Nike athletic shoes ($140 shoes made for 20 bucks in Indonesian sweat shops) and grunge (a form of music crying about how much their lives suck or how their childhoods sucked, or both). You can see where lefties would be huge soccer fans. The rest of the country just isn't like that. Keeping it real in California would get a person shot in Texas. The east coast is so blue collar I'd wager the fans there are silicone valley rejects doing IT work because they didn't have enough jobs where they came from. The upper midwest stays too freaking cold too long to really embrace a sport that competes with football and baseball. As for Chicago, those people in the Windy City, America's Slaughter House, soccer is offensive to those who fancy themselves a badass because of the climate they live in to ever embrace a sport as "sissy-fied" as soccer. So, knowing this, is it possible that this sport even has a future in the USA? Because the difference in attitudes and with the price of property through the ceiling and the incredibly bad state of their economies, especially California, it's possible they could get kicked out of the Union. We would become a 47 or 46 state country. Soccer #1? Not a chance.

 

 

 

 

 

Hopefully you realize my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek. Don't get mad Big T!

Edited July 27, 2014 by eagle eye