Attendance

[bordelais7]

What are you thoughts/hopes/goals for attendance for home games this season?

I know that RSL FO has mentioned that they really want to see around a 15,000/game average this season in order to please the stadium crowd and to be financially viable. That's a good goal, I would think.

I think that we'll see about 11,500 per "normal" game or so, and that with the WCQ doubleheader numbers added in (where I'm anticipating a crowd of 40,000 or so), the season average would be raised to about 13,500.

What do you think? Am I high (high as in numbers, that is)? Too pessimistic? I know this is all just a lot of guesswork based on almost nothing, but just wondering...

[Rover]

Originally Posted by bordelais7

What are you thoughts/hopes/goals for attendance for home games this season?

I know that RSL FO has mentioned that they really want to see around a 15,000/game average this season in order to please the stadium crowd and to be financially viable. That's a good goal, I would think.

I think that we'll see about 11,500 per "normal" game or so, and that with the WCQ doubleheader numbers added in (where I'm anticipating a crowd of 40,000 or so), the season average would be raised to about 13,500.

What do you think? Am I high (high as in numbers, that is)? Too pessimistic? I know this is all just a lot of guesswork based on almost nothing, but just wondering...

I think you're on the mark. The key is getting the average up with the big games, like the WCQ, the July 4th game, and the home opener. It would also help to win some games and get the buzz going around town. There will be a curiosity factor, but that doesn't sustain attendance.

I'm also not sure how much walk-up RSL will get. Is SLC a walk-up town? That's what kept the Galaxy numbers high in the Rose Bowl, and established a good base that transferred very well to the HDC. You always knew you'd get into games at the Rose Bowl, even if yo showed up a minute before kickoff, since the capacity was 90,000. Same with DC when I was there, although the capacity was 50,000.

[jasoncox]

Way too pessimistic. The league average is above 15K. Long term, the team needs to average over 15K I imagine. If we can't pull in atleast that many, we're in trouble. To be respectable, we should need to average around 17K this season. I don't think that's an impossible figure considering the WCQ and a couple of holiday games.

Anything under 15K and we'll be hearing "move RSL" every offseason and be the target of every major movement rumor (like SJ). 🙂

[Rover]

Originally Posted by jasoncox

Way too pessimistic. The league average is above 15K. Long term, the team needs to average over 15K I imagine. If we can't pull in atleast that many, we're in trouble. To be respectable, we should need to average around 17K this season. I don't think that's an impossible figure considering the WCQ and a couple of holiday games.

Anything under 15K and we'll be hearing "move RSL" every offseason and be the target of every major movement rumor (like SJ). 🙂

Sure, we'd like to see 17K, and 15K is the benchmark, but I would caution against getting too wrapped up in attendance numbers each game.

Traditionally in MLS, it's only when a team dips under 10,000 that alarm bells start to go off.

We need to maximize our marquee games and pull in respectable (re: over 10K) for the rest. If we do better than that, great. If not, it's not the end of soccer in Utah.

I think the potential is there for a 17K average, but remember that we're still an expansion team, and that extends to the fanbase. It takes time to develop the habit of going to games for 15,000-20,000 people. Just like it's advisable for everyone to be patient with the on-the-field performance, we should also be ready for some ups and downs on attendance.