Final 2015 Nycfc Attendance Thread

[Gotham Gator]

I think the attendance figures that NYCFC and other teams provide includes all tickets sold. So, there are empty seats because someone bought a ticket and didn't show, those count in the attendance figures. It was not always the case, but I think that's how they do it now.

 

[Gene]

Yes, they do go by how many tickets are sold and not by how many people go through the turnstiles.

I agree with TabascoDiva as I also felt that number was a bit padded. In fairness it was tough to tell, because the empty seats were interspersed throughout the stadium and I didn't see any particularly large blocks or sections empty, but I thought they were just under 30K.

Being it was a meaningless match, with the Jets-Patriots and the Giants-Cowboys on tv, I guess it isn't out of the question that there could be 4 or 5 thousand no shows.

 

[beaucoup_movement]

Thanks for putting this together. I'm interested to see how things change next year. If you look at other teams around the league there's almost always a drop-off after year one. In fact for many teams the year one attendance is also their highest ever average attendance.

They finished with 20,000 "Founding Members" but that's an inflated number. I think if the club was being honest they'd happily take 15,000 season ticket holders and an average of around 25,000/game in year two. I think that would be a good return.

Although some clubs keep going up (Seattle), so you never know.

 

[mgarbowski]

I expect that on average, 2016 attendance will be higher, and if there is a drop off, it will first show up in 2017. My reasoning is that we started the season with 7-10k season tickets sold, and kept increasing it during the year, ending with the aforementioned 20k. Even with some non-renewals, we should start next year with at least 17-18k (maybe even more) which is a much higher base than the start this year. Since all sold tickets are counted, our single game attendance cannot ever be below the STH figure. Note that the lowest figures this year were Games 3 (20k), 4 (21k) and 6 (23k). We never got that low again, not just because the single game sales increased but (I think) mostly because the STH base kept going up.

So if there is a downward trend, it would have to be in 2017 if a second disappointing season, coupled with no news on the new stadium, causes a higher rate of non-renewals for season tickets. OTOH, if next year the club does better and/or a new stadium is announced, I think the attendance figures will at worst plateau.

 

[Gene]

The odd matches vs the Red Bulls and Orlando are going to be at Yankee Stadium next season, so that's going to help. I'd also expect a huge crowd vs L.A. when they come to town and I'd imagine that Game 1 will draw no matter who we play.

So right off the bat 1/3 of the home schedule should be around 35K plus with both Red bull matches at close to 50K.

 

[mgarbowski]

The odd matches vs the Red Bulls and Orlando are going to be at Yankee Stadium next season,

I don't think it is a given that we will have odd matches against Orlando and RB next year. This year our games against the East were split as follows:

2 Games Total Chicago, Columbus, DC
2 Home 1 Away Montreal, New England, Toronto
2 Away 1 Home NYRB, Orlando, Philadelphia

I think we will get odd games added against Chicago, Columbus, and DC and 3 of the other 6 will drop to 2 games. The remaining 3 will flip the odd game between H/A. Now it could be that the league makes sure to give us the odd games against NYRB and Orlando in Year 2 for the sake of attendance and they don't drop to 2 games until year 3. In fact I think that's likely. But we just don't know yet.

 

[Gotham Gator]

I would be shocked if we didn't play 3 against NJRB next year, with two of those at home. I agree that it's hard to say how the other games will break down, but I am not sure it matters that much. The big attendance against the Lions this year had as much to do with Pirlo's arrival than anything else.

That covers 2016. In 2017, we will have the next round of expansion, which will cut back the number of teams we play 3 times. Once we get to 24 a year or two after that, we may end up with just 2 each against our half of the league.