NYCFC Academy - General Discussion
- Thread starter NYCFC_Dan
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Do you need the reserve team in NYC? Honest question. You'd be able to tap a different local market
Me personally, no, but the team would. Having the reserve team in Albany means they'd need a separate training facility from the grand one they're building now. And having them train away from the facility means no cross-sessions with the first team and coaches.
This is interesting. My immediate answer is "heck yes it's ridiculous" but I've thought about it and maybe it's not such a bad idea. Albany proper only has 100,000 people but the metro area has a little over a million, so there's certainly enough people there to support an NYCFC women's team. And as there's no other teams there that I know of* it might get a lot more attention and fan interest than here in New York City where hardly anyone would even notice their existence. As to training it's only two hours from Orangeburg to Albany so that's not a huge impediment, and in fact the cost savings of not having to have two facilities might pay for an extra team bus that'd make it possible.
The downside is that it's going to be a tough sell to get NYC fans up to Albany to see a game, but really, what are the attendance expectations anyway? Would they get 5,000 people here? Not even sure. Could you get 5,000 people in Albany, where it's a much bigger event? Maybe.
* Looked it up in wikipedia and apparently there's a few sports teams there. AHL hockey, A-level minor league baseball, couple of semi-pro football teams, etc.
Albany would be a good spot. Hartford would be a good place too but I'm sure they'd like to keep it in the state.
Long Island would be the best spot. Even Hofstra to be honest. Long Island has a good female fan base. Crystal Dunn is from Rockville Centre.... sign/trade for her as your first player on the pro team when they get one.
If we add a women's professional team, I hope they play in the city with the same facilities as the men. I know that can't happen logistically at Yankee Stadium, but eventually anyway. Temporarily? Columbia would be cool.
If we start a reserve team (which I'm still not convinced is worth it), I would expect it to play in a nearby market. Southern CT or Westchester most likely, considering that's been a focus of fanbase cultivation, e.g. "New Haven City FC."
If we start a reserve team (which I'm still not convinced is worth it), I would expect it to play in a nearby market. Southern CT or Westchester most likely, considering that's been a focus of fanbase cultivation, e.g. "New Haven City FC."
Im very biased of course because I am from The Albany area and your claimed about Albany sports is correct! (I'm actually going to intern with the A-level minor league baseball team this summer). But honestly there isn't much of a sports pull besides the tv screen in the area and I know there is a lot of Soccer mom suburbia around Albany that would probably be drawn to the women's team or the NYC II side which only adds more fans who probably wouldn't have watched the MLS side before.
In the last 5 years, the number of kids playing in the Youth League I ran in the Capital District went from 600 to over 1000. A lot of my own indoor league games don't start until 11:00 pm because there are so many people playing and not enough turf, but I still don't think it makes sense to have NYCFC teams up here. The long term plan has to be to have NYCFC womens and USL teams play in the NYCFC stadium -- it doesn't make a lot of sense to develop a fan base 120 miles away in the meantime.
Interestingly, a lot of the teenage girls who play only follow USWNT and teams not USMNT or MLS because the women are winners and the men aren't (on a World Cup scale).
Interestingly, a lot of the teenage girls who play only follow USWNT and teams not USMNT or MLS because the women are winners and the men aren't (on a World Cup scale).
This is really fascinating. I totally understand the identification with the USWNT as the "winners", and also from a gender role side, but I'm surprised they don't also want to follow the men's teams, either pro or national, because of the higher skill levels across the board. Not trying to say men are more skillful than women, but that there is a bigger divide between the US women's team and nearly everybody else, whereas skill on the men's side is very comparable between most teams/opponents, so watching what "works" when playing somebody just as good has more "teachable" moments than watching something that'll work against anybody because the anybody can't match up.
I realize I'm looking at from an educational POV and not purely recreational/fandom, but kids playing do want to get better at their sports and most learn by watching.
Much smaller sample size but this has been my experience as well. Unlike Ulrich I don't find it surprising at all. Personal identification trumps level of play for most people and as MLS fans I would think would all be sympathetic to that.
The boys soccer players I know also vary widely in how much they pay attention to the pro game, some are super fans but many seem to pay no attention to it whatsoever. I admit that that did surprise me.
My guess is that CFG would absolutely want a women's team to play in the same stadium as the men, and therefore it is unlikely that we will see any movement on a women's team before there is at least a concrete plan for the stadium.
I'm not sure the same argument holds for a USL or other second division team. The audience for an NWSL team overlaps with but also - as Sabo points out - has some differences with the audience for the first team. I'm not sure that is true for a second division team unless it differentiates itself geographically.
This is a very important part to me. If they are thinking of having a women's team and feel the only place the team will play is in our own stadium, then if they are starting our development league already I would think they probably want the main team in atleast 5 years therefore a stadium HAS to be on its way soon!
I actually could see quite an argument to have NYCFC womens or NYCFC II play up in Albany. If it gets some fans to go to those games there, it may help spur interest in NYCFC in Albany as well. And even though it may only attract a few marginal fans to make the trip down to the game, it will draw more eyeballs to TV sets.
Remember that the real way for MLS to grow into a top competitive league is through larger TV contracts. The MLS teams are going to need to generate interest outside of the immediate vicinities of their markets.
Part of having your own facilities is getting to use them. From a marketing standpoint, I understand "spreading the love" but from facilities standpoint, putting butts in the seats an extra 20 times a year for a women's game makes more sense. Even if they only draw 5-7k fans a match. It's revenue to your bottom line.
But what if you could throw 20 concerts instead? That's what happened with the Barclays. They figured 42 days of concerts & events earned more revenue than the guaranteed Isles games.
Here's the great thing - you can do both. With soccer, the stadium is used 40 times a year.
I never understood the BS about Barclays missing out on more revenue opps. Nets take 45 nights, Islanders about he same. There are still 250+ opportunities to open the arena.
We are talking about 1/4 of that here with a woman's team. NOT TO MENTION we would own and control the stadium, not lease it from another team like the Islanders currently do.
The biggest issue with basketball and hockey is the amount of time it takes for UNION workers to tear down/prep the arena for each sport. One has a special wooden floor and the other an iced surface and perimeter boards. That crap takes time (like YS between soccer and baseball games)
With soccer/concerts, they'd throw down tarps in areas to protect the grass and build a stage. That's pretty easy, especially if there's a way to wheel the base of the stage in like with super bowl entertainment.
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