Stadium Discussion
- Thread starter Gene
- Start date
and no old people allowed
Welcome to Scouse Stadium! Let's go NYCFC, a few rules to go over. There is a two Kraftbier minimum for all attendees regardless of age. You can choose from 200 varieties all pumped directly to your section. All sections are general admittance and standing only. That includes you over there in the wheelchair! Ok, look to your left, look to your right, if one of these people does not have a smoke grenade, that means YOU need to go buy one at our concessions shop. OK..what's that from the back? You are allergic to smoke grenades? Get the hell out of the stadium right now gramps! You were told when you bought your ticket that we didn't want to hear your shit about smoke. In fact, SECURITY! ARREST THIS MAN! now... where was I, Ok, did I mention our free get out of school passes for all attendees?
Making us wait for Lampard is CFG teaching us to wait for a stadium. Wax on. Wax off.
This is easily going to become the longest running thread by a mile.
I don't understand the logic of this post at all. Where did you come up with "target sellout rate" as a meaningful metric?
Do you think selling out a 24k seat arena is somehow more profitable than 26k tickets sold in a 30k arena?
If next year's attendance is north of 25k, it would be insane to build a stadium with fewer than 30k seats, especially with the likely influx of stars into the league.
It will never hold a candle to the "Official Random Player To NYCFC Rumor Thread". RIP
You're right, I don't know enough about the economics of stadium capacity. I'm simply going off the trend towards building or maintaining stadiums at numbers that sell out, rather than maximizing the size.
San Jose has sold out every game at their new 18,000 seat stadium, and move big games to bigger venues. SKC built their stadium to sell out, rather than build a cushion. Vancouver doesn't open more sections even though they usually sell out the lower bowl. Orlando's averaging 34k, yet is building something in the mid-20's. Etc.
My best conclusion is that when you add up all the factors (construction cost for larger stadiums, larger stadium staff, ticket price dynamics, etc.), there isn't a huge difference between selling out 24k and selling 26k in a 30k stadium. And there is nothing more deadly to the fan experience than having a 1/3 empty stadium on those less attended weekday games. I think teams would rather have a waitlist at the box office than empty sections.
But you're right, I'm speculating.
I know there is often a sophomore slump in attendance for expansion teams. Maybe your right and I'm being delusional but I see us as a unique situation. New York soccer fans have been waiting a long time for this. I think in the big 4 you draw lots of casual fans to shiny new teams. Not saying we don't have those types but I think lots and lots of people were waiting for this and are all. As long as CFG puts star names out there, we're competitive on the field which I think we've now cleared that hurdle, and the stadium is in the five boroughs with good public transport anything less than 30 K would be madness.
As for the sophomore slump theory, Seattle went from 30,942 in year one to 36,173 in year two. They continued upward each year until year 5 at 44,038 before a minor bounceback to 43k+ last season.
RSL had a slump, but that was mainly due to the loss of major games and ownership/stadium issues. They are now above their first season average, despite having a stadium with a smaller capacity than several matches drew in year one.
Toronto stayed steady, despite it's massive struggles and frustrated fan base. Last season was better than their first season and now they have a bigger stadium.
Portland increased from 18,827 to 20,438 and now are limited only by capacity.
Montreal has slumped, but it's such an awful franchise. Much of the dropoff can be attributed by the drop in it's annual olympic stadium special event crowd.
Even Chivas actually increased it's average in year two, before falling off the face of the earth.
PHI has dropped off, but they moved into PPL Park in year two I believe, after playing in Lincoln Financial field in year one with a couple big events.
Hou also had a dropoff, but an increase in median attendance.
So the whole sophomore slump theory imo has no real basis in reality. Only 4 out of 8 teams since 2005 have slumped, and many of those were due to other factors.
It appears as though regular match NYCFC attendance is trending upwards at this point in the season. With the new additions, I expect that to continue onto next season.
RSL had a slump, but that was mainly due to the loss of major games and ownership/stadium issues. They are now above their first season average, despite having a stadium with a smaller capacity than several matches drew in year one.
Toronto stayed steady, despite it's massive struggles and frustrated fan base. Last season was better than their first season and now they have a bigger stadium.
Portland increased from 18,827 to 20,438 and now are limited only by capacity.
Montreal has slumped, but it's such an awful franchise. Much of the dropoff can be attributed by the drop in it's annual olympic stadium special event crowd.
Even Chivas actually increased it's average in year two, before falling off the face of the earth.
PHI has dropped off, but they moved into PPL Park in year two I believe, after playing in Lincoln Financial field in year one with a couple big events.
Hou also had a dropoff, but an increase in median attendance.
So the whole sophomore slump theory imo has no real basis in reality. Only 4 out of 8 teams since 2005 have slumped, and many of those were due to other factors.
It appears as though regular match NYCFC attendance is trending upwards at this point in the season. With the new additions, I expect that to continue onto next season.
What a senseless premature death. I posted 100 + comments in that thread and would look forward to which direction it would go next. It was a fun thread and I miss it lol. I hardly even look at the two new ones...snooze fest.
Even if there is a sophomore slump (and I don't think we will experience that), the overall trend is up. We are not building a stadium for Year 2. We are building one that will come on line around Year 5 and has to also make sense in Year 20. We also aren't building one that has to be full every game. A stadium that is 80% full is full enough to provide a great atmosphere and look good on TV. So, I am fine building a 30-35,000 seat stadium if we reasonably believe our floor is 24-28,000, and I think in our 5th year, that will be the case.
