Did the USA , of all countries, just fix soccer? - C. Ronaldo, May 27th commenting on the FBI-led investigations into fraud and corruption throughout FIFA.
No jab taken.
50,000 people to watch TFC play (the CCL game of course). I dream of it. I know a lot of us hard core guys want to focus on the football and the team. But I like a good spectacle once in a while.
Having said that... the more I think about my guess is 25-30K at the Rogers Centre. Lets call it 5K to see Beckham....if he's still with the team.
I had three together in 225. Not big bucks at all. After we hung up I was wondering the same thing, but then again, I did have an exchange over several emails with my rep about why I will not renew (again, the pricing model being totally out of whack with the product on the pitch) so maybe that prompted it.
i got a call from Ben. Not nearly as exciting as getting a call from Aron.
I got a call from Geico, telling me I was paying too much for car insurance.
- Scott
“Heroism breaks its heart, and idealism its back, on the intransigence of the credulous and the mediocre, manipulated by the cynical and the corrupt.” ~Christopher Hitchens
Anyone else get a call from this guy? Creepy.
This organization just puts the cart wayyyyy before the horse.
A rational strategy is to build loyalty over a period of years and then introduce price increases once the demand for your product is less elastic. For the leafs, they have decades of good will to fall back on. For the raptors, at the very least it's a premium product and at least initially their results and their prices ramped up at the same time (even still, they have hit the wall with bad results and reduced ticket demand).
When it comes to TFC, raising prices is near-sighted. It looks like short-term financial goals were stated first and then someone started to work backwards. The long run effects of this kinds of pricing policy are terrible.
People said we'll be getting ~15000 per game in the beginning of this year too. We'll be fine
I was going to post something along these lines.
What was our "real" buts in seats number this year as opposed to paid attendance? Because one has to figure eventually season tickets will drift towards that number as opposed to sit where they are now with plenty of paid but absent SSH's.
But regardless they have incentive to inflate the numbers. I bet FCD "averages" 18k per game
I don't care what TFC say the attendance numbers are. If they want to puff their chest out publicly, that's their prerogative.
All that matters is that "real" attendance is clearly down, and they privately know it. As a fan, that's all that matters to me, because it means people are voting with their wallets. Hopefully that recelibrates MLSE's priorities on what is necessary to try and bring casual fans back. I think it already is, to an extent.
- Scott
“Heroism breaks its heart, and idealism its back, on the intransigence of the credulous and the mediocre, manipulated by the cynical and the corrupt.” ~Christopher Hitchens
while i do think attendance is suffering and MLSE/MLS is messing with the numbers i dont necessarily believe that we were down to 15k regularly this year (i too went to every game)
I doubt it as well. It looked near capacity but definitely not as full. Given that there isn't the same "Carlsberg Patio" of previous years, there aren't as many people in the patio and most should be in their seats and yet it did not appear so. I figure the average attendance (excluding CCL) was in the high teens, 19k or so. Maybe 20k.
Regardless, what is definitely true is that the "scarcity" of the ticket has been eliminated. And that is really the most damaging thing to the team. Not whether 15k or 19k people are physically attending games. The team would have to be shamelessly greedy and stupid to try a ticket hike in those circumstances. But I bet you ticket price hikes are worked into the long-term projection which really puts the business unit in a pickle.
Truth is, they did it to themselves.
I had half pack seats in the north end, and pretty much every game there were at least 500 people under the north stand during gameplay (either standing at the railing, or getting food or chatting in the "beer garden" in front of the food building). This might be an underestimation too. I can imagine that there were at least the same amount under the east and west stands (if not way more) getting food, beer, or going to the bathroom. That adds anywhere from 1000 (low end) to 2500 (high end) people at any one time not actually in their seats.
That said, there were also a tonne of seats in the north end that never had anyone come close to them, so there had to be at least 200 or so unsold tickets most games.
Football is a tough sell to keep butts in seats at all times in Toronto IMO. A lot of people go to sporting events as a fun thing to do with friends and, sadly, not to watch the actual game the entire time. Or it's about a suit bringing someone they are wining and dining and they only watch the game for a brief stint (see the platinum seats in the ACC for a bunch of the Leafs' games, most of the time after the first they are empty). The fact that the facilities (bathrooms and food/drink providers) at BMO are less than stellar and, as such, overload them at halftime makes it even easier for the "fairweather" fans and suits to simply not be in their seats during the game. Adding the TVs/announcers in the concourse just adds to that.