The Monday After

November 15, 2010

An exciting weekend of games in the MLS Conference Finals.  We’ll start in Colorado, where the Rapids turned out a big attendance number despite limited mainstream marketing and a lack of promotional offerings.  With temperatures falling under 30 degrees, more almost 18k fans braved the weather at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

For a team that has struggled at the gate since its move to the new stadium, the big number is contrary to typical MLS attendance patterns.  For much of MLS’s history, teams relied heavily on group sales and family friendly offerings struggled with the short lead times required in the playoffs.  Yet over the last couple of years, this paradigm has changed.  Just this year, there were big first round crowds in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Salt Lake City and San Jose (given capacity) and expected crowds in Dallas and Colorado.  Only Columbus was particularly disappointing the first round.  Whether this represents a change as MLS moves forward remains to be seen, but Colorado’s ability to generate such a big crowd with less than one week’s notice was an especially significant feat.

The other second round game pitted the Galaxy against Dallas.  The Home Depot Center produced its ususal strong crowd.  After a strong showing in the TV Ratings from the prior two Sunday night matchups, it will be interesting to see if ESPN’s Galaxy-centric broadcast strategy continues to pay off.

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Posted by Ben Berger

The Monday After: The Business of the Playoffs

October 25, 2010

The MLS Playoffs are here and the eight teams entering the post season have been decided.  Under MLS’  much criticized playoff format, there will be 6 representatives from the Western Conference and 2 representatives from the Eastern Conference.  As we did last year at this time, we thought it worth taking a business look at the playoff teams.

Seattle, Los Angeles and RSL are the big attendance draws in the round of 8.  All three teams will be big home draws with Seattle and and RSL likely to be sell outs and Los Angeles likely to have a crowd in excess of 20k.  Given the league’s reliance on group sales in many markets, big crowds are never a certainty in the playoffs.  However, these three teams are almost certain to draw well and will provide focal point of national broadcasts.

On the other side of the coin sit Dallas, Colorado and Columbus were big crowds are not expected for the playoffs.  Both Colorado and Dallas may be helped by visits from Designated Players, but none of these teams are anticipated sell outs.  Because it plays in such a small stadium, San Jose is a bit of an outlier.  The team has done a solid job generating enthusiasm for soccer in the Bay Area, and it will be interesting to see if that enthusiasm continues into the playoffs.  Their attendance will likely be aided by a visit from Thierry Henry.

That leaves with perhaps the biggest attendance mystery in the playoffs, the New York Red Bulls.  Armed with a new stadium, big stars and a two week lead on selling the game.  The game will be set for 8:00 on November 4, 2010 at Red Bull Arena.  The match will be nationally televised on a Thursday night and will provide a very interesting test of the Red Bulls’ ability to sell tickets to fans for a big match.   The league is certainly hoping that the Red Bulls will get more than 20k at the game in order to ensure a visual spectacle.

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Posted by Ben Berger

The Monday After

October 4, 2010

Another big weekend in Major League Soccer with the ESPN game of the week capping off the proceedings.  While attendance was disappointing (for the much hyped SuperClassico), the match presented a rare opportunity to see 3 US National Team members from the 2010 World Cup Team and David Beckham in a prime time special.  Although matched against the NFL ratings juggernaut, the Sunday night match up could prove an interesting ratings test case for the league.

Perhaps the biggest attendance surprise of the weekend was the 18k plus at Gillette Stadium to see the Revs and RSL.  A combination of a promotional efforts directed to local high school teams and a breast cancer awareness event, led to the biggest stand alone crowd for the Revs this season.  However, the biggest business news out of New England was the report in multiple sources that the Revs’ ownership has decided to change course on its pursuit of a designated player.  The Revs had previously limited their DP search to players that would move the needle in the stands.  With the limited budget restraints placed on that search, there appeared little chance that the Revs would actually sign such a “big name” player.  However, the Revs appear to have now changed their requirements and are more focused on success on the field.

One final attendance note.  An impressive crowd of over 24k at Red Bull Arena.  While many of those numbers can be attributed to fans with “use them or lose” tickets, it will be intersting to see if the team can continue generating big numbers during playoffs.

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Posted by Ben Berger

The Monday After: A look at MLS Attendance

September 13, 2010

We haven’t taken a hard look at attendance in a number of weeks, but this past slate of games provides some food for thought.  The “weekend” started with a small Wednesday night crowd in Chicago, where approximately 13k saw a scoreless draw at Toyota Park.  The mid-week games continued on Thursday night with the usual 36k at Qwest.  On Friday night, just over 10k saw Chivas USA shut-out New England at the Home Depot Center.

TFC’s loss to DC United was before the usual 20k plus crowd at BMO Field.  In Harrison, a reported crowd in excess of 19k saw an impressive performance by the Red Bulls on a beautiful afternoon.  As has been the case for many Red Bulls games, attendance appeared to be less than the reported number.  Whether no-shows, poor scalper re-sales or fudged numbers account for the discrepancy, New York is one of many franchises where visible attendance doesn’t necessarily square with reality.

Just under 20k were at the Home Depot Center, a low number given David Beckham’s season debut.  In San Jose, the usual 10k plus were on hand for one of many scoreless draws plaguing the league.  Philly brought 18,500 to the stadium for their upset victory over playoff hopeful Chicago.

Going back to the Red Bulls, this is what we wrote last Fall when comparing the prospects at Red Bull Arena to the low attendance at the newly constructed Prudential Center that houses Devils Hockey.  This is the nightmare scenario for the the Red Bulls.  Build a sparkling new stadium with all the amenities, public transportation accessibility, natural grass and fill it with star players.  Pack in crowds for all 25k seats for a few games and then slowly watch attendance drop off.  Sure, the new revenue streams will be outstanding (recall that Rio Tinto has raised RSL’s revenue 42%).  But will Red Bull be happy with 13k on a Saturday night in August? Many in the New Jersey/New York area have no idea the new stadium exists and thus there is limited excitement about its debut.

Things certainly haven’t reached this stage yet. New York attendance has been solid all year with an average of 18k.  That said, given the new stadium and the star power imported this season, New York fans could have rightfully exepected higher numbers.  With a handful of remaning home dates and a likely playoff match, we will continue to monitor attendance at RBA.

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Posted by Ben Berger

The Monday After

May 10, 2010

Perhaps the biggest business news from the soccer weekend was the announcement  that storied Scottish club Glasgow Rangers is withdrawing from its 2010 American tour.  The tour was intended to include matches against Celtic in Boston and DC United at RFK.  The BBC article references the recent Boston Globe article that criticized Rangers’ fans and ultimately forced the Globe to withdraw the article and issue an apology.

Attendance across the league was varied with more than 10k in Dallas and the usual big numbers in Toronto in Seattle.  We’ve already discussed the sub 6k number on Wednesday in New England, so we thought we would focus on the solid numbers in Salt Lake City, where the defending champs are on pace to crush the attendance from 2009.  RSL is averaging 15,600 this year, up 25% from the first three games of 2009.  We’ve discussed RSL’s 2010 marketing efforts with team Marketing Director Davy Ratchford and it appears those efforts are paying off.  RSL is an exciting franchise to watch, as it garners significant press attention in its “smallish” market and puts an outstanding product on the field.  We will continue to monitor RSL’s attendance as the season moves into the summer.

The big attendance story for the weekend was the amount of empty seats in Atlanta for the Beat’s home opener against Sky Blue in WPS action.  While the crowd looked solid, you always hope to sell-out a stadium in its inagural match.  That said, kudos to WPS for streaming the game live and for free on the league website.

One final note.  The Seattle Sounders’  response to their big loss over the weekend to Los Angeles wasn an MLS first.  The team announced that season ticket holders will be refunded their money (i.e. credited on their account for next year).  This is a great P.R. move even if it is a bit strange.  Teams have bad games and franchises typically don’t offer refunds, but in this case the team will buy some good will with its fans while making headlines in media outlets across the country.

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Posted by Ben Berger

The Monday After & Media Matters

May 3, 2010

We’ve decided to take a different approach to our Monday After posts from today forward.  Rather than focus on attendance, we thought we look at any business issues that arose over the weekend and focus on one or two significant “gates” on either the high side or low side.  We are also starting a new regular feature called “Media Matters” when we will comment on the presence of soccer coverage in mainstream media.  If you stumble across such coverage, feel free to drop us a line at footiebusiness@gmail.com

On to the weekend.  For MLS fans it was a great Saturday night on Direct Kick, with games kicking off at 7:30, 8:30, 9:00, 10:00 and 10:30.  Add in the FSC game from Houston and there was plenty of soccer to choose from.  Attendance was generally poor across the league despite generally good weather nationwide.  Perhaps most dissappointing was the 15,400 in Los Angeles where the undefeated Galaxy beat expansion Phill 3-1.  Los Angeles is off to a great start this year and the franchise generally draws well and has had plenty of games in the Beckham era near the 27k capacity at the Home Depot Center.

WPS attendance has also been disappointing this year.  The weekend was notable for the 8k that saw Washington win 3-1 at RFK.  The match was part of a doubleheader with stumbling DC United.  Less than 3k were in Philly for the expansion franchise’s win over fellow newcomer Atlanta.

A couple of notes in our media matters section.  Two soccer stories in the most recent edition of Sports Illustrated.  One was a great feature on Jozy Altidore.  With the World Cup 6 weeks away, we should anticipate a number of these types of features in mainstream publications.  The other piece was in the “Scorecard” section that analyzed MLS’ status at the gate.  The article provided a neat two sided argument that compared MLS to the NBA and NHL with respect to attendance and provided reasons both in support and against the staying power of American soccer.

Keeping with the media theme, ESPN has certainly ramped up its World Cup coverage across both the internet and television platforms.  Ads for the World Cup are omnipresent on all programming on the ESPN networks and ESPN.com is running an article every day.  The WorldWide leader has invested an enormous amount of money in the World Cup and they are working hard to push their coverage

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Posted by Ben Berger

The Monday After: Week Four, Week Two & More

April 19, 2010

Before we get into our look at attendance in MLS and WPS from the weekend, a couple of other business thoughts.  It was a good weekend for MLS MatchDay Live as the online game server seems to have shaken most the problems that beset the new service over the past few weeks.  In DC, the United game was still not available on local television, as conflicts with hockey and basketball have created significant problems in making the games available.  Similar problems impacted the Revolution this weekend, as a conflict with the Celtics forced the Revs’ game onto a variety of different “alternate” channels that didn’t necessarily work as planned forcing many fans to miss portions of the game.

With respect to attendance, it was a fairly disappointing weekend for the league.  Things started well in newly expanded BMO Field where almost 22k saw TFC hold off Philadelphia.  In Houston, just under 15k saw Houston hold off Chivas USA.  More than 35k were in Seattle for the Sounders’ late victory over KC.  A solid 18,500 were in DC where United again failed to win.

In San Jose, less than a sellout (under 10k) saw the home team beat the Revs.  While on Sunday, less than 10k were at DSG for the Rapids win over TFC.  However, the most distressing result for MLS fans was the paltry 13k that were at Red Bull Arena for the New York/Chicago game.  Bad weather certainly didn’t help, but the Red Bulls (and the league) were certainly hoping for numbers closer to 20k for most of the season.  The next home game (involving rival Philly) will likely be better, but attendance for unheralded Western Conference opponents might be a problem for the rest of the season.

In WPS action, 3700 saw FC Gold Pride defeat NJ at Castron Valley Athletic Stadium.  We couldn’t find attendance for the other two games.

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Posted by Ben Berger

Monday After: Week Two

April 4, 2010

Light docket in MLS this weekend with only 5 games Th-Sa.  Before we get to those matches, a couple of other quick business points.  First, we gave MatchDay live another chance, but couldn’t see any games in real time.  The only non-nationally televised game was the Revs/United match which was blacked out in the Hartford area (also blacked out on Direct Kick). Thus, we couldn’t try the service this weekend.  However, kudos to MLS for having readily available live chat support during the broadcast.  This made it quite easy to cancel our subscription.

While the game was shown on Comcast Sports Net New England (a channel available in CT), in the Hartford area, CSN gets usurped by Knicks/Rangers games on the Madison Square Garden network. Thus, even though the “info” screen reads MLS: Revolution v. DC United, Comcast switches the feed to the MSG feed.  Thus, no Revs (except on the HD feed).

Attendance wise, it was solid week around the league.  The Thursday night doubleheader started with 18k in Houston for the Dynamo’s 2-1 victory over RSL.  Later than night, just under 20k saw Chivas fall to the Galaxy at the Home Depot Center.  Both games were on ESPN2.  The weekend matches started in Commerce City, CO where 11,600 watched the Rapids and Fire play to a 2-2 draw.  On Saturday night, an impressive 20,600 were on hand for the Revs suprising victory in DC.  Finally, a ho-hum 36k saw a the thrilling Red Bulls/Sounders game.  The DC number was especially impressive and was aided by good weather and the addition of an El Salvadoran midfielder.

Next week will likely be a tougher week for the average, but the openers in Chicago and Philly will hopefully draw well.

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Posted by Ben Berger

The Monday After: Week One

March 29, 2010

One full week is in the books and as is our custom, here are our business hits from the first round of games.   Perhaps the biggest issue of the weekend was the continuing problems with MLSSoccer.com’s new Match Day Live.   Efforts to watch games live were consistently thwarted by freezing and re-sets.  Our own experience was similarly negative; efforts to watch the Friday night game online were repeatedly stymied.  There were also questions about how “free” the first two weeks of Match Day Live really are.   The free preview of Direct Kick went well and we were impressed by Allen Hopkins ability in the booth.

The website remains beset with problems.  Links lead to nowhere, content is still not updated for 2010 (2009 stats?) and the functionality is challenging.  Hopefully, the league will quickly move to fix some of the bigger problems.

With respect to attendance, the week started off quite well with more than 36k in Seattle for the First Kick opener despite a driving rain.  Chivas continued the good word, with more than 18k at the Home Depot Center for a 1-0 Rapids win.  In Dallas, barely 8k were at Pizza Hut Park for the Dynamo/FC Dallas matchup, a terrible number for a home opener.  In Columbus, a stronger (but still disappointing) 13,500 saw Columbus start with a 2-0 win over Toronto.

On Saturday night, the Red Bulls couldn’t quite muster a sell-out as just under 25k were at Red Bull Arena’s MLS debut.  KC played to 10,300 sell-out for their dominating performance over DC.  A similar 10,500 sell-out was also in San Jose where RSL went home the victor.  Finally, the weekend concluded with almost 22k at the Home Depot Center for the Galaxy victory over the Revs.

Overall, it was an unimpressive weekend for MLS attendance.  Dallas and Columbus posted poor numbers for the season opener, while Chivas, Los Angeles and Chivas did well.  The Red Bulls’ failure to sell-out was unfortunate, especially given recent efforts to promote the stadium.   Let us know your thoughts on the week’s attendance and atmosphere.

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Posted by Ben Berger

MLS Season Ticket Renewals Up for 2010

November 17, 2009

Tripp Mickle of the Sports Business Journal is out with a hard look at MLS season ticket renewals for 2010.  Although three teams (Dallas, Kansas City and San Jose), didn’t provide numbers, the rest of the franchises did report their rates of renewal for 2010.  Not surprisingly, Seattle and TFC lead the pack with more than 90% renewal rates.  Perhaps also not surprisingly, New England trails the pack as the only reporting team below 50% at a dismal 30%.  With the Red Bull Arena ready to open, New York posted an impressive 85%

The biggest suprise was Colorado, where at least 70% of season ticket holders have renewed.  This compares very favorably with the rest of the League, where most teams hover in between 50-65%.  These numbers will obviously rise as the season nears, but according to Mickle, renewals rates are ahead of last year and are averaging just over 60% league wide.  Mickle also reported that teams are offering new incentives to attract fans and keep their hard care base.

New England and Dallas remain enormous disappointments (in fairness, we are making a bit of an assumption on Dallas, as their numbers aren’t available).  Attendance is declining in both cities as is interest.  Both teams seem to need a re-boot and re-brand.  New England’s playoff attendance was embarrassing for MLS, a fact that didn’t escape Don Garber in his State of the League address who in referenced the success in Seattle and the playoff attencance success in the Conference Finals.  “That was an important lesson to our clubs, particularly some of the clubs that have been around for a while and are struggling in their markets.”

This report is a great sign for MLS.  In the current economy, convincing fans to re-up months before the start of the season provides a level of economic stability for the League and shows that the biggest fans remain interested in MLS.  Moreover, the evident success of the newest franchises speaks volumes about the ability of the expansion teams to learn from the mistakes of those that went before.  If the numbers continue to climb until March 2010, with the entrance of Philadelphia and opening of Red Bull Arena, 2010 promises to be a great year for the League

QUICK UPDATE:  According to the Revs official online community forums, per COO Brian Bilello:

“Just wanted to clarify around the Season Ticket Renewal numbers in SBJ today. While it is true that we were near the 30% mark a few weeks go when they pulled their numbers, we are now north of 50% and are ahead of last year at this time. Part of the reason that we lagged behind is due to the fact that our early renewal deadline is later than most teams so our renewals come in a little later. We give our fans until11/30 to renew and get the early renewal discount. We feel it gives our STH more flexibility and let’s them hold onto their money a little longer rather than making them renew in August or September.”

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Posted by Ben Berger

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