brownbear Posted October 29, 2008 Share Posted October 29, 2008 quote:Originally posted by Johnnie Monster Yeah I think Seattle is the most appropriate measuring stick to gauge Vancouver's potential opportunities for success in MLS. Seattle Proper - 592,000 Vancouver Proper - 611,000 Seattle Metro - 3.4 million Vancouver Metro - 2.2 million NASL Average Attendance Per Match Seattle Vancouver 1974 13,434 10,098 1975 16,818 7,579 1976 23,828* 8,656 1977 24,226 11,897 1978 22,578 15,724 1979 18,998 22,962 1980 24,246 26,834 1981 18,224 23,236 1982 12,539 18,251 1983 8,181 29,164* 1984 N/A 15,208* * best in the league So during the NASL era... Seattle averaged 18,307 fans per match over a 10 season period. Vancouver averaged 17,237 fans per match over an 11 season period. All Time USL Attendance 1994 - 2008 Seattle -209 games played -686.989 attending -14 year average: **3,287 per match** Vancouver -204 games played -928,634 attending -14 year average: **4,552 per match** Special thanks to Kenn.com for the attendance figures. Anyway it is clear that Vancouver and Seattle have damn near mirrored each other perfectly in terms of support for pro club soccer, both in the NASL and USL eras. It doesn't take any stretch of the imagination to suspect that Vancouver's MLS attendances and season ticket base will be just as high as Seattle's, assuming of course that the Whitecaps play somewhere downtown (as opposed to the suburbs) Those Whitecaps' attendance figures have got to be wrong. As a young boy, I attended almost every one of the home games from 1978-1980 and the stadium was full (32,000 and change) on most nights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnnie Monster Posted October 29, 2008 Share Posted October 29, 2008 Where's Krammerhead when you need him? He's good at sorting out these attendance numbers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarnCherry Posted October 29, 2008 Share Posted October 29, 2008 The attendance figures posted are correct. Our memories of youth trick our minds sometimes. While there was the occasional 32,000+ crowd, there were just as many 16,000-18,000 crowds which looked and sounded perfectly fine in the 32,000 seat stadium. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted October 29, 2008 Author Share Posted October 29, 2008 The Waterfront Stadium will happen. It will take a few years but it will happen. BC Place will NOT be the long term home of the Whitecaps; for 5 years yes, but not beyond 5 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted October 29, 2008 Author Share Posted October 29, 2008 Re those attendance figues: 1983 was when the Caps moved into BC Place. I can remember a few games where the crowds were only a pathetic 9000 especially in the final year ('84). And I think they're lumping the Soccer Bowl Final crowd of 56,000 into the 1983 average, which they shouldn't. The BC Lions averaged 46,000 over their 8 games in 1983 including 3 complete sellouts of 60,000( one reg season game, Western Final and Grey Cup ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnnie Monster Posted October 29, 2008 Share Posted October 29, 2008 quote:Originally posted by Bill Re those attendance figues: 1983 was when the Caps moved into BC Place. I can remember a few games where the crowds were only a pathetic 9000 especially in the final year ('84). I suppose you "remember" because you read about it somewhere... because the chances of you actually attending a soccer match seem to be nil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RS Posted October 29, 2008 Share Posted October 29, 2008 quote:Originally posted by Tuscan Once again no offense to you guys out in Vancity or Montreal, I'll be glad when you get into MLS and start destroying the TFC joke. Nice backtracking there. Insult Montreal and Vancouver, and when they respond negatively, insult Toronto to try to placate them. You should have been a politician [8)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted October 29, 2008 Author Share Posted October 29, 2008 No Johnny Know Everything, I was 16 years old when my Dad took me to BC Place for the first Whitecaps - Sounders game on June 20, 1983 which attracted 60,342; I still have the newsclippings from the Sun. Even to this day that's the biggest crowd ever inside BC Place! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarnCherry Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 quote:Originally posted by Bill Re those attendance figues: 1983 was when the Caps moved into BC Place. I can remember a few games where the crowds were only a pathetic 9000 especially in the final year ('84). And I think they're lumping the Soccer Bowl Final crowd of 56,000 into the 1983 average, which they shouldn't. The BC Lions averaged 46,000 over their 8 games in 1983 including 3 complete sellouts of 60,000( one reg season game, Western Final and Grey Cup ) The Caps moved to BC place midway through the 1983 season. The last game at Empire stadium was June 1st 1983, which happened to be my birthday (and I was at the game). Had they played the whole season at BC Place their average for the year would have been well over 30,000 a game. The 1983 Soccer Bowl final (which I was also at)is NOTincluded in the final attendance, the Whitecaps were not a part of that game why in the hell would they include that in the Whitecapsattendance figures? Yes, they had some crappy crowds the final year of the league when everyone knew the league was dead in the water, yet the Whitecaps still led the league in attendance that year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tuscan Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 Yes that is exactly what I was doing, trying to cover me arse...[] Interesting to see those figures, though. And I do agree that getting into MLS should pretty much guarantee a massive jump in attendance numbers (because it is the "big league" and such... *rolls eyes*). I just wonder if MLS will look beyond the fact that any franchise that gets into MLS is almost ensured a massive attendance for a NA soccer match, and perhaps focus only on the dolla dolla bills, y'all (gotta love Wu-Tang haha)that teams like Miami could bring in (due to a partnership with Barca) or New York (just due to its sheer population and wealth surrounding it). Yeah this is all just personal speculation, I'm only going on the cynical side of the process. And I actually WOULD love to see Vancouver and Montreal wrecking Toronto once they get in, it wasn't an ass-cover move. Also, why does everyone on here play the disrespect card so quickly??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted October 30, 2008 Author Share Posted October 30, 2008 so Tuscan, while we're on the topic of football, are the Riders gonna spank the Argos tonight? If the Riders do come to BC Place next Saturday, are they gonna be the ones doing the ass kicking or the Lions?? Is Regina pumped for another West playoff game at Mosaic? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tuscan Posted October 31, 2008 Share Posted October 31, 2008 Well the way it's looking they aren't... Did I catch a hint of mockery in that post? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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