2019 Canadian Premier League Attendance

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

I'm always hesitant to question FCE's numbers because you can't see the main grandstand much on Onesoccer, but this clip from Reddit combined with what you see in the highlights makes 2790 (i.e. more than half full) look very dubious:

 

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

3 hours ago, hamiltonfan said:

Do we have the average weekday attendance versus weekend? ...

According to what somebody posted on Reddit:

 

[grasshopper1917]

6 hours ago, hamiltonfan said:

We know these clubs are sustainable at 2k a game. Gate, and general game day, revenues are significant portion of the total revenue. 

It would be hard to believe any fully professional team in any coast to coast Canadian league is sustainable with only a couple grand showing up a game.

 

[hamiltonfan]

10 hours ago, hamiltonfan said:

Do we have the average weekday attendance versus weekend? 

The clubs consistently draw in the 2000s need to change something in their marketing approach. There has to be a better way to meaningfully engage with their local football communities better. 

We know these clubs are NOT sustainable at 2k a game. Gate, and general game day, revenues are significant portion of the total revenue. 

NOT SUSTAINABLE- miss type!  

[Aird25]

They can start by fixing the bloody schedule. Back to back midweek games at the start of the school year? Pacific’s home schedule has been so bad

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

Another thing that doesn't help on crowds right now (as I just saw pointed out on Reddit) is that it's crystal clear that barring some sort of miracle the championship games will be Forge vs Cavalry, so all the games through to the end of the regular season will have little impact in competitive terms. They really needed playoffs to spice things up for the other five teams and keep fans engaged once the summer weather was out of the way.

[ted]

12 hours ago, CDNFootballer said:

Nope, new stand is open, not a lot of fans there though but its a weekday. The family zone bleachers behind the net are gone for this one though, looks better without them and not needed at this point anyway.

Right?!?!  I keep saying to anyone who will listen that taking out the stupid ground-=level bleachers at that end makes it much better. I want to see those railings covered in supporter banners with a pile of us behind them waving flags and making noise.

 

11 hours ago, CDNFootballer said:

2043 for Pacific FC vs York9 tonight.

Yeah, it sucked. Dragging people out midweek is arguably the stupidest scheduling decision this league has made.

 

11 hours ago, hamiltonfan said:

The clubs consistently draw in the 2000s need to change something in their marketing approach. There has to be a better way to meaningfully engage with their local football communities better. 

Yes and no. I agree Pacific et al can do a better job of marketing but they are most certainly doing a great job of engaging, "with their local football communities". However that means jack shit as young kids on teams are not the ones buying tickets and arranging transport to and from games after their frigging bedtimes on a school night!

The final five home games for PFC (Sept-Oct) include 3 Wednesday nights and two Saturdays. Kids basically cannot attend the Wednesday games as they would get home between 9:30 - 10:00 pm. The Saturday games are being played during the day, when  most of those kids are PLAYING SOCCER for those teams that the club is engaging with very well.

Besides the schedule issue, what needs to happen is the LEAGUE needs to engage with media better. This league is about as well known to the average Canadian as... well, let's just say it barely registers. It doesn't show up on highlights shows or in national sports reporting. 

 

12 minutes ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Another thing that doesn't help on crowds right now (as I just saw pointed out on Reddit) is that it's crystal clear that barring some sort of miracle the championship games will be Forge vs Cavalry, so all the games through to the end of the regular season will have little impact in competitive terms. They really needed playoffs to spice things up for the other five teams and keep fans engaged once the summer weather was out of the way.

And here is one of the biggest reasons I keep harping on about only playing teams ONCE home and away in the season. What is there to get excited about in seeing a team come to town that you have already played once, sometimes even twice before? If they do show up in a cup competition there is least the added interest of knocking them out of the competition. But last night was like the fifth time we played York. How do you sell that when nothing is on the line?

[Ingham]

It's the first year lads. Relax. I think if we ever hit 12,000 average attendance in some communities in the future, I'd be satisfied with it.

[Gopherbashi]

2 hours ago, Aird25 said:

They can start by fixing the bloody schedule. Back to back midweek games at the start of the school year? Pacific’s home schedule has been so bad

Honestly, they need to do something to mix it up with so many games for so few teams.  Either bring it down to 24 games and do a double home & away, or add some extra cup tournament in there to make the midweek games mean something if you're intent on keeping it at 28.

Also yes, fix the goddamn schedule.  York had 10 home matches in 8 weeks during May & June, and now none for the last month.

[CDNFootballer]

19 hours ago, CDNFootballer said:

2043 for Pacific FC vs York9 tonight.

CPL Website (and Soccerway) updated to show 2384 for the attendance # last night at Westhills.

[CDNFootballer]

3586 for Valour FC in Winnipeg for the match vs Forge FC on a poor weather night.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

No sign of a correction so far:

https://ca.soccerway.com/matches/2019/09/13/canada/canadian-premier-league/valour/forge/2991895/

[Cheeta]

1 hour ago, CDNFootballer said:

3586 for Valour FC in Winnipeg for the match vs Forge FC on a poor weather night.

3K tops.  Maybe a bit less.  It's hard to judge when everyone gets scattered around the grounds but easily the worst crowd of the year.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

Judge for yourselves. Sparser looking in the highlights than other games including the last one, in my opinion:

but the floor can't be much lower than 3000 on season tickets when it comes to announced numbers.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

No number so far for the Pacific vs FCE game:

https://ca.soccerway.com/matches/2019/09/14/canada/canadian-premier-league/canada-pacific-fc/fc-edmonton/2991896/

https://canpl.ca/matchcentre/5dn16vvqaa96vbba40es3uq22/highlights

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

No sign of a crowd number so far for the Forge game, but will leave the links so it is easy to check:

https://ca.soccerway.com/matches/2019/09/15/canada/canadian-premier-league/forge/hfx-wanderers/2991897/

https://canpl.ca/matchcentre/5dzgbpowfq3bfc0jp50nxi0yy/highlights

Could post more screen grabs with more depressing evidence of there being acres of empty seats rather than packed sections of fans, but I'm sure you all saw that on the Onesoccer coverage. Hopefully the Wanderers are going to provide reasons to be upbeat over the coming week and to believe this league can actually work.

Edit: 6016 announced

Edited September 15, 2019 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[grasshopper1917]

16 minutes ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Hopefully the Wanderers are going to provide reasons to be upbeat over the coming week and to believe this league can actually work.

I think its safe to say we are not likely going to win the league title...... however I think we now have a real shot at being the attendance champs!    lol

[baulderdash77]

1 hour ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

No sign of a crowd number so far for the Forge game, but will leave the links so it is easy to check:

https://ca.soccerway.com/matches/2019/09/15/canada/canadian-premier-league/forge/hfx-wanderers/2991897/

https://canpl.ca/matchcentre/5dzgbpowfq3bfc0jp50nxi0yy/highlights

Could post more screen grabs with more depressing evidence of there being acres of empty seats rather than packed sections of fans, but I'm sure you all saw that on the Onesoccer coverage. Hopefully the Wanderers are going to provide reasons to be upbeat over the coming week and to believe this league can actually work.

Edit: 6016 announced

There were more people in the concourse than in the stands today I’d say.  The bar was pretty packed.  

I thought 6,000 was about right.

[Shortdutchcanuck]

18 minutes ago, baulderdash77 said:

There were more people in the concourse than in the stands today I’d say.  The bar was pretty packed.  

I thought 6,000 was about right.

Could have been a little less than that from where I was sitting but Supercrawl is going on this weekend and that's become a pretty huge event in Hamilton.  

Either way a whole season in the 5000 to 6000 range seems like a solid start to me.  

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

Link to York 9, no number yet:

https://ca.soccerway.com/matches/2019/09/15/canada/canadian-premier-league/york-9/valour/2991898/

https://canpl.ca/matchcentre/5e6552cfhize1wrtn1985u6p6/highlights

But there are people on the far side (York students?), so might be higher than usual.

Edited September 16, 2019 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[Macksam]

22 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

No sign of a crowd number so far for the Forge game, but will leave the links so it is easy to check:

https://ca.soccerway.com/matches/2019/09/15/canada/canadian-premier-league/forge/hfx-wanderers/2991897/

https://canpl.ca/matchcentre/5dzgbpowfq3bfc0jp50nxi0yy/highlights

Could post more screen grabs with more depressing evidence of there being acres of empty seats rather than packed sections of fans, but I'm sure you all saw that on the Onesoccer coverage. Hopefully the Wanderers are going to provide reasons to be upbeat over the coming week and to believe this league can actually work.

Edit: 6016 announced

It just saw the highlights (great match it looked like) and it didn’t look half bad at all.....😐

[Ams1984]

19 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Link to York 9, no number yet:

https://ca.soccerway.com/matches/2019/09/15/canada/canadian-premier-league/york-9/valour/2991898/

https://canpl.ca/matchcentre/5e6552cfhize1wrtn1985u6p6/highlights

But there are people on the far side (York students?), so might be higher than usual.

Looked higher than usual in person, but I’m not sure of a number. 

[KW519]

22 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Hopefully the Wanderers are going to provide reasons to be upbeat over the coming week and to believe this league can actually work.

Edit: 6016 announced

Are you part of the solution or part of the problem?

Majority of these clubs didnt exist 2 years ago, allow them a few more cup runs, a few more seasons to actually develop fan bases before you start jumping to conclusions. 

Developing and selling players on, sell on percentages, camps, merch sales, prize money and sponsorships shouldn't be overlooked. This is not MLS where the league is eating your transfer fees and sharing your profits with other owners. 

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

Not sure what most of that has to do with this thread. You appear to be reading way more into posts than is actually there. The main reason why it would be better for the league to keep things grounded in reality where attendance numbers are concerned as some of the teams have been doing most of the time this season is that it helps people to understand why they are not watching any CMNT regulars or big money import signings and to be content with what they have.

Beyond that if you look at the history of pro soccer in North America a recurring pattern is that pretending you have significantly larger crowds than you actually do usually doesn't lead anywhere good because it suggests ownership are not comfortable with how things are really going and may soon tire of not having what they really want. Hopefully the downsize on active capacity in Hamilton will be a case of far fewer freebies and cut price deals happening in year two with a focus on catering to the core ticket paying fanbase after using year one to get lots of people in to sample the product.

[BuzzAndSting]

51 minutes ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Beyond that if you look at the history of pro soccer in North America a recurring pattern is that pretending you have significantly larger crowds than you actually do usually doesn't lead anywhere good because it suggests ownership are not comfortable with how things are really going and may soon tire of not having what they really want.

It actually happens in every league in North America, so much so that it's the status quo. It's been done routinely in the NFL, NHL, MLB and minor leagues, even college football has had this issue the last couple seasons. 

Because of that no one obsesses about it, except for you.