2019 Canadian Premier League Attendance

[PaulV]

1 hour ago, Bison44 said:

From watching other foreign leagues (USL included) I see tons of empty stands and wonder how do they stay afloat?? 

In Europe and overseas they are often bus leagues. All the cities are close enough together the travel costs are a lot lower. No flights, no overnight stays.

USLC is a regional league (East West); at this level having a national league doesn't make financial sense (and that's given travel costs that are a lot lower in the US). Also, the worst offenders are usually the reserve sides that are being subsidized by their MLS parent.

Edited October 9, 2019 by PaulV

[CDNFootballer]

8 hours ago, Bison44 said:

From watching other foreign leagues (USL included) I see tons of empty stands and wonder how do they stay afloat??

USL has lost their fair share of teams over the years since 2011 (even more failed teams than the NASL over the years).

Considering they're charging 8 million for an expansion franchise, its no wonder teams struggle and most don't make money in USL. USL has a good pr dept. and an amount of teams where they can lose 1 or 2 each year and still sucker someone into buying an expansion franchise to replace them however.

Recent crowds from last week in USL C show FC Tucson with announced attendance of 678, Louden United FC with 617, and Chattanooga Red Wolves with 512 (they actually announced 235 at about a week back for a game), plus the "2" or "B" teams with 203 and 168 in Orlando and Toronto.

Lets be thankful that CPL hasn't had any of those types of crowds in its first year.

[Bison44]

The red wolves, Tucson, Orlando and TFC2 are all USL-ONE teams, down another level from USL-Championship, but your point still stands.  Top 10 USL are over 6k, bottom 10 are under 2k.  Marginally better than our first year and just to put it in persepctive, a lot of the top USL teams have an eye on MLS.   

And just for the A-holes, i dont have any idea what % of those people actual paid for their tickets.  Just like when i watch Baseball or NFL I dont wonder..how many of those tickets were bought on special promotion, or were giveaways to local youth teams?? I dont hold the CPL up to a different (higher) standard than I do any other sports league.  

[Bison44]

6055 attendance for Halifax tonight.  Another sellout??

[CDNFootballer]

12 minutes ago, Bison44 said:

The red wolves, Tucson, Orlando and TFC2 are all USL-ONE teams, down another level from USL-Championship, but your point still stands.  Top 10 USL are over 6k, bottom 10 are under 2k.  Marginally better than our first year and just to put it in persepctive, a lot of the top USL teams have an eye on MLS.   

And just for the A-holes, i dont have any idea what % of those people actual paid for their tickets.  Just like when i watch Baseball or NFL I dont wonder..how many of those tickets were bought on special promotion, or were giveaways to local youth teams?? I dont hold the CPL up to a different (higher) standard than I do any other sports league.  

Yes, your correct - in addition to Louden I should have mentioned USL C teams Swope Park and Bethlehem Steel who announced crowds of 369 and 351 as examples. Looked like Swope Park had about 100 turnstile last night vs Ottawa Fury as well, a shame with the nice stadium they have.

[narduch]

32 minutes ago, CDNFootballer said:

Yes, your correct - in addition to Louden I should have mentioned USL C teams Swope Park and Bethlehem Steel who announced crowds of 369 and 351 as examples. Looked like Swope Park had about 100 turnstile last night vs Ottawa Fury as well, a shame with the nice stadium they have.

Those are both MLS Reserve teams. 

I think Bethlehem plays its games at the Unions stadium

[Terry_Canuck]

Not quite a sell out tonight, there were some empty seats (about 70-80) in the open seating section, but mostly everywhere else was filled to capacity.

Really happy with how the city has embraced the team.  Also happy we only lost two games at home...that's my positive anyway. 😉

[CDNFootballer]

1938 in Calgary tonight braving the cold.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

Not quite a sellout in Halifax with 6055 but the numbers showing up are close to that announced and this demonstrates again that weeknights can work when fan interest is strong locally and the stadium is located centrally:

https://ca.soccerway.com/matches/2019/10/10/canada/canadian-premier-league/hfx-wanderers/canada-pacific-fc/2991911/

Not too many people appear to have taken the hill and got a $10 ticket in Calgary by the looks of things:

https://ca.soccerway.com/matches/2019/10/10/canada/canadian-premier-league/cavalry/forge/2991870/

1938 can't be much higher than the number of season tickets sold and judging from the highlights actual attendance may have been under 1000. Given it was -10 degrees Celsius when the game ended this sort of weather and turnout explains the rumour that a May-Sept season is being considered.

Edited October 10, 2019 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

20 hours ago, Ansem said:

The league is like 5 months old. There's cause to panic if by 2025-2026 the numbers remains the same when the league should be peaking due to the 2026 hype.

Too early to be writing all this unsupported nonsense

The 6000-8000 numbers was quoted ad nauseam as being the target for CanPL by people employed by the league, so that is hardly unsupported nonsense. At no point did I suggest that the investors expected to get there straight away, but they are unlikely to be happy about what's happening when actual tickets scanned crowds dip below 2000.

Edited October 10, 2019 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[Ansem]

2 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

The 6000-8000 numbers was quoted ad nauseam as being the target for CanPL by people employed by the league, so that is hardly unsupported nonsense.

That was pre-MediaPro deal IIRC. Also, the problem is you repeating yourself over and over and over and over again.

We got the memo loud and clear the 1st time.

2 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

At no point did I suggest that the investors expected to get there straight away, but they are unlikely to be happy about what's happening when actual tickets scanned crowds dip below 2000.

Duh...we know. Are you done writing the same crap every time? Post the attendance but your nitpicking on the numbers if Fn annoying.

[RS]

You guys really are opposite sides of the same coin.

[Stanley]

2 hours ago, RS said:

You guys really are opposite sides of the same coin.

A loonie?

[sting]

3 minutes ago, Lofty said:

Shoot me now.

I would like to help you but until the plows come, I can't get out.

[Bison44]

2 minutes ago, sting said:

I would like to help you but until the plows come, I can't get out.

^^^ this.  Where are these goobers that think if we have a short season the CPL will be a joke.  This is canada...you have 7 months, maybe u can wangle 8 in some parts of the country for soccer.  I can just see Mr parrots comments if WPG draws 2000 because every highway in every direction is closed for 2 days and there are 30inches of snow.  

[grasshopper1917]

I know im gonna get flack for this BUT..... The CFL regular season runs into November and they have teams in Edmonton, Winnipeg and Calgary 

 

However in all fairness I think the CPL could run a season 2-4 games shorter and save a couple weeks. Especially if we keep this format. 

[jonovision]

This week's snowstorm in Winnipeg is as much of a freak event as it would be if it happened anywhere else other than Calgary. In general, if you played until the end of October you'd have a high probability of no snow on the ground and above-zero game temps. Not pleasant, exactly, but playable.

[Cheeta]

3 minutes ago, grasshopper1917 said:

I know im gonna get flack for this BUT..... The CFL regular season runs into November and they have teams in Edmonton, Winnipeg and Calgary 

...

 

Bombers have an 85 year head start on Valour.  The DNA of the generational Bomber supporters has be mutated into accepting abusive October/November weather.

Now if you'll excuse me got to help the brother-in-law get his P.O.S. chainsaw started so we can get the 85 year old elm branches out of his bay window and put up some plywood.

What a country.

[Gopherbashi]

2 hours ago, grasshopper1917 said:

I know im gonna get flack for this BUT..... The CFL regular season runs into November and they have teams in Edmonton, Winnipeg and Calgary 

 

However in all fairness I think the CPL could run a season 2-4 games shorter and save a couple weeks. Especially if we keep this format. 

Playing a shorter season is a good thought, but what happens to the player contracts?

If they stay at their current value, then that expense remains the same, while teams lose a few extra home games of revenue.

If they get pro-rated, then that represents a 7-15% pay cut for the players - one which might tip the scales into soccer being "not worth it" from an income-earning point of view.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

Will drop the link as a placeholder for the official Y9 number:

https://ca.soccerway.com/matches/2019/10/12/canada/canadian-premier-league/york-9/forge/2991887/

They have a running update on soccerway on possession and game incidents this week, which I've never seen before for a CanPL game.

Edit: announced as 2314 but probably closer to 500 actual.

For it to be around 2300 actual you would need the main stand to be around two-thirds full and it clearly isn't even close to that.

Edited October 13, 2019 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[CDNFootballer]

Official announced attendance for York9 Saturday was 2314 as per the CPL website.

[Macksam]

I was about to reply to BBTB but I'm just not gonna bother.

[Kent]

12 hours ago, Lofty said:

Judging by the blue dots on TM for Valour's final home match on Wed, any announced attendance above 2k will be a parrot's wet dream.

Bit of a shame that the season is ending with barely a whimper. They should have given all STH's free tickets to get some of those seats filled. Always thinking short term, unfortunately.

That would have been even better news for the parrot.

[T_Bison]

Considering the weather as it has been, I'm not overly concerned. We'll get to 4000 tickets I think.

[Cheeta]

We'll see.  Going to be thin in the grandstand.

Speaking of complimentary tickets to the STHs, didn't we get a voucher you could redeem for one of the matches?  We never used ours as I have it in my head that they were for the cheaper sections only and anyone who came with us wanted to watch with us so no good.  Not a bad idea to repeat next year.