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2019 Canadian Premier League Attendance


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Will be interesting to see if the City of Langford bother with the stand behind the goal, if PFC can't regularly sell out what's there. In per capita terms 2500 in Victoria is comparable to a low five figure crowd in Calgary to put what is happening in perspective.

5000+ looked like a stretch for a Victoria team but hopefully they can find ways to attract more of a casual fanbase to get up to more financially sustainable numbers, because being in the 2000-2500 range on average won't pay the bills.

Edited by Ozzie_the_parrot
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7 hours ago, Cheeta said:

 

Ha!  Never mind the tourists, just look at that hooli.  Trouble maker if there ever was one. Just ask my Mum. 

God I (Truly) hope my husband says this about me :) 

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2 hours ago, SpursFlu said:

Im not sure about numbers but ive really enjoyed watching the games at Spruce Meadows. Looks great and the supporters seem to be creating a great environment. Stands look pretty full to me. Full marks for the Red Green tifo

Yup. If the tickets were at a price they could fill the mains grandstand if would be incredible. The foot soldiers are absolutely killing it from the supporters section. 

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In terms of PFC and their attendance...

I am a little disappointed with the numbers, but, to be fair, they have taken one for the league in terms of early scheduling. That being said, it would obviously be better if we were getting more fans, and it would show more signs of long term sustainability. 

Back to the scheduling, aside from the home opener, none of these games have been played on ideal dates. Our second and CC games were on weeknights with less then ideal weather. This guarentees an empty family section. The game against York may seem like an ideal day, but there are two issues that likely cost them 1,000 or so fans. Firstly, I think for the sake of timing the viewing schedule, they started at 12:30, which is far from ideal in terms of drawing in any walk up crowds. In addition, this is the May long weekend. A weekend in which half of the people of Victoria leave the city to go for the first camp or something of the year. Based on the many season tickets that seemed to be on resale. I actually wouldn't be surprised if paid attendance was actually higher then those who showed. 

All these excuses aside, it can hopefully improve with more exposure, marketing, and better dates. Given the time before our next home game, the day (Sunday), and time (3pm) anything less then 4k would be bad no matter how it is spun. 

Final thoughts...

Positives- It seems that weather, day, etc aside, PFC can rely on a pretty passionate and knowledgeable base of 2000-2500 fans. Given the size of the stadium, there is still clearly a great atmosphere as well. The ownership group seems willing to stick it out for at least a couple years, and given the salaries, sponsorship, other sources of revenue, if they can get average attendance up to 4k by the end of the year, they may still break even. 

Negatives- You still need more paying customers to break even. The stadium location is still not ideal. I am hopeful again that the busing and exposure will help.

Neutral- Langford and the mayor is very supportive, which is probably helping to mitigate costs, as they are handling it. This is great for the team ownership, but is a neutral because if more receptive ears opened up in the downtown, Langford will probably not want to let it go. 

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22 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Will be interesting to see if the City of Langford bother with the stand behind the goal, if PFC can't regularly sell out what's there.

With the stand already being there from overseas they might as well set it up and remove the metal bleachers on that end instead if they don't want to go the full 6K yet.

Wooden grandstand meant for that end has a partial roof and better seating.

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On 5/18/2019 at 3:18 PM, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Will be interesting to see if the City of Langford bother with the stand behind the goal, if PFC can't regularly sell out what's there.

I was told four months ago or more, that the second phase (including moving the Hydro Pole and replacing the pitch) were dependent on hitting certain minimum attendance targets for the season. Was not told what they were but I'm sure we aren't there yet.

 

On 5/18/2019 at 11:28 PM, ktf said:

Positives- It seems that weather, day, etc aside, PFC can rely on a pretty passionate and knowledgeable base of 2000-2500 fans. Given the size of the stadium, there is still clearly a great atmosphere as well. The ownership group seems willing to stick it out for at least a couple years, and given the salaries, sponsorship, other sources of revenue, if they can get average attendance up to 4k by the end of the year, they may still break even.

The other positive is that acquaintances, with no previous soccer interest and have yet to go, are talking to me about how great the games sounds. They want to come try because there is a "buzz" around the game-day experience. If they know nothing, it seems they know that it is a fun experience.

 

On 5/19/2019 at 6:59 AM, youllneverwalkalone said:

Is the club organizing transportation from Downtown Victoria?

Yes, they are currently running a free shuttle from downtown Victoria to the park for ticket holders. Not huge yet, and there have been kinks every game, but especially on the weeknight games it has been great zipping past the Colwood Crawl in the bus lanes.

Edited by ted
grammar
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On 5/16/2019 at 2:30 PM, Unnamed Trialist said:

I agree, but a question: do you know why they brought in folks from Italy to install modular wooden stands with lovely roofs that only cover part of the stands, leaving a swath open to the rain?

I only noticed it by the way folks were sitting, in a line just covered by the roof in each case. 

Why the hell wouldn't they cover the whole stand they installed, it is really dumb, but only now I saw it.

I had noticed that as well during the Vs Cup match. Took a closer look during the game this weekend and I can't figure it out. The roof seems to be complete but those gaps are still there. I don't know how to explain it other than a mistake or poor planning.

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22 hours ago, masster said:

I had noticed that as well during the Vs Cup match. Took a closer look during the game this weekend and I can't figure it out. The roof seems to be complete but those gaps are still there. I don't know how to explain it other than a mistake or poor planning.

As I think I mentioned elsewhere, it was a design choice that had to be approved by the City of Langford whose staff have little or no experience of small stadiums and probably don't want to admit it rains and/or don't believe it's their problem if it does. Add in to this that the City probably wasn't willing to add to the cost by modifying the roof on the existing stand and we end up with something that a designer though was aesthetically pleasing.

I'm more concerned with getting the additional stands and maybe some sort of partial roof over the totally exposed stands eventually.

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Looking backwards had you said in 2018 that at this point Halifax will be putting 6,000 throught the turnstiles for their league fixtures, Valour's worst crowd was  4 1/2 thousands and both Cavalry & Pacific were drawing north of 3K you would likely have come in for some sharp words from more than one of your fellow Vs.  Very encouraging but a long season ahead of us yet so plenty of work still to do.

Looking forwards I expect some actual marketing will at worst maintain those number and at best exaggerate them.  In a few markets anyway.  And I can only imagine how a successful Gold Cup is going to help this league, a lack of CPL players on the squad notwithstanding.  Hell, a successful WWC even.  Anything that shines a positive light on Canadian football, if only by deflection, is helpful.

Wishfull thinking, if Valour can build up the 1st of July fixture against York enough their venue has capacity to bring in season topping numbers for the league along with season topping revenue.  Just saying, the potential is there, but they'll  need to work for it and have 5 weeks to do it.  

Here's to The Ladies conquering France, the laddies scarring the Hell out of CONCACAF and CPL grabbing a firm hold of seven markets from coast to bloody coast. 

Cheers.   

 

 

Edited by Cheeta
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Nothing on the CanPL website about the other two crowds, which is not surprising judging from this:

Not good when even the reasonably priced seats are not selling out. Big problem with the Cavalry is probably the location.

According to Gopherbashi, the actual crowd for York 9 was probably just north of 1000 or so:

 

Edited by Ozzie_the_parrot
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9 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Nothing on the CanPL website about the other two crowds, which is not surprising judging from this:

Not good when even the reasonably priced seats are not selling out. Big problem with the Cavalry is probably the location.

According to Gopherbashi, the actual crowd for York 9 was probably just north of 1000 or so:

 

Looking at the photo someone sent me yesterday, I think my estimate is a very generous one.

Very generous.

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