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2019 Canadian Premier League Attendance


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8 hours ago, Gopherbashi said:

Serious question for everyone so I'm not ruffling too many feathers.

Are posts like this useful for people in this thread?  Attempt at some math & analysis without trying to take a positive/negative stance.  Or would people just prefer to discuss the weekly numbers as mentioned above.

Just let me know so I can knock it off if needed.

You keep doing what you’re doing brother.

 

EDIT image removed: Why?  Why use that? I get the controversy is stupid, but I don't need more.....

 

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728 announced for York 9 vs FCE according to wikipedia. No more than 200 actual according to Mikmacdo but there could have been a lot of weather related no shows.

7 hours ago, Mikmacdo said:

Great game so far. I will comeback if they play montreal. I dont think theres 200 fans here though. 

No number yet for the Halifax vs Valour game, but doubt it's more than around 1500 judging from the highlights.

5 hours ago, Winnipeg Fury said:

Valour have included their initial V-Cup game in the season tickets.

Think all of the teams did that to get the number of games on the season ticket up to the promised fifteen. The problem that is being faced in some of the cities is that there is lukewarm interest from STHs in the second game, so in retrospect they should probably have done that up until the entry point of the MLS teams and/or used it as a one off opportunity to paper the house with comps to get people in who are curious about the team. It will take time for most of the fans to understand the importance of these games.

Edited by Ozzie_the_parrot
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About 500-600 would be my best guess. I did a rough count of the number sitting in the main stand with the red seats, and there were about 200 there, but there appeared to be far more at the top of that block of seats, huddled under various canopies, etc. It was raining steady for most of the game, so naturally few people wanted to sit in exposed, wet seats. There were a decent number of people in certain VIP tents, too.

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11 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

728 announced for York 9 vs FCE according to wikipedia. No more than 200 actual according to Mikmacdo but there could have been a lot of weather related no shows.

The club owners must be cursing their bad luck that they couldn't have got today's weather yesterday for the game. It certainly kept me from home (I'm not a "no-show" as I don't have seasons tickets but I could have at least made it 729 and I am sure others were in the same boat).

On the other hand, they must be thinking that if they can hang on to the lead in the 2nd leg or at least not give up 2 goals, they should have a great crowd for the next round against the Impact

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Transit was slow in general. I left home in eastern Scarborough shortly after 4pm, and planned to casually take the bus across Ellesmere/York Mills/Wilson to Wilson Station. Big mistake - waiting times were long, and traffic was about as slow as it gets on that cross-town route. I arrived just in time for the start of the game, though I planned to be at the stadium quite early.

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I got there in 45 mins or so from lansdowne subway. Transit issues were solved by then. I counted people in the seats it was maybe 100 and then 100 were standing i would guess. No way 700 plus were at the game. There were at least 4 sections without 1 person in it. 

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7 minutes ago, Toronto Ruffrider said:

^You had a better commute than I did lol. The east end isn't well served by subway.

No way 700 were there, but definitely more than 200. I walked around the stadium, and I saw fans occupying a lot of nooks and crannies.

Could that be counting season ticket holders ?

If my ticket is purchased, that's all that matters.

 

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18 hours ago, CanadaFan123 said:

Ridiculous to not have a sell out for what is essentially the biggest competition Halifax will play in this season.  Season tickets ticket holders shouldn’t have to pay full price, at the least, for tickets to these games.

At then end of the day the public decides what is a 'big' competition. While I and a small circle of Canadian soccer enthusiasts consider the Voyagers Cup a cool tournament the VAST majority of Canadians don't know it exists. On top of that of those that know it exists I would say a strong majority don't really care.  

For instance last year the second leg of the championship was held at BMO Field and drew under 15,000 which was well below what even a regular season MLS game would draw.

In the USA the attendance at the US Open cup is even more abysmal with MLS sides frequently drawing a few thousand fans.

As it stands now most people in Canada and the USA just don't care about the soccer cup competitions. I'm not saying that wont change, im not saying if that is right or wrong. However the reality is the US and American domestic cups today according to the fans are not really 'big competitions'.

Hopefully over time that will change.

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My opinion is that fans don’t go to the biggest game because they just don’t know.  If you explained to any reasonable person the implications of the games they would choose voyageurs cup.  It’s the club and leagues job to educate people and make it reasonably priced so that fans can come and don’t need to pay any more than a regular season ticket to attend.  I don’t expect MLS teams to do that because they specifically try to funnel interest toward their league and ignore other competitions in the interest of profit.  MLS isn’t football people - they’re business people.

As CPL though, this is the first year but moving forward we should really start to make people aware.  This competition will benefit our league more than anyone as we try to assert ourselves.  

 

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4 hours ago, Winnipeg Fury said:

Could that be counting season ticket holders ?

If my ticket is purchased, that's all that matters.

 

It's unlikely, given that this game wasn't a part of our package. After the home opener against Forge on May 25 (the one in which the stadium was cleared out and people were told the game was cancelled), fans who attended that game were given complimentary tickets to another game, and I chose to use my comp tickets on the Canadian Championship game last night. I suspect enough people made the same decision as me, but faced with another rainy day at the stadium, some people with comp tickets just stayed home.

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18 hours ago, grasshopper1917 said:

At then end of the day the public decides what is a 'big' competition.

Right?!? The general public is barely aware that, "There is a new soccer team/league or something?" (At least that's what I hear all the time.)



 

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On 6/5/2019 at 8:41 PM, grasshopper1917 said:

Looked quite a bit less then that one One Soccer. Maybe 1500 or 2000 at the very tops. Hopefully this is a learning experience for the club. Start time was crazy, virtually no promotion of the game outside social media, ticketing problems, pricing uncertainty......

I think early round cup games during the week in general around going to be a tough sell for all teams in the league. Many season ticket holders may be hesitant to pay another $25-$50 per ticket on top of their season ticket fees just to see a midweek match against another CPL club. 

On top of that I think single match tickets are generally going to be a bit of a struggle during the week for all clubs in general as the league builds a name for itself. I imagine during the weekday matches most clubs will rely on the season ticket holders to bolster the stands.

I'm hoping in the future clubs may use the early cup games to run promotions such as York's all seats for 10$. Also possibly bump up the ad promotion of the games to increase knowledge of the club, league and cup. 

Would be a shame not to work on this and just have the cup games played in front of much smaller then usual crowds. 

 

Big mistake not including both in the package.

Qualification one Wednesday at home, and then sell tickets and play the next week? That always should have been included. 

Also, those 6pm AST kickoffs are dreadful. Halifax should push back against that next season. 

 

 

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14 minutes ago, youllneverwalkalone said:

I would also trade this off-weekend for one less Wednesday match.

It's a learning process for the league. They might want to consider Thursdays instead of wednesdays in my opinion.

Also, teams will catch on pretty fast that investing in some time of roofing protecting fans from the rain is good for attendance 

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On 6/6/2019 at 2:25 PM, grasshopper1917 said:

At then end of the day the public decides what is a 'big' competition. While I and a small circle of Canadian soccer enthusiasts consider the Voyagers Cup a cool tournament the VAST majority of Canadians don't know it exists. On top of that of those that know it exists I would say a strong majority don't really care.  

For instance last year the second leg of the championship was held at BMO Field and drew under 15,000 which was well below what even a regular season MLS game would draw.

In the USA the attendance at the US Open cup is even more abysmal with MLS sides frequently drawing a few thousand fans.

As it stands now most people in Canada and the USA just don't care about the soccer cup competitions. I'm not saying that wont change, im not saying if that is right or wrong. However the reality is the US and American domestic cups today according to the fans are not really 'big competitions'.

Hopefully over time that will change.

You're not wrong on any of this.  But also, it's disappointing that a league that's droned on and on and on about "telling a story" couldn't do anything with "it's a trophy awarded by fans during some of the darkest times of Canadian soccer and in which pro clubs, regardless of level, compete with one another to determine the champion of Canada and then go on to compete in a continental competition."

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14 hours ago, Ansem said:

It's a learning process for the league. They might want to consider Thursdays instead of wednesdays in my opinion.

Also, teams will catch on pretty fast that investing in some time of roofing protecting fans from the rain is good for attendance 

There is definitely room to improve the schedule. I am particularly disappointed with PFC home schedule in the fall. Whereas, the summer is great, one game on Canada day and four more Saturdays, once September rolls around it is not so great. Three of their final five home games are on Wednesday. Two of those are September 4th and 11th, which is right during back to school and sports and such starting for kids, certainly not a great time for families to go. 

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The attendance at last week's Valour - Wanderers 1st leg in Halifax was apparently 3,854. I'm pleasantly surprised, as my high end guess was 2,500. This wasn't included in the season ticket package, so the numbers weren't boosted by that. Weather wasn't that great and the start time was shit (6:15 local), so maybe folks picked up tickets with the intention of going, but didn't venture out to the grounds? 

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3 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

No announced crowd number so far for Cavalry vs Forge but looked like they got a good response to their ticket discount deal, because there were a depressingly large number of blue dots in the main stand until a day or two ago.

How much were they discounting the tickets?

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