2019 Canadian Premier League Attendance

[The Real Marc]

Nice view there, I'm impressed with what they've done with Spruce Meadows.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

3 hours ago, grasshopper1917 said:

How much were they discounting the tickets?

 

[Reign]

The Cavalry fans absolutely killed it last night. Spruce Meadows looked to have around 4K attendance for a Wednesday cup game. I seen a lot of people saying that was there first game at spruce and absolutely loved it. Should be a unreal atmosphere for the Whitecaps game. 

[Bison44]

Very smart, that is still 25$ a ticket and you rope them into getting 4.  Have the parking and traffic issues gotten ironed out at Spruce meadows??  The complaining about it seems to have died down.  

[Ams1984]

Some perspective on attendance:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.rte.ie/amp/1039008/

The CPL already has higher average attendance than the Irish Premier League, which has existed for a while now. Nobody is shilling about the imminent folding of any of that league’s clubs, but all you have to do is check out the York 9 FC thread here to see multiple examples of that sort of negativity. By the way, York 9 FC’s average attendance would be on the high end of the IPL’s. Maybe we should be grateful for this amazing new league that we have, and stop with the damned negativity. 

[Ngravs]

Attendance was announced at the Valour game at 4578 if I remember correctly. 

[Ansem]

Safe to say that York Lions and Spruce Meadows will sell out for Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps.

We know that Halifax will do well but hoping that Halifax attracts the highest attendance for the Fury...you know... to prove a point.

Edited June 13, 2019 by Ansem

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

8 hours ago, Ams1984 said:

Some perspective on attendance:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.rte.ie/amp/1039008/

The CPL already has higher average attendance than the Irish Premier League, which has existed for a while now. Nobody is shilling about the imminent folding of any of that league’s clubs, but all you have to do is check out the York 9 FC thread here to see multiple examples of that sort of negativity...

Not sure you understand what shilling means. It refers to taking money to push a misleading corporate line of propaganda in a deceptive manner. I don't think that applies to any of your fellow York 9 fans who have been expressing concern about what they have been seeing on actual as opposed to announced attendance at the games so far.

Beyond that what you need to understand about the League of Ireland (or whatever it calls itself at the moment) is that it is mainly (but not exclusively) semi-pro and since you can get to most places in the Republic of Ireland in under 3 hours or so by bus there is no necessity for air travel. That means that clubs with under 500 fans on average can and do sustain themselves in the RoI's national league structure although they are normally confined to the second tier. In contrast, once fully pro contracts are the norm and air travel is involved a league like CanPL probably needs 4000 minimum to break even.

http://european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn/aveirl.htm

Even in the LoI, clubs like Monaghan United have folded, however, when they have struggled to regularly attract more than 200 fans. The RoI is also pretty much the only UEFA member not to have a pyramid system, because national travel is viewed as too much of a burden for most of the smaller local clubs there, so there is no appetite for promotion from the regional leagues that exist. Soccer is probably only the fourth most popular spectator sport there after Gaelic football (a bit like Aussie rules but on a rectangular field), hurling (a bit like field hockey) and Rugby Union and was actively discouraged by church and state for many decades since it was viewed as being too British. You are not setting the bar very high by using the RoI for comparison purposes.

Edited June 13, 2019 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

Crowd in Edmonton announced as 2076:

https://int.soccerway.com/matches/2019/06/13/canada/canadian-championship/fc-edmonton/york-9/2984611/

which may provide an insight into the number of season tickets given this was their first home game in this competition, so would probably have been included in the season ticket package.

The crowd in Cavalry is now given as 4000:

https://int.soccerway.com/matches/2019/06/12/canada/canadian-championship/cavalry/forge/2984610/

which looks like a rough placeholder estimate rather than an exact tickets distributed number.

9 hours ago, Ngravs said:

Attendance was announced at the Valour game at 4578 if I remember correctly. 

No number on soccerway yet:

https://int.soccerway.com/matches/2019/06/13/canada/canadian-championship/valour/hfx-wanderers/2984609/

Looks quite good in the highlights even with the scope for season ticket holder no shows given it was the first home game in the competition:

 

Edit: 4373 now showing on soccerway for the announced crowd. Actual looks a bit lower than that but not drastically.

https://int.soccerway.com/matches/2019/06/13/canada/canadian-championship/valour/hfx-wanderers/2984609/

Edited June 13, 2019 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[Ams1984]

7 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Not sure you understand what shilling means. It refers to taking money to push a misleading corporate line of propaganda in a deceptive manner. I don't think that applies to any of your fellow York 9 fans who have been expressing concern about what they have been seeing on actual as opposed to announced attendance at the games so far.

Beyond that what you need to understand about the League of Ireland (or whatever it calls itself at the moment) is that it is mainly (but not exclusively) semi-pro and since you can get to most places in the Republic of Ireland in under 3 hours or so by bus there is no necessity for air travel. That means that clubs with under 500 fans on average can and do sustain themselves in the RoI's national league structure although they are normally confined to the second tier. In contrast, once fully pro contracts are the norm and air travel is involved a league like CanPL probably needs 4000 minimum to break even.

http://european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn/aveirl.htm

Even in the LoI, clubs like Monaghan United have folded, however, when they have struggled to regularly attract more than 200 fans. The RoI is also pretty much the only UEFA member not to have a pyramid system, because national travel is viewed as too much of a burden for most of the smaller local clubs there, so there is no appetite for promotion from the regional leagues that exist. Soccer is probably only the fourth most popular spectator sport there after Gaelic football (a bit like Aussie rules but on a rectangular field), hurling (a bit like field hockey) and Rugby Union and was actively discouraged by church and state for many decades since it was viewed as being too British. You are not setting the bar very high by using the RoI for comparison purposes.

I actually think I’m using the word correctly; I don’t view anyone who discusses the probability of a club folding at this stage as constructive or in good faith. I believe that they aren’t just concerned fans, but are instead either trolls or people hoping for their predicted outcome, and pushing to make it happen by reinforcing the most negative possible perceptions of the league and it’s clubs. In other words, they may not be literal shills (not being paid to tow a proscribed line) but they do have a disingenuous agenda in my opinion. 

[Ams1984]

2 minutes ago, Ams1984 said:

I actually think I’m using the word correctly; I don’t view anyone who discusses the probability of a club folding at this stage as constructive or in good faith. I believe that they aren’t just concerned fans, but are instead either trolls or people hoping for their predicted outcome, and pushing to make it happen by reinforcing the most negative possible perceptions of the league and it’s clubs. In other words, they may not be literal shills (not being paid to tow a proscribed line) but they do have a disingenuous agenda in my opinion. 

1a: one who acts as a decoy (as for a pitchman or gambler)

 

b: one who makes a sales pitch or serves as a promoter

 

-From M. Webster. 

 

Using a term with some amount of metaphor is an acceptable rhetorical device. I understand that these commenters aren’t likely directly linked to some commercial agenda, but they are acting as a shills would in the sense that they are disguising the true agenda of their comments (which can only be to create or reinforce a detrimental perception of the club and league) and passing them off as legitimate good faith posts. 

[Ams1984]

7 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Not sure you understand what shilling means. It refers to taking money to push a misleading corporate line of propaganda in a deceptive manner. I don't think that applies to any of your fellow York 9 fans who have been expressing concern about what they have been seeing on actual as opposed to announced attendance at the games so far.

Beyond that what you need to understand about the League of Ireland (or whatever it calls itself at the moment) is that it is mainly (but not exclusively) semi-pro and since you can get to most places in the Republic of Ireland in under 3 hours or so by bus there is no necessity for air travel. That means that clubs with under 500 fans on average can and do sustain themselves in the RoI's national league structure although they are normally confined to the second tier. In contrast, once fully pro contracts are the norm and air travel is involved a league like CanPL probably needs 4000 minimum to break even.

http://european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn/aveirl.htm

Even in the LoI, clubs like Monaghan United have folded, however, when they have struggled to regularly attract more than 200 fans. The RoI is also pretty much the only UEFA member not to have a pyramid system, because national travel is viewed as too much of a burden for most of the smaller local clubs there, so there is no appetite for promotion from the regional leagues that exist. Soccer is probably only the fourth most popular spectator sport there after Gaelic football (a bit like Aussie rules but on a rectangular field), hurling (a bit like field hockey) and Rugby Union and was actively discouraged by church and state for many decades since it was viewed as being too British. You are not setting the bar very high by using the RoI for comparison purposes.

Also, I didn’t realize that the Irish league wasn’t fully professional; I thought that they had a pathway to the European Champions League. It surprises me that semi pro clubs would. It’s not germane to my point though; the CPL isn’t perfect, but it’s doing well so far. There is no basis at this point to speculate about the folding of any of our clubs. Our attendance rivals already established and viable leagues like USL and (I thought) the Irish League, but the point holds, there are many viable leagues with attendance numbers like ours. 

[Gopherbashi]

If anyone in this thread is acting as a shill, they would probably be repeatedly harassing others in order to stifle any discussion they don't see as positive towards a certain club.

[nfitz]

3 hours ago, Ams1984 said:

Also, I didn’t realize that the Irish league wasn’t fully professional; I thought that they had a pathway to the European Champions League. 

Almost every nation in Europe has a pathway to the Champions League - except Liechtenstein who have no national leagues (though their teams that play in the Swiss league can still get there).

Some of top soccer teams in Northern Ireland, Wales, Gibraltar, Faroe Island, aren't even semi-professional - let alone fully professional!

 

2 hours ago, Gopherbashi said:

If anyone in this thread is acting as a shill, they would probably be repeatedly harassing others in order to stifle any discussion they don't see as positive towards a certain club.

One can shill a product or something occasionally, or even once. No repetition is necessary.

[Ams1984]

2 hours ago, Gopherbashi said:

If anyone in this thread is acting as a shill, they would probably be repeatedly harassing others in order to stifle any discussion they don't see as positive towards a certain club.

I'm within my rights to respond to people who I perceive to be pushing a bogus negative agenda. It's hardly harassment, especially when it entails rebuttal comments posted on a comment-by-comment basis. I never initiate such exchanges, I limit myself to responding. Also, I can't be a shill in this case because I am very open about my agenda. My comments are exactly what they appear to be on their face; the calling out of disingenuous negative comments for what they are. 

You'll also note that I have never attempted to, nor called for, the censorship of any comment or poster on this or any forum. If you don't like what I have to say, feel free to argue against it. You may also ignore it at your discretion. Again, hardly harassment. As to stifling discussion, again that's not applicable here, as you have engaged and disagreed with me, and I've responded. There is no stifling, no censoring, no chilling effect whatsoever. In fact, its definitional conversation. Your and others' comments have elicited a contrary opinion from me.  

[grasshopper1917]

16 hours ago, Ansem said:

Safe to say that York Lions and Spruce Meadows will sell out for Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps.

 

You think York will sell out their game? Or were ya joking? May be an outside chance if they have the 10$ ticket deal again. 

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

York 9 vs Pacific announced as 2914

https://int.soccerway.com/matches/2019/06/15/canada/canadian-premier-league/york-9/canada-pacific-fc/2991840/

The actual attendance appears to be much lower than this.

[youllneverwalkalone]

Hopefully that's not the season high. What this about tearing out the track? I assume a regulation size pitch would follow...

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

3256 announced for the Al Classico:

https://int.soccerway.com/matches/2019/06/15/canada/canadian-premier-league/fc-edmonton/cavalry/2991841/

[Bison44]

Thanks for not adding on the obligatory "actual attendance appeared to be lower".

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

That's an absurd comment. When crowds have been very good in Halifax I have said so and have said it will boost the prospects for expansion. 

[CDNFootballer]

4 hours ago, youllneverwalkalone said:

Hopefully that's not the season high. What this about tearing out the track? I assume a regulation size pitch would follow...

4260 is the high for York9 for the home opener.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

7152 announced for Forge vs Valour:

https://www.soccerway.com/matches/2019/06/15/canada/canadian-premier-league/forge/valour/2991842/

Hope that's reasonably accurate on the actual crowd. Would be interesting to see some crowd pictures.

Edited June 15, 2019 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[baulderdash77]

The east stand was completely packed and the West stand was about 25%.  It was the biggest crowd since the home opener.

I believe 7,000. 

[Bison44]

HAHAHA....he cant help himself.  7152 announced attendence..pretty good right.  but he says  "I hope thats accurate.....interesting to see some crowd pictures"  Not 2 posts after saying he doesnt always say something negative about the attendance numbers (excluding Halifax for some reason).