Match Thread: June 22, 2019 - York9 FC v. HFX Wanderers

[Gopherbashi]

Too bad we couldn't get a goal or two; we definitely had some great chances and controlled most of the play.  Same story as the match vs Pacific last week.

Actual attendance was better than a midweek game for sure, no question about it, even if the announced was about the same.  Seemed a bit sparse down where I was in the lower 300s (about 6-8 to a row of 30) but seemed a lot more packed up towards the top (nearly every seat filled in a few of those).  Also looked a lot fuller towards the middle based on the views I had.

There were also a lot of tables on the concourse with 4-5 people each, I'd guess about 200 total there or so.  About 100 in the suites up top and maybe 150 in the SG + corner suites.  Even assuming only 1/3 of seats in the main stands were filled adds 1000 there, giving about 1500 people in attendance as a lower range in my mind, and could've been as high as 2000 IMO.

Stadium definitely felt the fullest since the home opener vs Forge, so it's surprising that it's the lowest attendance so far.  I wouldn't be shocked if 2101 was the actual number of people who showed up for this one.

Photo from the top of the 200/300 stairway.  Apart from that bare patch in the middle of the 300s and creeping into the 400s, it looks pretty full down towards the far end.  Certainly didn't feel empty from a game-day experience point of view.

Edited June 22, 2019 by Gopherbashi

[Ams1984]

1 hour ago, grasshopper1917 said:

The running joke in Halifax today  was there were more of us at the bar watching the game then in the stands at York. They had 20 people in the supporters section on a warm sunny Saturday. The league cant let this happen for more then one year I wouldn't think. Tha'ts not negativity that's reality there is just absolutely no base of support.

It’s a pretty stupid running joke if you ask me. Were there a couple thousand of you watching the game in the bar? 

[Ams1984]

By the way, even if the club averages 2K attendance, they’ll probably gross over $1M just from the gate alone. Add concessions, merchandise, their share of the broadcast deal and various sponsorships, and they’re probably already at least breaking even. Talk of York 9 folding is moronic. 

I’d love to see them get better attendances, and I think that they’ll need to make a couple of changes to increase turnout for the fall season (or next year) but it’s not that far off in terms of getting to where they need to be long term. 

I think that if they cut prices a bit, and advertise a bit more intelligently, they’ll get better turnouts. One thing I’ve noticed is that lots of kids and families come out, which is great, but maybe the club should also try to tap into the university crowd somehow. 

 

[Rocket Robin]

audio of the complete post game press conferences of both teams.

http://www.rocketrobinsoccerintoronto.com/reports19/19york115.htm  

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

 

[grasshopper1917]

13 hours ago, Gopherbashi said:

Too bad we couldn't get a goal or two; we definitely had some great chances and controlled most of the play.  Same story as the match vs Pacific last week.

Actual attendance was better than a midweek game for sure, no question about it, even if the announced was about the same.  Seemed a bit sparse down where I was in the lower 300s (about 6-8 to a row of 30) but seemed a lot more packed up towards the top (nearly every seat filled in a few of those).  Also looked a lot fuller towards the middle based on the views I had.

There were also a lot of tables on the concourse with 4-5 people each, I'd guess about 200 total there or so.  About 100 in the suites up top and maybe 150 in the SG + corner suites.  Even assuming only 1/3 of seats in the main stands were filled adds 1000 there, giving about 1500 people in attendance as a lower range in my mind, and could've been as high as 2000 IMO.

Stadium definitely felt the fullest since the home opener vs Forge, so it's surprising that it's the lowest attendance so far.  I wouldn't be shocked if 2101 was the actual number of people who showed up for this one.

Photo from the top of the 200/300 stairway.  Apart from that bare patch in the middle of the 300s and creeping into the 400s, it looks pretty full down towards the far end.  Certainly didn't feel empty from a game-day experience point of view.

Looks like a few people there. You don't really see that on TV. It just looks like they are playing in a quiet empty stadium. However nice to see some people show up to take in the game.

[deschamp86]

1 hour ago, grasshopper1917 said:

Looks like a few people there. You don't really see that on TV. It just looks like they are playing in a quiet empty stadium. However nice to see some people show up to take in the game.

Doesn't help that the camera doesn't face the stands that they actually use. Looking forward to the track being removed next year as well. That would certainly help the optics as well

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

15 hours ago, grasshopper1917 said:

The running joke in Halifax today  was there were more of us at the bar watching the game then in the stands at York. They had 20 people in the supporters section on a warm sunny Saturday. The league cant let this happen for more then one year I wouldn't think. Tha'ts not negativity that's reality there is just absolutely no base of support.

Toronto teams with this sort of less than stellar level of support have shown surprising longevity in the past. The GTA has lots of rich recent immigrants who have always dreamed of owning a soccer team basically, so there is usually somebody willing to take the financial hit. Other rich Torontonians like Frank Stronach, Mitchell Goldhar and Spiros Papathanasakis that have been involved with pro teams overseas were rumoured/speculated about for the GTA team at launch. Think the league will always be very keen to have a team close to downtown Toronto given where a lot of the national media and corporate base is located. What remains to be seen is how viable York Lions stadium will be for pro soccer after it gets renovated with artificial turf for use by the York Lions football and soccer teams and as a winter bubble for intramural.

[Ingham]

I wasn't able to go, or watch it because Peru was playing Brazil and that's always the priority for me.

I will be there on Wednesday. Might be a weekday game but I'm expecting a few people given we could stop Cavalry's potential title.

Honestly this was the average attendance I was expecting for this team. I'm not too surprised. I just hope they don't relocate or anything and just give it time. I am from Oakville myself but if the Blue Devils do become a thing, I am staying loyal to York 9. I am not a fan of switching clubs.

[Unnamed Trialist]

18 hours ago, Gian-Luca said:

That's the second York9 match this week that I only realized was being played after it finished. With three major tournaments underway at the moment plus MLS it's difficult to even be reminded that the York 9 is playing as marketing & media presence is next to nil and I'm one of the few people in the region that is even aware of the team's existence.

I have watched over the last 3 days, in whole or in part, women's world cup, copa america, European sub-21, CPL, MLS and, of course Gold Cup. 

Is it obvious my wife went out of town with my son and left me here to "work"?

[fil]

Wrong thread....

Edited June 23, 2019 by fil

[Reign]

Better crowd then usual. About 1K in the stands I’d say. People who say they still could break even money wise at this clip may be right, however for the better of the league keep them off national TV until they can get crowds. Or at least move everyone to the stands the cameras point at. York is a bad look for the league unfortunately.  

[ironcub14]

On 6/22/2019 at 6:31 PM, Gian-Luca said:

That's the second York9 match this week that I only realized was being played after it finished. With three major tournaments underway at the moment plus MLS it's difficult to even be reminded that the York 9 is playing as marketing & media presence is next to nil and I'm one of the few people in the region that is even aware of the team's existence.

Y9 is pretty active on Instagram, and decently active on Twitter. I get 90% of my sports news through social media now, and just by following the team on those two platforms alone, I know when the next game's happening and what's going on with the club for the big stuff. I live in the heart of GTA, and the only added marketing/media presence I will see from TFC relative to Y9 will be the TSN commercials I see during the international tourneys, that's it.

If you got the footy score apps like Fotmob or SofaScore or LiveScore or Goal Live or whatever, all you gotta do is as Y9 as one of your faves, and you'll get prematch notifications. It's quite easy to keep track of the schedule actually. No doubt we would all love to see Y9 do far more marketing around the York Region and Toronto though, no doubt.

I will say it's too bad that Sportsnet didn't consider picking up some CPL games. CBC is cool, but Sportsnet would have been way better. You have to be a decent soccer fan or a decent sports fan to get into CPL, and Sportsnet would provide a greater concentration of those than CBC.

Edited June 24, 2019 by ironcub14

[ironcub14]

On 6/22/2019 at 6:44 PM, grasshopper1917 said:

The running joke in Halifax today  was there were more of us at the bar watching the game then in the stands at York. They had 20 people in the supporters section on a warm sunny Saturday. The league cant let this happen for more then one year I wouldn't think. Tha'ts not negativity that's reality there is just absolutely no base of support.

I was there, there was definitely way more than 20. The one thing to keep in mind is that the Y9 supporters section is a set of stands kind of off on its own to the side past that white tent for VIPs or whatever, so you are definitely going to get less people than if the section was right next to the main grandstand. The thing though is that the section is just fun as hell. All passionate Canadian soccer supporters. Good times.

[ironcub14]

On 6/22/2019 at 8:19 PM, Ams1984 said:

By the way, even if the club averages 2K attendance, they’ll probably gross over $1M just from the gate alone. Add concessions, merchandise, their share of the broadcast deal and various sponsorships, and they’re probably already at least breaking even. Talk of York 9 folding is moronic. 

I’d love to see them get better attendances, and I think that they’ll need to make a couple of changes to increase turnout for the fall season (or next year) but it’s not that far off in terms of getting to where they need to be long term. 

I think that if they cut prices a bit, and advertise a bit more intelligently, they’ll get better turnouts. One thing I’ve noticed is that lots of kids and families come out, which is great, but maybe the club should also try to tap into the university crowd somehow. 

 

I think you might have added an extra 0 in your calculations somewhere... Nvm, you must be talking about the season as a whole. Who knows what their break-even point is.

Edited June 24, 2019 by ironcub14

[ironcub14]

I gotta say that those couple Y9 fans that keep posting their attendance estimates at the start of the game on Reddit must be new to the GTA or something; everybody knows that Toronto fans always show up fashionably late due to traffic lol.

I did post this on the same Reddit thread I think, but I think attendance was around 1000 from what I saw. It was definitely better than the midweek games. It's not a figure to write something home about either. I think the club staff seriously hurt attendance badly before the season by pricing the season seats so high, and are now unable to lower ticket prices below what SSHs paid for their seasons per game. There were lots of discussion about it on the V's forum about the high season ticket prices before the season started, and the customers were right.

I hope the club learned a lot of valuable lessons this season, and I hope they rectify it in the offseason. Very much looking forward to the track being gone. I don't think I'm worried much about the turf coming in.

[zeelaw]

1 hour ago, ironcub14 said:

I will say it's too bad that Sportsnet didn't consider picking up some CPL games. CBC is cool, but Sportsnet would have been way better. You have to be a decent soccer fan or a decent sports fan to get into CPL, and Sportsnet would provide a greater concentration of those than CBC.

Rogers is part owner of MLSE, so I can't see them pick up a competing product unfortunately.  One of the main problems with Canadian Telecom's Vertical Integration, pisses me off to no end.

Edited June 24, 2019 by zeelaw

[Ams1984]

4 hours ago, ironcub14 said:

I think you might have added an extra 0 in your calculations somewhere... Nvm, you must be talking about the season as a whole. Who knows what their break-even point is.

Yes, season as a whole.