CPL 2023 Season Attendance

[Kingston]

We can talk about actual attendances soon but, ahead of the new season, what are everyone's attendance predictions for the year?

[jonovision]

I think the league average attendance will be up, in no small part due to Edmonton being replaced by Vancouver. But I also think most clubs will see increases in their own averages.

[shorty]

PFC’s average should be up, assuming they get some stands built on the North side at some point in the season. 

[Bison44]

I predict this thread will a complete shit show.  That is all, end transmission.  

[SpursFlu]

I think Vancouver will average maybe just south of 4k

[DoyleG]

A certain squawker will enter soon enough.

The shotgun is ready.

[Soccerpro2]

I think attendance will edge up slightly this year.

[jonovision]

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	HFX Wanderers FC	81,547	6,500	4,332	5,825	n/a
2	Atlético Ottawa	56,961	6,574	2,571	4,069	n/a
3	Cavalry FC	48,883	4,743	2,943	3,492	n/a
4	Forge FC	48,027	5,129	1,187	3,431	n/a
5	Pacific FC	44,459	4,107	2,420	3,176	n/a
6	Valour FC	43,547	5,227	2,395	3,111	n/a
7	York United FC	17,272	1,802	1,002	1,234	n/a
8	FC Edmonton	15,000	1,613	600	1,071	n/a
	League total	355,696	6,574	600	3,176	n/a

 

The 2022 numbers, FWIW.

[Stanley]

I've already got some photos of the future that show that there won't be as many people in the stands as will be announced.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

I'll predict that the announced numbers will show an increase regardless of whether actual attendance does and any attempt to discuss what is happening rationally will be shouted down by people who are more motivated by nationalism than by soccer.

Edited April 6, 2023 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[Kingston]

8 hours ago, jonovision said:

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	HFX Wanderers FC	81,547	6,500	4,332	5,825	n/a
2	Atlético Ottawa	56,961	6,574	2,571	4,069	n/a
3	Cavalry FC	48,883	4,743	2,943	3,492	n/a
4	Forge FC	48,027	5,129	1,187	3,431	n/a
5	Pacific FC	44,459	4,107	2,420	3,176	n/a
6	Valour FC	43,547	5,227	2,395	3,111	n/a
7	York United FC	17,272	1,802	1,002	1,234	n/a
8	FC Edmonton	15,000	1,613	600	1,071	n/a
	League total	355,696	6,574	600	3,176	n/a

 

The 2022 numbers, FWIW.

For this year I'm thinking:

Halifax 5500 - will be soft (for them) early on but rise as the team does better

Atletico 5500 - continuing last year's success and getting back to the best of Fury level crowds

Calgary 3500 - drifting along

Forge 3500 - disappointingly no meaningful increase despite continuing on field success

Pacific 3500 - a small but perceptible rise

Valour  2000 - heading in the wrong direction

York  1000 - still a failure in the stands

Vancouver  3000 - biggest range of crowd sizes

Edmonton 0 - even worse that last season

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

The scary signal with the Valour or York United this season would be honest attendance numbers because that's the next red flag that the owner is looking to bail like the Faths did after the public warning about attendance levels, which already happened with the Valour last season.

Will be interesting to see if the change in mayor and city council in Langford has any impact on Pacific attendance now the new administration isn't anything like as invested in Starlight Stadium as the last lot were. The hydro pole was moved but no word on any expansion of seating rather than moving some bleacher seating that was already there.

Haven't posted about it previously but it's safe to say season tickets in the more expensive sections do not appear to be selling like hotcakes in Langley so looks like they'll probably be depending more on single game and flexipack sales.

[Kingston]

30 minutes ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

The scary signal with the Valour or York United this season would be honest attendance numbers because that's the next red flag that the owner is looking to bail like the Faths did after the public warning about attendance levels, which already happened with the Valour last season.

All teams in all sports have some number of freebies per game.  Yes, it is inconsequential for the Winnipeg Jets and may be consequential for Valour FC.  The thing is, we don't know.  Same as the "it looked like less in the stands/no, everyone was sheltering in the concession area to get out of the rain" type of arguments.  

All we have are the reported numbers and if there's a fudge factor in them, then presumably the fudge factor is consistent.  So we can watch the trend, which is more important than the attendance at any one game.  

[EnigMattic1]

29 minutes ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

The scary signal with the Valour or York United this season would be honest attendance numbers because that's the next red flag that the owner is looking to bail like the Faths did after the public warning about attendance levels, which already happened with the Valour last season.

Will be interesting to see if the change in mayor and city council in Langford has any impact on Pacific attendance now the new administration isn't anything like as invested in Starlight Stadium as the last lot were. The hydro pole was moved but no word on any expansion of seating rather than moving some bleacher seating that was already there.

Haven't posted about it previously but it's safe to say season tickets in the more expensive sections do not appear to be selling like hotcakes in Langley so looks like they'll probably be depending more on single game and flexipack sales.

I think the issue with Valour is quite simply, results. I mean, they have enough seats in the stadium (which I believe is capped for CPL games at around 6.5k) and there isn't any provincial competition (their closest rivals being either Forge or York). They are active in the community and have the interest but I can't help but feel fans wont pay to see the team struggle.

If they could pull of a few results and actually qualify for the playoffs, I believe attendance would increase.

[K Edgar]

2 minutes ago, EnigMattic1 said:

I think the issue with Valour is quite simply, results. I mean, they have enough seats in the stadium (which I believe is capped for CPL games at around 6.5k) and there isn't any provincial competition (their closest rivals being either Forge or York). They are active in the community and have the interest but I can't help but feel fans wont pay to see the team struggle.

If they could pull of a few results and actually qualify for the playoffs, I believe attendance would increase.

Valour's home openner is in 16 days and there is no sign of spring.  Attendance at the first couple of games will suffer greatly if the slow thaw continues.

[Kingston]

16 minutes ago, K Edgar said:

Valour's home openner is in 16 days and there is no sign of spring.  Attendance at the first couple of games will suffer greatly if the slow thaw continues.

I hope it warms up for them but, yeah, I wonder if the league should bend to the calendar a bit and leave the prairie teams on the road until May.

[EnigMattic1]

20 minutes ago, K Edgar said:

Valour's home openner is in 16 days and there is no sign of spring.  Attendance at the first couple of games will suffer greatly if the slow thaw continues.

Realistically, would 2wks be enough if the weather picked up? We aren't at home again until we play HFX I think.

2 minutes ago, Kingston said:

I hope it warms up for them but, yeah, I wonder if the league should bend to the calendar a bit and leave the prairie teams on the road until May.

There needs to be something put in place. I mean, they can 'tweak' the fixtures to allow Vancouver to be on the road whilst their stadium is under construction so it could be an option.

[Unnamed Trialist]

14 hours ago, Bison44 said:

I predict this thread will a complete shit show.  That is all, end transmission.  

I can already see the gaps in the stands through the eyes of bus-league dreamers. 

[Aird25]

GA tickets for Pacific’s opener against Vancouver are already sold out. I can’t remember that happening often other than the match against the Whitecaps 

[Aird25]

2 minutes ago, EnigMattic1 said:

There needs to be something put in place. I mean, they can 'tweak' the fixtures to allow Vancouver to be on the road whilst their stadium is under construction so it could be an option.

They already do. Pacific’s home schedule is always super front loaded to accommodate the weather in other cities. I can almost guarantee overall attendance for Pacific would be better if this wasn’t the case 

[jonovision]

1 hour ago, EnigMattic1 said:

Realistically, would 2wks be enough if the weather picked up? We aren't at home again until we play HFX I think.

There needs to be something put in place. I mean, they can 'tweak' the fixtures to allow Vancouver to be on the road whilst their stadium is under construction so it could be an option.

I think there's a very good chance that the weather for the opener could be quite pleasant (though more likely with an afternoon start time than the scheduled 6 pm start).

The problem is that they really need to be moving tickets right now, and few will be in a soccer-ticket buying mood while shoveling out from under a foot of new snow.

[Bison44]

2 hours ago, K Edgar said:

Valour's home openner is in 16 days and there is no sign of spring.  Attendance at the first couple of games will suffer greatly if the slow thaw continues.

Its supposed to be in the high teens by tuesday, although I still have 4 feet of snow in my yard right now.  

[Aird25]

2 minutes ago, Bison44 said:

Its supposed to be in the high teens by tuesday, although I still have 4 feet of snow in my yard right now.  

Ooof is that normal for this time of year?

[Bison44]

The snow or the temps?? HAHAHA.  I'm just hoping we dont get one more dump of snow before it starts to melt.  

[jonovision]

50 minutes ago, Aird25 said:

Ooof is that normal for this time of year?

Winnipeg doesn't have the big swings in weather you'd get in a place like Calgary with their chinooks and snow seemingly any time of year, but April is the one month where it seems anything can happen. Usually the melt is fully on (or done) by now, but big dumps of snow aren't uncommon. Last year we got a whole bunch of snow in mid-April after everything had melted. The year before the snow was gone by early March.

That said, I don't think Valour (or the CPL scheduler) should avoid having many home dates in spring as July/August are the real challenges, especially with weekend dates. Lots of the sorts of people that have money to spend on sports vacate the city every weekend to cottage country at the big lakes and in SE Manitoba and NW Ontario. Plus playing on turf at midday in late July surely can't be nice for the players.