Match Thread: May 13, 2023 - Vancouver FC v Atletico Ottawa

[BearcatSA]

11 hours ago, Soccerpro2 said:

This ^ Beautiful Saturday evening before school is out for summer and people are away.

Very bad sign.

That means little.  Particularly at this time of year, many folks make defacto long weekends on Fridays and/or Mondays to get in some camping if the weather is looking great.

For comparison sake, it was hopping for outdoor tourism and recreation in the Okanagan this Mother's Day weekend.  I'm betting other FV out rec sites were busy, as well.

[Markoaleks]

how about this hot take

Brand new team, within a league that gets virtually nil national media attention still after all these years in existence, is able to attract nearly 2500 people to a match. Albeit with a limited marketing budget too I suspect 
Decent work from a nascent member of the league and doing relatively  well after 2 matches relative to some established CPL clubs

Edmonton would have a club at this attendance level IMO 

Edited May 14, 2023 by Markoaleks

[Watchmen]

27 minutes ago, Markoaleks said:

how about this hot take

Brand new team, within a league that gets virtually nil national media attention still after all these years in existence, is able to attract nearly 3k people to a match. Albeit with a limited marketing budget too I suspect 
Decent work from a nascent member of the league and doing decently well after 2 matches relative to some established CPL clubs

Edmonton would have a club at this attendance level IMO 

Ok, but they didn't attract nearly 3k. That's part of the discussion.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

43 minutes ago, Watchmen said:

Ok, but they didn't attract nearly 3k. That's part of the discussion.

Genuinely hope I am wrong regardless of what certain posters on here choose to believe, but I suspect there may still be worse to come on actual crowds once the novelty factor wears off. It has been obvious from their ticket sales website that they have sold very few season tickets in the main stand and the other sections of the stadium that could have compensated for that were sparsely populated yesterday. Losing 5-0 like that didn't do them any favours either.

Edited May 14, 2023 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[RJB]

It's early.  Far too early to panic. I think it's naive to expect them to pack the house every week like their opening match.  I still talk to people who ask about the team and the stadium and wonder what is going on there. The team is building, and it's far too early to be so critical - despite the fact we all want better attendance!

[SpursFlu]

I actually thought the attendance was fine. As far as a novelty goes, honestly there isn't even a novelty yet. I get the impression these guys just wanted the stadium built a team to field and get a ball kicked. It's all kinda understandable. Right now they just gotta get more help on the field because the only real red flag I see is potentially a terrible team.

Talking to people on the first day and people were kinda acting like they just landed on the moon. It was kinda like, where am I? What's is this? What's going on right now? But it was a good experience so everything will work but it's definitely a work in progress 

Edited May 14, 2023 by SpursFlu

[Bison44]

News flash everyone.....bird droppings thinks things are going to get worse, just so we are all clear on it so he can later give us the "i told you so" when things go wrong.    

[SpursFlu]

But I will say one bit of constructive criticism would be. And I know they aren't going to change he name but I think from a mindset and focus perspective, they need to take that V in VFC and start thinking of it more as Valley. I still feel they're stretching themselves a bit thin. Something about if you try and be something to everybody you'll end being etc etc. Just kinda a general observation in these early days. I've got a few large networks I bring it up with and its always predictable who's enthusiastic and who's quick to poopoo the topic 

[CDNFootballer]

17 hours ago, Watchmen said:

So, before others ask: Are you saying your estimate of people in attendance was 1500-2000?  Were the east stands empty because the people were standing elsewhere?  Or just not sold/no shows?

East side stands, being group/corporate, are going to have the most no shows imo and are in the direct sun. This is unfortunate, as the cameras will be facing this side the whole season and it doesn't look good on broadcasts and gives an impression crowds are worse than the are. West side stands had considerably more fans in the seats and that's where I will be sitting next year, out of the sun. Even in the GA/Supporters section the sun beamed on the side of fans for the first half, I'll pay the extra 100 per season for the West side. The tickets distributed number announced was at least close to the 3k average minimum I'm hoping they can at least draw in their first year but had hoped more would attend this match after the successful sellout for the inaugural game.

[SpursFlu]

My observation was the announced crowd was pretty accurate