When will the CPL single game attendance record be broken?

[Kent]

The single game record for attendance in the CPL is from the very first CPL game. The attendance was 17,611. If I'm not mistaken, the second highest attendance for a game was 14,992 for Atletico Ottawa in the 2022 final. So the question is, when (if ever) will the record be broken? The only stadiums currently in the league that are big enough to break the record are the home stadiums of Forge, Valour, and Atletico Ottawa. If I am not mistaken, those are the only 2 games with more than 10k fans in the stands. Valour's inaugural home game came close with 9,699 fans attending.

[SpursFlu]

Basically in the next 12 months if Forge host the final or if Forge gets in to the Concacaf Cup the answer is maybe it could happen soon

[Kent]

33 minutes ago, SpursFlu said:

Basically in the next 12 months if Forge host the final or if Forge gets in to the Concacaf Cup the answer is maybe it could happen soon

This reminded me, that Forge drew 13,715 vs TFC in the 2020 Canadian Championship final, which happened in 2022. It was a glorified friendly at that point, but drew a good crowd. If they made it to the CONCACAF Champions Cup and drew a big draw team, I guess they do have a shot. They also drew 10,486 fans to the CPL final in 2019 , but only drew 5,388 against Montreal in the Voyageurs Cup semi final in 2021.

Ultimately I voted for 6-10 years. I am thinking the league trends in the right direction, but a big one off attendance over 17k will take some time. When I posed the question, I was thinking of a CPL regular season or playoff game, but I would take a big attendance Canadian Championship or CONCACAF Champions Cup game in a heartbeat. I think for the poll though we should stick to CPL games, not just a game hosted by a CPL team.

[Trois Reds]

I'll guess 0-5 years.  The World Cup is just two seasons away and Forge, Ottleti, or Valour could get a Post-World Cup fan bump if they are doing well.  And if they make the playoffs, why not? I could see especially Ottawa or Hamilton breaking it.

[SpursFlu]

Is in two weeks an acceptable answer?

[Kent]

1 hour ago, SpursFlu said:

Is in two weeks an acceptable answer?

Let's hope it happens! 2 weeks to sell tickets for a final. It would be great to see if it materializes.

[Haligonian#1]

I think the most important question is not breaking the record for most attended match, but rather breaking the record for average season attendance.

[jonovision]

The single-game attendance record may not be broken for a while, but I don't think it's a useful measuring stick anyway. The league's first-ever match, (putting my bird hat on here) a crowd inflated by massive giveaways so that it would look good on TV... I could go on.

Average attendance is the number we should focus on, but it is interesting to imagine what combination of circumstances would produce the biggest one-off crowd. I think a playoff final is the best chance, barring a chance encounter with Messi or some other retirement-league superstar in a continental match. Other continental opponents don't really move the needle, and with those matches generally taking place in poor weather on weeknights, probably not ideal.

A Canadian Championship final against Toronto could also do the trick, but probably only in Hamilton would that move enough tickets, with local TFC fans chipping in. And Herdman will have to have that ship well and truly turned around for that to work.

[phil03]

On 10/12/2023 at 12:14 PM, Trois Reds said:

I'll guess 0-5 years.  The World Cup is just two seasons away and Forge, Ottleti, or Valour could get a Post-World Cup fan bump if they are doing well.  And if they make the playoffs, why not? I could see especially Ottawa or Hamilton breaking it.

Meh, I am actually skeptic that the World Cup will produce that big of a bump. The issue isn't that Soccer doesn't have a fanbase in Canada, its that people follow other leagues playing at a higher level. What the CPL really needs in term of outside help is for the CMNT to make a run, say the quarter-finals but even the round of 16 would help a lot, so as to gather more interest for the Canadian game specifically, just like the MLS was boosted by the USMNT making it to the quarter-finals in 2002.

To answer the question more directly, on top of Forge vs TFC final in the Canadian Championship I can think of another two scenarios that could do it in the near future:

I. An Ottawa vs Montréal final, as it's only a two-hour drive from Québec's metropolis and the region has a fair amount of French-speaking inhabitants who often tend to be Impact fans first when they support a Canadian club.

II. A CPL club managing to go on a bit of a run in CONCACAF, say they are both lucky by having at least one opponent from a Central American or Caribbean league and create their own luck by pulling an upset against an MLS/LigaMx opponent as well. By the time they go through two rounds, I can see them having enough of a buzz behind them to get a massive crowd.

Edited October 15, 2023 by phil03

[RS]

Third scenario: Forge vs. Miami next year in CONCACAF Champions Cup.

That one will sell out, even if Messi would likely skip playing on the artificial turf at THF (they'll tease him playing right up until the lineups are announced).

[phil03]

6 minutes ago, RS said:

Third scenario: Forge vs. Miami next year in CONCACAF Champions Cup.

That one will sell out, even if Messi would likely skip playing on the artificial turf at THF (they'll tease him playing right up until the lineups are announced).

That's fair, anything Messi related in a stadium that allows for it, or if they can find a stadium that does for just that game, really. Hopefully Miami would be gracious enough to send him for a five minutes at the end of the game if that happen.

Edited October 15, 2023 by phil03

[Kent]

2 hours ago, jonovision said:

The single-game attendance record may not be broken for a while, but I don't think it's a useful measuring stick anyway. The league's first-ever match, (putting my bird hat on here) a crowd inflated by massive giveaways so that it would look good on TV... I could go on.

Average attendance is the number we should focus on, but it is interesting to imagine what combination of circumstances would produce the biggest one-off crowd. I think a playoff final is the best chance, barring a chance encounter with Messi or some other retirement-league superstar in a continental match. Other continental opponents don't really move the needle, and with those matches generally taking place in poor weather on weeknights, probably not ideal.

A Canadian Championship final against Toronto could also do the trick, but probably only in Hamilton would that move enough tickets, with local TFC fans chipping in. And Herdman will have to have that ship well and truly turned around for that to work.

I agree completely. If attendance keeps growing like it has the last couple years, the average attendance record could be broken next season. That's more important than a one off game, but it occured to me that the single game record could potentially last a very long time, especially if we restrict it to a proper CPL game, rather than including Canadian Championships or CONCACAF competitions. And as you say, that first game was an event, and a giveaway, so it will take some doing to break that record.

[phil03]

4 minutes ago, Kent said:

I agree completely. If attendance keeps growing like it has the last couple years, the average attendance record could be broken next season. That's more important than a one off game, but it occured to me that the single game record could potentially last a very long time, especially if we restrict it to a proper CPL game, rather than including Canadian Championships or CONCACAF competitions. And as you say, that first game was an event, and a giveaway, so it will take some doing to break that record.

I mean, Ottawa wasn't that far behind in the grand scheme of things last year so its certainly if the circumstances are right. Hell, in alternate universe where the whole Fury mess hasn't happened (without relitigating Montagliani's decision I feel its fair to say the ghost of the Fury is still an obstacle for Athletico) and the CPL is doing better bilingualism-wise (maybe by at least securing an expansion to QC city by that point) I could see their version of that game making it.

What you need is a combo of a few factors to maximise the ods of breaking it in a purely CPL game:

I. Its a final and preferably the first the home club is playing in.

II. The stadium is big enough.

III. The city is in the three metropolis where there aren't MLS clubs (Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton)

IV. Preferably some kind of rivalry going on between the two teams.

V. The CMNT being in a good moment during that time, so as to bring more interest to domestic Soccer.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

11 minutes ago, Kent said:

I agree completely. If attendance keeps growing like it has the last couple years, the average attendance record could be broken next season. That's more important than a one off game, but it occured to me that the single game record could potentially last a very long time, especially if we restrict it to a proper CPL game, rather than including Canadian Championships or CONCACAF competitions. And as you say, that first game was an event, and a giveaway, so it will take some doing to break that record.

...which makes this whole thread a bit of a waste of time beyond the OP feeling a need to create a feel good vibe for whatever reason. The most important metric for the league's overall health is how close clubs 5 to 8 on the average attendance list are to long term sustainability. I don't think this season moved the needle too much in that regard.

[Kent]

9 minutes ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

...which makes this whole thread a bit of a waste of time beyond the OP feeling a need to create a feel good vibe for whatever reason. The most important metric for the league's overall health is how close clubs 5 to 8 on the average attendance list are to long term sustainability. I don't think this season moved the needle too much in that regard.

That's definitely a great metric too. In fact when I just mentioned the average attendance potentially hitting record levels next season I had a moment of thinking that could be done by folding York potentially, which doesn't actually mean the league is growing.

I definitely didn't create the OP to create a feel good vibe at all. I had just finished watching the Pacific vs York playoff game and was disappointed by how low the attendance for that game was. That's what got me to thinking the single game attendance record could potentially never be beaten. I'm actually pretty surprised at the poll results so far (still nobody has said any of the options more than 10 years, and most people have said 0-5). Personally I think it's more likely it takes 10 or more years than it being broken in 5 or fewer years. But as has been mentioned, maybe it's broken 2 weeks from now and my comment here looks foolish.

[SpursFlu]

I had a vision last night that Forge will beat the attendance record for the Finals

[K Edgar]

How many seats are now on sale or sold?

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

The seat map is readily accessible on ticketmaster. There's still plenty of tickets available on the east side by the looks of things. It's difficult to tell how many are sold for Forge games because unlike some of the other clubs they don't seem to show all the potentially available tickets. In 2021, it looked like the east side was almost sold out for a few days because they kept releasing more tickets.

Edited October 17, 2023 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[Ftduck]

I go to 40 to 60 concerts a year plus season tickets to Forge so I unfortunately use ticketbastards a lot. It's been my experience looking at Tickemaster seat maps never represents reality. I'd be shocked if this final is better attended that last years. I am a grumpy pessimistic Hamiltonian though, so......

[Sonny Heung-min]

I think with the remaining number of tickets for the East side this is small, it is right to open the west. If you want to book in groups if 5 or more there's not that many seats left grouped together. I would love to go if I wasn't living the other side of the world.

[Aird25]

1 hour ago, Ftduck said:

I go to 40 to 60 concerts a year plus season tickets to Forge so I unfortunately use ticketbastards a lot. It's been my experience looking at Tickemaster seat maps never represents reality. I'd be shocked if this final is better attended that last years. I am a grumpy pessimistic Hamiltonian though, so......

Hasn't attendance been way better than last season all year. Why do you think the final would be different?

[SpursFlu]

Things are percolating.. I can feel it down in my plumes. Who created this topic? Wow maybe this is the rally cry? Cmon Hamilton, shatter your own record!

Sellout anyone?

Edited October 17, 2023 by SpursFlu

[Ftduck]

31 minutes ago, Aird25 said:

Hasn't attendance been way better than last season all year. Why do you think the final would be different?

I think attendance has been consistently up 10%ish all season. If that happened every year for the next five it would be amazing. I have always considered Hamilton a difficult sell for any ticketed event.(Not including Ticats when they are not horrible) But hopefully I'm wrong about that.

[Kent]

48 minutes ago, Aird25 said:

Hasn't attendance been way better than last season all year. Why do you think the final would be different?

Because last year's final was held in Ottawa.

2022 Semi finals
In Hamilton - 7,133
In Ottawa - 8,428

2022 Final
In Ottawa - 14,992

Worth noting that Ottawa's average attendance in 2022 was 4,069 and this year Forge's was 5,318. We shall see where this game ends up. Great news that they've opened up more seats, with a week and a half to go before the game as well.

[Kingston]

What is the capacity of the part Forge normally has open?