The Sports Business Journal will be doing a full MLS preview this year which should be real interesting to read in the next couple weeks or so. It really has been fun to see the amount of MLS/World Soccer headlines in there go up ten-fold over the past year or so. Just wanted to pass on this table of information to you regarding season tickets sold as of 2/17/2008. Might have seen this somewhere else, but there is some good stuff here..
|
TEAM |
2008 |
2007 |
% CHANGE |
| Chicago Fire | 2,759 | 2,553 | +8% |
| Chivas USA | 837 | 858 | -2% |
| Colorado Rapids | 2,968 | 1,866 | +59% |
| Columbus Crew | 3,227 | 3,190 | +1% |
| D.C. United | 5,976 | 4,721 | +27% |
| FC Dallas | 3,002 | 3,134 | -4% |
| Houston Dynamo | 4,116 | 2,205 | +87% |
| Kansas City Wizards | 1,539 | 464 | +232% |
| Los Angeles Galaxy | 7,915 | 9,308 | -15% |
| New England Revolution | 4,001 | 3,502 | +14% |
| New York Red Bulls | 3,170 | 2,391 | +33% |
| Real Salt Lake | 4,632 | 4,421 | +5% |
| San Jose Earthquakes | 3,822 | N/A | N/A |
| Toronto FC | 16,641 | 12,435 | +34% |
| TOTAL | 64,605 | 51,048 | +26.6% |
We’ve already heard about Toronto FC selling out a second consecutive year, but let us look briefly at how announcements, stadium construction, on-field performance affects season ticket sales. Colorado Rapids are a pretty big surprise here, up 59% from last year at this time and there on-field play has been sub par at best, no real announcements this offseason. You can’t possibly contribute this to the signing of Christian Gomez? Some of the other teams are little more clear cut. The anticipation of a new stadium and a more aggressive ad campaign has helped the Red Bulls put more butts in the seats. Kansas City’s relocation to their minor league baseball stadium has already increased ticket sales ensuring that intimate stadium feeling they were hoping for. Is it possible that Houston’s successes on the field are translating intermittent fans into season ticket holders? Anticipation of a possible stadium deal as well as the talks between Oscar De La Hoya and the club (which hadn’t been confirmed by 2/17) could have been a factor as well.
It really is good to see New England on the rise in Gillette, D.C. up 27% in RFK, and the Red Bulls up in Giants making the Atlantic rivalries that much more important.
Couple questions to ponder though:
Real Salt Lake’s new stadium is coming, why no jump in season ticket holders? They still sit at the fourth-highest total in the MLS though…
What is Chivas USA doing wrong? Contenders in the Western Conference yet again this year and this still can’t get a fan base.
Does a decrease in the Galaxy’s season-ticket holders this pre-season mean that the Beckham Effect is losing influence?
With Seattle, according to Don Garber, past the 12,000 season ticket mark – where will they be come this time next year? How about Philadelphia?
Filed under: DC United, Los Angeles Galaxy, marketing, MLS, MLS Philly, MLS Seattle, Real Salt Lake, Season Tickets, Toronto FC |
Center Holds It 
I think the best is looking at Toronto FC. I know alot of people from Buffalo have season tickets and go up to the Toronto games, but their season ticket base is huge.
But it sucks for people like myself who just want to catch one game.
I eluded to this over at Blue Blooded Journo. COL, DC, and HOU now have 5-game packs they may be counting as partial season tickets. I think that’s new. If it is I have no idea how that skews the numbers. Red Bull may finally be recovering after losing a lot of fans and sponsors when they bought the team.
[…] Not to plug my “other” space, but Breton from Center Holds It posted that cool little status report on season ticket sales across MLS that made the rounds today. What can I say? The man does good […]