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Originally Posted by blueandgoldguy
Winnipeg is setting themselves up for failure if they are playing at Investors Group Field as the article implies (Winnipeg playing in a stadium seating 30,000) Even getting an average of 10,000 people to attend games in the first season - a generous estimate although possible for the first season given the curious factor plus lots of freebies - would result in a mediocre atmosphere with a half empty lower bowl. That would kill interest pretty quickly in the product on the field.
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The case example of this would be Ottawa Fury FC. They're owned by a CFL ownership group, play in that CFL stadium, and have horrid atmosphere at their matches as the lower bowl of one half of the stadium is sometimes full.
Fury average about 5.5K/match, with some matches getting as high as 6K or 7K. This is against teams from areas with nothing to do with Ottawa whatsoever (Rochester, Harrisburg, Fort Lauderdale) so my only asusmption is that crowds would be larger against national opponents. Canadian Championship matches have gone as high as 9K.
I agree that sitting smaller clubs in bigger stadiums is always going to be a recipe for disaster, especially to start. We'll see how Fury do this year with the CPL potential ramping up, but they seem like an ideal club to join in the first year, along with a reborn FC Edmonton.
Quote:
Originally Posted by blueandgoldguy
That doesn't even factor in the high probability that interest in the league in most if not all cities will somewhat decline after the initial season for the next several seasons. If you look at MLS after its first season there was a big decline in attendance the following year. It took 15 years for the league to finally match its attendance from that initial season. Expect this Canadian League to follow a similar pattern, possibly worse. I hope the powers that be are prepared to lose money and a significant amount of it at that for the first decade or so of this venture.
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There were massive growing pains with the MLS. It was a gimmicky league. They were expanding into new markets and increasing the schedule. Although the average crowds didn't meet the initial season for 15 years the total crowds did in nine seasons. The difference between this CPL venture and the MLS is that the CPL is positoning itself as being very grassroots and local (especially in regards to reaching out to supporters groups), whereas the MLS is a hulking corporation whose growth as a whole is based on expansion.
There's always going to be growing pains when starting up a new league. The Commissioner, and the owners, are keeping expectations relatively muted for that reason.