The Great Canadian Sports Attendance, Marketing and TV Ratings Thread

[Hackslack]

What was the official attendance too? Looked not even half.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Hackslack

What was the official attendance too? Looked not even half.

It is a humongous stadium though. 93,000 capacity I think.

[elly63]

NFL fans mocked the Rams' embarrassing season-opening attendance in Los Angeles
Andrew Joseph usatoday.com September 10, 2017

Musta been a lotta fans visiting the ol' Pina Colada Hut when this photo was snapped



From what I've been reading, LA (both teams) are the Toronto of the NFL

One guy posted tickets were $6.

A ton of empty seats greet the Rams as they start second season in Los Angeles
Frank Schwab Shutdown Corner Sep 10, 2017

[elly63]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Will not spout bush league rhetoric but did anyone see the field at the LA Rams game today?

Those ghosted line markings are kinda strange.



I'm loving' the new Firefox screenshot utility.

[elly63]

[Berklon]

Yea, it was known that L.A. was going to be a challenge with the teams they were given.

Had the Raiders moved to L.A. instead of Las Vegas, they would've done well right away. L.A. loves the Raiders. Instead they got the Rams and Chargers. Pretty stupid move.

It doesn't help that the Rams are playing out of an ancient stadium for 3 years - so they're gonna get around 30k or so in attendance. The Chargers will be playing out of an MLS stadium for 3 years as well. The upside is that they'll be sharing a sweet-ass new stadium in 2020 so that should help build up the fanbase:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_An...Hollywood_Park

If after a while things don't turnaround quick enough, and the owners lose their patience - they'll just wind up moving the team again. The NFL isn't afraid to move teams.

[Jets4Life]

Originally Posted by Berklon

Yea, it was known that L.A. was going to be a challenge with the teams they were given.

Had the Raiders moved to L.A. instead of Las Vegas, they would've done well right away. L.A. loves the Raiders. Instead they got the Rams and Chargers. Pretty stupid move.

It doesn't help that the Rams are playing out of an ancient stadium for 3 years - so they're gonna get around 30k or so in attendance. The Chargers will be playing out of an MLS stadium for 3 years as well. The upside is that they'll be sharing a sweet-ass new stadium in 2020 so that should help build up the fanbase:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_An...Hollywood_Park

If after a while things don't turnaround quick enough, and the owners lose their patience - they'll just wind up moving the team again. The NFL isn't afraid to move teams.

Absolutely nobody will be going to see the LA Chargers. 10,000 max. Nobody in LA wants the Chargers there, and they are playing in a 25,000 seat stadium designed for Soccer

[osmo]

Originally Posted by elly63

Those ghosted line markings are kinda strange.



I'm loving' the new Firefox screenshot utility.

That is still probably 45k there. Also, as a market LA fans never show up for anything on time sports wise, so when the shot was taken can be misleading. On TV it looked empty but not tragic. No way they will sell that place out at 93K, they will likely some for 45-50k as a top benchmark.

LA Rams will be fine, the team has a long history, plus the team is trash now and LA people awaiting for them to get good.

LA Chargers have to worry though, they play in 35K stadium and have not sold it out yet or been close. That team will be a train wreak as the city does not even acknowledge them.

LA only needed one team. NFL is woefully stupid on this and will have the Chargers die a slow death before they pull them plug and move them.

[Berklon]

The announced crowd for the Rams was 60,128.

Suuuuuure.

It's a good thing the Rams and Chargers will be sharing a stadium, because there's a chance one of those teams will wind up relocating again (probably the Chargers) - and it would be a disaster to leave a gorgeous $2.6B stadium without a major tenant. Hell, it's hard enough to justify spending that much money for only 1 team that only plays 8 homes games a year.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by elly63

Those ghosted line markings are kinda strange.



I'm loving' the new Firefox screenshot utility.

I was guessing that the weirdness in the field markings was due to the NCAA field. Is it different from the NFL?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Berklon

It's a good thing the Rams and Chargers will be sharing a stadium, because there's a chance one of those teams will wind up relocating again (probably the Chargers) - and it would be a disaster to leave a gorgeous $2.6B stadium without a major tenant. Hell, it's hard enough to justify spending that much money for only 1 team that only plays 8 homes games a year.

Hey! They could move to Toronto and become the Toronto Rogers Cellphone Chargers!

[elly63]

Originally Posted by osmo

LA Chargers have to worry though, they play in 35K stadium and have not sold it out yet or been close.

In 2017, to accommodate the Chargers use of the stadium, upgrades were made at cost to the Chargers including bleachers in the second deck on the east side of the stadium being replaced by tip-up seats and moved to the berm on the north side, adding 1,000 seats. A new section of upper-level bleachers, which seat 330, were erected in the southeast corner of the stadium.

Capacity 28,300?

[esquire]

Why has LA been so blasé about the return of the NFL? From what I can tell, it's not like ownership has been abusive by charging extortionate ticket prices, PSLs, etc. I'm sure getting to the games is a hassle but it's the same thing with USC and they manage to draw larger crowds to the Coliseum.

And why is it even worse with the Chargers? Is it just some regional antipathy towards cheering for "San Diego's team" or what?

In much the same way I find it baffling that there aren't consistently 25,000 people willing to pony up to watch the Argos in Toronto, I am similarly baffled that there aren't, say, 75 thousand people willing to pony up to watch the Rams each week in LA.

Originally Posted by Acajack

Hey! They could move to Toronto and become the Toronto Rogers Cellphone Chargers!

[elly63]

Originally Posted by esquire

And why is it even worse with the Chargers? Is it just some regional antipathy towards cheering for "San Diego's team" or what?

In much the same way I find it baffling that there aren't consistently 25,000 people willing to pony up to watch the Argos in Toronto, I am similarly baffled that there aren't, say, 75 thousand people willing to pony up to watch the Rams each week in LA.

Ironically the Chargers first year of existence was in LA at the Coliseum as the LA Chargers.

Yes, there are some strange similarities with Toronto. The naysayers said it would be a joke if the CFL didn't have a team in Toronto and yet the NFL weren't in LA. And maybe they are suffering something similar to being out of the market for awhile, something akin to Braley slowly strangling the Argos by decimating the marketing and promotion departments. It has been and will be a struggle to return. Like Toronto, there are no guarantees people will come back when you've lost them.

But on the positive side Ottawa was able to recover so hope reigns eternal.

As for the new stadium, I was under the understanding that Inglewood (home of the Fabulous Forum) is not exactly one of the better sections of LA.

[esquire]

^ I guess it didn't help that the NFL sprang two franchises on LA a year apart.

Speaking of California teams, it looks like the Niners are having problems of their own judging by this second half kickoff shot:



source: @gregboysen

In some ways the NFL might be better off being in a place like Toronto, at least from an attendance perspective. In much the same way that smaller Canadian markets pack the joint for the NHL at least in part because the cities have something to prove, Toronto would probably fill the seats for the NFL out of a desire to prove it belongs... places like LA and SF already know they do, so clearly that doesn't work as a motivating factor. They know the teams aren't going anywhere now.

[Acajack]

That game in SF was officially a sellout.

[esquire]

^ I've not been to Levi's Stadium but I did attend a game at Candlestick Park a few years back... I found that stadium very difficult to get into because of its location and lacking the local knowledge of any shortcuts. People say Levi's is even worse, partly because of its sheer distance from the city. I guess that's not helping things... even if dogfood.com and other tech companies buy all the seats, it looks like many of them are going unused.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by esquire

Speaking of California teams, it looks like the Niners are having problems of their own judging by this second half kickoff shot:

That must be one helluva lineup at the Rum Hut

Tell ya the truth, with the reduction in population (getting out of the boomer generation) and cord cutting and US network TV not being as powerful as they once were, you wonder if this model (the NFL) will even be sustainable in 20 years time.

[le calmar]

Originally Posted by Acajack

That game in SF was officially a sellout.

What the hell happened? 90% of the ticket holders didn't show up?

[elly63]

WTH is going on down there in Calif?

The Chargers Had Pathetic Attendance Again At StubHub Center
Ryan Phillips http://thebiglead.com August 20, 2017

The San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers played their second game in the “Fight For LA” on Sunday night, as they hosted the New Orleans Saints. And, for the second week in a row, the Chargers failed to pack their tiny soccer stadium home.

Attendance for the game was officially 21,197 in a venue that holds 27,000. Now remember, that’s the number of tickets sold, not the number of fans who went through the turnstiles. It’s clear nowhere near 21,000 people were in attendance.

In Week 1 the Chargers were able to lure just 21,054 fans to StubHub Center, and this week they “officially” got 143 more. Take a look at some crowd shots:

Granted, those are early-game shots, but the following two are well into the first quarter:

So can we finally admit moving the Chargers to Los Angeles will be a complete and utter disaster? No, not yet? We’re going to let their attendance embarrass the league more and more every week? OK, sounds good.