Poor crowds prompt commissioner to demand answers
Playoff attendances this season have been putrid, which has jarred league and team boardrooms into action.
Apparently, more than a few execs didnÆt realize an all-time low in regular-season attendance (13,756) would generate more of the same in the playoffs.
They do now. They should. The dropoff is disastrous.
As this is being written, three playoff games remain: The second game of the Kansas City-Los Angeles series Oct. 3 and the third games of both semifinals Oct. 6.
A format designed to produce as many third games as possible has also yielded the lowest postseason crowds in league history.
The 13 games played (as of Sept. 30) drew average crowds of 9,622. That average is a steep drop from the last two seasons and falls well short of the previous playoff nadir in 1997.
Third games in Chicago and Kansas City Oct. 6 will bump the average up. Crowds have suffered with the absence of D.C. United and Columbus, and Los Angeles ù the regular-season attendance leader at 20,400 ù playing both of its home games in midweek.
ôD.C. United and Columbus are not in the playoffs, and not having them in has hurt our numbers,ö says MLS Commissioner Don Garber. ôThe biggest challenge is weÆve got a couple of days to sell games on Tuesdays, Soldier Field on a school night, L.A. on a Wednesday night. ItÆs not what our fans our conditioned for.ö
Garber isnÆt waiting for the playoffs to conclude. HeÆs made up his mind.
ôWeÆre not at the point where we can sell these kinds of games on short notice at bad times of the week and at bad times of the day,ö says Garber, whoÆs been in charge for 13 months.
ôHaving said that, if we get a Game 3 in Los Angeles with the MetroStars, weÆre going to have a good gate. This structure was put into place to get some Game 3s and weÆre really disappointed to see the kind of attendance we saw in Chicago.ö
Chicago drew only 5,972 on a rainy Friday night Sept. 22 for its third-game showdown with New England. Four days later, only 7,141 came out on a Tuesday night to see game 1 of the Metros-Fire semifinal.
The Fire had never drawn fewer than 10,000 fans for a playoff game before this season.
ôWe anticipated that would be a good gate, but weÆre not where we need to be as it relates to our playoffs and weÆre not happy about it at all,ö said Garber. ôThe schedule and the format is just not working for us, and we have to come up with a different format.ö
THE ISSUES. There are some major issues to consider when evaluating the playoffs:
Is the format flawed, the first-team-to-five-points scheme too abstruse?
Are there too many games in midweek with short advance notice, exposing the already feeble marketing efforts in some MLS cities?
Can the league find the right formula to attract good crowds and fill the best available national TV windows?
Or is the league simply skidding out of view, having lost the momentum of a glorious first season and done far too little to recapture it?
Garber believes points one and two, with the emphasis on the latter, are to blame. Point three is a juggling act with no easy solutions. He dismisses the bleak forecast of point four while acknowledging the rest of it.
ôK.C. and Chicago games were cold, pouring rain, week nights, school nights,ö he said. ôIf the weather was better, could you have had twice as many people? You could have. But IÆm not so sure I want to be in a position where I have to count on the perfect matchup and good weather to get good gates.
ôYou canÆt count on those things. If you get them, itÆs gravy.ö
Tuesdays and Fridays are not optimal for MLS attendances, but are better for national telecasts on ESPN and ESPN2. Baseball dominates Wednesdays and college football controls Saturdays on the cable networks. More games on weekends would increase attendance yet could cut into national coverage.
MIDWEEK MALAISE. The league has played three-game series each year it has been in operation, and just two years ago roughly the same proportion of playoff games were held midweek.
It drew an average of 14,439 for 15 games in 1999 with only two played midweek, but its average in 1998 ù with six of 13 games played midweek ù was 15,278.
Perhaps the number of matches and format itself isnÆt as important as those deadly midweek slots and the mindset they create. Many team executives have convinced themselves they cannot sell midweek soccer, be it playoff, regular season, U.S. Open Cup, whatever.
And, by golly, theyÆve been proved right! Call it the self-fulfilling failure.
A few GMs have been called on the carpet to explain the poor attendances, with the deepest stains caused by a crowd announced at 4,156 for a Sept. 24 game in Kansas City and that 5,972 crowd in Chicago Sept. 26. TampaÆs opener of 5,583 Sept. 14 wonÆt win any awards either.
ôWe still have general managers spending way too much time being coach and general manager and striker,ö says Garber, ôwhen I prefer they spend a lot more time thinking about how they can sell tickets.ö
He is already busy crunching other numbers.
ôWe have budgeted a significant increase from a marketing perspective, both in terms of what weÆre calling awareness and connection,ö says Garber. ôItÆs not going to happen by itself, itÆs only going to happen if we go after it. We will increase our spending exponentially next year from where we are this year at the league level supporting team programs.ö
Fans would prefer the league spend money on players, not programs, but Garber and the money men are devoted to their philosophies.
ôIf attendance doesnÆt bounce up from this year to next year,ö says Garber, ôweÆve got some real problems. I never expected weÆd go up this year. WeÆd better go up next year.ö
by Soccer America senior editor Ridge Mahoney