Let’s be honest, the attendance for the FCD opener was poor, shockingly so. Or at least it should have bee. Strangely as I sat in the stadium I thought the attendance was better than I was expecting. I had heard through the grapevine earlier that week that only 3000 tickets had been sold. I don’t know if that’s true or not but the final attendance certainly is indicative that it was true.
As for exactly what is wrong with FC Dallas in terms of ticket sales, that’s something for another day. For now here are the worst ten attendances in FC Dallas history as compiled from media guides by one of our staffers.
Top Ten Worst FCD Attendance at Pizza Hut Park
1) 5,724 – San Jose, June 7, 2009 – A hot Sunday afternoon in June, a bad FCD team against a bad San Jose team. Could FCD have been focused on selling the Houston game that was next on the schedule?
2) 6,524 – Chivas USA, March 29, 2009 – A Sunday game, one week after a disappointing loss in the opener to Chicago (where more than 15,000 were in attendance).
3) 6,813 – Toronto FC, April 19, 2009 – A Sunday game, did the team playing poorly to start the year led to a big disconnect with fans?
4) 7,140 – Colorado, September 4, 2008 – FCD games in September frequently don’t draw well and Thursday nights are really bad.
5) 7,173 – San Jose, October 2, 2008 – Another Thursday late-season game in a bad season.
6) 8,016 – Houston, March 27, 2010 – A Saturday afternoon with beautiful weather. Opening days usually do great attendance. Absolutely shocking to have this paltry showing in a season opener and against the in-state rival.
7) 8,541 – Houston, May 28, 2008 – Further proving that playing the hated Dynamo is never a guarantee of a great gate. USA playing the same day. Should that matter?
8) 8,960 – Real Salt Lake, May 24, 2008 – The first game after Morrow firing and FCD got stopped by LA 5-1. Fans had to feel more than a little disillusioned. Another one a week before a Houston game… is FCD sales neglecting games to focus on the rival?
9) 9,454 – Chivas USA, October 11, 2007 – A Thursday night.
10) 9,165 – New England, April 29, 2007 – Another Thursday night.
Some Thoughts
Games 2 and 3 on this list are the 2nd and 3rd home games of the year after an ok home opener attendance to Chicago. 5 of their first 8 in 2009 were on the road and the team stinking it up on the field. All that after coming off the terrible end of 2008. Not shocking to see the bad numbers.
Games 4 and 5 are Thursday games. This was toward the end of the 2008 season that went so wrong when Morrow was canned and the team stunk it up even after Hyndman came on board.
Conclusions?
– Midweek games suck.
– Winning matters.
– FCD may be overreaching to fill the stands for Houston and neglecting whatever other games is the week before. Or perhaps the fans just all opt for Houston in a given window?
What do you think?