MLS in Charlotte - 2021

[kermit]

Not a soccer guy but I stumbled across these two impressive soccer stats (the second is MUCH more impressive than the first I think -- I barely lived through a Knights game on Friday where they completely ran out of relish for my hotdog).

More knowledgeable folks, how close is CLTFC getting to selling out the lower bowl? Is selling some of the upper deck in the future?

Edited May 16, 2022 by kermit

[CLT Development]

2 hours ago, kermit said:

Not a soccer guy but I stumbled across these two impressive soccer stats (the second is MUCH more impressive than the first I think -- I barely lived through a Knights game on Friday where they completely ran out of relish for my hotdog).

More knowledgeable folks, how close is CLTFC getting to selling out the lower bowl? Is selling some of the upper deck in the future?

thats a Cornish Hen not a chicken #falseadvertising sounds delish tho

Edited May 17, 2022 by CLT Development

[jordan704]

4 hours ago, kermit said:

Not a soccer guy but I stumbled across these two impressive soccer stats (the second is MUCH more impressive than the first I think -- I barely lived through a Knights game on Friday where they completely ran out of relish for my hotdog).

More knowledgeable folks, how close is CLTFC getting to selling out the lower bowl? Is selling some of the upper deck in the future?

 

PSL owner and from what options were left when I decided after the first game it was slim pickens for 4 seats together. I was told from my rep upper bowl would not be opened up only for season openers/payoffs/cups.  I would estimate they are about 80% there on from what I have seen.

Here is the fan cam from the most recent game. https://charlottefc.fancam.com/20220514?s=east-view&atv=-1.222&ath=-68.28&fov=28.087

[Nathan2]

The games consistently have about 6k to 8k empty seats. The team seems to be pretty far away from filling the remaining seats as most of the seats are expensive club seats.

[JHart]

3 hours ago, Nathan2 said:

The games consistently have about 6k to 8k empty seats. The team seems to be pretty far away from filling the remaining seats as most of the seats are expensive club seats.

There is no way they are short 8k fans, that's basically 1/4 of the lower bowl!

[DonkeyKong]

25 minutes ago, JHart said:

There is no way they are short 8k fans, that's basically 1/4 of the lower bowl!

As a season ticket holder I concur.  Maybe1-3k short of a lower bowl sell out every game, except the 1st of course.

[Nathan2]

1 hour ago, JHart said:

There is no way they are short 8k fans, that's basically 1/4 of the lower bowl!

Average attendance (without the first home game) is 31,479. The lower bowl capacity is 38,000 seats. Also the numbers provided is tickets distributed, not butt in the seats. 

[JHart]

17 hours ago, Nathan2 said:

Average attendance (without the first home game) is 31,479. The lower bowl capacity is 38,000 seats. Also the numbers provided is tickets distributed, not butt in the seats. 

The Wikipedia page references this article in the CBJ for its number: https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2022/02/11/charlottes-new-mls-team-close-to-first-sellout.html which does give the 38,000 number but if you look at the full quote it is: 

For most regular season matches, Charlotte FC plans to only open the lower level for fans. That encompasses 38,000 seats, including suites. Because of seating configurations, TV camera positions and other factors, the team has said capacity will be in the range of 32,000 people for matches played with only the lower level occupied.

BOA is pretty damn full, not missing 8,000 people. 

[Nathan2]

51 minutes ago, JHart said:

 

For most regular season matches, Charlotte FC plans to only open the lower level for fans. That encompasses 38,000 seats, including suites. Because of seating configurations, TV camera positions and other factors, the team has said capacity will be in the range of 32,000 people for matches played with only the lower level occupied.

BOA is pretty damn full, not missing 8,000 people. 

There is absolutely no way the stadium has ever been close to capacity.  I said missing in the range of 6-8k as the stadium has varied over the past several weeks. I've been to every game and not a single one was close to full. If that number was the case the Montreal game was at 100% capacity, which it was no where near. Not to mention ticketmaster regularly has tons of tickets left on the day of. I would like to see an exact number on what capacity is because I'm not buying a " in the range of", especially since the camera positions do not take away that many seats. 

[JHart]

10 minutes ago, Nathan2 said:

There is absolutely no way the stadium has ever been close to capacity.  I said missing in the range of 6-8k as the stadium has varied over the past several weeks. I've been to every game and not a single one was close to full. If that number was the case the Montreal game was at 100% capacity, which it was no where near. Not to mention ticketmaster regularly has tons of tickets left on the day of. I would like to see an exact number on what capacity is because I'm not buying a " in the range of", especially since the camera positions do not take away that many seats. 

Chill man. I'm pointing out the Wikipedia page is incorrectly using a quote from the team as their source on seating capacity when the team themselves gave the 32,000 number. Actual capacity is probably around 33k, meaning we are selling about 1-2k seats short a game with some no shows of MAX 3k short of sellouts each week. 

I'm also a season ticket holder who has been to every game and I'd say the 1-2k per game short is accurate. 

[jordan704]

1476 tickets are currently available for Sundays game. This does not include resale tickets. Source: Sales account rep 

Note: Vancouver is not even in our conference and the worst team currently in the league. 

 

[DonkeyKong]

In other news...pretty exciting!

[dylansukkert]

On 5/18/2022 at 12:55 PM, DonkeyKong said:

In other news...pretty exciting!

Can this crowd top the opening game crowd? 

[DMann]

Big shakeup with the Charlotte FC!

[KJHburg]

""Tepper Sports with still more uncertainty and change, this time with the departure of 
@MARamirezMedina
 effective immediately. Team is less than halfway through its inaugural season""   

just announced

[SouthEndCLT811]

Tom Glick

Marc Nichols

Jessica O'Neill

Nick Kelly

Miguel Angel Ramirez & assistants

All in the last six months..  Add Rock Hill, the Eastland indecision, only MLS team to have PSL's but has the richest owner and spent the second from the bottom thus far in building a roster, getting rid of the Keep Pounding tradition and I'm starting to think the problem is at the top.  Again, can't wait when this rich buffoon comes to the city, county and state wanting hundreds of millions for his new shiny object.

Love the Panthers and Charlotte FC when on the field but Tepper Sports is making it as hard as they can to like them.

Edited May 31, 2022 by SouthEndCLT811

[HopHead]

Under normal circumstances, one would think something bad off the field had to happen with a coach who is exceeding expectations for a 1st year expansion franchise that's on the fringe of the playoffs. I'd like to think that was the case here, since there should be no other reason but I'm not holding my breathe. And yet Rhule is still somehow employed. 

[InSouthPark]

24 minutes ago, HopHead said:

Under normal circumstances, one would think something bad off the field had to happen with a coach who is exceeding expectations for a 1st year expansion franchise that's on the fringe of the playoffs. I'd like to think that was the case here, since there should be no other reason but I'm not holding my breathe. And yet Rhule is still somehow employed. 

Something is likely up.  This kind of news comes out at 6pm so it isn't discussed on every sports talk radio show for hours.  

[KJHburg]

Attendance as report by Axios for Charlotte FC

 Charlotte Retweeted
Ashley Mahoney
@m_a_h_o_n_e_y
·

Charlotte FC attendance: 

•74,479 3/5 LA Galaxy 1-0 L 
•29,318 3/19 NE 3-1 W 
•30,242 3/26 FCC 2-0 W
•32,496 4/10 ATL 1-0 W
•32,018 5/7 Miami 1-0 W
•33,323 5/14 Montreal 2-0 L 
•32,034 5/22 Vancouver 2-1 W
•32,064 6/11 NYRB 2-0 W

6/11 average: 36,997
Lower bowl: 31,642

[CharlotteWkndBuzz]

We should make it a tradition to open the upper deck and create a sellout environment every 1st game of the season. Helps cushion our average attendance and could become a unique/fun game every season for our fans and players. We should take pride in holding that MLS attendance record and should strive to match it every start of the season. 

[Hushpuppy321]

The games are incredibly fun to attend.  Partly due to the team and partly due to the fans participation (crazy hysterics & chanting/drum beating) - Love it

[kermit]

New MLS tv contract puts all games on AppleTV. The article suggests that the games will not be televised anywhere else. Financial terms of deal not disclosed.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-major-league-soccer-strike-10-year-streaming-deal-for-all-mls-games-11655222431

Here is the CBJ version: https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2022/06/14/major-league-soccer-apple-media-rights-tv-sports.html

and CBJ did get the financial terms: 

“Sister publication Sports Business Journalreported the contract is worth $250 million annually — or nearly triple the $90 million in media rights fees paid by ESPN, Fox and Univision in the agreement that expires after this season.”

CBJ also reports that MLS teams will not have any local media rights to sell.

Edit: from The Athletic

”Apple will not be the exclusive home for MLS games; ESPN and others are still negotiating deals to broadcast smaller game packages going forward. Translation: MLS could receive up to $300 million per year when all the ink is dry. “

 

Edited June 15, 2022 by kermit

[Hushpuppy321]

On 6/14/2022 at 3:44 PM, kermit said:

New MLS tv contract puts all games on AppleTV. The article suggests that the games will not be televised anywhere else. Financial terms of deal not disclosed.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-major-league-soccer-strike-10-year-streaming-deal-for-all-mls-games-11655222431

Here is the CBJ version: https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2022/06/14/major-league-soccer-apple-media-rights-tv-sports.html

and CBJ did get the financial terms: 

“Sister publication Sports Business Journalreported the contract is worth $250 million annually — or nearly triple the $90 million in media rights fees paid by ESPN, Fox and Univision in the agreement that expires after this season.”

CBJ also reports that MLS teams will not have any local media rights to sell.

Edit: from The Athletic

”Apple will not be the exclusive home for MLS games; ESPN and others are still negotiating deals to broadcast smaller game packages going forward. Translation: MLS could receive up to $300 million per year when all the ink is dry. “

 

This sucks….I think.  Won’t this mean that I can no longer watch the games on free digital (network) TV?  Hate to lose a good thing

[JHart]

15 hours ago, Hushpuppy321 said:

This sucks….I think.  Won’t this mean that I can no longer watch the games on free digital (network) TV?  Hate to lose a good thing

Yup, awful deal unless you're super into MLS. No local games, and this is an add-on to the Apple TV app, not Apple TV+. Don't expect additional locals to try the games out on their local channels for such a new team. Only positives are this tv package is included if you have season tickets and no blackouts (I have been caught in between regions for games where I'm out of local coverage but not far enough out for ESPN+). 

[NYtoCLT]

I am withholding judgement on the apple deal.  There will still be some games on national TV but it is true that if you want to watch just CLTFC you probably need Apple TV.