Yellow Card: MLS Playoffs Drawing Alarmingly Small Crowds
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MLS Dynamo-Red Bulls First Round Playoff
Game Played In Front Of Less Than 12,000 Fans |
The first round of the MLS playoffs averaged "less than 10,500 fans in attendance," according to the HOUSTON CHRONICLE's Bernardo Fallas, who writes under the subhead, "MLS Playoff Matches Should Draw More Fans." Last Thursday's Fire-Revolution game, which aired on ESPN2, drew just 5,221 fans to Gillette Stadium, while Saturday's Dynamo-Red Bulls game at Giants Stadium drew a crowd of less than 12,000. The "best numbers" were put up by Real Salt Lake, which drew 14,719 fans to its new 20,000-seat Rio Tinto Stadium. Saturday's Crew-Wizards did sellout the 10,385-seat Community America Ballpark. Fallas writes there is "something patently unappealing about watching any sporting event on TV where the stands are practically empty," as it "renders it unimportant." However, he notes the turnouts "should be better this week" -- Sunday's Red Bulls-Dynamo game has already sold more than 20,000 tickets and is "bound to post the biggest draw in the league" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 11/4). MLS Commissioner Don Garber: "Fans are conditioned for a regular season that leads up to this moment. Our sport is very young, and we don't have season tickets that include playoff games like in the other leagues in this country. Playoffs have been a challenge for us to sell over the years" (DESERET NEWS, 11/2).
LACKING DRAMA: Syndicated columnist Norman Chad wrote the MLS playoffs have "all the appeal of a root canal without anesthesia." The FIFA World Cup is "riveting sports drama, once every four years," but MLS is "more like league bowling -- it goes on interminably, and right after it ends, another league season begins." Meanwhile, Galaxy MF David Beckham's "on-the-field effect has been negligible," and he has "more publicists than paparazzi" (Mult., 11/3).
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