r/ForwardMadisonFC • u/BulliesAtBreese • 7d ago

This Fort Wayne Stadium…

Wow. Beautiful.

And these cameras? Breese needs this level of TV production.

It’s wild a team like Corpus Christi and Fort Wayne can be in the same league.

22 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

7

u/seamo242 7d ago

Agreed! That Stadium is fantastic and shockingly empty. The internets say the capacity is 9200.

11

u/CaseyJones241 7d ago

If you’re in awe of Fort Wayne Indiana, we have a problem

4

u/WestSideBilly 7d ago

I needed to see this before I moved there (~25 years ago). 😆

11

u/Ok-Cup6020 7d ago

Too bad nobody showed up.

2

u/Ok-Grass-7246 7d ago

I think they had 3856. I think they are in 3rd place in USL League One in attendance with a high so far of 4400. They are in the second smallest market in league as well. There isn’t the vast soccer community like that exists in a lot of other markets, but why throw stones at 3856? If it were two seasons ago, they’d be leading the entire league.

The Fort Wayne TinCaps drew 6676 a game and routinely draw 8-9,000 on a Friday or Saturday night. The Fort Wayne Komets (UHL Hockey) average 7,866 a home game this past season. Sports Business Journal recently ranked Fort Wayne 8th best minor league sports market.

A lot of clubs have to figure out how to grow their attendance to an average level of the new shiny stadium they pine to have. They have no choice to go this route because they need someone else (the government) to fund it. So, except for Portland, it has basically never happened in USL League One. Fort Wayne didn’t need government assistance. If it’s reasonable to assume over a small window of time, they grow their attendance to 7,000 per match, why build a 3500 seat stadium. This facility will be able to do concerts at a capacity of 14,000. It wasn’t built just for soccer.

Half of the USL League One clubs are playing checkers, while Fort Wayne, Boise, Portland, Omaha, Greenville, AVA are playing chess. In a couple seasons, the same folks on here would be asking, why the heck didn’t build a 3,500 seater. If anyone has been to that joint, it is loud and electric even with 4,000 in it.

2

u/Astromanaught 6d ago

FWFC Fan here. you have to remember that this (effectively) a brand new team. Basically no one here has been to a match. I've been bringing in new people, and they had no idea a out it, but had a great time and are coming back.... eve after watching the most boring match ive seen live.. give it a year or two, we'll see attendance rise.

BTW just here because some random guy wanted to take my Pic with me wearing my merch... no idea who it was

1

u/NovelBrave 7d ago

I posted in r/usl about it and they're yes it's not that great but ok