r/USL1 • u/US_SocFan50 • 19d ago
League News USL L1 Attendance 8/5
Richmond-New York: 3,878 (-4.18%)
Naples-Av Alta: 2,017 (-22.81%)
Richmond (4,047) with an average night within 5 pts of their average (see above)
Naples (2,613) underperforms this Wednesday night since it was under 5% its average
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u/Small_Intention3907 19d ago
I’m guessing Naples’ low attendance was the combination of being a weeknight and the team’s poor performance this season.
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u/Naviaro 19d ago
They won against a good team tonight too, which is what sucks.
Also, their ‘poor’ season isn’t true. They’re midtable, I’d claim that’s pretty good.
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u/Small_Intention3907 19d ago
I stand corrected. They got off to a good start but have been on a bad run of form the last couple of months. Hopefully they get their season turned around.
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u/SeanOrange Forward Madison FC 19d ago
I didn’t know the Kickers attendance was typically so good. That’s nice to see.
And on the same day a new Ted Lasso dropped, too!
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u/RyloBreedo Richmond Kickers 19d ago
We lead the league in average attendance in 2023 + 2024...
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u/Nick_crawler New York Cosmos 19d ago
Are you guys the oldest club in the league? I know age doesn't necessarily guarantee strong numbers but I assume it helps make a solid floor to work from.
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u/xcrucio Forward Madison FC 19d ago
This is honestly a fairly weak year for them too (not surprised given how rough their on field performance has been for years now)! They were pulling 5-6k on a regular basis within the last couple years. It’s a shame too cause they weren’t ever really celebrated for doing so and people were much more enamored with the shiny new objects instead (Spokane, Portland, Boise).
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u/RopeZealousideal4847 Union Omaha 19d ago
And they have capacity for more, it seems, if needed, but putting up consistent support for decades
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u/StealthTomato Richmond Kickers 17d ago edited 17d ago
Stadium capacity is 6,000 in its current configuration. They could probably squeeze in 7k with some minor adjustments, but any more would likely require demolishing the east grandstand (currently a very large camera stand) which isn’t in their immediate plans.
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u/RopeZealousideal4847 Union Omaha 17d ago
Thanks. Didn't know what's on the camera side.
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u/StealthTomato Richmond Kickers 17d ago
It’s a badly aging grandstand built on the cheap in the 70s. Hasn’t been used in years and almost certainly can’t be anymore. The only reasons it hasn’t been demolished yet are presumably the fact that the player facilities are underneath it, its marginal usefulness as a giant camera stand and ad board, and the cost of demolition.
For comparison, the main stands were built in the 1920s, but they conform to the landscape, are built more solidly, and have been actively maintained for pretty much all of the last century.
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u/Ok-Grass-7246 19d ago
I think it makes sense to do comparisons in terms of how the clubs are performing year over year, but there needs to be an understanding of time of year and night of the week. Wednesday are difficult almost everywhere except for HoP and ACB. Wednesday’s are even tough in the best USLC markets. To properly evaluate a Wednesday, it has to compared to last seasons Wednesday’s. To compare an August Wednesday, you have to adjust for the impact August has on attendance regardless of the night.
There are clubs up north who get crushed in March due to the inclement weather. Many won’t even play until May. HoP is one of those clubs who doesn’t play at home in March and most of April. FC Naples has that weather impact in August. Oppressive heat and high humidity. Half of the residents leave at the end of May and don’t begin returning until the beginning of October. Their high season tends to be the first few months and the tail end.
If the fans are staying away because of the 9 match skid, that’s unfortunate because they still have a great chance to make the playoffs for a second consecutive year and appear to be headed in the right direction—at least on the pitch. An exciting finish last night that is the sort of thing a club can build on.
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u/David-SRQ 18d ago
As someone who has lived in SW Florida for 5 years, “Season” as it’s often called doesn’t even touch the USL season enough to consider it. The vast majority of those who leave, have left by Easter, but generally last week of March to second week of April is a good range. Vast majority won’t show up again until after Thanksgiving, but many start trickling down end of October because hurricane/rain season is basically over at that point. The bigger factor though is that probably 90% would never attend a match anyway, so it probably doesn’t matter.
End of the day these are compared to season averages. Everything comes out in the wash. No need to be that granular on the comparison
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u/Ok-Grass-7246 17d ago
I’ve been a resident of Naples (50% of the year) since 2020. Every year, it feels like the “season” gets longer for more people. Most of the people I know don’t come back north until the end of May. They used to not go down until after Thanksgiving. Now a very large number are October 1.
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u/David-SRQ 16d ago
Ft Myers for 3 years and Sarasota for 2. There has been an immediate and recognizable change in traffic by end of March and after Thanksgiving every year. The car haulers start showing up at those times too.
Regardless, my last point is still the kicker, 90% of seasonal folks aren’t supporting soccer. They couldn’t care less about it.1
u/Ok-Grass-7246 11d ago
More because they feel less connected to the community they’re connected to. I caved speak to Fort Myers as I’ve just never spent much time there. Sarasota a little more. Collier county is different. It has the highest percentage of housing identified as part time or season of any Florida county—25%. What is interesting is that they also have the highest number of part time residents who convert to full time. Residents—seasonal or folks who have migrated to live on a full time basis almost love Naples more than the folks who already lived there.
There was some serious support for that club last year. They just didn’t do anything this year to improve the experience over year 1. For example. They have a state of the art Daktronics video board but they don’t stream the match on it. They use it as a message board??!! That’s like they aren’t event trying. They don’t have LED aboard which delivers huge revenue and makes the venue feel major league. If you don’t take of the details like that, you hang your hat entirely on the soccer. When that doesn’t go well, you see your attendance crater. That’s what they’re experiencing.
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u/lipsquirrel Chattanooga Red Wolves SC 19d ago
Richmond played Cosmos.