Communications Coordinator - New York Red Bulls (Secaucus, NJ)

Actually, according the economics of the league, the WPS reportedly only needs to attract 5,000 fans a game to break even, in comparison with the WUSA, which needed 7,000.

As for color schemes, you don't usually see much of that on a soccer field in comparison with a basketball court.

 

I hope you were being sarcastic.

Something tells me that the roughly $500 million being spent on Red Bulls Park in Harrison, NJ wouldn't be being spent if they thought there was any chance of the league folding, not to mention the same amount that is being spent on a redevelopment project in Chester - by private investors, the state, city and county - for the new Philadelphia franchise and its stadium, which is officially going to be announced by the league tomorrow ...

 

I figured my past history here wouldn't require the blue font......

 

MLS is stronger than it has ever been. And more entertaining. It's not going to fold anytime soon. They just need to be careful not to expand too quickly.

 

C'mon, GB-Hack -- you're better than this. The WUSA hit or came very close to that "break-even" attendance in all three seasons. They still burned through a five-year operating budget of $40 million in ONE year. Everything about that league, at least from the financial-planning perspective, was pure folly. So any projections the new league makes have to be taken with several truckloads of salt -- no matter how much they might have learned from the WUSA's demise.

As for the Red Bulls job, that team's going to move into what should be a jewel of a stadium next year in Harrison, right off the PATH train. Not sure that the NYC media will pay much more attention, but I'd expect the attendance to increase significantly once they move into Red Bull Park, and this club might finally live up to its promise as MLS' signature franchise. Not a bad time to jump aboard if you're interested.

And yes, as someone mentioned earlier, the then-MetroStars' director of communications made the jump to a corresponding position with the Boston Bruins last year. So it's a good stepping-stone to bigger things.

 

There were clubs who acheived the 7,000 a game benchmark, but there were others which never came close such as New York and San Diego. Add in the money that got burnt through, then it's easy to see why everything went pear-shaped.

But while you can take the 5,000 a game with a grain of salt, I think it's clear this group has learnt from the way MLS approached establishing itself, and won't make the mistakes that were made in the WUSA. I think at this point you have to take them to a certain extent at face value as to what they are trying to accomplish, and what it's going to take to achieve that.

 

I don't know that the market for women's soccer (such as it is) can sustain a league, no matter what attendance figures they designate as the "Survival" rate.

Hell, it's not like the market for men's soccer guarantees 10,000 a game (which would be a solid projection based on the league's foothold), even with all the pretty new yards going up.

This rapid expansion, coupled with helping a new women's league get off the ground, lead me to believe that MLS is overextending itself.

 

I think the places where MLS has expanded to, see Toronto, San Jose (again) Seattle and today Philadelphia are all going to be strong. Toronto has already sold out all of its games again for the upcoming season, and Seattle is reported to have 12,000 season ticket holders in place for when they get off the ground. It will be interesting to see how San Jose does at the gate this season.

And while there is a link between MLS and WPS in stadia and financial model, I'm not aware of any other links between the two, although I could be wrong about that.

 

My girlfriend said "Kiss me where it stinks" so I took her to Secaucus.

 

cool rugby shirt, chief.

 

I didn't realize Beckham got traded to the Red Bulls.

 

the red bulls are a soccer team?