Attendance
MetroFanatic: I put these numbers of MetroStars attendance in a spreadsheet, and although the overall average is up this year, if you look at the numbers, for weekend games only, we go from 21 thousand in 2001, to 17, to 16, to 15 last year. And if you take out Freddy Adu, it's 12. The MetroStars have averaged 12,000 for non-Freddy Adu weekend games in 2004 in Giants Stadium. There is an obvious trend of attendance going down the past four years.
Nick Sakiewicz: That's not true.
MF: These are the numbers.
NS: Well, these are the numbers, but you're not looking what's behind them.
MF: I took out the biggest doubleheader each year.
NS: I don't know where you got these numbers.
MF: These are official attendance numbers.
NS: From?
MF: From MLSnet.com, which lists official attendance numbers for every game. Look at these: 19, 17, 21 and then you look at this year. Sunday game, 8. Saturday game, 10. 12, 13, 14. And the previous years, you see 20s, 18s, and it adds up.
NS: I have to look closer to make an apples-to-apples; you just threw this at me now. But I tell you that paid attendance, which is the way we measure attendance, paid tickets, has increased the last three... four years, since 2000. Our paid attendance has increased. What you have to understand is that the no-show rate at Giants Stadium have grown every year. That fewer and fewer people buy tickets and come to the game. So you need to understand all the ins and outs. It's not just about announced attendances. It's about what's behind those announced attendances. I don't know, I'll have to look at these. I don't know where these numbers are coming from.
MF: These are the official numbers.
NS: You got a 41,000 number here.
MF: That's a doubleheader, I don't count that in the average for that year.
NS: We haven't done doubleheaders in two years.
MF: My point is not to make up the numbers.
NS: And it's not fair for you to say, "Freddy Adu games". That's like saying, a certain player is not showing up, so we gotta take those games out.
MF: Fine, so you take out that column, and it's still 21, 17, 16, 15.
NS: I'm gonna give these numbers to (MFO employee), and ask him to analyze that, and get back to you on that. All I can tell you is our ticket revenue has increased four years in a row.
MF: So the older numbers, you're saying, a lot of those numbers are unpaid tickets.
NS: Attendance includes paid tickets, sponsored tickets, which are paid tickets, but are not counted as paid tickets, and comps. And what we announce is the whole universe. That's what every sports team does. They announce the whole universe of paid, comps, sponsor, and other. That's why sometimes, you might go to a game on a rainy Saturday, and we announce 17,000 and there's only 10,000 in the building. Well, every sports team announces their distributed number, which is 17. But the drop count, the turnstile count is only 10. So that's the difference.
MF: So what you're saying is although the numbers might be smaller on the average, even counting the Adu games, if you take out the unpaid, the comps, the MetroStars are making more money back.
NS: Yes.
MF: And not because of the increased ticket prices?
NS: Yes. We're selling more tickets every year.
MF: And will sell more tickets next year?
NS: We continue to grow every year. That's why these people (MFO) get bonuses and get promotions. They're good at what they do.