Focus turns to improving attendance
After Crew SC’s announcement of a jersey sponsorship deal with Acura in February, team president of business operations Andy Loughnane painted a picture of a club whose business growth is happening in steps.
He made sure to mention a television deal that ensures a greater number of people in central Ohio are able to watch Crew games on Spectrum Sports or one of several broadcast stations. He
recalled the March 2015 deal that gave Mapfre Insurance stadium naming rights, and he lauded the Crew’s ability to establish a long-term relationship with a premium brand like Acura. But Loughnane also made iclear the club has a ways to go in meeting its business goals, particularly when it comes to keeping pace with other MLS clubs in attendance. In an interview with The Dispatch last week, Loughnane said maximizing attendance is a multi-faceted formula across several departments and requires a broad scope.
The Crew has a goal to sell out all 17 regular-season home games. It’s one the club won’t achieve in 2017, as 15,023 was the announced attendance for a chilly home opener against Chicago and 11,067 attended last Saturday’s game against Portland. (The official capacity of Mapfre Stadium is 19,968.) Still, Loughnane said, the club hopes to set attendance and home sellout records for a fourth straight season. Last year, the team’s average attendance was 17,125 and it sold out six
games.
These early-season turnouts didn’t surprise the Crew. Loughnane said before the Portland game that it had yielded “some of the highest numbers of exchanges” for season-ticket holders to later matches. Analyzing early-season attendance, he said, also comes with the understanding that this season marked only the second time Crew SC has had two March home games.
“Other midsize MLS markets fight through similar adverse weather conditions and Crew SC will continue to measure itself against other comparable MLS markets,” Loughnane said. “It’s our intention as quickly as we possibly can to work hard to catch up to other midsize markets (such as Salt Lake City, Kansas City and Orlando) who are selling out all home matches regardless of weather conditions.”
Coach Gregg Berhalter said this week he would like to play early-season games in climates that “make sense” given the time of year, but he understands scheduling is a complicated issue.
“I know from the league’s standpoint, making the schedule, man, that’s a nightmare. You have all
the different stadium requirements,” Berhalter said. “Some of them share with NFL teams, some of them share with college teams, some with baseball teams, some of them have Quarter Horse Congresses. That’s the last job I actually want to do is be a scheduler, because it’s a tough one.”
Midfielder Ethan Finlay, the team’s players’ union rep who is well-versed in finance, said of MLS attendance: “Everyone is still trying to figure out that magic formula.”
Berhalter called attendance a “bundle” of factors, and Loughnane described a “successful equation” that includes both a winning product on the field and a valuable