Sockers Banking on Crowd Growth as Season Proceeds
For an idea of how the Sockers are doing on the field this season, all anyone needs to do is check the Major Indoor Soccer League standings once in a while.
For an idea of how the Sockers are doing off the field--and this year, that’s more important than usual--there isn’t any such clear-cut, easy-to-read source.
But in this most challenging season for indoor soccer’s most artistically successful team, the former provides a clue about the latter.
Put simply, management feels that it’s about 14-13 right now . . . or slightly above .500.
Management is Ron Fowler, the owner, and Ron Cady, the president. Attendance through 13 home dates is down to 7,721, from 9,067 at this point last year, but both men say they’re upbeat.
That’s good news for Socker fans--although there are fewer of you than management was hoping--because it means that despite some problems, soccer will probably be alive in San Diego for a while.
Or will it?
Owners are meeting in Dallas next week before the All-Star game, and the Sockers are planning to present the league with a fairly rosy report of how things are going. Of course, it is possible the other franchises will not be feeling as well. And Fowler has already said that there must be at least eight teams in the league next season--one additional--for him to go forward again.
“Whether there are eight teams or not is something we can only wait and see on,” Fowler said. “It looks like there will be eight (Cleveland is almost certain to have a new franchise awarded), but we learned last summer that nothing is certain.
“What we’re trying to concern ourselves with now is the future of the Sockers. And we’re planning to have a future.”
But to have a prosperous future, there is going to have to be improvement.
That’s Fowler and Cady, sitting at midfield about 25 rows up, where they squirm each night when the attendance is announced early in the fourth quarter at the Sports Arena.
6,326; 6,360; 6,820; 6,486.
Last season, only four games drew fewer than 7,000 fans. Two years ago, only one drew fewer than 8,000.
What’s worse is that an attendance swoon is hardly something the Sockers can afford, figuratively or literally. When Fowler purchased the team in a federal bankruptcy court this past summer, he and Cady said the Sockers would need to average 10,000 fans per game to break even.
As Fowler said at the time, he also had in his mind a worst-case scenario (fewer than 10,000) and a better-case scenario (more than 10,000).
“Obviously, what’s happening now is a worst-case scenario,” Fowler said. “But I’m encouraged since we are headed in the right direction. We started slowly because we purchased the team so late, and our team started slowly on the field.
“But things have picked up some (more than 8,000 fans at each of the past three weekend home games), and I think there’s some indication that they will continue to improve. If we were where we are now, and we were headed in the wrong direction, I’d be very concerned about things. But I think we’re on the way up.”
Of course, every time things seem to start looking better, the league is hurt by negative news. The latest was word this week that the Dallas Sidekicks were filing for Chapter 11 protection in a federal bankruptcy court.
Two weeks ago, Tacoma Stars owner Jim Manza said his team needed more support, or it was going to be in trouble.
“The timing on the Dallas thing is unfortunate at best and horrendous at worst,” Fowler said. “Next week is a very important week for us in terms of the owners talking about the league’s future. It’s too bad we have this negative news hanging over our heads. But, as always, we’ll just have to keep trying to go forward.”
It really seems as if the Sockers are trying. But sometimes, all the trying in the world just won’t make it.
In November, the team commissioned San Diego State marketing department to do a study to find out just what the fans wanted. The study found that there just aren’t that many fans.
Cady said the study showed that only 10% of the population in San Diego County has ever attended a Socker game. That’s a rather modest number considering the team has been in town for nearly a decade.
“That’s good news and bad news, though,” Cady said. “It’s bad because it’s such a low number, but it’s good because it shows just how many people out there we still might be able to appeal to.”
Maybe some of them, Cady hopes, will buy season tickets and help the team reach its goal in that area. Before the season started, he said the Sockers hoped to gain 1,000 new season-ticket holders.
Through the middle of February, Cady said, the team has sold about 85% of that goal. Not bad, except 1,000 season tickets was another of Cady’s worst-case scenarios.
“What we really need to do is find a way to get people in here to see a game,” Cady said. “And I’m talking about the people who have never seen one. If you take the 10% of the people in this county (approximately 200,000 people) who have been to a Socker game, it’s not a bad number. But we need to make that 10% number higher.”
So, what to do?
In December, the Sockers hired Holli Traeumer as their new director of public relations and promotions, with an accent on promotions. Traeumer has spent the past two months trying to get the word out.
Approximately a half-dozen local radio stations have joined forces with the team to sponsor promotions and try to get the Sockers’ name spread across the county. But the public isn’t quickly buying into it.
“It seems to me that all the negative publicity surrounding the team and the league (this past summer) has put a negative idea in the public’s mind,” Traeumer said. “It’s like people have jumped on the bandwagon (of MISL detractors). They think soccer isn’t as good as it used to be.”
Most likely, only time will change the public’s opinion. Four teams folded over the summer, and the Sockers themselves nearly went under. It’s understandable that people would think the product just isn’t the same.
“I think a lot of our fans through the years also just expect us to be there at the end, or they were disappointed with our slow start,” Cady said. “It is going to take time for them to realize that the indoor game is still alive in San Diego and that it is still exciting. In the meantime, we need to get some new people involved.”
Added Fowler: “We’re behind where we want to be, but we’re pointed in the right direction. If we can keep moving forward, we can make this thing work.”
A rosy statement. But you get the idea there are still some thorns to be dealt with.
SOCKERS ATTENDANCE Average season attendance per game. *--Team in NASL.
Season Gms. Average 1988-89 13 7,721 1987-88 28 8,996 1986-87 26 9,748 1985-86 24 9,581 1984-85 24 9,595 1983-84 16* 11,415 1982-83 24 8,081 1981-82 9* 7,047 1980-81 9* 4,912
