Pilots break attendance record

From the JMU game report-

The sellout was the third this season for Portland, which played its final home game of the fall. The Saturday night crowd of 4,879 ensures that Portland will lead the nation in both average and overall attendance this year. UP’s total attendance for the season of 47,082 obliterates the previous women’s soccer record total attendance for one season, which was set by Portland in 2005 (40,841). Portland remains the only school in women’s soccer history to crack the 40,000 mark.

The average attendance of 3,623 at Merlo Field this fall is slightly below last year’s (3,771) average and is the third highest in NCAA women’s history.

Actually, I'm not sure they have this quite right. The NCAA website shows that Texas A&M had an attendance total of 47,035 in 2006 (14 games), which would be the second biggest year in history, and is certainly well over the 40,000 mark.

Still, it's a great accomplishment for the program, it is a new record (barely) and it keeps us on top the leaders in attendance.

Here's the top 10 from 2006-(http://www.ncaa.org/stats/w_soccer/1/attendance.html)

Code:

 
Rank School Home Attend. Dates Avg. Att.
1. Portland 30,676 9 3,408
2. Texas A&M 47,035 14 3,360
3. Brigham Young 20,696 10 2,070
4. Notre Dame 24,719 13 1,901
5. North Carolina 20,771 11 1,888
6. Florida 15,896 10 1,590
7. Santa Clara 15,090 10 1,509
8. Connecticut 10,952 8 1,369
9. Texas 13,394 10 1,339
10. Florida St. 17,399 13 1,338


what i cant figure out is where was the student section during the playoffs?? i was at every game an while i couldnt see the student section at that time, when i got home an watched the game on my dvr, i was extremely disappionted to see the student section virtually empty for the games. i dont understand?!! the student section is the life an soul of this team, its just not the villa drum corp!!

Wow I'm up late tonight... But as soon as you start actually charging for tickets students tend to understandably shy away... I mean they are college students...

especially when the game is on TV...

Also... usually the student government (ASUP) will step in and subsidize tickets. Often they will have, say, 100 free tickets available and another 100 or so for $3 or something like that.

But this year, they aren't doing that because the ASUP Treasurer last year forot to carry a one or something and somehow spent way too more money than they had. So while normally there is a pretty sizable carry-over fund that they can use at their own discretion for things like this, that isn't available this year.

So... just a bummer of circumstance for the students.

I noticed that the UP attendance story line changed to reflect what I wrote earlier about attendance record.

The sellout was the third this season for Portland, which played its final home game of the fall. The Saturday night crowd of 4,879 ensures that Portland will lead the nation in both average and overall attendance this year. UP’s total attendance for the season of 47,082 breaks the previous women’s soccer record total attendance for one season, which was set by Texas A&M in 2006 (47,035). Portland remains the only school in women’s soccer history to crack the 40,000 mark in two seasons (40,841 in 2005).

The average attendance of 3,623 at Merlo Field this fall is slightly below last year’s (3,771) average and is the third highest in NCAA women’s history.

Well, that's not quite right either. I checked the NCAA stats, and the A&M stats, and the numbers are a bit different still. It's not entirely The writer's fault, because the A&M site only has stats on line for the first four games this year, one of which was an alumnae game which doesn't count towards official attendance records. In addition, the NCAA records contain at least 2 errors so it's safe to assume it might have more. It has UP's attendance for 2007 at 39,607 averaged over 11 home games, and UP claims 37710 over 10 games. The schedule only shows 10 games, so I assume the UP numbers are correct. The box scores are gone for last year, so I can't check.

For this year's A&M attendance figures, I went to the websites of A&M's opponents to gather the information from the box scores. Here's the best stats I can come up with. including corrections where I found errors.

Below is a chart of UP attendance records going back to 2004, and a comparison with Texas A&M, the only other program that competes with UP in attendance. Before that, average attendance at UP games hovered for several years at under 20,000 for the season and under 1,500 per game, and UP's place in attendance was around #4. You will recall it was about that time that UP decided to emphasize Women's soccer and Men's Basketball as the two marquee sports.

..............Portland.........Texas A&M...

year	att.	G	av.	att.	G	av.
2008	47,084	13	3,623	41,284	13	3,176
2007	37,710	10	3,771	37,781	12	3,148
2006	30,676	9	3,408	47,035	14	3,360
2005	40,841	12	3,403	33,634	10	3,363
2004	23,116	11	2,101	39,069	14	2,790

So, it appears A&M also has two 40,000-fan seasons to its credit. If we are looking for uniqueness to this season, it's the first year in history that two schools have surpassed the 40,000 mark. This is the first year since 2005 when UP has led in both total and average attendance. The last time A&M did that was 2004. UP has led in average attendance each of the last four years.

So congrats to us. Congrats also to A&M for the support it gets. A&M now charges for tickets, where it didn't previously.

Women's college soccer is definately growing. Now if there was just a little more emphasis on the Men's soccer program. . . I'd like to see attendance and attention grow there.

-SciFi

Since the men's and women's programs are admistered and coached together I have wondered why the men's program doesn't gain as much attention as the women. Is it all about winng or is there some other intangible?

I'd say winning has a lot to do with it. When I started watching UP soccer, they were going deep in the tournament every year and getting better attendance than the women. In fact, there were many double headers to get the attendance at the women's games up.

I would love it if the men and women were winning at the same time again. We had a weekend when I was in school with a men's playoff game Saturday and a women's playoff game Sunday. Soccer overload, baby.

Winning is a part of it, for sure. But so is the whole positive vibe of the women's team, which is compelling and attractive in so many ways that all of us who watch the team can relate to. Aside from winning, the oportunity to watch really talented players excel in a famly-friendly environment is unmatched by UP women in the Portland area. The men's team simply doesn't register with the female soccer fans in my family. Nor do the Timbers except as a once-a-season trip to PGE Park. (Villa Drum Corps= good; Timbers Army=rude). We started attending Pilots games when the odds of UP winning were maybe 50-50 -- just before Christine Sinclair hit town. Ever since, we've been on board full time.

purple haze wrote:. We started attending Pilots games when the odds of UP winning were maybe 50-50 -- just before Christine Sinclair hit town. Ever since, we've been on board full time.

Mmmm..... The pilots were never a 50-50 team from the time Clive took over the program. His winning percentage was in the high 700's and Garret's is now in the low to mid 800's. They have been in every NCAA tournament but one since 1992.

They were in the final four or finals in 1995,1996,1997, and 1998

Their absolute worst year in that stretch, (1999) they were 12-7-1 starting 8 freshmen sometimes. That team won UP's first national championship as seniors.

And if you are talking about home games, UP only lost about 8 games at home in the first ten years of Merlo Field's history. I think the tenth loss was about when Sinc arrived.

Maybe it just seems like we didn't win as much.

1999 was my first year at UP and they were pretty good even back then. They didn't get as much attention in those days so maybe it didn't seem like they were as good as they are now. Even in those days, though, they were making deep playoff runs and getting to the Final Four. Maybe it took winning a championship for people to realize what kind of program the Pilots had.

So is it only going to take winning championships for the men to get recognized? Or can the school do something else to help?

-SciFi

from the oldest article in the archives (08-23-2000)

SKY IS FALLING - LOSSES ON MERLO FIELD
REACHES DOUBLE DIGITS
Portland’s three losses in 1999 (6-3-1 at home), put Portland’s record on Merlo Field at 85-11-2 (.878). With its’ win, Virginia joined an elite group of three teams to register more than one win over Portland on the hallowed pitch. Virginia is 2-0 at Portland, joining Notre Dame (three wins), and North Carolina (two wins). Only seven teams have ever beaten Portland at home -San Diego, San Jose State, Virginia, Santa Clara, UCLA, Notre Dame and North Carolina.

Hehe,

I remember reading that item in a program one day.

Men's attendance would probably increase with wins, but there's also something in the style that is, to me, less attractive. The women's college game has a balance of skill, speed, and power that is just right, and similar in balance (though not in level) to the European men's game. What I mean is that although less skilled, slower, and less powerful than the professional men, the college women lack these in approximately similar proportions, leading to an entertaining game.

The men's college game, and the American professional game at the Timbers' level, has speed and power in far greater proportion than skill. The result often ends up being a game that is all about long kicks, fast runs, and physical tackles and rarely about perfectly timed and placed balls or brilliantly executed one-touch passing sequences. Aesthetically, the game just doesn't appeal in the same way as the American women's game or the European men's game.

That said, I think the Pilot men's team will attract a much bigger following if it can re-establish a winning tradition. It seems like it has gone steadily down since Clive's passing. One of the few men's games I attended this year was the Seattle U debacle, which was downright embarrassing. Others are probably better aware of the causes of this decline than I. Suffice it to say, a lot of the men's half of my season tickets will be unused until things start to improve.

Maybe I haven't watched enough soccer, but I like going to men's games. I think it's the speed that I'm attracted to. When they start playing the Route 1 stuff it's not as entertaining, but that style rarely is.

The Seattle match was not good at all, but there were others this year that featured some great playmaking by the boys. And of course, the match is much more fun when you watch it with the people I watch with...

SciFi wrote:So is it only going to take winning championships for the men to get recognized? Or can the school do something else to help?

-SciFi

Winning championships would certainly do it, but even winning seasons would go a long way toward getting people in the seats.
This year's attendance is the second highest in history, despite a losing record.

The perception is that the men's attendance is declining, but it is only in comparison to the women's game. It has actually more than tripled since 2003. and it is among the leaders in attendance in the nation. This is no doubt due to the season ticket sales being linked.

Verifiable records are hard to come by, because there are discrepancies between the UP website and the NCAA site figures, (i'll spare the donkey) but here goes:


...yr......Att...g..av..att rank.record

2008	20,929	10	2,093	...?...	8-10-2
2007	15,476	8	1,934	...?...	10-6-5
2006	23,071	11	2,097	6	8-8-3
2005	9,462	8	1,183	14	6-11-2
2004	11,955	9	1,328	12	12-8-2
2003	6,582	7	940	23	10-9-2

What else you could infer from these numbers is debatable. One question you might ask is how many stars from the previous year you can recognize.

SoreKnees,
Your point about the balance of skill is well taken. When I first started following soccer about 15 years ago I could not understand what the men player were trying to accomplish other than the obvious goal scoring. The first time I saw an English Premier game, it was "oh yeah" that is what they are trying to do. Passes found the head and feet of the intended receivers, there was pressure on the ball from front to back. The players played the ball quickly so quickly that violent collisions were few because there was no time to challenge. Technical skills were sureal.

Then I found out that the Brazilians would rather play beautifully and lose than win ugly and I started to get it.More later

Auto Pilot wrote:Since the men's and women's programs are admistered and coached together I have wondered why the men's program doesn't gain as much attention as the women. Is it all about winng or is there some other intangible?

Why the women get better attendance than the men when both programs are great to watch?
-- I think you will see a higher percentage on women at the women's games. There are fewer choices in the sports market for women to watch women. There are lots of choices to watch men. Should it matter - no but it does.
----Parents and coaches are bringing their girls so that the girls have positive, athletic, female role models.
----There are around 1600 adult women playing outdoor womens soccer in greater Portland. Add women playing coed and indoor. During playoff season, I would say 75% of these women are following UP and will attend at least once game a season. On my team, 2-3 players have season passes and they bring their non-soccer playing friends
--- Women like me are attending for great soccer and because every game is a celebration of women in sports after many years of fighting to play. (I played my first college year on a mostly men's club team who welcomed me but a tournament director once prohibited me from playing only because I was female - it was 1977. There were only two sports for girls in my high school - I transfered to another school and ran XC on the "boys" team.) .

Auto Pilot wrote:Since the men's and women's programs are admistered and coached together I have wondered why the men's program doesn't gain as much attention as the women. Is it all about winng or is there some other intangible?

I can think of a few other reasons why you may see a discrepancies:

--- For the public and general soccer enthusiasts the UP womens program has literally been the closest and most accessible of top level soccer. There has never been a major professional presence in the area and the National team appearances once every year or so just aren't the highest level. For an outsider this would strike me as a pretty significant reason for a draw.
--- For those in the university, I can honestly say the women are a lot easier to root for than the women. The men's team (not universally but enough to notice) kind of takes on the aloof/abrasive attitude you might normally attribute to a men's football team. I mean as shown with suspensions and whatnot a few years ago there have obviously been issues and a sort of an invincible attitude for a lot of the players. I think in the regard of being role models and generally congeniality that we attribute to our women just isn't nearly as prevalent. It makes them pretty difficult to really get behind, especially since they haven't really seen much success on the field since the departure of Clive.

P.S. I don't want to make it sound like a general stereotype of the players, there have definitely been some good guys on the teams, but my OVERALL impression and personal encounters have dictated that isn't the norm.

Auto Pilot wrote:Since the men's and women's programs are admistered and coached together I have wondered why the men's program doesn't gain as much attention as the women. Is it all about winng or is there some other intangible?

Some additional reasons that are related to winning:

• Because the women are generally ranked in the top five nationally, they get more local press. Typically we have a couple of home games each year that involve two teams that are nationally in the top ten; these are generally given more press than other games. (This year, I can think of UCLA, USC and Florida off the top of my head. Many years, Santa Clara would be in that group, too.) If someone, nudged by publicity, comes to a women's game and has a good experience, I'd think they'd be more likely to come to another women's game.
  
• I haven't looked at the attendence trends during the season (and haven't paid that much attention), but I would not be surprised that as the season progresses, the women's games increase in attendance while the men's games decrease. Once it is clear that a team will not make the playoffs, some people become less interested, particularly as the weather becomes worse. On the other hand, if playoff seeding is at stake, it may help increase attendance.
  

I'd also like to echo a previous comment about congeniality. I occasionally chat with a member of either the men's or women's team. I've lost count of the number of times that a member of the women's team has thanked me for attending their game. (My standard response is "You don't have to thank me, I'm addicted.") I'm not sure that a male player has ever thanked me for coming to a game.

There are certainly male players that are friendly and approachable, but my experience is that women are, for the most part, more approachable than the men.

Geezaldinho wrote:

SciFi wrote:So is it only going to take winning championships for the men to get recognized? Or can the school do something else to help?

-SciFi

Winning championships would certainly do it, but even winning seasons would go a long way toward getting people in the seats.
This year's attendance is the second highest in history, despite a losing record.

The perception is that the men's attendance is declining, but it is only in comparison to the women's game. It has actually more than tripled since 2003. and it is among the leaders in attendance in the nation. This is no doubt due to the season ticket sales being linked.

Verifiable records are hard to come by, because there are discrepancies between the UP website and the NCAA site figures, (i'll spare the donkey) but here goes:


...yr......Att...g..av..att rank.record

2008	20,929	10	2,093	...?...	8-10-2
2007	15,476	8	1,934	...?...	10-6-5
2006	23,071	11	2,097	6	8-8-3
2005	9,462	8	1,183	14	6-11-2
2004	11,955	9	1,328	12	12-8-2
2003	6,582	7	940	23	10-9-2

What else you could infer from these numbers is debatable. One question you might ask is how many stars from the previous year you can recognize.

Those numbers are encouraging. It appears the men's attendance is growing. That alays my concerns right there. I hope the trend continues.

-SciFi

It's also hard to develop men's team loyalty when some of the best players leave early to pursue pro careers. You just can't count on seeing a top male player develop over four years. I'm not complaining, just noting that for American men, college is not the best place to develop your skills if you want to play at a high professional level. Whereas for American women, college soccer at the top level actually is superior to that of most women's national teams. We get to see potential stars develop over four years. They're loyal to "us" so we're loyal to them.

And, I just read this on the Former Pilots' Sightings thread. It relates to this discussion:

Kristen Moore will forever be my family's favorite Pilot! I'm a UP alum...but had only infrequently returned on campus. It was Kristen who turned me into a Pilot Soccer Fan!

When my daughter was young and in her first year of playing soccer...I started taking her to Merlo to watch some games. Back then, it was easy to approach the players! You'd just stand outside the locker rooms and wait for them to come out. There was no assembly line to get autographs back then. Anyway, my daughter was a shy one...she wouldn't ask for autographs herself. She'd just stand in the background with other kids and wait patiently to be noticed.

Well...it was Kristen who noticed! And even gave her a special treat. She asked if my daughter wanted more autographs? My daughter was shocked and could only nod yes...and so...Kristen took her by the hand and led her back into the locker room! What was funny (to me at least)...was when Kristen stopped Lindsey Huie in the back hallway and told her not to leave before signing! Of all the Pilots...Queenie was the most intimidating for my daughter! But of course...she learned that Lindsey also one of the sweetest persons....off the pitch!! Anyway...my daughter returned with a treasure trove of souvenirs and memories!

The thing that clenched the deal for me was when they came back out afterwards...Kristen's Mom...took a picture of the 2 together....and then Mrs Moore....hunted me down the following week to give me a copy of the picture! I tell you...we were flabberghasted! What a clencher, huh? Well...that's my story on how we became Pilot Soccer fans! And the thing is...the players continue to carry on this type of involvement and interaction with its fans. I'm sure there are many more personal storys just like ours! I frequently hear of them. Gotta love the players, team and the program! How can anyone not root, get involved and support them? I wish I ran into Kristen last weekend....to thank her!!

BTW...I last heard Kristen was a teacher! Figures.... Very Happy