Here Comes the Effect

The cause was a 66 thousand plus crowd witnessing the best game in MLS history in which the home club took home the victory.

Marc De Grandpre is hoping the effect shows big time in the last four home games, and I think he has reason to.

Thanks to a little bit of luck and Don Garber's scheduling, RBNY will have a great opportunity to carry over the attendance momentum from the instant classic Saturday night. The Red Bull's next home game falls on Sept. 1 when the Chicago Fire role into town with Mexican hero Blanco and Costa Rica hit man Paulo Wanchope.

The enormous Mexican and Costa Rican contingent in the Metro area should turn out in large numbers for this one. The much less recognized Blanco tour has been paying big dividends in the attendance department everywhere the Fire have gone.

Now role them into this area, after that game, and we could really start to see the beginning of an attendance revolution on the road to RBP in 2009. But it is only a start, and De Grandpre knows it needs to continue, even more next year.

The Brass wants, needs, to make constant and visible progress every year in every department on the road to Red Bull Park. That means attendance, results, promotion, buzz, players, everything. De Grandpre and the rest know what a huge year 2008 will be on the way to 2009, and they are hoping to get that ball rolling at the back end of this season and on into what will hopefully be a successful playoffs.

What we Learned from Beckham's Visit to Giants Stadium

One of the greatest games in MLS history played in front of 66,237 at Giants Stadium.

It was one of those sometimes rare moments in this country's soccer landscape when you think that this sport is going to make it big one day.

What did we learn from Saturday night at the Meadowlands?

- 66,237 people will come out for a game in an awful location such as the Meadowlands between simply two MLS teams. No doubleheader, no European super club.

- Although you had more than your fair share of primarily Beckham fans, a ton of the crowd supported the home team when all was said and done.

- There was a large portion of the "non-regular crowd" who were Red Bull fans. If you didn't know this all ready, there are a ton of supporters of the club who simply don't go to allot of matches for one reason or another. The event of Becks coming gave them the reason for this to be that one game to come out to.

- This crowd varied greatly from the one that showed up to pack the house about a year ago for Ronaldinho and Barcelona. The crowd at the Barca game had a much more Latin feel to it then this Saturday did. Becks seemed brought out more of those with European heritages. This was great to see the differing fan bases because it proves that the local club has two differing local soccer fan bases that it can draw from.

- There is no doubt that this game turned some first-timers as well as timid fans who only come out every now and then into fans of the Red Bulls and fans of MLS. You know this to be a fact if you were there.

- Now, the game obviously did not turn every one of the 66,000 + into Red Bull fans, but it proved that the people will come out, in very large quantities, if the club gives them that "in". For some that "in" is consistently winning, for others it is the new stadium. For many though, they won't get that "in" until there is a world soccer star suiting up for NY.

The fans are there, and it may not be as hard to convert them as we might have thought a year ago.

The Whirlwind of Becks and Possible Effects

This Saturday night at Giants Stadium, the Red Bulls will play the Galaxy in front of the largest crowd ever to witness a regular season New York game.

This will provide a unique oportunity for the club to leave an impression on the masses Beckham will draw to the swamp.

Obviously the ticket revenue from this game will go a long way towards pleasing the Red Bull overlords, but there are many other things that make this weekend important and interesting.

For starters, the Becks hype machine seems to be at the highest it has been since his debut against Chelsea, thanks in large part to a trmendous preformance in last night's SuperLiga semifinal against DC including a signature bending free kick goal as well as an assist to catapult LA into the final.

That preformance as well as his improving health will likely help drive ticket sales in the last couple days leading up to the fixture.

But this goes deeper than one night of ticket sales. Red Bull New York's visability will take a huge jump, especially in the local papers and news. In fact, Jozy Altidore, Juan Pablo Angel, and David Beckham will be hosting an invitation only soccer clinic in Harlem tommorow. This is a great opportunity to get the club out there linked with a name like David Beckham as well as help grow soccer in the community.

The overall hope for the game itself is that the enormous crowd is won over by the Red Bulls play and the electric soccer atmosphere created by the thousands and that they all become Red Bulls supporters themselves and come back to other regular season games. Now, that is sort of a pie in the sky type scenario, but part of it can come true. I have no doubt that at least a few of those just there to see Beckham will be won over and return for future games not including Becks, but as past history shows when a big crowd comes to GS the after effect will not be something spectacular. Check out a great piece on that at Metrofanatic.

As the article states, the team has not usually done its job in these situations, so I guess it cannot be that accuratley guaged.

The attendance woes of the club have been well documented in recent years. We all know there are thousands upon thousands of soccer fans in the area, but thr trouble has been for the club to get them out to games consistantly to form a larger, stronger fan base.

They came to see Ronaldinho and Barcelona last year, and they are comming to see David Beckham this year. Consistant sucess will help with attendance, but it is clear that what this area needs to get amped on MLS is a superstar. They need their in that they just can't refuse. They need that one thing that will undoubtedly take them all the way out to the swamp, and eventually to the much more conveniant Red Bull Park.

The ticket sales and attendance for this match has and will leave a big mark on the NYRB front office. If their original thought was that the masses would only come out for a friendly with a star studded Barcelona team, that has been proven totally wrong with an almost as large crowd comming simply to see another MLS team with that one superstar, David Beckham.

Rumors have been floating around in MLS and fan circles for months about the possible addition of a second dp slot for each team (thus giving NYRB a third). These rumors were put in the message board spotlight as the mlsrumors blog revealed that sources have indicated the possility of that. Now, no one knows the credibility of the source or anything, but this rumor has been out there for a bit and could happen. But also it could not, that's what a rumor is.

The question is, will this crowd leave such an effect on the club's brass that they make their push for an international superstar of their own that will drive the crowds to the stadium, or will they continue their holding pattern until Red Bull Park?

Now the third dp thing is just talk as of now, but the reality is that Reyna's contract will be over at the end of next year, earlier than Red Bull Park is set to open with the current delay. In the next few years Red Bull will have to decide if it wants to finally break the bank like everyone has heard they can and get that player that will give the soccer fans in the metro area their official "in".

The crowd will say "do it", and there is no doubt Red Bull will be listening.

Red Bull Park - Plans

In recent days, some plans for Red Bull Park have been leaked from a meeting that leaders of the Empire Supporters Club held with the members of the front office that represent the supporters club.

Thanks to Metrofanatic poster Onionbag for providing this info from the meeting with the FO.

Interesting tidbits:

- There is a plan for an "Empire End". This would be a compilation of all the supporters groups in one end of the stadium. A great idea if you ask me, just have to get everyone on the same page as there would be allot to iron out. If everyone is cooperative though it would be an amazing supporters section as well as create a tremendous atmosphere for the rest of the stadium to play off of.

- Flags will be allowed for supporters at RBP.

- "Red Bull Park in Harrison is not going to be a build it and come thing like AEG would have done. The FO is planning on marketing blitzing the Ironbound, and surrounding areas prior to opening." Great news as the Ironbound and other areas around RBP are full of soccer passion and are perfect areas to draw potential fans from.

- "They want to make RBP a true source of local pride". This is truly great to hear as the location of the stadium is one if its biggest pluses because of the soccer tradition and ethnic backgrounds in and around the site.

The quote about the "build it and come thing like AEG" can mean one of two things. Either the Red Bull buyout of AEG is imminent, or the FO just made a comparison to if AEG still owned the team. I am leaning towards the buyout is imminent, as plans for a stadium were never finalized without Red Bull.

Project RBNY

The New York/New Jersey MetroStars were created in the inauguration of Major League Soccer in 1996.

Over the course of the first decade of the franchise's existence, the at-first large fan base began to decline as the club was unable to produce successful soccer, never making it farther than the MLS Cup semifinals in the year 2000.

On March 9, 2006, the MetroStars were bought by Austrian energy drink company Red Bull and their billionaire founder Dietrich Mateschitz for a sum of 100 million dollars.

The clubs strongest supporter's group, the Empire Supporters Club, along with much of the teams fan base, was outraged at the fact that their club was to now be a promotion vehicle for an energy drink.

The club was re-branded to be called Red Bull New York, featuring the company’s logos prominently on everything in relation to the club.

Although the disgust at the ownership change, Red Bull used their renowned promotion skills for the clubs first home match as the Red Bulls in the 2006 season.

The attendance at Giants Stadium that day was 35,793. The game featured a pre-game ceremony featuring the Cosmo's legends Pele and Franz Beckenbaur, as well as a half time concert by Shakira and Wyclef Jean.

Marketing of the sort, or close to it, has not been seen to this day. The home opener was a blip on the radar; attendance has continued to be the most disappointing for the region in the league.

The Red Bull ownership group played a large part in securing the soccer specific stadium deal for Harrison New Jersey, said to be the savior of the club's recent attendance woes. The Red Bull Park's scheduled opening was recently officially delayed to 2009 due to foundation issues.

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When you put a billionaire owner with a promotional drive for his company with the local pride of a club in the soccer rich metro area in a league with only a reported 2.5 million dollar salary cap that is known for not being relevant in the American sports landscape, you create a perfect storm of money, questioned incentives, instability, pride, failure, success, and soccer.

We are in the midst of a project in the metropolitan area to make soccer matter, to make Red Bull New York matter. This is: Project RBNY.