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I was watching SoloFutbolRGV's livestream on Friday and I was disappointed at the misinformation that was being spread around by the viewers. I will mention some of the most blatant ones in this thread. There is a lot of work to be done if we want to inform the fans.
#1 - "I want to see the Toros in MLS one day. All we need is a stadium and an average of 70% attendance."
Ok. Yes... but you also need to pay an extremely high franchise fee. Charlotte reportedly paid a fee of $325 million dollars. A fact that the commenter flat out denied.
Ok. Yes... but you also need to pay an extremely high franchise fee. Charlotte reportedly paid a fee of $325 million dollars. A fact that the commenter flat out denied.
#2 - "The fans don't go to the stadium because there's no local players on the team. If the team had more valley players, the fans would go."
I'll break this one into 2 parts.
A) We've had Victor Garza, Omar Ontiveros, Brandon Morales, and Isidro Martinez.
I'll break this one into 2 parts.
A) We've had Victor Garza, Omar Ontiveros, Brandon Morales, and Isidro Martinez.
B) I'll admit that my answer to this one is based on personal "empirical" evidence, but I really do not believe that the majority of soccer fans of the RGV care about if the players are local on their decision to go to the stadium. When I lived in the valley and I talked about...
The Toros to friends and co-workers, the first question was never "how many local players are there?". It was always, "what position are they in the standings?" or "How many wins do they have in the league?". The valley fans care more about having a winning team.
3) "Nobody went to watch the Toros games even in 2016 when they made it to the semifinal"
First of all, we only made it to the first round of playoffs before being eliminated by OKC. Second of all, that season we were playing at the UTRGV Sports Complex and the practice fields.
First of all, we only made it to the first round of playoffs before being eliminated by OKC. Second of all, that season we were playing at the UTRGV Sports Complex and the practice fields.
Because of these locations not being formal stadiums, capacity was limited. But even with the limited capacity, the fields were packed to watch the games. Transfermarkt has the avg at 2,083 fans that year, not bad considering the capacity limitation of these venues.
In fact, the momentum carried on into the 2017 season once the stadium opened. The record attendance for the Toros is established as 7,820 that occured on April 29, 2017 against OKC Energy. Once the Toros began sliding down in the standings, so did the attendance.
These are some of the most common examples I've seen on the comment section. There is a lot of work to be done and Pancho Gomez and all media, including myself, need to get this sorted out as our responsibility is to inform our audience as best and truthfully as we can.
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