The first Foothills FC PDL match is in the books and the home side was victorious, defeating the Puget Sound Gunners 2-1 a bit more than a week ago. I was very pleased with how the match turned out. As I mentioned before, I don't intend on writing match reports for the club in this blog. But I did want to provide my viewpoint on what I saw regarding the overall match experience.
On the pitch
Foothills had the run of play for most of the match and deserved the three points. You could make the argument that they could've scored more and made the result look even better. But on the other hand, Puget Sound was able to claw their way back into the match and had a couple of opportunities to tie it up near the end.
Puget Sound just put their club together a week prior to the match. The players hardly knew each other, while Foothills has been practicing for quite a while. Combine that with Foothills home pitch advantage and the Gunners were missing players due to visa issues, the local club seemed to have everything stacked in its favour. I would've been concerned if they were not able to win this match. I don't know how good Foothills will be, but based on this small sample size it appears they will have the talent to compete in this league. Based on the results of their road trip this past weekend, my view remains the same.
The fan experience
This opening match was played on a sunny and pleasant Sunday afternoon of the long weekend. Attendance was originally estimated around 1000, which is what I had roughly guessed as well. The PDL official match report says attendance was 770.
I don't have a season pass, so I waited in line to buy a ticket. The line moved well. Cash was the only accepted method of payment, and we were provided with free lineups. I brought my 4 year old daughter, so I was unable to partake in the beer garden, but it did appear to be busy. I heard for a brief time they ran out of beer, but quickly replenished their supply. Instead of the beer garden, I checked out the bouncy house. It was pretty well attended and there were a lot of kids playing there before kickoff.
The stands are general admission, so we found a place to sit prior to kickoff. I did not have a chance to roam the stands much, but it appeared to be a lot of Foothills members as expected, mixed in with the hardest core soccer fans in Calgary. I chuckled when I saw a guy walk past me wearing a Calgary Storm jersey. I did see about four people wearing Calgary Blizzard (another local youth club) gear. The Foot Soldiers were loud and proud. I counted about 12-15 at any given time, but apparently they had about 20 at some point in the match. They moved about, trying to find a space that was agreeable to the referee, who apparently requested them to be moved a couple of times.
There was no Foothills merchandise for sale at the match. The Foot Soldiers brought their scarves to sell and were a big hit. They sold out in advance of kickoff. There was a food truck parked just outside the stadium that was catering to the soccer fans as well as the kids playing baseball at the ball diamonds next door. In addition there was a very lined up concession stand run by the park near the bathrooms, which is a bit out of the way from the stadium. The club did bring in some portapotties and stuck them under the stands so there was the opportunity to take a quick bathroom break and not miss much action.
Suggestions
My first suggestion is sell some merchandise. I read that Detroit City FC makes 40% of their revenue from merchandise. Maybe there is a plan to rectify this, but to me this is a real priority, and a definite opportunity to make some money.
I would also suggest that the club looks at selling some drinks and/or food. At the very least, sell some non-alcoholic drinks such as bottled water and soft drinks. This would be easy to set up, a way to make a few bucks, and would enhance the fan experience.
The club was very active on Twitter during the match. I think it might be best if they didn't tweet out every single thing that happens and limit the messages to one every 2-3 minutes on average.
There were very few announcements on the public address system, which I appreciated. My one suggestion to the P.A. announcer is if you are going to thank the club's corporate sponsors, try to avoid doing it in the 85th minute right when Puget Sound is setting up a corner that could possibly tie the match. Maybe do it in the 60th minute or so, and pick your exact spot when there isn't much going on during the match. I realize it was the first time and he might have realized, "I have to squeeze this in before the match is over" so it's not exactly a huge beef on my part. But I would change it next time.
Also, I think providing a debit/credit card option at the gate should be considered. I'm not sure if it was a problem for anyone, but I do know most people just expect this as an option and some don't carry much cash anymore.
I have one other idea which I'd like to pass along. I'll be at the next match on Tuesday, June 2. I'm planning on going by bicycle, as the stadium is adjacent to the popular Bow River pathway system. Maybe for the next match you could consider setting up a bike lock up area. Parking was getting a bit tight at the last match, and it would be great if you could provide this as an option. I don't imagine it would be hard to set up. Also, I would suggest setting up a banner on the pathway by the stadium announcing the next match to the cyclists, runners, and walkers who use the path. I'd think they would be a perfect audience to target.
Overall
I think the first home match turned out well, with a lot of positives to build on. The road trip this weekend went okay on the pitch (1 point in 2 games). I'm looking forward to seeing if the club can build on the momentum in the second home match next week.
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