- Kogo? – Aliści owo
Cztan z Rogowa! Obaj rycerze spoglądali z podziwem na mocarza, jaki,
jak leg.

I also believe (or hope) the team learned that spending so much money and resources appealing to this demographic, in light of the complete absence of any Mexican players or teams, was a mistake. It was nearly impossible to watch a Liga MX match this past month without seeing a DDC ad. The same could be said for listening to 990AM or visiting any number of businesses targeting Spanish speakers around Tucson. Unfortunately, this emphasis didn’t actually result in attendance commensurate with that of years past.

I believe the reason for this failure is very simple: many Mexican soccer fans pay attention to El Tri, Liga MX, and Ascenso MX exclusively and, for various socioeconomic reasons, are highly unlikely to commit significant resources to watching soccer teams or players for which they have little to no interest play exhibition matches. I suspect that MLS’s own market studies over the past several years would confirm my belief that this was not the best demographic to target for this event.

Without being privy to the league’s actual findings, I can’t name an article I’ve read in the past five years that hasn’t referenced the 18-34 moneyed urban demographic as the key to MLS’s success. Of course, Tucson possesses a hotbed of these consumers at The University of Arizona. Aside from a one-time ticket discount and beer promotion, though, this market seems to have hardly been targeted at all this year.

The above conclusion, as it relates to socioeconomics and target demographics, ties into another issue that strongly impacted attendance this year: ticket prices. The 2011 Desert Cup featured $12 general admission tickets. The cheapest non-discounted tickets this year were $20 – for both adults and children – and they secured specific seats that regularly go for $15 or less in MLS stadia. The failure to reduce prices for children is a mistake that surely impacted attendance across all demographics, but that failure likely most impacted the community targeted directly by the club’s marketing efforts, exacerbating attendance issues.

Having said all of that, I think you touch on another valid point: MLS probably cares less about attendance figures than do Tucson soccer fans. Attendance matters in as much as FC Tucson may wish to build support for their own team and eventually move up in the US soccer pyramid. Attendance doesn’t much matter in as much as Tucson and Kino serve as an ideal early spring training center for West Coast MLS teams.

In most years, our weather this time of year is pretty infallible and the cost of hosting a team here versus other warm weather environs is comparatively cheap. Our closest rivals on these two fronts – Southern California (cost), Phoenix (lack of facilities), and Florida (already hosts East Coast teams) – are not directly comparable to Tucson for the aforementioned reasons.

Those distinctions in combination with continued support from FC Tucson, the City of Tucson, and Pima County lead me to believe that attendance figures probably will not impact DDC going forward. However, that’s not to say attendance can’t and shouldn’t be better next year given proper planning and marketing.