Indy Eleven Attendance Figures Don't Add Up: Stop Believing The Press Releases

Every print and TV news report discussing Indy Eleven owner Ersal Ozdemir's renewed legislative plan to force state taxpayers to subsidize the construction of a new, $87 million soccer arena for his North American Soccer League team, the equivalent of a minor league professional sports franchise, has stated as fact that every home game during the team's inaugural season was a sold-out event with 10,465 in attendance. Here are some examples:

• "The Indy Eleven drew an average 10,465 fans during their inaugural season," IBJ
• "Team officials are pointing to its success in selling out the IUPUI track stadium’s about 10,500 seats for all 14 games during its first season as a sign of support for professional soccer." WISH-TV
• "This time, the Eleven can point to having sold out all of its 14 games at IUPUI's Carroll Stadium, averaging 10,450 fans per game, and having aggressively built itself into a presence on Indy's sports landscape." Indianapolis Star
• "Team officials are pointing to its success in selling out the IUPUI track stadium's about 10,000 seats for each game during its first season as a sign of support for professional soccer." WTHR-TV

Each of these news organizations is merely regurgitating claims made in press releases put out by the self-serving owner of the Indy Eleven. Do you know what the average game attendance last year was at the eleven teams which make up the NASL? It was about 5,600 per game. Other franchise teams didn't even come close to matching the attendance figures claimed by Indy Eleven during its inaugural season, and some of those teams are in larger markets and have been playing for many years. 

People with first-hand knowledge know for a fact that other than the season opener there were empty seats at most of Indy Eleven's 14 home games. The camera operators of the televised games on WISH-TV stopped panning the stands at Carroll Stadium after the first few games so people couldn't see how many seats were empty. People in the know will tell you the team's attendance success could not have been achieved if thousands of tickets had not been given away for free. Yet the backers of this arena believe the team can support a new arena holding nearly double the number of people who attended inaugural season games. But it really doesn't matter how many people attend the games because the taxpayers will be footing the bill for the 18,500-seat arena regardless of how many people show up for the games.

Would it be asking too much to expect the lousy news media in this town to perform real reporting about anything related to sports other than spouting rosy statements fed to them by greedy sports team owners who expect the rest of us to subsidize their businesses? If lawmakers have an extra $87 million sitting around they want to give away to one of their big campaign contributors, then why don't they think about giving that money to people to help pay for their health care instead? We didn't elect you to use our taxpayer dollars to promote anything sports-related. 

NAME OF TEAM	YEAR FOUNDED	STADIUM CAPACITY	AVERAGE ATTENDANCE
Atlanta Silverbacks	1998	5,000	3,751
Carolina RailHawks	2006	10,000	4,180
FC Edmonton	2010	5,000	3,297
Fort Lauderdale Strikers	2006	20,450	4,177
Indy Eleven	2013	12,100	10,465
Jacksonville Armada	2013	11,000	N/A
Minnesota United	2010	12,000	9,234
New York Cosmos	2010	11,929	4,915
Ottawa Fury	2011	24,000	4,961
San Antonio Scorpions	2010	8,296	6,909
Tampa Bay Rowdies	2008	7,227	4,300