Yesterday I asked why supposedly soccer-mad Dallas couldn’t do a better job of filling up the seats at Toyota Stadium for last night’s match between the under-23 U.S. and Colombia teams, considering that a trip to the Olympics was on the line for each.
Readers offered plausible explanations, including the facts that the game was on a weekday night and that it was not terribly well-advertised in advance. But there was some disagreement about whether venue’s location in Frisco hurt or helped the attendance.
Today on the Morning News’ site, Peter Welpton offered several defenses of North Texas soccer enthusiasm, noting that attendance at the other U-23 matches during this qualifying cycle posted significantly smaller numbers — in Kansas City, Denver, and Salt Lake — than did Tuesday’s contest. Putting aside the fact that each of those markets is substantially smaller than Dallas-Fort Worth, he’s right that drawing 7,998 fans on a school night seems OK, considering.
Where Welpton goes wrong is in joining those who argue that Frisco was as good a spot to host this match as would’ve been any place closer to downtown Dallas:
The idea the game would have been better attended simply if it’d been played on a field at the corner of McKinney and Pearl, or in the old Reunion Areas (sic) site is simple, pure conjecture. If anyone would take the time to research the data pertaining to demographics between Downtown Dallas and the burgeoning Dallas-Collin County border would find what ails attendance in Frisco, in general, has far more to do with Marketing 101 that where the stadium sits. The truth is the differences in population between the two areas for the target demo of Men 18-34 are relatively nominal, and those with more income actually live up north. Look it up.
OK, I looked it up. I used U.S. Census 2016 estimates sampled via the Nielsen Company’s market-research database to pull population demographics for the areas within a 45-minute drive of both Toyota Stadium and the Cotton Bowl, which would seem to be the most readily available alternative venue near downtown. Here’s what we get:
| Toyota Stadium | Cotton Bowl | |
|---|---|---|
| 45-minute drive: | ||
| Population | 2,052,603 | 5,153,000 |
| Men, Ages 18-34 | 240,278 | 634,928 |
| Median Household Income | $73,036 | $57,896 |
| 20-minute drive: | ||
| Population | 365,059 | 1,336,328 |
| Men, Ages 18-34 | 36,249 | 176,934 |
| Median Household Income | $96,818 | $44,271 |
| 30-mile radius: | ||
| Population | 4,012,862 | 5,256,548 |
| Men, Ages 18-34 | 478,733 | 621,212 |
| Median Household Income | $66,989 | $62,423 |
Those differences in population are far from “relatively nominal.” Welpton references “the burgeoning Dallas-Collin County border,” but Toyota Stadium is about 15 miles north of there. Yes, Collin County has more money. That has much to do with why FC Dallas moved up north all those years ago, chasing potential season-ticket holders with deeper pockets. But what difference does that money make to a one-off international match, when tickets were priced at $10 anyway?
UPDATE: First, a correction. I’d mistakenly grabbed the number of households instead of the population figures earlier when posting the 45-minute drive time info. That’s been changed. In addition, readers asked about 20-minute drive time and 30-mile radius demographics, and so I have added those to the table. None of the new info alters my assessment that there are more than “relatively nominal” differences between the potential fan bases of the differing locations.
