NWSL club Gotham FC “got exactly what they wanted” with a sellout crowd for their first match in Queens, making it clear why Gotham and NWSL execs “are so bullish on the team’s impending move” to the city, according to Jeff Kassouf of ESPN.com. An announced sellout crowd of 42,175 fans, with “a few visibly empty seats,” was at Citi Field on Wednesday for a “one-time spectacle that had not been done before.” A Gotham FC exec said that about 80% of fans with tickets for the match “were attending their first Gotham FC game.” Citi Field “was filled with prompts to convert those first-timers into 2028 season-ticket holders.” Etihad Park will become the club’s future home in 2028 when it moves into the soccer-specific stadium. Gotham believes that by the time they move, they “could secure around 8,000 season-ticket deposits.” That is “roughly their average total attendance now” in Harrison, N.J. There “was pomp and circumstance” on Wednesday to “make sure those new fans had a good time.” Kassouf wrote there “won’t be 40,000 fans at every Gotham match in the future.” But added it is “realistic to think that, with the right marketing and continued on-field success, Gotham could regularly make the 25,000-seat Etihad Park look full” (ESPN.com, 7/16).
COMING OUT PARTY: THE ATHLETIC’s Meg Linehan wrote for Gotham FC owner Carolyn Tisch Blodgett, the Queens Classic was “always intended to be a statement game.” There were “logistical hurdles.” The league and NWSLPA had “to clear the move to a baseball stadium due to the playing surface,” and the league front office “worked with ESPN to clear a new broadcast window to fit in the game at 8 p.m.” Sources noted that there had “originally been a desire to have the game lead into ABC’s coverage of the ESPYs,” also happening in N.Y. Instead, it aired on ESPN and had “crossover programming with the award show carpet.” Linehan wrote there are “large challenges ahead for Gotham to finally crack the New York City market with a move across the East River.” Tisch Blodgett said that Gotham has “‘2 percent awareness’ in their market” and mentioned her own frustrations with Gotham and the Liberty “being erased from the conversation” following the Knicks NBA title earlier this summer. The Queens Classic “didn’t feel much like an NWSL game in any of the usual ways; there was no clear spot to look for a tifo or a way for supporters to effectively get a chant going.” However, the buzz was “undeniable at the largest scale” (THE ATHLETIC, 7/16).
