Stadium and Supporters
| Season | Average attendance |
Stadium |
|---|---|---|
| 1971 | 4,517 | Yankee Stadium |
| 1972 | 4,282 | Hofstra Stadium |
| 1973 | 5,782 | Hofstra Stadium |
| 1974 | 3,578 | Downing Stadium |
| 1975 | 10,450 | Downing Stadium |
| 1976 | 18,227 | Yankee Stadium |
| 1977 | 34,142 | Giants Stadium |
| 1978 | 47,856 | Giants Stadium |
| 1979 | 46,690 | Giants Stadium |
| 1980 | 42,754 | Giants Stadium |
| 1981 | 34,835 | Giants Stadium |
| 1982 | 28,479 | Giants Stadium |
| 1983 | 27,242 | Giants Stadium |
| 1984 | 12,817 | Giants Stadium |
The Cosmos' first home stadium was Yankee Stadium, home to the New York Yankees baseball team, where they played throughout the 1971 season. Attendances during the club's first year averaged at 4,517, less than 7% of the stadium's capacity, which was at that time 65,010. The Cosmos therefore moved before the 1972 season to the 15,000-seater Hofstra Stadium, on the campus of the namesake university 25 miles (40 km) east of metropolitan New York. After two seasons of continuing low crowds at this out-of-town location, the Cosmos moved again, relocating to the 22,500-capacity Downing Stadium before the 1974 season. It was at Downing Stadium that attendances started to rise significantly, buoyed by the arrival of stars such as Pelé, who arrived in 1975. For the Brazilian's first match, the stadium was full; "there must have been another 50,000 turned away", coach Gordon Bradley later claimed.
These larger attendances necessitated another move, which occurred in 1976, when the Cosmos returned to Yankee Stadium. This time the team averaged 18,227 fans over the course of the season, over four times the average 1971 gate. The team then moved yet again before the 1977 season, to the newly built Giants Stadium, where attendances skyrocketed; crowds peaked at an average of 47,856 during 1978. The Cosmos remained at Giants Stadium for the rest of their time in the NASL. Attendances gradually fell as the league declined during the early 1980s, then finally slumped in 1984, when they dropped by more than half from the 1983 seasonal average.
The largest crowd to attend a Cosmos home game was set in 1977, when the Fort Lauderdale Strikers visited for a playoff match. The game was attended by 77,691 fans, which, at the time, was a record for American soccer. The lowest average attendance for a season was 3,578, in 1974. As of 2011, only Hofstra Stadium remains, now renamed James M. Shuart Stadium. Downing Stadium, the original Yankee Stadium and Giants Stadium were demolished in 2002, 2008 and 2010 respectively.
Read more about this topic: New York Cosmos
Famous quotes containing the words stadium and/or supporters:
“The final upshot of thinking is the exercise of volition, and of this thought no longer forms a part; but belief is only a stadium of mental action, an effect upon our nature due to thought, which will influence future thinking.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)
“No Government can be long secure without a formidable Opposition. It reduces their supporters to that tractable number which can be managed by the joint influences of fruition and hope. It offers vengeance to the discontented, and distinction to the ambitious; and employs the energies of aspiring spirits, who otherwise may prove traitors in a division or assassins in a debate.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)