This week Rowdies Season Ticket renewals for 2020 opened and along with it came great news for supporters in the coming year. These are changes that, as an organization, Ralph’s Mob is incredibly excited for and have been pushing for or have had conversations with the Rowdies Front Office for the past few years.
Here’s a quick run down of three big changes.
Moving Directly Behind the Goal
We’ve made a great home under the overhang through the years, but directly behind the goal is the rightful home for supporters. In the last couple years we’ve experimented with being behind the goal in the US Open Cup matches. It created a great environment for the match and being so close to the action helps give the players a boost to make Al Lang a fortress. This change, specifically, was one that Neill was really behind at the recent Supporters Summit, noting how much of a lift we give the team. The new supporter section will cover the whole goal line from sections 109-113, with room for 450+ people.
Safe Standing Section and Construction
In recent years there has been a wave of soccer stadiums in the United States installing safe standing supporters sections in newly constructed stadiums. These have been popular in Europe (especially in Germany), where a wall of standing supporters creates an imposing, but safe environment to do what we do. Currently there are four stadiums in the US that have it as a feature (Minnesota, LAFC, San Jose, and another team). Next season we’ll join Louisville City as the first two teams to have it installed as permanent stands in USL Championship.
If you’re unfamiliar safe standing sections, they can take a few different forms. In most cases they are seatless sections, with a full height rail at the front of each tier or row. This allows supporters to stand, chant, and cheer without a bleacher in the way and with no fear of falling into the row in front of you. Some versions have a fold flat seat that collapses entirely into the rail. As we understand it, the team has reached out to a few vendors for options, so stay tuned for more details.
As part of this move and construction, there is also intended to be two capo stands and a drum stand built to further enhance the section. We’ll be able feature our banners pitchside in view of the whole stadium. We’ll also be working with the team to expand our pulley system for tifo which we will continue to fly from the roof.
Season Ticket Pricing Overhaul
Prices have gone down dramatically all over the stadium for season tickets – at an average of 36% for all seats. Some seats went down by hundreds of dollars. The great news for Mobsters is that our seats, in our new pitch side location, will continue to be the cheapest season ticket you can buy. In 2020, supporter section season tickets will be $153, down from $238 in 2019. With at least one bonus game (TBA) included, that brings the supporters ticket to less than $9 per match. A huge savings from recent years.
Demand looks to be pretty high, because of the new location and the new price. Ticket reps have been reaching out to current season ticket holders to place $50 deposits for 2020 season tickets. For those interested (whether or not you were a season ticket holder last year), we recommend reaching out to the box office to make sure you get yours locked in.
