John Stafford

Digital Platforms for Aerospace and Defense, Rhode Island, Fencing and Soccer Dad, Former Submarine Officer

[John Stafford @johnstaff]

@martyn_bailey This year has been the worst in my memory for cold for the #revs. We get full adjustment in the early season already with away matches. Attendance has matched the weather, even with a top team. Group sales impossible in heavy cold. Next season will be an attendance disaster.

[John Stafford @johnstaff]

@DadisFIRE The people who bought my father in laws house did this. Very high demand neighborhood for conservative Jewish families.

[John Stafford @johnstaff]

@jackmitchell @CoachBeede I had an Ivy basketball coach explain to me that he now mostly recruits in low income areas since every admit gets a full scholarship. The $100k and $150k thresholds make it easy for parents to understand.

[John Stafford @johnstaff]

@CoachBeede A woman who worked for me had two nephews that played hockey at Yale. They did extremely well. Lots of families in our area trying to do this. Service academies are also in this category.

[John Stafford @johnstaff]

I think the tactics overemphasized GKs playing out the back (see 2022 Japan friendly), the necessary skills make a huge difference. Turner is no better as a shot stopper than pre-Europe. He has improved to average on the ball. Allows for a lot of diverse play keeping the defense on their toes.

[John Stafford @johnstaff]

One pattern I see in the charts is zero availability first 25 rows for multiple adjacent sections.

One scenario is that the ticket holders are all super happy and plan to attend (although the same quality seats elsewhere show significant seller interest).

The more likely scenario is these seats have not been released. Some will be hospitality. The rest will be released on the open market.

[John Stafford @johnstaff]

@Ticket_Help2022 This is by far the dirtiest primary sale I’ve ever seen. Glad I bought for personal use only.

[John Stafford @johnstaff]

You can see it in Norway-Iraq, the one low demand Boston game. What is interesting is they recently released half of west club seating for this match. No west club seats listed for any other match (there will be lots). Huge R32 and QF availability inconsistent with normal scalping.

Late premium dumps are going to cause a scalping bloodbath.

[John Stafford @johnstaff]

Here’s the smoking gun of FIFA dumping World Cup inventory. These prices are much cheaper than original list. Possibly via consignment but it’s the same result.

[Florian Ederer @florianederer]

I believe we now have evidence of FIFA's World Cup ticketing shell game: FIFA is colluding with third-party resale platforms for its own supply management.

Look at this SeatGeek map (secondary market!) for Saudi Arabia vs Cape Verde. The circled areas are not random single resale tickets, but large, contiguous blocks of seats: entire rows and swaths in sections 101/102, 112/113, 119/120, 134–137, 139, ...

The blue circles appeared weeks ago, then the purple blocks suddenly showed up a day or two ago, and the red blocks seem to have appeared recently too.

That's not what ordinary fan or even commercial scalper resale looks like who resell pairs, fours, and scattered seats. Instead, this looks like inventory being dumped in bulk onto secondary markets, at prices below FIFA's official site.

Why doesn't FIFA just lower prices on its own site Probably because official price cuts could trigger refund demands, chargebacks, or consumer-protection headaches from fans who already bought at much higher prices.

Instead FIFA keeps official prices high, avoids openly admitting the market-clearing price is lower, and moves unsold inventory through third-party resale platforms instead.

[John Stafford @johnstaff]

@stuholden @MLS Revs field has been great. A little beat up at this point, but that’s why they’ve been resting it.

[John Stafford @johnstaff]

@annakatherines_ Crystal Bridges, Niue museum, musical instrument museum, Miami symphony hall if you’re limiting it to brand new institutions. Doris Duke and downtown Newport (hundreds of period restored houses rented out to real people). Olin College.

[John Stafford @johnstaff]

@johnnyrockets27 Some well deserved props for Generation Kill. We were doing well on GWOT with that one and Over There and then ten years of nothing.

[John Stafford @johnstaff]

I think it was that he took your high level of anger (a bit high for me but your qualifications to have an opinion are not in question by me) and immediately assumed it must be a bot. Too many flags remain delusional about what soldiers went through during the GWOT and the level of anger they still feel. This is where @PeteHegseth gets an A.

[John Stafford @johnstaff]

@MALGIS31 @frenchjraff @MLSMoves Even domed stadiums won’t be enough because of parking/transit issues in winter unless located downtown like NBA/NHL. The 1.5 mile walk from transit to a new Boston MLS stadium is not viable except May-Sept.

[John Stafford @johnstaff]

@frenchjraff @MALGIS31 @MLSMoves Not very optimistic but hope it works. Pro-Rel will accelerate this as southern teams can make more money off gate, better performance, more southern teams.

[John Stafford @johnstaff]

@ProcyonLottor @EN0CX She’s doing it in the middle of a multi-year arena tour so you’re in fact quite wrong…

[John Stafford @johnstaff]

@ProcyonLottor @EN0CX Doing the World Cup halftime show and selling out arenas….

[John Stafford @johnstaff]

@frenchjraff @MALGIS31 @MLSMoves I expect there will be only one MLS team based in New England/NYC (NYCFC) 10 years from now if the new schedule sticks.

[John Stafford @johnstaff]

@MALGIS31 @MLSMoves New England will be 30%. We’ve had one match with weather above 60F. 22k+. Other matches 5-15k. Most STH swap their tickets for good weather matches (and non weekday).