They cheer loudly and enthusiastically. They come out in force when the weather’s good. They also come out in force when it’s not so good. When it’s cold. And when it’s hot. We found out August 11 that more come out to support us in the playoffs even with heavy thunderstorms in the forecast. On top of that, they stayed through a 2.5 hour delay of lightning and rain. Despite it lasting until 11:40pm on a Friday night, our fans were there to the end.
For these reasons and more, we are proud to boast that we have one of the best fan bases in the entire AUDL. Breeze home game attendance numbers have increased significantly every single season since we started in 2013. Total attendance for that August 11 playoff game was well over 700 despite the horrible weather forecast, and a good number of those fans found their way back into the stands at 9:45pm for the restart 2-1/2 hours after the first point was played and the first bolt of lightning lit up the field to start the delay. The game quite simply had to be played that night thanks to the already-scheduled Division Final Sunday in Toronto, and the fans came back to will us to a key playoff victory.
We were 8-0 at home including playoffs for the first time in franchise history. In the entire 24-team AUDL, the Breeze were the only team to go undefeated at home this year. Comparing that to 3-5 on the road, it’s clear that our home fans provided tremendous support toward an incredible 5-game advantage at home vs on the road in just a 16-game stretch. Wow.
It is not just in 2017 that Breeze fans willed our team to victory after victory. Dating back to 2016, the squad is on a 14-game winning streak within the confines of Hotchkiss Field. This is the longest active home winning streak in the AUDL by a wide margin. Since inception, the team has now reached a 25-13 overall record at home, a 65.8 winning percentage. In the last two years combined, the Breeze are 15-1 at home for an astonishing 93.8% success rate!
We are already hard at work on next season, as management is working on ways to improve the organization in 2018. The core of the roster will be finalized sooner rather than later. Meanwhile, our players and coaches are still hard at work on the field, honing and improving their skills and battling for success at the club level. We cherish the tremendous support we have from the area’s Ultimate organizations and the Ultimate community as a whole, and we hope to continue to work together over the next decade to grow this terrific sport throughout the DC/Baltimore metro areas and beyond.
Thank YOU fans, for an amazing season! Two consecutive quarterfinal finishes among 24 teams is solid, but our goals are much higher. And we are already looking forward to the push for a Final Four spot at 2018 AUDL Championship Weekend.
