LANSING, Mich. — Ignite merchandise still hangs in the team shop, but now it's marked down after news came out of the team folding after it's first year in Lansing.
"Really there's a lot of hurt and a lot of emptiness in what I am feeling today to see it end this way is pretty devastating," said Jeremy Sampson, Vice President/General Manager at Lansing Ignite.
Sampson spent the last six years trying to make professional soccer happen in Lansing, and when it finally did just under a year ago, he feels it was rushed.
"Having to hire a front office at that point, coaching staff and players at that point was a very short runway," said Sampson. "Then there was developing a brand, selling tickets, all those had to happen in a short period of time."
But finances and lack of attendance were ultimately the final factors for the owner to fold.
"We tried to give this every chance we could and hoped that at every match, maybe the people are going to come now and it just never really happened," said owner, Tom Dickson.
The team needed an average of 4,000 fans at each home game to be sustainable, but on average just over 2,300 showed up, even for their home playoff match.
Add in the $12,000 cost to convert the baseball diamond to a soccer field for each home game, Ignite couldn't keep up with finances.
Which begs the question, was the team a bad investment or bad execution?
"A baseball stadium is a little challenging to play soccer, there's probably that that hurt us although on the other hand, it's a beautiful facility and we do have a lot of amenities that people can enjoy," said Dickson. "So, I don't think our execution was really the reason, but I will leave that for the people to decide."
Dickson took a loss with pulling the plug, but so did the city of Lansing loosing about $200,000 dollars.
"Our contract included converting the field and then we also had a marketing assessment of a $125,000 and utilities," said Deputy Mayor, Samantha Harkins.
And although the wound is still fresh, all parties don't regret their time and money that went into Ignite's first and only season.
"I truly believe it was best that we had at least a year," said Sampson. "I would have rather tried then failed then to never have tried at all."
Dickson said he reduced ticket prices to try to increase attendance, along with reaching out to other partners to provide more capital to keep the team going.
But it was in the last month of so, when they really realized the team was really one and done.
The city says they are disappointed in the team's loss, but will continue to look for ways to bring more people to the downtown district.
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