LANSING – If you haven’t been to a Lansing Ignite soccer game yet, you’re not alone.

Saturday night’s game downtown was the first time I was alarmed by the crowd size. Previous games had been dampened by miserable weather and midweek dates. This, finally, was a warm weekend evening, albeit overcast and threatening, but pleasant nonetheless.

The club announced 2,149 — tickets sold and butts in seats. Maybe two-thirds of that was actually in attendance, in what can be a cavernous soccer stadium for a modest crowd.

This much is already clear: The mere presence of professional soccer in Lansing’s downtown stadium isn’t automatically going to create a fever. This isn’t the 1996 Lugnuts, which sold out a frigid early April opener and then drew well over a half-million fans during their inaugural season. The Lugnuts had the benefit of being entirely new for Lansing — a new stadium, Lansing’s own minor league baseball team, a new cornerstone in its identity, and the beginning of the resurrection of a downtown district. There were also years of anticipation about the possibility of minor league baseball in town.

The Ignite, on the other hand, happened quickly — announcing their existence in October. The USL League One club is a new tenant in a stadium that still glistens but is hardly a new experience.

You can look at Lansing Ignite’s start a couple ways:

One, that their average of 2,285 tickets sold through four league games is more than double what Lansing United used to average at the East Lansing Soccer Complex during five seasons (2014-2018) in two amateur leagues. In terms of actual interest in Lansing’s soccer team, that’s already a 100% increase, despite temperatures and early dates Lansing United never faced.

Or, you can see it with more apprehension, knowing Lansing Ignite needs to average 4,000 fans to be solvent. That’s their own figure.

Lansing Ignite president Nick Grueser, also the president of the Lugnuts, is adamant that he isn’t concerned.

“I’m not worried. Not at all,” he said from the Cooley Law School Stadium concourse Saturday night. “We obviously pay close attention to how we’re pacing. We are not far off from where we want to be.”

The optics are worse than the bottom line. The Ignite play in a large stadium for USL League One, and one that isn’t built for soccer. Cooley Law School Stadium seats more than 7,500. Some of the best vantage points are standing-room tickets. Some of the worst sight lines for soccer are the areas of the stadium that draw the eye. A crowd of 2,000 can look sparse. Less than that, bare.

That 4,000 nightly attendance goal is based on the Lugnuts’ per-game average. But the Lugnuts don’t average 4,000 fans in April and May. In fact, you won’t find many games with 4,000 fans, period. It’s usually 6,000 or more on Thirsty Thursday beer nights and fireworks Friday and Saturday nights — and less during midweek games. Through 21 home dates this year, the Lugnuts are at 3,120 per game, including a number of games south of 1,500. The big gates will come during the summer months. Ideally, same for the Ignite.

Among the club’s challenges this first summer is that the established Lugnuts — whose Midwest League schedule takes precedence — have the stadium for most of the primo summer weekends. That’s just how the schedule fell.

The Ignite have just three weekend home games during the three summer months — Saturday, June 22; Saturday, July 13; and Saturday, Aug. 3. The Lugnuts, meanwhile, have seven full weekend home series during June, July and August, and two other Friday night home games, which, because of the time it takes to flip the field, prevent the Ignite from playing at home those weekends.

The Ignite do have three straight Saturday night home dates in September — all Michigan State football game days. Those should still be warm-weather nights, however, possibly with playoff positioning on the line. The top four of the 10 clubs in USL League One make the playoffs in mid-October.

WHEN THEY PLAY: Lansing Ignite schedule

Grueser said he doesn’t mind the backloaded home slate this year, given the lack of buildup the club had for its inaugural season.

This is also a learning process for the Ignite brass. That includes general manager Jeremy Sampson, who owned and operated Lansing United (and still owns and operates Lansing United’s women’s team) and Grueser, who’s a veteran of the baseball business, but is adjusting to the differences in soccer.

“It’s a different makeup of who’s coming and how they’re coming and how they’re buying (tickets),” Grueser said.

Unlike minor league baseball, a team’s on-field results matter in soccer at all levels. The Ignite are 2-3-3 in USL League One matches and 4-4-3 overall, including a sound 4-0 defeat of MSU in the Capital Cup. This is the best soccer Lansing’s ever seen.

The question remains whether there is enough of an ardent fan base in this community, coupled with casual evening-out fans and families with soccer-loving kids, to make this stick over the long haul.

One early lesson: Ticket prices for families with children were too high, patrons told the Ignite. Tickets originally ranged from $17 to $22 for everybody. The Ignite dropped kids’ tickets to $5 apiece a couple weeks ago. Several fans I spoke with Saturday said that made the difference in deciding to bring the family to the game. The club also added an all-Saturdays five-game package.

“One of the things we were hearing (in surveys) that was somewhat common is that it was tough on a family,” Grueser said. “We had to react to it. There was an overwhelming response (to pricing) we don’t see in baseball.”

Another early challenge has been the field conversion from baseball to soccer, laying down new sod each time in what’s a complex and expensive process. The 13,000 square feet of sod, covering part of the infield, held up well Saturday. Getting to that point and figuring out how much rain water it can take has been a headache. Rain forced the Ignite to move an Open Cup match against AFC Ann Arbor to Lansing Catholic’s stadium on May 8.

Cooley is not an ideal stadium for soccer. It never will be. But it is an ideal location for Lansing-area pro soccer. And there are enough good views — seats and standing — for 6,000-plus to feel engaged in the match. It’s a good product, a cool venture, born from Lansing United, and a it’s a club that’s willing to listen. This is more than likely this area’s only shot at having professional soccer.

By the time of the Lansing Ignite’s next home matches — Wednesday, June 19 and Saturday, June 22 — the weather should be warm, schools will be out. And your presence, or lack thereof, will begin to be telling.

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Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham _Couch.