MLS Attendance on the Rise
By Thomas Dunmore • Oct 18th, 2007 • Category: American soccer • 10 responsesOr, if one were to be cruel, I could have called this post: After Twelve Years, MLS Almost Back Where It Started.
The raw numbers, after 96.4% of the season, thanks to Andy_B at Bigsoccer:
MLS Average Attendance after 96.4% of the games played.
1996 17,306
1997 14,536
1998 14,231
1999 14,333
2000 13,619
2001 14,941
2002 15,653
2003 14,882
2004 15,581
2005 14,978
2006 15,354
2007 16,629
MLS Median Attendance after 96.4% of the games played.
1996 14,906
1997 12,733
1998 11,543
1999 12,879
2000 12,369
2001 13,376
2002 14,065
2003 13,561
2004 13,271
2005 12,546
2006 13,834
2007 15,046
% of games Under 10,000 after 96.4% played
1996 22.7%
1997 25.3%
1998 27.0%
1999 31.9%
2000 35.7%
2001 26.3%
2002 17.8%
2003 23.4%
2004 25.5%
2005 28.1%
2006 19.5%
2007 8.5%
That last number is pretty striking, isn’t it? Sure, it’d be nice if it was 0%, but a big stride nonetheless. Next season, with (hopefully) full seasons of Blanco, Beckham and one is guessing a couple of other top new stars, further progress is surely likely. If MLS can continue to expand each season (San Jose joins next year) and increase its average attendance year-on-year until we reach say eighteen clubs, we’d have a very solid league stateside. It would mean less depressing sights such as this:
Globally, the figure of 16,629 would put the U.S. behind only the following countries in terms of top-flight average attendance: Germany, England, Spain, France, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Argentina.
Thomas Dunmore is
Email this author | All posts by Thomas Dunmore
Honest question: Why is Brazil’s average attendance so low? Is it because so many of the stars on Brazil’s national team play in Europe? Even the A-League gets better attendance than the Brasileirão.
It’s not just the stars in Europe, it’s hundreds of the most talented players: more Brazilians play in the Champions League than any other nationality. There are also big financial issues holding back the clubs, see this blog for more.
But I’m sure someone more knowledgeable could help out further.
[...] MLS attendance on the rise (Pitch Invasion) [...]
[...] Pitch Invasion has accumulated some attendance numbers that show a slow but steady increase. Depending on your perspective, however, the league is just now getting back to its inaugural attendances. The number I especially like is that only 8.5 percent of the games this season were played in front of less than 10,000 people. It aint a sold out Giants Stadium, but if you can get 10,000 people to do anything at the same time given the competitive entertainment landscape, I think that is pretty good. Put them in smaller (cheaper) stadiums, and that environment could be great. Meaningful games wouldn’t hurt either. [...]
Do we have any figures for second-flight football? I know the rest of Europe is much less interested in this but I’m fairly certain England’s second tier, The Championship, is also better attended…
The move to ’soccer’-specific grounds has to be a good thing. Photos of the Red Bulls at home would be less depressing in a stadium which is actually a sensible size for them, after all. And such photos of stadia looking fuller (even if it’s due to a smaller ground rather than more fans in it) would only encourage people alone…
England, and I think also Germany, has higher second-tier attendance than every other country’s top-tier excepting Spain, France, Italy and Japan. Which is really pretty remarkable.
If you look at the percentage figures, 8.5% means only 15 out of 180 MLS games drew fewer than 10,000 fans (compared to 69 out of 192 in 2000), and all can be accounted for among four home squads(RBNY, KC, Dallas, and Chivas–ironically, all playoff teams). By comparison, the LA Galaxy, Toronto FC, and DC united played in a combined 45 games or so that drew more than 20,000 fans.
There is a useful collection of German attendance figures down to the regional third division at http://www.abseits-soccer.com/attendance.html.
The general trend is positive, though the figure can fluctuate considerably due to the temporary presence of “big” clubs in the lower league. That phenomenon is more or less universal (at least in leagues where “big” clubs can be relegated), and was especially apparent in Italy last year, when three of the ten most well-supported teams in the country (Juventus, Napoli and Genoa) were all in Serie B. The promotion of that entire trio has meant that this year’s average for B is down significantly, and it isn’t a coincidence that the league is still operating without a television contract.
Lots of useful statistics on Italian attendances here: http://digilander.libero.it/stadiapostcardsdgl/attendance.htm
[...] week, we posted a pretty positive note about the rising overall attendance in MLS: and it has ended up being an excellent year overall. [...]
[...] Pitch Invasion has accumulated some attendance numbers that show a slow but steady increase. Depending on your perspective, however, the league is just now getting back to its inaugural attendances. The number I especially like is that only 8.5 percent of the games this season were played in front of less than 10,000 people. It aint a sold out Giants Stadium, but if you can get 10,000 people to do anything at the same time given the competitive entertainment landscape, I think that is pretty good. Put them in smaller (cheaper) stadiums, and that environment could be great. Meaningful games wouldn’t hurt either. [...]