Attendance Numbers in American Soccer Leagues
A lot of American soccer blogs do attendance numbers, but Kenn Tomasch does them better than most, covering the latest numbers in MLS, WPS, USSF-II, USL-2, W-League, and even PDL. Which I like, because it’s a reminder that there are dozens of clubs in American soccer, even if the Hudson Valley Quickstrike Lady Blues are drawing 350 a game or the Abbotsford Mariners are only attracting 150 people a match.
To summarise Kenn’s numbers by league, they break out as follows:
MLS: 16,320
USSF-II: 4,804
WPS: 4,076
USL-II: 1,757
PDL: 697
W-League: 350
One number that popped out to me: just a 1,366 average crowd for the newly-founded NSC Minnesota Stars, third from bottom numbers wise-in USSF-II? I realise it’s not directly comparable, but that’s a huge drop from the Minnesota Thunder’s 3,209 average in USL-1 last year. I know we have a lot of passionate readers from Minnesota here, so I’m sure one of you will enlighten me as to what is going on….a cause for major concern, or are there some extraneous factors at work here?
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Re: Minnesota
We would be foolish to think that the numbers are not disappointing up here in the North Woods, however I personally don’t think the numbers are all that bad for a few reasons:
1) The base line provided of the Minnesota Thunder is off by about 1400. The Thunder were notorious for publishing attendance figures that were no where close to actual gate/tickets bought. So, I don’t think there is that much of a precipitous fall as reflected in the numbers. The NSC has been reporting real numbers which everyone in the stadium seems to agree with as actually there.
2) The team has already had 5 home games. Two of which were in April, a clear month before the Thunder would have their first home games. In addition, two of these home games were on weeknights during the school year, which were granted for the NSC’s wish to host games during their large tournament weekends (like the Portland Timbers/Fire back-to-back in a few weeks).
3) Believe it or not it is a new organization, front office running the team. They are new to this and while it has started slow there has been an uptick in the past few games. There were probably 400 die-hard fans that showed up for Thunder US Open cup games, these are the same fans that carried over to the next franchise through season-ticket sales, but the rest need to be reeducated about the pro team as many hold huge grudges against the Thunder and don’t know if the new team is a re-branding or unrelated to the team that owes thousands of dollars around the city.
4) Kenn’s blog doesn’t show actual game figures, but the team’s take at the gate outside of the opening night has been improving by a few hundred every game and by mid-June we will be seeing 2-2500 plus at games, which would be the same as what the Thunder were actually getting, not reporting.
5) Tomorrow night’s game against Montreal will more than likely be poorly attended <1000, but it is the last game played during the school year and outside of the major tournaments on the campus.
I predict the team ends with an average attendance of about 2300 at the end of the season.
Thanks SR, that’s exactly the kind of detailed and helpful comment I was looking for to understand what was going on. One further question: how is the venue working out in general?
The NSC Stadium is an amazing stadium.
The biggest complaint about the venue is that it is located to far away from both downtowns (20min drive). However, once people make the trek out to Blaine and get inside the stadium they are fairly blown away by the new beer garden/party deck that is located 5feet from the touch line. The NSC also removed the track that had long separated the stands from the field after the Thunder moved back to the NSC in ’08. This resulted in the pitch moving about 40feet closer to the stands resulting in amazing site lines.
Now, if Section 8 balls up and heads up here for the Portland Timbers/Fire double header in a few weeks and accepts our challenge to a soccer game (we can get a field) we can further discuss the finer points of our attendance and soccer fandom.
The challenge resides with Section 8.
Thanks, Tom.
“4) Kenn’s blog doesn’t show actual game figures, but the team’s take at the gate outside of the opening night has been improving by a few hundred every game and by mid-June we will be seeing 2-2500 plus at games, which would be the same as what the Thunder were actually getting, not reporting.”
Minnesota’s “actual game figures” (at least the ones they reported):
4/24 vs. Tampa Bay….2,310
4/28 vs. Rochester………627
5/1 vs. Austin……………….753
5/15 vs. Miami…………..1,576
5/29 vs. St. Louis……….1,562
6/9 vs. Montreal…………….746
The caveats that Minnesota usually doesn’t have many (if any) home games prior to mid-May (they’ve even played openers at the Metrodome before) and that there’s a new organization are absolutely valid. It’s very, very hard to do this (as many people tend to overlook), but this team was literally put together at the eleventh hour and the NSC staff are working very hard to do something in addition to what they were already doing. So it’s not easy. And they have had three Wednesday home games.
That said, unless they DO start getting 2,000 to 2,500 a game starting in mid-June, that will be a promising sign and a good start. But even with the vertical integration of team and stadium and the cost-savings involved there, I’m skeptical of their chances to make it work at 1,500 a game if that continues.
That should read, “if they DO start getting 2,000 to 2,500 a game starting in mid-June….”
BTW, to finish with an average of about 2,300, the Stars would have to average 2,992 for their last 9 home games. Ambitious.
Would now be a bad time to point out that the NSC Minnesota Stars haven’t actually come close to hitting those midsummer numbers that were predicted?
Starting in mid-June, they drew 1,152 on 6/19 against Portland, 2,136 on 7/4 against Baltimore, 1,803 on 7/10 against Tampa Bay, 2,091 on 7/14 against St. Louis (during USA Cup), 872 against Puerto Rico a week later, 1,010 against Vancouver on 8/14 and 1,429 against Portland last weekend.
With two home games left, they have no shot at averaging 2,300 for the season unless they draw 16,433 to the last two home games combined. Not gonna happen.