6 million fans 18,800 average attendance. good stuff. next is getting 2 more soccer specific stadiums done in Boston and DC. Then getting NY2. Then getting attendances up in all other cities. Once we do that we can start thinking about averaging 20k plus as a league.
There are quite a few teams that could improve attendance next season, but I'd expect next season to be within a hundred or two average of this year because other teams will drop slightly too. Unless Seattle opens up the full stadium for a lot more or fewer games as that could change things. I think I read that Montreal will have a similar number of Olympic Stadium games next year. Any other major changes I'm forgetting for next year? I suppose there may be more midweek games due to all the FIFA qualifying dates so that could hurt attendance.
Montreal will, for sure, be opening their season in the Big Owe for, at least, their home match against TFC. TFC have made a deal with them and are providing all renewing season ticket holders 1 free ticket for every ticket in their account at BMO. My rep tells me they "hope" they will be able to take 10k to that match.
Can SKC continue to average almost 1K above capacity? I don't know. If we continue to have a team in the hunt for silverware, maybe.
15,672 in Columbus (plus a pair of beautiful......goals ) 15,454 in Commerce City 20,507 in Sandy 20,438 in Portland 20,017 in Bridgeview
Farmers Field is a pipe dream and what is a "big game"? I don't think L.A. gets higher attendances based on the opponent like a Seattle would for Portland.
Before they move to Farmers, LAG will trade Beckham so that they too can experience the Beckham effect and have a single game boost in attendance once a year
I remember seeing a story that said the NFL has shut down talk of a new LA team for 2013. It won't happen anytime soon for sure.
I would say it was a pretty good year. That 20k target would be great, but is going to be hard to achieve. Assuming Chivas grows to full HDC capacity and with SJ new spot, the MOST we could average is 21900 or so (barring any special venues or expanded capacities.) So I agree with you in that 20k would be a GREAT league wide average in a few years.
The framework to build it is in place, and AEG is paying for it so money isn't the issue. The problem is that the permits are conditional on actually getting a team. It's still possible a team could move, though with ownership and stadium issues getting resolved, the only real candidate for moving is the Chargers.
A downtown stadium would draw 40k no matter who the opponent. Big games would be NY, 4th of July, SJ. The NFL can't talk to AEG until January 1st. There's a lot of talk that there will be another football team wearing blue, white and gold in LA next year.
The future attendance growth really relies with the original teams(dallas, clb, dc, NE,chi) and of course chivas. Getting them to move into the 18-19k range would be the best way to move the average as many other teams already play at capacity or close to it every game.
One way to look at it is this. There are 19 teams, and the league needs to add 1200 per match. 19*1200=22,800. So if 9 teams stay the same and 10 teams add 2280 each, that'll get MLS to 20K. That gives you an idea of how tough it will be, without KC and Portland and Seattle permanently expanding capacity and selling those seats. You can play around with the numbers in different ways, but you get the idea. A realistic, achievable goal for 2013 will be 19,000. If SJ's stadium is open in 2014, we can revisit this.
Maybe it is all the low pressure from all of these systems around here today but I am not following your math....if, on average, you need to add 1,200 a game to get to 20k...how do you get there by only 10 teams actually doing it? by my count, 10 teams adding 22,800 to their season totals would bring the league average to 19,507. But, as I said, late in a work day with lots of low pressure around!
If hitting 20k plus is really the goal, it'd be better for NE to stay in Foxborough and for the FO to stop dicking around. That way, if they could pepper in some 25,000+ attendances with some "poor" games at around 15,000, they could average 20,000 without having to build a new home. If they're in a SSS capped around 20,000, one or two "poor" attendance games would screw up the whole average. New, smaller SSSes aren't really helpful in chasing the average attendance record.
Complete and utter bullshit. The Galaxy have no real presence in the city. The attendance isn't limited by ability to get to the HDC. It's limited by the number of people who care.
Not true, at Farmers field LA would be able to get 40-50k a game no problem because it would be right next to LA Live, walk ups would be in the thousands...and for games like NY or even Seattle i would expect sell outs. IT's LA after all! tons of sport fans!
They definitely finished on a high note. Saturday's attendance bumps LA above Montreal for average attendance for the year and preserves their long run at #1 or #2 in the attendance standings, which goes back to 2002. (Actually, 2001 is the only year LA's attendance has ever been lower than second in the rankings; they came in third behind DC and NY!).
Except for San Jose, where the alternative is even smaller (10,000 or so). I think there new stadium is planned to be 18,000 capacity.
Yeah but will San Jose have those outlier "big" games of 40k+ that they had this year, and how much of a real bump will you see?