Code: % of season completed 100% Year Average Median %<10K %>20k 1996 17406 15093 21.9% 26.3% 1997 14619 12733 25.0% 16.3% 1998 14312 11871 26.6% 16.1% 1999 14282 12973 32.3% 15.1% 2000 13756 12690 34.4% 12.5% 2001 14962 13431 26.6% 17.7% 2002 15821 14108 17.1% 18.6% 2003 14898 13641 23.3% 18.0% 2004 15559 13285 24.7% 25.3% 2005 15108 12619 27.1% 17.7% 2006 15504 14175 18.8% 18.8% 2007 16770 15353 8.2% 29.7% 2008 16459 15188 11.0% 24.8%
3rd out of 13 for average 2nd out of 13 for median 2nd out of 13 for <10k 4th out of 13 for >20k Final AAQ = 2.75 Hope you all enjoyed these posts this year.
I hope it's ok to repost this here. A few more end of season attendance stats Reported attendance above 15,000: 109/210 games Above 15,000/below 15,000 1.Los Angeles Galaxy, 15/0 2.Toronto FC, 15-0 3.D.C United, 13-2 4.Chicago Fire, 12-3 5.Houston Dynamo, 9-6 6.Columbus Crew, 8-7 6.Real Salt Lake, 8-7 8.New England Revolution, 7-8 9.New York Red Bull, 6-9 10.Chivas U.S.A, 5-10 11.Dallas FC, 4-11 12.San Jose Earthquakes, 3-12 13.Colorado Rapids, 3-12 14.Kansas City Wizards, 1-14 Reported Attendance above 20,000: 52 games 15,000-19,999: 57 games 10,000-14,999: 77 games under 10,000: 24 games Teams with Soccer Specific Stadiums for whole season 1.Los Angeles 26,009/27,000 capacity, 96.3% of capacity 2.Toronto F.C, 20,108/20,000 100.0% 3.Chicago Fire, 17,034/20,000 (approx) 85.2% 4.Chivas U.S.A, 15,114/27000 56.0% 5.Columbus Crew, 14,622/20,145 72.6% 6.Colorado Rapids, 13,659/18,086 75.5% 7.Dallas F.C, 13,024/20,500 63.5% Average 17,081/21,819 78.3% Games with Los Angeles/David Beckham L.A Home games: 15-390,132-26,009 average L.A Away games: 15-421,907-28,127 average League reported attendance excluding L.A Home/Away game (and New England double header game) 179 games 2,590,306 attendance, 14,471 average including L.A Home games: 194-2,980,438-15,363 average Team reported attendance averages excluding Beckham/L.A games 1.Toronto F.C 20,108 2.D.C United 18,682 3.Chicago Fire, 16,811 4.Houston Dynamo, 15,811 5.Real Salt Lake, 15,509 6.Chivas U.S.A, 14,265 7.Columbus Crew, 14,046 8.New York Red Bull, 13,727 9.Colorado Rapids, 13,298 10.New England Revolution, 13,108 (also excluding double header) 11.Dallas FC, 11,693 12.San Jose Earthquakes, 10,750 13.Kansas City Wizards, 9,584
Clearly, San Jose and KC stadium situations had negatively effected the averages. In own places, one may have to add 2,000-3,000 in PA to those two franchises.
I'm looking forward to where the Sounders will fall in these numbers next year. Good or bad it will be interesting. Thanks for your work
Here are the AAQ numbers for all the years, ranked from best to worst. 2007: 1.25 1996/2008: 2.75 2002: 4.5 2006: 4.75 2004: 5.75 2003: 7 2001: 8.25 1997/2005: 9.5 1998/1999: 11.25 2000: 12.5 This is an interesting and relative fair way to rank the seasons I think. End of the century was pretty ugly
Given Seattle's 16,000+ season-ticket base, I predict it will fall somewhere between "very good" and "excellent."
The best AAQ happened in years 2007, 1996 and 2008. Next year will be even better. I just wonder if KC and San Jose had their own stadiums, their average be around 10k anyway, just like crowds at PHP.
First, Andy great job. I really look forward to tracking the attendance during the year and for the last couple of years this thread has proved to be a serious review of how the league is progressing. Second, In addition to Seattle, we may also have a bump from believe it or not New York with the upcoming opening of RB Arena. This is a fantastic facility that I believe will significantly enable an improvement in Red Bull attendance. What still seems up in the air is exactly when will the facility be completed. The good news appears to be that construction has been going very well and may be ahead of schedule.
Andy, thanks again for doing this work. It makes for very interesting discussions and one of the few truly objective ways we have of measuring the league's progress. As for the numbers, I'm looking forward to Seattle's help and to the day we can get the Columbuses, New Yorks, New Englands, and and Colorados of the league up over 15 000 without special games.
I'm not sure next year will be better. Certainly, with Seattle and the new Red Bull Arena, those numbers will boost things. But the economy is such a big question mark right now, and I don't think anyone knows how that will effect things. It could be hugely bad. It could, since MLS tickets are cheaper than anything major league other than baseball, actually be a benefit to MLS. Either way, as always many thanks, Andy, for all the work you do.
Andy, how many data points were there between 16,459 and 16,770? I was just wondering how many games we would have needed above the 16,770 to beat last year's median. thanks again for all the stats
How do you figure that? Our average in San Jose this year was 13,713. Why do you figure it would go down to 10k in a new stadium 40 miles closer to our prime fan base than our current large stadium in Oakland?
Really good point, I think we'll see much higher averages in New York, especially considering they have that open DP slot, a player like Henry could sell out the season. Access to public transportation, beautiful facility, it all looks to be coming together. RSL having a full season at Rio Tinto (coming off a playoff season) should also help. This was a solid, if not spectacular season for MLS. San Jose and KC obviously affected the turnout, although I was a bit concerned w/ KC's number of non-sellouts. Next year should see a jump, even during the recession, as cheaper MLS tickets (compared to MLB) may actually help drive up attendances. That said, the Beckham effect should also taper, if he's hear. It'd be nice to see a club like Colorado or Dallas at a marquee name to drive up attendances home and away .
Seattle is already up to 17,000. They just said in the Ljungberg press conference that they hope to have 20,000 season tickets by the time the season starts.
You lost me here, friend. I don't know how you can call this anything but a great season, attendance wise, for MLS.
First of all, Thanks Andy, I look forward to your thread every week. Some notes about Toronto for what its worth, as a season ticket holder, they have 2009 renewal at 95% (15,250) they have gone through a seat relocation process and are now offering tickets to the various waiting lists. Word on the street is that there are up to 13k on the waiting list. A promise of a DP and with a good foundation to build on, has left Toronto wondering what might be for next season and whets the appetite after a reasonably strong finish to what was turning out to be a pretty poor end to the season. About weather, at least half our home games had rain this year it seemed and it did not adversely affect attendance which is a good sign. Depending on who you talk to there is a dwindling demand and enthusiam or there is a clamourig for more seats. Cheers
What are the chances of getting a grass field?...Because that alone could attract notable DPs, as in case with Hucks early this year.
Isn't that a 100% probability at this point? I'd heard it was a done deal. They're installing a hybrid real/fake grass field in the off season like many premiership teams use. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong.
I think this was all hearsay, what happened was Mo Edu was sold and now TFC has ~2.7M to spend for infrastructure and MOJO hinted that they could use that for a grass facility (meaning a practice facility). No one ever mentioned that BMO would get natural grass, it was only inferred. The grassmaster pitch also came up but again it was hearsay. I doubt there will be any changes to BMO for next season other than token items like washrooms, beer stands and concessions. Unfortunately, IMO.
Oh Still I suppose on one level the fake grass is better if you guys had that much rain during the season. Still the hybrid system would have been nice.
Given that the season was sold out before the first game was played they could have buried all the seats in snow and it wouldn't have been possible to affect the attendance. I really hope Seattle pulls a Toronto and becomes a second team with continual sellouts (even if only of the open part of their stadium). As long as MLS doesn't try to invent yet another hokey cup to commemorate Toronto-Seattle matches as a result.