"Houston Dynamo have become a particularly egregious attendance offender in MLS since moving into their 22,000-seat stadium in 2012." The full article: https://amp.theguardian.com/footbal...leagues-attendance-figures-arsenal-celtic-mls
I agree with the general point, and I believe on honesty, but I don't like some of what the article says. I don't like the argument: "Perhaps American fans have merely become desensitised to blatant distortions. After all, the White House press secretary blethered on about a record audience for the inauguration of Donald Trump." Without making this topic political, it's not like everybody believes Trump. The media not questioning MLS's attendance is because of the public generally not caring about soccer, not because the media wants to hide the information. Not many people are interested in articles exposing MLS or its clubs for lying about attendance. Furthermore, music albums are certified based on units shipped to stores rather than sold to consumers. I don't know how much that has changed now that so much music is sold as paid downloads rather than CDs. That shows that MLS attendance is not the only part of American life where numbers are inflated. Billboard only announces how much an album sold in a week in multiples of 1,000, not as exact amounts.