Yeah I get that the non-TV side was empty, I saying that there were actually 17,422 in the stadium (butts in the seat), unlike MLS games. When they say 17,422 it's tickets distributed, not butts in the seats.
Also, need to consider the MLS games are meaningful in that they are regular season games. They also sell season tickets. These USMNT games are friendlies and only matter to the hardcore fans that care about the roster development. That said I don't disagree that the attendances should be higher, but I don't think it is crazy that MLS teams get higher attendances. That actually makes me happy.
It's still tickets distributed for a US game--it's just that as a one-off event, there are fewer reasons for ticket holders to be no-shows. There aren't any season ticket holders who just couldn't make this one but still get counted. There are still inevitable no-shows because someone got a flat tire or the flu or whatever.
Attendance for Mexico v Chile in San Diego, CA: 49,617. Attendance for USA's first three games in 2019 combined: 40,118.
On this subject here is some USMNT facts. The stadium they played at the most is RFK 24 times, and the highest ever attendance there was 51,996 against New Zealand. Surprisingly, second is the Coliseum in L.A. with 20 and a record attendance of 91,255 against Mexico. The all time highest attendance was 93,869 at the Rose Bowl also against Mexico. The stadium at which the USMNT has the highest percentage (with a minimum of 5 games played) is EverBank field in Jacksonville where the USMNT is a perfect 5-0. The same record exists in Seattle as well.
Number of home games with <10k attendance for the USMNT 2011 - 1 2012 - 0 2013 - 0 2014 - 0 2015 - 0 2016 - 5 2017 - 0 2018 - 1
15106 at RB arena. 2 NYRB home games both in the 15000 range. Down from 21000 in 2017. Hey NY sports fans, why don't you skip all the fun thing going on to drive to NJ or the Bronx to watch players you've never heard of play at a toxic waste site or a glorified lilly pad?
Agree…many explanations but a recent one is that we're victims of our own success… The opening of the season doesn't have the same meaning for fans given our appearances in the Champions League…not to say attendance for those games were good not at all less actually than for the first two home games… But the "season opener" allure that typically produces one of the better attendances factoring in northeast weather just doesn't exist for us…we opened the season on the road but had it been a home game we would've still played reserves because we had bigger fish to fry… And it was seriously cold last night and for the Champions League games and not much better for the opener…things will improve as the weather gets warmer but we indeed don't have the formula for filling RBA…if truth be known attendance was an issue even when we had the consensus best player in the EPL era playing for us...
Cue annual new England attendance panic, until they pick it up later in the season and end up averaging over 20k, after which everyone will be shocked even though this happens every single year.
I don’t do this often but yikes...#NERevs pic.twitter.com/gPNte8NtxV— Julian Cardillo (@JulianCardillo) March 24, 2019 thisisfine.gif