MLS Attendance Comparison MLS Average Attendance after 76.9% of the games played. 1996 17,946 1997 14,897 1998 14,439 1999 14,496 2000 13,450 2001 15,029 2002 15,630 2003 14,582 2004 15,043 2005 14,749 2006 15,270 2007 15,965 MLS Median Attendance after 76.9% of the games played. 1996 15,209 1997 13,136 1998 11,682 1999 13,101 2000 12,399 2001 13,431 2002 13,593 2003 13,510 2004 13,069 2005 12,167 2006 12,979 2007 14,464 % of games Under 10,000 after 76.9% played 1996 23% 1997 21% 1998 25% 1999 32% 2000 36% 2001 26% 2002 19% 2003 24% 2004 28% 2005 30% 2006 22% 2007 10% % of games over 20,000 after 76.9% played 1996 28% 1997 16% 1998 16% 1999 16% 2000 11% 2001 18% 2002 17% 2003 17% 2004 23% 2005 15% 2006 18% 2007 23% Final MLS Average Attendance 1996 17,406 1997 14,619 1998 14,312 1999 14,282 2000 13,756 2001 14,962 2002 15,821 2003 14,898 2004 15,549 2005 15,108 2006 15,504 2007 ? Final MLS Median Attendance 1996 15,093 1997 12,733 1998 11,871 1999 12,973 2000 12,690 2001 13,431 2002 14,108 2003 13,641 2004 13,285 2005 12,619 2006 14,175 2007 ? % of games Under 10,000 after all games complete 1996 22% 1997 25% 1998 27% 1999 32% 2000 34% 2001 27% 2002 17% 2003 23% 2004 25% 2005 23% 2006 19% 2007 ? % of games Over 20,000 after all games complete 1996 26% 1997 16% 1998 16% 1999 15% 2000 13% 2001 18% 2002 19% 2003 18% 2004 25% 2005 18% 2006 19% 2007 ? Notes: 1) 2007 really closed the gap on Median to 1996. It won't catch it obviously but still this is as close as any season has ever been to 1996 median 2) The average I posted WILL NOT MATCH the official MLS stats. The official MLS stats are including an attendance of 0 for the Columbus-Rapids game. I am simply removing that game from the numbers until a non 0 number appears some where.
Andy, this is so cool that you put this data up every week! Thanks. One question, do you mean "some where" on an MLS site; or literally "some where"? If the latter, I believe the Columbus Dispatch had the attendance as 16,096 (see the closed thread on the Columbus board).
1. You sure about that? Look at the jump in median last year from this point until the end of the season. I think it's possible. 2. There is also a game in May where they don't have an official number. It's a Toronto home game that had over 20,000 people. Not sure why they do that sometimes.
To me the most impressive part of this is the median attendance. That is great, and really helps factor out some of the huge events that have propped up the average attendance numbers in the past.
Hi Chris! No problem. Useless data is fun to track I know about the number from the Dispatch. As you speculated I am waiting on MLSnet to actually wake up and report a real number. Ironically from what people say about that game, a 0 should be much closer to the truth than what MLS will eventually report
I did a quick guess on the median. I used the 16,096 number for the Columbus game. Then I took the remaining games and put in the obvious overs and unders that will move the median up or down. For all overs I just put in 20,000 and for all unders I just put in 10,000. The end result was a median of 14,982. There were 14 games that I felt were marginal. Of those 14, if 9 of them are higher then 15,100 (or say at least 15,200), thus moving it up, we'll beat 1996. Looking at this list, it is definitely possible. Not only that, I think we'll do it. 9/12/2007 - Real Salt Lake @ D.C. United - 10,000 9/13/2007 - Los Angeles Galaxy @ Chivas USA - 20,000 9/15/2007 - Real Salt Lake @ Toronto FC - 20,000 9/15/2007 - FC Dallas @ New England Revolution - 9/15/2007 - Columbus Crew @ Kansas City Wizards - 10,000 9/15/2007 - New York Red Bulls @ Chicago Fire - 20,000 9/16/2007 - Chivas USA @ Colorado Rapids - 9/16/2007 - Houston Dynamo @ Los Angeles Galaxy - 20,000 9/19/2007 - Los Angeles Galaxy @ Real Salt Lake - 20,000 9/20/2007 - Chicago Fire @ FC Dallas - 20,000 9/22/2007 - Columbus Crew @ Toronto FC - 20,000 9/22/2007 - New England Revolution @ New York Red Bulls - 10,000 9/22/2007 - Colorado Rapids @ Real Salt Lake - 9/22/2007 - Kansas City Wizards @ Chivas USA - 10,000 9/23/2007 - D.C. United @ Chicago Fire - 20,000 9/23/2007 - FC Dallas @ Los Angeles Galaxy - 20,000 9/27/2007 - Los Angeles Galaxy @ Kansas City Wizards - 20,000 9/29/2007 - Colorado Rapids @ New England Revolution - 9/29/2007 - Real Salt Lake @ New York Red Bulls - 10,000 9/29/2007 - Toronto FC @ D.C. United - 20,000 9/29/2007 - Chicago Fire @ Chivas USA - 9/30/2007 - Houston Dynamo @ FC Dallas - 9/30/2007 - Los Angeles Galaxy @ Columbus Crew - 20000 10/4/2007 - New York Red Bulls @ Toronto FC - 20000 10/6/2007 - FC Dallas @ Columbus Crew - 10/6/2007 - D.C. United @ Kansas City Wizards - 10000 10/6/2007 - New England Revolution @ Chicago Fire - 20000 10/6/2007 - Chivas USA @ Real Salt Lake - 10/7/2007 - Los Angeles Galaxy @ Houston Dynamo - 20000 10/7/2007 - Toronto FC @ Colorado Rapids - 10/11/2007 - Chivas USA @ FC Dallas - 10/13/2007 - Chicago Fire @ D.C. United - 20000 10/13/2007 - Columbus Crew @ New England Revolution - 10/13/2007 - Kansas City Wizards @ New York Red Bulls - 10000 10/13/2007 - Houston Dynamo @ Real Salt Lake - 10/13/2007 - Toronto FC @ Los Angeles Galaxy - 20000 10/14/2007 - Colorado Rapids @ Chivas USA - 10000 10/18/2007 - New York Red Bulls @ Los Angeles Galaxy - 20000 10/20/2007 - New England Revolution @ Toronto FC - 20000 10/20/2007 - Columbus Crew @ D.C. United - 20000 10/20/2007 - Kansas City Wizards @ FC Dallas - 10/20/2007 - Real Salt Lake @ Colorado Rapids - 10/20/2007 - Houston Dynamo @ Chivas USA - 10000 10/21/2007 - Los Angeles Galaxy @ Chicago Fire - 20000 Anyone feel free to challenge some of my guesses. But I really do think we're gonna do it.
1) No of course I am not sure. It would be fantastic if we could top 1996. If we beat it on Median, that means we beat 1996 on 2 of the 4 categories we track and we could argue that 2007 was just as good as 1996 in overall attendance. 2) The Toronto game is correctly tracked by MLS in the official stats for attendance at 20,041 http://web.mlsnet.com/stats/index.jsp?club=mls&year=2007
We poked our heads over 16k with the DC game but then snuck back under after the Chivas game. This was the first time the average was over 16k since way back on game #15.
1. Do you agree with my post above? The estimates I made? What is your prediction after reading that? 2. That's good. If you look at the schedule page, that game has a blank in the attendance column. We all knew it was 20,041 but for some reason they don't list it.
its a great list and I bet that 90% or more of your predictions come true. The 14 marginal games are so difficult to call. Hopefully some end of the normal end of the year bumps will help.
OK. So, I just redid all my guesses and tried to put in actual numbers for every remaining game. Now mind you, I'm pretty bad at this game on the MLS:General forum so take this for what it's worth. I ended up with an average of 16,408 and a median of 15,000. I was using round number and it just so happens that one of those guesses ended up as the median number. I'm going to ask cleazer to make guesses for me and we'll see what we get. He's REALLY good at this.
What makes this even more impressive is that the numbers are apparently largely legit this year, and not made up of whole cloth for individual games like they were in the past. Does anyone know whether they were already making up numbers in the inaugural season, or did that start later on?
1) Excellent point. Also the fact that their are more week day games this year than in some previous years is another number One very interesting number to have that we will never get would be to compare the number of giveaways in each season. 2) Back in 1996, the fans were mostly relegated to individual team email lists and did have a public forum other than RSS to bitch about items like we do today. I can only speak for the Revs but just as they do today, I think the numbers in 1996 were pretty close to the real mark.
I know a couple of Columbus games have been low in house attendance but Chivas never struck me this way. Even last Thursdays game on ESPN2, it seemed very believable that it was 2/3 empty. That being said, almost everyone universally agrees that the attendances being reported, on average, league wide, are much closer to the mark than in previous years. Think about it for a second, EVERY SINGLE week last season some one would bitch about the attendance announced vs the attendance in the stadium. This year we may have gone almost 2 months straight until the recent Columbus game before anyone mentioned it.
I think this year will definitely approach the inaugural season, and MIGHT top it. Keep in mind that MOST teams are scheduled to play LA at some point at the back half of the season and will get a 20k+ crowd for that. Even if there are tons of no-shows, the tickets are sold because of Becks. If I'm not mistaken, attendance is usually higher in September and early October anyways for most teams, so this would be in addition to the regular boost. Some teams are also getting a big boost in attendance from Chicago because of Blanco.
I think this is largely true, as many people are using their flex plan tickets at the end (to use them all up), or if they do not use them, they get counted because they are already sold. I don't know exactly how the accounting works, but last year I got a 20 ticket plan, and used 14 of them. It sucks to eat those 6 tickets, but believe me, they get counted in the total somehow.
sigh I wouldn't post this thought in a TFC room for fear of being called a bandwagon jumper (largely because I am), but I get so jealous when I hear about fans in other MLS cities who can just show up to a game on game day and get a ticket for face value. It's great to see that things are looking up though!
Actually, the numbers are more impressive than that if you consider that there have been fewer "double header" or "event" games this year, and many games have been played outside the Saturday Night sweetspot for attendance.
Incredible numbers, thanks for posting them Andy. With more Beckham games (even if they're without Beckham) and the usual end-of-season bumps still to come, this year is guaranteed to be the best since 1996.
and I know I'm getting greedy here, but more than 20% above 20k is nice, and it would be great to get less than 10k into single digits (with no help from Grahame "Sunshine" Jones in today's LAT).
The 20% over 20k is an absolute lock. There will be 195 games this year which means we need 39 of them to be over 20,000 to reach 20%. We've already got 34 of them. Looking at the remaining schedule, I'm pretty sure we'll break 25% actually. The 10% under 10k is all going to depend on KC and Chivas....Chivas especially. We can only have 19 games below 10k to reach the goal. 20 games and we're over 10%. Right now we have 15 of them. KC has 2 Saturday games and a Thursday night game against Galaxy where they've already sold around 30,000 seats. I don't think they'll get another sub 10k game this year. I don't think New York will either due to having all weekend games remaining. Chivas has a couple worrisome spots. But that's it. I think we'll do that one as well.