2010 MLS Attendance Analysis: Week 2

Discussion in 'MLS: News & Analysis' started by Andy_B, Mar 29, 2010.

  1. Andy_B

    Andy_B Member+

    Feb 2, 1999
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Code:
    % of season completed				
    3.3%				
    Year	Average	Median	%<10K	%>20k
    1996	34764	26473	0.0%	100.0%
    1997	14897	14485	0.0%	20.0%
    1998	19453	17115	0.0%	33.3%
    1999	15954	16191	0.0%	0.0%
    2000	16207	13851	16.7%	33.3%
    2001	19290	17947	0.0%	40.0%
    2002	14667	14224	0.0%	0.0%
    2003	19632	22058	20.0%	80.0%
    2004	19540	20356	20.0%	80.0%
    2005	13038	13071	16.7%	0.0%
    2006	22292	21884	0.0%	66.7%
    2007	16109	15879	0.0%	0.0%
    2008	15346	15553	0.0%	14.3%
    2009	17095	16053	0.0%	14.3%
    2010	17921	16095	12.5%	37.5%
    
     
  2. Andy_B

    Andy_B Member+

    Feb 2, 1999
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    AAQ after 3.3% of games played


    Average: 7th out of 15
    Median: 8th out of 15
    <10K: 11th out of 15
    >20k: 6th out of 15

    AAQ = (7+8+11+6)/4 = 8
     
  3. evangel

    evangel Member+

    Apr 12, 2007
    Dallas single-handedly took us from a potential 5.5 AAQ to an 8.
     
  4. lawrenceterp

    lawrenceterp Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 2, 2006
    Virginia
    You could do the reverse by taking out Seattle.
     
  5. Simster

    Simster Member

    May 16, 2002
    London
    Club:
    Brighton & Hove Albion FC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    I'm going to be interested to see how Colorado's new supporter terrace affects their attendance this week...
     
  6. TheRustyEunuch

    Oct 16, 2007
    Medellín
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Where did the attendance figures come from? Was Dallas really that bad? For them it looked like a decent crowd.
     
  7. brentgoulet

    brentgoulet Member+

    Oct 12, 2005
    PuertoPlata, DomRep
    The lowest crowd in MLS this weekend, and don't forget that Houston brought in 1000 or more fans
     
  8. evangel

    evangel Member+

    Apr 12, 2007
    Taking out Dallas gives us a better AAQ than what I had in my last post.

    Without Dallas:

    Average = 19,336
    Median = 18,653
    < 10k = 0.0%
    >20k = 42.9%

    (6 + 5 + 1 + 5)/4 = 4.25 for a difference of 3.75 from the actual AAQ.


    Without Seattle:

    Average = 15,303
    Median = 13,536
    < 10k = 14.3%
    >20k = 28.6%

    (12 + 14 + 11 + 8)/4 = 11.25 for a difference of 3.25 from the actual AAQ.


    Even with Seattle's massive attendance, Dallas is still a bigger outlier here. :D

    That <10k stat is unforgiving in this first week.
     
  9. VioletCrown

    VioletCrown Member+

    FC Dallas
    United States
    Aug 30, 2000
    Austin, Texas
    Club:
    Austin Aztex
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Except for the fact that it's happened four other times.

    OK, maybe I'm just being defensive. There really isn't any excuse. The weather was beautiful this weekend.

    Still, it's not exactly unheard of for a team to draw less than 10k for their opener.
     
  10. evangel

    evangel Member+

    Apr 12, 2007
    Does anyone have a list of all of Dallas' home opening numbers? I think Dallas' attendance has reached an all time low with this week's showing. What hope could we have of them getting above 8,000 at any other match this year, let alone 10,000?
     
  11. HAthemm17

    HAthemm17 Member

    Mar 12, 2010
    Kingston, Ontario
    Club:
    Toronto FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Canada
    I'm pretty sure they got about 5000 for a game last year.
     
  12. crookeddy

    crookeddy Member+

    Apr 27, 2004
    They'll get above 10k late in the season if they have a playoff push. Not that there is anything impressive about that.
     
  13. Simster

    Simster Member

    May 16, 2002
    London
    Club:
    Brighton & Hove Albion FC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    Well, they've obviously got things wrong and contrary to all the doom and gloom on this thread, I suspect it wouldn't take a huge amount of effort to get it right.

    Kansas City Wizards attendances are case in point - they were drawing flies at Arrowhead for 3 or 4 years. I know they've moved to an intimate venue, but it's a bit bush league, yet they sell the place out more often than not with attendances that Dallas would be more than happy to see right now.

    Seriously, FC Dallas are not a non profit organisation and they're in a decent enough place. If their FO is doing a crap job (and they are), then the powers that be will be unlikely to put up with it for too long, especially now that they can point to several success stories around the league.
     
  14. DC_United

    DC_United Member

    May 8, 2008
    Anyone have a list that breaks down the individual stats for each game played this round? The announcers said NY pulled "almost" the same crowd as the Santos game but the ground looked barren in some sections.
     
  15. nobius

    nobius BigSoccer Supporter

    Jan 3, 2006
    Houston, Texas
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Yes, it was really that bad. The Eastern (TV) side filled in better as the game wore on, but this is a shot of the South and West sides. Right-click | View to see a bigger picture.

    [​IMG]
     
  16. cthomer5000

    cthomer5000 Member+

    Apr 23, 2007
    Raleigh NC
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    To be exact, it's actually Northern League. :)
     
  17. evangel

    evangel Member+

    Apr 12, 2007
    I hope that you're right. FC Dallas managed to be profitable one year without having very good attendance. They seem to have dropped off the list of profitable teams with the dropping attendance. But they still likely lost only relatively little last year, so unless they start bleeding a ton of money, I don't think there will be an incentive for the FO to make even the small push required to get attendance over 10,000.

    As it stands, for a home opener against Houston to be so poorly attended, pessimism is merited this time around. Though with such poor attendance, the large money losses can't be far off, and again, that's what will get the changes to happen.

    The announcer was right. For some reason tons of people didn't make it in until almost halftime. The crowd at the end of the match is the one you should have paid attention to.

    At the end, the only big gaps were in some rows at the top of the second level, and parts of the lower level sideline directly in front of the camera, which are mostly season ticket holders and people with multiple game packages. I'm guessing those people thought that since they have tickets to other games, they decided to come another time when the weather is better (not that I'm condoning that line of thinking).

    24,572 seems fairly close to what was there at the end. I can't predict what's going to happen in later games, but there's still plenty of room to be optimistic about RBA attendance.
     
  18. edwardgr

    edwardgr Moderator
    Staff Member

    Mar 6, 2006
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Evangel

    Dallas drew just under 7500 to the 2004 home opener. They ended up averaging 9088 a game that year. I know they played the previous season at the smaller venue, not sure about 2004.

    DC_U

    The attendance for this round was as follows

    @Seattle 36,241
    @Chivas 18,653
    @Columbus 13,536
    @Dallas 8,016
    @Kansas City 10,385 (Capacity crowd)
    @New York 24,572
    @San Jose 10,589 (Capacity crowd)
    @Los Angeles 21,376
     
  19. evangel

    evangel Member+

    Apr 12, 2007
    I was guessing if there was a lower home opener for Dallas, it was in either 2003, when they played at Dragon Stadium, or 2004, when they went back to the Cotton Bowl while they awaited the opening of Pizza Hut Park. Thanks for that info.

    I hope they don't end up imitating 2004, though. I'm guessing some teams averaged close to that back then, while this time around Dallas would likely be the only one averaging under 10,000, and this with two teams just capped at just over 10k.
     
  20. TheRustyEunuch

    Oct 16, 2007
    Medellín
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    I thought Columbus surely had more then that. My perception of attendance for this opening weekend was much greater then the actual numbers presented in this thread. Hopefully NYRB can keep good figures throughout the year.
     
  21. Yoshou

    Yoshou Fan of the CCL Champ

    May 12, 2009
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Short of buying out HSG, is there much the league can do? MLS is past the point where it should have league owned teams and with how badly HSG has messed up FCD is it likely they'll get a local investor to show interest in the team? Contraction isn't an option as that would risk the SSS deals that Houston, San Jose, and KC have... There's only so much the league can do to force HSG to actually show interest in their teams..
     
  22. The Cadaver

    The Cadaver It's very quiet here.

    Oct 24, 2000
    La Cañada, CA
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Yeah. Maybe MLS should ask Bob Kraft to give them a good talking to...
     
  23. Onionsack

    Onionsack BigSoccer Yellow Card

    Jul 21, 2003
    New York City
    Club:
    FC Girondins de Bordeaux
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    As someone who was there i would venture to say 20,000 actauly showed up at most, definantly less people there that the Santos game, but its understandable since the tickets for Santos signle game were actually 2 for 1 and included the chicago game so a portion of the aanounced attendance were tickets sold to Santos fans who did not come back for the Chicago game.

    Many did come back, and there was demand for Fire game tickets prior to the match but with so many outstanding Santos tickets outstanding quite a few people were turned away from getting blocks of seats for the game.

    So in short the annoucned attendace probably really is tickets sold.
     
  24. evangel

    evangel Member+

    Apr 12, 2007
    I don't know. I was there as well, and I think there could have been near the 24k by the end, though admittedly I'm very bad at estimating these things. A lot of people kept on coming in even at halftime and the beginning of the second half.

    I'm fairly certain the number at least represents tickets sold, and not simply tickets distributed.
     
  25. patrickdavila

    patrickdavila Member

    Jan 13, 1999
    Easton, PA
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I was at the game as well and I think the 24k was pretty accurate. No way the stadium was 1/5 empty. Yeah everyone was late filing in but it was pretty full in the 2nd half.
     

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