2011 Home Attendance

Discussion in 'Seattle Sounders FC' started by Brazbit, Oct 12, 2011.

  1. Brazbit

    Brazbit BigSoccer Supporter

    Jun 1, 2009
    Manchester, WA (USA)
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This thread is just fun with numbers.

    Alan Hinton made an interesting tweet the other day about the Sounders being able to get near 900K in home attendance at Century Link with the current numbers plus the final home game and the maximum of two playoff matches.

    Currently Seattle is at 590,281 for regular season home games and 734,361
    for home games in all competitions.

    The San Jose game is over 58,000 already so say 60,000 with last minute and walk up/day of sales. that brings us to 650,281 and 794,361 respectively.

    The first home playoff game is a lock so lets add another 36,000 for that. Hopefully it will be higher. That brings us to 686,281 / 830,361.

    If we make it through the first round and LA gets knocked out we host a second home playoff game, so another 36,000 although I would expect far more. Now we are at 722,281 / 866,361.

    Allen Hinton's 900K is a bit of a stretch but not unimaginable. If the first playoff match matched the New York attendance and the semi-finals matched the San Jose attendance that takes us to 756,346 / 900,426.

    To put that into perspective the M's brought in 1,896,321, or roughly double the number, but it took them 81 home games to do it with an average attendance of 23,411. The 'Hawks brought in 535,942 in 8 games with a whopping 66,992 average. The Sonics best year was 1978-79 where they had 747,243 in 41 games and an average of 18,225.

    Just for fun if you toss in the Starfire games (including preseason) and the pre-season Community Shield match it comes to: 829,046 (through San Jose figuring 60K) 865,046 (through first round figuring 36K) and 901,046 through semi-finals (again 36,000) bump the playoffs to the NY/SJ levels and it is 935,111 for all home games at all locations.

    None of this means much but it was interesting to take a look at.
     
  2. Brazbit

    Brazbit BigSoccer Supporter

    Jun 1, 2009
    Manchester, WA (USA)
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    It was pointed out to me that the Sounders still have the Monterry match as well so add what 10,000 to 20,000 to all the numbers?
     
  3. kaburu

    kaburu Member+

    Jul 12, 2009
    los angeles
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  4. GOALSeattle

    GOALSeattle Member

    Oct 13, 2007
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  5. Andy Bulldog

    Andy Bulldog Member

    Dec 17, 2007
    Alabama
    Club:
    West Ham United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Very interesting thread...I wonder what the average attendance for MLS is compared to NBA,NHL or MLB?
     
  6. Yoshou

    Yoshou Fan of the CCL Champ

    May 12, 2009
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    It is hard to compare because season lengths and stadium sizes are different between the leagues, but if you go by average, MLS is #3 behind NFL and MLB and ahead of NBA and NHL. The Sounders would be ranked #6 in MLB, #1 in NBA and NHL (but no stadiums are large enough to hold 36k), and dead last in NFL. If you go by total attendance, the Sounders would be #3 in NFL (twice as many games), #21 in NBA and NHL (about 1/3 as many games), and dead last in MLB (about 1/5 as many games).
     
  7. bright

    bright Member

    Dec 28, 2000
    Central District
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    As a long-time soccer fan who is pleased as punch that our sport has laid down seemingly indestructible roots this time around, our collective quest for increased popularity has always been equated with sustainability in my mind, not about leaving the other sports in the dust. (Side note: Totally embarrassing the other sports would merely be a stronger instance of sustainability, but I understand that it is a spiteful dream shared by many to various degrees who are sick of enduring the haters in our mainstream media.) In that sense, I like to compare the respective leagues' attendances not by strict whirls of the turnstyle, but rather weighted by the expenses that are undertaken per game such as opening the stadium and paying the players. I think if you combine the Sounders 36K/game, 17 home games, and poor-house salary cap, you end up with a huge windfall that makes any prospective sports owner stand up and take notice. And while the NBA and NHL are limited by arena size, realistically they can't have larger arenas where people are sitting too far away from the action.
     

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