2009 MLS Attendance Analysis: Final Numbers

Discussion in 'MLS: News & Analysis' started by Andy_B, Oct 26, 2009.

  1. Yoshou

    Yoshou Fan of the CCL Champ

    May 12, 2009
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    *smacks Fuzzy* :D
     
  2. tomwilhelm

    tomwilhelm Member+

    Dec 14, 2005
    Boston, MA, USA
    Club:
    Fulham FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    You see what the rest of us have to deal with?
     
  3. VioletCrown

    VioletCrown Member+

    FC Dallas
    United States
    Aug 30, 2000
    Austin, Texas
    Club:
    Austin Aztex
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Interesting idea. Considering that there's only a couple teams with stadiums that can support that many, though, I don't see the point. Granted, we have two teams that can't ever, in their regular stadium, seat more than 20k. But ONLY four teams (Houston, DC, Revs and Seattle, right?) can seat more than 30k. With only one of them doing it consistently, I don't think that number will mean anything yet.
     
  4. RerunStubs

    RerunStubs Member

    Dec 8, 2006
    In case anyone is missing the point, this year's median is the 4th highest in history with OR without Seattle.
     
  5. Yoshou

    Yoshou Fan of the CCL Champ

    May 12, 2009
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    And this year's average drops to 8th without Seattle. I should have included those little factoids in my post, so excellent catch, Rerun.
     
  6. equus

    equus Member

    Jan 6, 2007
    And what's been the constant throughout the last three seasons? Mo.

    TFC has had more turnover than a spatula at an IHOP.
     
  7. JasonMa

    JasonMa Member+

    Mar 20, 2000
    Arvada, CO
    Club:
    Colorado Rapids
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Yeah, so, what's your point? The Rapids have missed the playoffs by a point the last two years, attendance has gone down, and KSE doesn't care. Why would the Rapids continuning to miss the playoffs, this time by even more, suddenyl make KSE care? It wouldn't, and now you've created a fanbase that knows that they have no chance instead of the half chance it currently has. How is that an improvement?

    I'm all for rasing the cap across the board, don't get me wrong, but parity works, no reason to fix what's not broken.
     
  8. Don'ttreadonme

    Don'ttreadonme New Member

    Oct 27, 2009
    Does anyone else get annoyed when people say "this is our attendance without Seattle!"

    Why doesn't anyone say..."this is our attendance without Dallas or New York"

    just annoying.
     
  9. tomwilhelm

    tomwilhelm Member+

    Dec 14, 2005
    Boston, MA, USA
    Club:
    Fulham FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Nah, that doesn't bother any of us at all... :p
     
  10. Neemtree

    Neemtree Member

    Jan 11, 2003
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I think its been overdone in these threads but it does bring up a valid point. Its like when a retail chain quotes same stores sales increase vs. total sales growth or when corporations quote organic growth Vs. total increase in gross revenue. Taking an expansion franchise out of the equation lets you see how your core business has grown, and because new business results are more variable that is important analysis to make. In this instance those numbers are not particularly positive but not out of line with what has happened in the rest of the sporting market.
     
  11. Yoshou

    Yoshou Fan of the CCL Champ

    May 12, 2009
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Actually, it's nothing like same store sales. Same store sales is a measure of revenue, not the number of people that buy things from a store. In order to do a valid same store sales comparison, you'd have to take a measure of the revenue generated by the people attending games last year vs. the revenue generated by the people attending games this year.

    Earlier in the year RSL was saying that not only were their numbers up, but that they were giving away far less tickets than they were in earlier years and as a result their revenue from ticket sales was up. No idea if that continued throughout the year, but just because a team's attendance has dropped this year does not mean that they number of tickets that they sold has not gone up.
     
  12. Kingston

    Kingston Member+

    Oct 6, 2005
    Maybe I'm wrong but I don't see TFC dropping in attendance. As a TFC fan I'm very disappointed they didn't make the playoffs. That said, they were one win away. That's one goal at some point in the season to switch a tie into a win. Do you really think people are going to say, "Well, I would have renewed my tickets if they'd made the playoffs but since they finished one goal out soccer is no longer worth watching"? It's not as if the team isn't improving on the field or going after better players and coaching.
     
  13. bunge

    bunge BigSoccer Supporter

    Oct 24, 2000
    Honestly, this is where TFC should rely on the little tradition they have. Danny Dichio is still in the organization and TFC should make a request to season ticket holder via Danny. It's not rocket science. Someone in the FO should talk to Dichio and convince him that TFC is still a good option going forward, then let him make the sale.
     
  14. FuzzyForeigner

    Oct 29, 2003
    WA
    Club:
    Seattle
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I would just like to clear the air with the following statement:

    "Seattle Sounders invented attendance"


    good bye.
     
  15. bluewolverine

    bluewolverine Member

    Jun 20, 2007
  16. FlapJack

    FlapJack Member+

    Mar 3, 2006
    Los Angeles
    What would Seattle's attendance be without the rest of the teams in MLS?

    10K? So why remove their numbers?
     
  17. triplet1

    triplet1 BigSoccer Supporter

    Jul 25, 2006
    From the Soccer America article that appeared in the news articles thread:

    Link:

    http://www.socceramerica.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=34899
     
  18. lawrenceterp

    lawrenceterp Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 2, 2006
    Virginia
    Last year's final numbers.

    Andy.....I'm hoping you'll continue the threads again this year. If not, someone else must fill in (not me).
     
  19. Andy_B

    Andy_B Member+

    Feb 2, 1999
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I hope to be doing it again this year as I have for god knows how many years now (I am so old :( ) :)


    I will try and dust off the massive spreadsheet and open a new thread tomorrow.
     
    1 person likes this.
  20. mbar

    mbar Member+

    Apr 30, 1999
    Los Angeles, CA
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Thank you so much for your hard work.
     
  21. VioletCrown

    VioletCrown Member+

    FC Dallas
    United States
    Aug 30, 2000
    Austin, Texas
    Club:
    Austin Aztex
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This will be a very interesting season. With pretty much guaranteed increases in Seattle, NY and Toronto, and Philadelphia averaging more than any previous season's league average, if all else stays steady, I'd say there's an outside chance of cracking that 17k number. But there's a lot of teams in the league now, so I'm probably being over optimistic.

    In my unstudied opinion, I really think the bar should be set at 3/2/2/2 on the AAQ list.
     
  22. crookeddy

    crookeddy Member+

    Apr 27, 2004
    Galaxy attendance is an X-Factor. Historically it's been great, but if it goes down another 30%, it really won't be very impressive any more.
     
  23. Sachsen

    Sachsen Member+

    Aug 8, 2003
    Broken Arrow, Okla.
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Don't forget the World Cup bump. It helps that MLS is actually not playing during the group stages this time.

    I expect a sizable increase over last year, and last year wasn't bad, all things considered.
     
  24. Geneva

    Geneva LA for Life

    Feb 5, 2003
    Southern Cal
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I agree and think there will be trouble there.
     
  25. scoachd1

    scoachd1 Member+

    Jun 2, 2004
    Southern California
    Median should be the easiest one to hit or possibly the under. Would need a really big name DP signing and a good world cup bump to get the average attendance over year 1 and the over 20K doesn’t seem doable unless some double headers take place in alternate facilities. Big factors are going to be world cup and any DP signings. Galaxy is looking down but I'm thinking Chivas surprise again. Whether season is really good will depend on New England, Colorado, Dallas and Houston as they have room to add a lot more.
     

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