Saturday's numbers: Toronto at Seattle: 32,679 SJ at New England: 7,286 RSL at Kansas City: 9,924 DC at Chicago: 16,324 Chivas at LA: 27,000 A disappointing number in New England, but I believe that is partially due to storm-like weather conditions. Expected sellout for the SuperClasico in LA. A solid number in Chicago, which has bounced back nicely from its early-season attendance woes.
Tomorrows numbers will probably be poor. Colorado and NY at home. UGH! I'll be surprised if either of those games break 10k.
I'll be surprised if both don't break 10K. They are weekend games and unless weather is bad I think both can break 10K.
Barely! I'll be honest, I thought both would get a little more than this although I didn't really expect either to get anywhere near 15k or anything like that. Just shows how games are Saturday games and Sunday games are often as hard to sell as midweek games for whatever reason.
Expansion has helped MLS deeply. I just hope the talent level and overall fan interest will stay with it. without Seattle...this year would be a huge flop.
For someone to make a statement like that suggests they have not followed MLS closely since its inception. MLS is all about steady slow growth, building up a solid core fanbase and moving to more consistent attendances. It was not that long ago when many games outside a Saturday evening were 6 to 9k even in the better markets.
MLS attendance is only down about 3.4% this season, it has improved from the 5.4% drop before the All Star Game. This is not bad during this "Great Recession" we are seeing in the US. But, Philadelphia will help next year, and i think Red Bulls numbers will go-up with the new stadium. One should expect strong LA number's going forward because of the way they are playing.
Not to mention that Toronto has expanded their stadium and that the FC Dallas has a double header with the Mexican MNT
I think that's an exaggeration. Try this: Quite a few years ago, when the league was in its infancy, some games that were not on Saturday evening were less than 10k in some markets. Currently that still happens for teams playing in makeshift stadiums (and Dallas) as well. Note that none of those places would be considered "better markets".
As recently as 2005, more than 1 out of every 4 games was less than 10k. The 10K number is the one number that has shown dramatic improvement in recent years.
Thanks Andy. I was just about to respond to that. For those of us who have been following this for coming on 14 years a lot of people just forget how tenious MLS was in those early years and that the "turning point" or "critical mass" we were looking for is a very recent development.