So the Bears can eff off to O'Hare and let's fill Soccer Field. Sorry, bit drunk, yesterday was my bday.
As friendly season winds down, we had another mega one - and this one was the biggest of them all. Real Madrid 2 - Juventus 0 in front of 93,702 at the Rose Bowl. Meanwhile the L.A. Times have this take: Never mind the fact that L.A. hosted a super bowl, countless sold out Laker and Dodger games and an MLB all star game - THIS is the event we should whine about - and don't forget to add "meaningless" to the report to help grow the sport. Kevin Baxter is a disgrace.
A rare 2 game sellout streak at Red Bull Arena with an MLS match and the Barcelona friendly packing the house.
Week 23 MLS Attendances Los Angeles FC (vs. Seattle) 22,111 Minnesota (vs. Portland) 19,792 Chicago (vs. Atlanta) 23,951 Charlotte (vs. Columbus) Postponed Montreal (vs. New York City) 19,619 Philadelphia (vs. Houston) 19,089 Miami (vs. Cincinnati) Not Listed Nashville (vs. Vancouver) 26,578 New England (vs. Toronto) 29,097 Kansas City (vs. Austin) 17,287 Dallas (vs. Los Angeles Galaxy) 19,096 San Jose (vs. Salt Lake City) 12,411 DC United (vs. Orlando) 15,805 Average (for 11 games): 18,736 I think DRV PNK Stadium holds about 15,000. Even if it were a sellout, the average would come down a bit.
The Charlotte-Columbus game will be resumed at a later date, likely September 24. They'll honor tickets from last night's game of course. But based on precedent, they may use the tickets number from then as the official attendance. That's what they did for a Crew match a few years ago that was postponed at HCS. There were some large number of tickets distributed for the Saturday night game. The game was played (from the start) the next day and MLS officially recorded the attendance around 3K.
So the 3 top attended games in Europe this year were all women's games. (Barca-Real Madrid, Barca-Wolfsburg, and England-Germany).
And a friendly at the Rose Bowl topped all of them because soccer in America >>> soccer in Europe!!!!! (just kidding)
The midweek portion of Week 24 wasn't too bad for the 6 games played. New York Red Bulls (vs. Colorado) 13,812 Seattle (vs. Dallas) 32,207 Charlotte (vs. DC United) 31,520 Columbus (vs. Montreal) 19,010 Portland (vs. Nashville) 23,101 San Jose (vs. Miami) 11,806 Average: 21,909
71,000 in attendance for the LA teams' friendlies against Chivas Mothership and Club America at SoFi. The Galaxy got the first ever soccer win at SoFi in front of... well, let's just say that not everybody was in their seats for the doubleheader for that one. The America fans showed up around the 70th minute of the Galaxy/Chivas game. Presumably also some LAFC fans, but you wouldn't know it from TV.
Lafc fans were in the upper deck. They started showing them in the second half of the second game. Galaxy game want full but it was super loud. Amazing stadium, but sadly a bit small in terms of capacity and will be even smaller for the world cup as the field gets widened.
I tuned in late and thought the cheer when the Galaxy scored was piped, until I realized the stadium was probably from América fans.
Week 24 MLS Attendances (Weekend games) Vancouver (vs. Houston) 14,668 Atlanta (vs. Seattle) 68,586 Charlotte (vs. Chicago) 32,538 Cincinnati (vs. Philadelphia) 23,443 Columbus (vs. New York City) 18,609 DC United (vs. New York Red Bulls) 16,258 Montreal (vs. Miami) 18,007 Orlando (vs. New England) Not Listed Nashville (vs. Toronto) 26,326 Kansas City (vs. Los Angeles Galaxy) 18,101 Austin (vs. San Jose) 20,738 Colorado (vs. Minnesota) 14,738 Salt Lake City (vs. Los Angeles FC) 21,810 Portland (vs. Dallas) 24,114 Average (13 games) 24,457
Along the same lines, Sporting KC is having a poor season based on its past standards, yet the team is still drawing well. DC United, current leaders in the Wooden Spoon sweepstakes, is drawing more fans than it did 20 years ago when it was much more competitive than it is now.
It's also the continuation of a trend, one that seems to have accelerated due to COVID. Orlando's top attendance year was its first in the league, in 2015. It fell in 2016, 2017,2018 and 2019, when it was 22,761. Then, of course, it fell off a cliff - along with all other MLS teams - in 2020. And thus far it hasn't gotten close to where it was in 2019.