I think the RGV stadium was built with the idea that they would be partnering with Houston much more closely than they did. It's also a really fast growing area. The metro area has about 880,000 people, up from 569,000 in 2000, but that's Edinburg with 101,000, McAllen with 142,000, and Mission with 84,000 along with several smaller cities. They're all close together, but Edinburg is farther north than the others, even though it's only about 5-10 miles from the others in that MSA. On top of that there's Brownsville (about 30-40 miles) and Harlingen (about 20 miles) to the east of that area. Other than that, you've got to go over 100 miles before you get to Corpus Christi going northeast or Laredo going northwest which are really the only other cities anywhere near that part of Texas. A straight line to Houston is almost 300 miles and the suggested driving routes are over 5 hours. It's also the MSA with the lowest per capita income. Basically, it may be the 2nd division equivalent of a team like FC Dallas. They set up in an area that was and is growing, but they may have gotten there too soon and will have to wait for the area to grow up with them. Figuring out the right balance on prices, etc. will be interesting even by USL standards. I've got them at 3942 average attendance through 10 games in a stadium that holds 9735. They're in Edinburg, the second biggest city in the MSA but it's also the location of UTRGV so it may bypass McAllen in the not too distant future.
7/23: Hartford - ??? Indy - 9020 Birmingham - ??? Detroit - 7470 Tampa Bay - 4890 El Paso - 6333 Monterey Bay - 3116 Oakland - 3941 San Diego - 4? (It says 4 on the league website but the place was packed) Phoenix - ???
7/23: San Diego - 4736 Will probably get Hartford and Phoenix sometime in the next few days, Birmingham is an almost guaranteed non report.
Meh. NISA's a circus and evident given that where were issues prior to us leaving the. They can do what they like, but Detroit City's popular for a reason.
============== Little doubt, MLS teams leaving are no loss to USL-C I am not a math wiz, but it does help the average for USL-C, right?
--- So if that moves USL-C from 4,700 to say 5,700, how does USL compare to other second divisions around the world? My first thoughts it would be pretty low average because I would think some of the best seconds divisions are in England, Germany just off the top of my head. We have taken quite a while to the the MLS average up to a decent level, so its only natural our second division will trail behind for a while longer.
It's well behind the second divisions of the big 5 Euro leagues, especially England and Germany. The 2. Bundesliga in Germany has 9 of the 18 teams playing in stadiums with a capacity of 29,000 or bigger, with 4 of them over 40,000. So far this season (just 2 weeks in) the average attendance there is 21,517. It will likely dip a bit lower over the course of the season, but it will still likely be at least a 15k average for the year and if those bigger clubs are the ones at the top towards the end of the year it could stay really high.
Born in the DC suburbs. Left when I was 18, returned for a bit in the mid 2000s, and then moved on. Lubbock is the latest stop after 2 stints in Hawaii and 1 in Alaska. I've only got 2 time zones to go to get all the US covered.
https://soccerstadiumdigest.com/2023-usl-championship-attendance/ 2023 USL Championship Attendance A strong finish to the 2023 USL Championship attendance listings in Week 32, as Sacramento Republic FC edges Louisville City FC for the regular-season crown. Overall, 2023 USL Championship attendance is up 14 percent over 2022 numbers