OK, I got bored. Chicago - 14,815 Chivas - 12,288 Colorado - 10,177 Columbus - 11,149 DC United - 16,400 FC Dallas - 9093 KC Wizards - 9615 LA Galaxy - 22284 Metrostars - 16523 NE Revolution - 11723 Real Salt Lake - 20901 San Jose - 10836 I have this feeling FC Dallas will increase because if a fan is going to buy one ticket in the whole year they will wait until The Hut opens. Thoughts? Think I'm way too bored?
There are a number of big games left, so the final total will probably still be around 15,000. You have two more Galaxy-Chivas games, plus the three July 4 games, plus a Chicago doubleheader with Real Madrid and a Gold Cup tripleheader with the Revs. Plus Dallas will do better with their new stadium.
Not to mention the Metros doubleheader with Eng-a-land afterwards. Alters their average by 5,000. Chivas-Galaxy home game affects Chivas by a thousand. Meanwhile the Galaxy, Real Salt Lake, and DC United have steady draws with big numbers (take out the USMNT game in SL and they still average 17k). Here's to hoping FCD and the Fire improve with new digs. It would REALLY help get other stadium projects approved.
Your Metros number is wrong. Maybe a typo. Brings MLS avg. up to 13,950. Median is at 11,828. A strong second half of the season would be welcome (and we've still got some doubleheaders and 4th of July games, as well as signs of life in NE and the opening of Pizza Hut Park). Quite a few teams are obviously underperforming, but I don't think it's doom-and-gloom time quite yet. And about Doubleheaders: the money for those tickets goes to the organization that host the event, and the team gets exposure, and some of the people actually come early and see the MLS game. It's not a total blowoff thing, but it does boost averages. Median is a better indicator, obviously.
It's back to 2000 when Doug Logan was shooting his mouth off against the media (OK Garber is a little smarter than that), getting fired, Miami, Tampa being kicked out, chaos in bigsoccer and all that good stuff. Good thing we have all these SSS going up. Hopefully the teams will play attractive, attacking soccer there. Otherwise in another five years there will be just eight Crew Stadiums standing and we will not have anything left to look forward to. Only thing left for the ownsers to do would be to bring in some big name stars, spend and lose heavy for two more years before finally pulling the plug.
I think you misunderestimated my statement. I meant if you take the doubleheader out of the Metros count that their average dips by 5,000 to about 11,000. I think you thought I meant their average was 5,000 not including that. Not even KC is that bad! You are absolutely right about those tickets being sold still counting. It's just a better gauge of how MLSvMLS matchups draw by excluding special events. I definitely think attendance will increase. You have to think FC Dallas will draw more in The Hut if for nothing else than curiosity. New England's numbers were hurt by a lot of rain. I think one of the most important things the league can do is what someone else mentioned elsewhere: make teams play attacking soccer. I hate it in league play week 2 when one team scores a goal in the 10th minute then by halftime is just trying to protect the lead. It's the "play not to lose" mentality that quite often costs people points...not to mention can be boring. I wish there was a rule change you could make to fix this (think NBA shot clock) but I don't know of any that wouldn't alter the game significantly in a not-good way.
What about the SJ-LA game this weekend, cuz that alters the Smurfs attendance. What about the LA-Chivas game that sold out (?), cuz that'll alter LA's average. My point is that the Chivas-LA game was legitimately 80% Chivas fans. They came out in force to support their team. Let's not tarnish their efforts by putting any asterisks by their numbers.
Except significant changes to rules in MLS tends to put off traditional soccer fans... I don't think MLS is in a position to experiment with significant rule changes - particularly when they are already moving in a direction to more fully align itself with the rules/schedule of most the rest of the world. Point systems, shot clocks, etc... doesn't make games exciting OR get attended (see Chivas dwindling attendance numbers). Winning is what draws fans - people love to follow a "winner".
The Rapids 4th of July game could be a dissapointment. We've seen over 60,000 in the past ... I think we're going to be around 40,000 at best this year.
That's what one would think, but it doesn't tend to be the case in MLS. Whether they're playing great or lousy, teams like the Galaxy rank near the top in team attendance each year. Whether they're playing great or lousy, teams like the Crew rank in the middle of team attendance each year. And whether they're playing great or lousy, teams like Dallas rank near the bottom in team attendance each year. I agree winning probably has some impact on team attendance, but in most cases, it's pretty minimal.
I definitely agree that there are markets that have their own relative "highness" or "lowness" AND that there are many factors that influence attendance AND that MLS has it's own set of quirky factors - but my point is, if a fan is into it enough to care about the STYLE of soccer, then they are into it enough to care about the RESULT of the matches.
I think one of the most important things the league can do is what someone else mentioned elsewhere: make teams play attacking soccer. I hate it in league play week 2 when one team scores a goal in the 10th minute then by halftime is just trying to protect the lead. It's the "play not to lose" mentality that quite often costs people points...not to mention can be boring. I wish there was a rule change you could make to fix this (think NBA shot clock) but I don't know of any that wouldn't alter the game significantly in a not-good way.[/QUOTE MLS could become the most attacking soccer league in the world because of the salary cap. In England for example such teams as WBA, Fulham... are always gonna play defensive against Man Utd and other big clubs.