As was mentioned earlier in the thread, the leagues own web site has yet to acknowledge this so it does not make too much sense to expect the general media to report it. I think it will be reported in the general media likely during MLS cup week when Garber gives his normal speech and he is highly likely to highlight the attendance.
I thought we read that Portland was very happy with the 20,323 capacity via their two experiments late in the season and as such the speculation was that that was going to be the new capacity next season.
Obviously, attendance revenue is supporting MLS at its current level. This year, MLS teams have challenged the MFL teams in the CCL. At this point, MLS needs to turn around the TV ratings and then Get Paid. If they can do that over the next years or so, then MLS has a good chance of drawing more or less even with the MFL.
Yes, I haven't heard of anyone who would be unhappy with this development. However, this is the first semi-official news of increased capacity that I have seen, so I decided to share it.
So what was the total attendance for all games regular season games? I didn't manage to keep track of that as the season progressed. I know I saw something about 5.5 million...?
After getting used to charts like this: these just look weird. What's cool is that we should expect to see some other teams besides just the newcomers starting to show that stability as well.
You're only off on Chicago? I'm off on Chicago, DCU, KC, LA, and Toronto. Although, depending on how far off you are on Chicago, I checked my numbers yesterday and I had transposed the numbers on one of the games (not sure which one though).
Well, what happened in Kansas City should be the definitive counterargument to anyone who believes in such a thing as a "bad market." It wasn't the market, it was the old ownership. The doubleheader was in 2009. But your point is still valid. If you look at only games at PHP in 2009, the average attendance was under 10,000. Quinn's grew that last year in his first full year in charge, despite the ticket staff's having been laid off prior to the 2010 due to the player labor situation and rehired right before the season, and further grew it this season. The changes are rather striking when you look at the attendances for each of the past three seasons, sorted from smallest to largest: Code: [B][U]2009 2010 2011[/U][/B] 5724 7468 8145 6183 8016 10023 6542 8422 10222 7442 8512 10363 8041 8732 10450 8247 10033 10470 8580 10119 10550 9235 10309 10802 9595 10323 10849 10219 10615 11022 10317 10947 11635 14327 11170 12109 15243 14331 12261 15905 15105 17019 15993 20145 20704 21867 The average attendance at PHP has grown from 9,686 in 2009 to 10,673 in 2010 to 12,861 in 2011. Meanwhile, the median has grown from 8,908 in 2009 to 10,309 in 2010 to 10,849 in 2011. I would not be shocked at this rate of growth to see FCD's average to be around 14,000 in 2012. Of course, it would help if the rocket scientists over at MLS don't schedule them for too many Saturday and Sunday afternoon games in the summertime.
Okay, after checking my numbers, it looks like most were me making typos. However, Ed's Chicago number is off by 1, which I'm going to assume is the result of MLS changing the numbers because I had the exact same average until yesterday when I noticed the difference between OG's numbers and my numbers. Without further ado, here's Chicago's numbers according to MLS: Code: Date Away Attnd 10/22/2011 CLB 20237 10/12/2011 FCD 10362 9/25/2011 NER 14576 9/17/2011 CHV 15246 8/27/2011 COL 15211 8/21/2011 TFC 12020 8/18/2011 DCU 15818 8/3/2011 PHL 10557 7/16/2011 POR 16419 6/26/2011 NYR 16961 6/22/2011 RSL 14972 6/4/2011 SEA 13839 5/28/2011 SJE 11926 5/7/2011 VAN 11680 4/23/2011 HOU 12473 4/17/2011 LAG 18203 3/26/2011 SKC 12157
when was the last time Dallas averaged 14,000? just an honest question. I'd love to see them approach/surpass that number in 2012, but looking back at their history graph, they've had a total of 3 seasons surpass that level. Dallas is a market that is apparently attractive to the Univision family of networks. it's a shame MLS agreed to let Univision dictate the afternoon start times on many weekend matches they presented in 2011. that's the push and pull that takes place between the media/tv sponsorship side of the business and the ticket-sales portion of MLS's overall operations. beyond that, I'm not sure why "the rocket scientists over at MLS" schedule them for so many Saturday and Sunday afternoon games in the summertime. But I'm always happy to see folks complain about "summer soccer" and the scheduling (and playing and attendance) difficulties it can create.
They may be waiting in the MLS MLS Cup ends to announce to the media a success in full season extimate well attended in the playoffs?
Thanks Yoshou and Ole. I will go back and update my Chicago number as well as it seems likely something changed after I had recorded the number, but honestly a change of 1 on the season average means that the overall change cannot be more than 25 in the count. But hey for the sake of accuracy I will fix mine as well.
okay. i just checked my averages agaisnt edwardgr's and we are within +/-2 on all but DCU? i've got an average of 15,181 and he's got 15,196. that is a pretty big difference, given that these are the averages ... it means our totals must be at least 255 off. anybody else have one or the other number? i have tried to be careful this season in keeping track and inputting the numbers but with so many i am sure i could have made a mistake somewhere.
So far, MLS is content to let some outlets do the leg work for them. They often have deferred to Soccer America to publish the attendance numbers in the Kick Off daily emails. http://www.socceramerica.com/article/44339/season-16-sets-attendance-record.html http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2011/10/25/kick-potential-candidates-succeed-nicol-are-named
I will post my full DC list when I get home. I found a few transcription errors last week when Yoshou alerted me that he and I had differences.
Most of my numbers are spot on with SA. But the difference in Red Bull numbers is significant. I will go back through all the matches while watching the game tomorrow night.
Ed, I just PM'd OG the DCU numbers and my numbers match yours on all but Chicago, which I'm assuming is going to match once you update. I also checked NYRB and SA has it wrong, or at least my numbers match what MLS has and my average matches yours.
your number was correct. i had a typo on one of the games. i am not super concerned about the other differences as they are small .. 1 or 2 in the average, but that one was kind of big.
nevermind. yoshou got me straightened out. one typo for a seattle game and one for a philly game. both in the beginning of september.