MLS Attendance Analysis: Season's End

Discussion in 'MLS: News & Analysis' started by edwardgr, Oct 24, 2011.

  1. Allez RSL

    Allez RSL Member+

    Jun 20, 2007
    Home
    This is my favorite. You can see that, ignoring the Beckham bump and fade, the league has been on a very attractive increase in ave. attendance. I suppose it's fueled entirely (almost entirely) by expansion, but it's fun to ride while it lasts.

    [​IMG]
     
  2. OleGunnar20

    OleGunnar20 Member+

    Dec 7, 2009
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    the chart helps show that the nadir seemed to be 2000, and since 2001 the trend has generally been upward.

    so i guess contraction helped.
     
  3. tab5g

    tab5g Member+

    May 17, 2002
    the "effect" of the 2011 expansion isn't really all that much, though.

    Vancouver and Portland actually only aided the league average by ~120.

    (if you look at just what the other 16 teams did in 2011 relative to 2010, it's still a huge growth.)

    but yes, overall, "expansion" (and the huge numbers in Seattle specifically, but the strong numbers in places like Toronto, Philly, Vancouver and Portland) has helped to pull up the league average, relative to the first half of the '00's.

    (and of course new/appropriate stadiums coming on line during "the expansion years" have also been a helpful boost attendance averages in several markets.)
     
  4. bbsbt

    bbsbt Member+

    Feb 26, 2003

    So, which is it? :p
     
  5. Fiosfan

    Fiosfan Red Card

    Mar 21, 2010
    Nevada
    Club:
    New York City FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Season 16 sets attendance record
    Soccer America
    Interesting comments from readers..
     
  6. guamster

    guamster Member+

    Mar 30, 2001
    Winnetka, CA
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    Guam
    Contraction, followed by expansion. :)
     
  7. MLSFan123

    MLSFan123 Member+

    Mar 21, 2011
    Boston Area
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Any predictions on the Dallas home wild card game attendance?

    It has to be better than their last CCL game against Toronto.
     
  8. Yoshou

    Yoshou Fan of the CCL Champ

    May 12, 2009
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Here are the numbers with the expansion clubs and without them. For the purpose of this chart, Chicago, Miami, and San Jose mkII are not considered expansion clubs and Houston is. The numbers also completely remove the expansion clubs, so they aren't included in the original clubs numbers in the without column at all.

    Code:
    Year   Without     With     Diff
    1996    17,410    17,410        0
    1997    14,606    14,606        0
    1998    14,312    14,312        0
    1999    14,282    14,282        0
    2000    13,756    13,756        0
    2001    14,961    14,961        0
    2002    15,821    15,821        0
    2003    14,900    14,900        0
    2004    15,549    15,549        0
    2005    14,461    15,112     -651
    2006    14,927    15,426     -499
    2007    17,505    16,767      738
    2008    16,833    16,460      373
    2009    14,504    16,037   -1,533
    2010    14,491    16,675   -2,184
    2011    16,484    17,869   -1,386
     
  9. tk421

    tk421 Member

    Aug 11, 2007
    New York, NY
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    1 person likes this.
  10. Kejsare

    Kejsare Member+

    Portland Timbers
    Mar 10, 2010
    Virginia
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  11. Revolt

    Revolt Member+

    Jun 16, 1999
    Davis, CA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  12. MLSFan123

    MLSFan123 Member+

    Mar 21, 2011
    Boston Area
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Email the author. I am sure he can fix that mistake.
     
  13. Eric B

    Eric B Member

    Feb 21, 2000
    the LBC
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Or that all markets need their stadium in a downtown area...
     
    1 person likes this.
  14. MLSFan123

    MLSFan123 Member+

    Mar 21, 2011
    Boston Area
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    For fun I emailed the author to let him know the median was off in his article and this was his response

    "That's the median of the averages. I'm pretty confident that my number is accurate for all games."


    If anyone understands this, please enlighten me.

    If you want to email him, his address jeremiahoshan@gmail.com
     
  15. crookeddy

    crookeddy Member+

    Apr 27, 2004
    He took the median number of all the MLS team averages.

    This number is supposed to say, the median MLS team had an average of ___. I am not sure why this number would be considered important though...
     
  16. MLSFan123

    MLSFan123 Member+

    Mar 21, 2011
    Boston Area
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Ahh yes that makes sense based on the number he reported. I will let him know the better way to perform the median calculation.
     
  17. Kejsare

    Kejsare Member+

    Portland Timbers
    Mar 10, 2010
    Virginia
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  18. MLSFan123

    MLSFan123 Member+

    Mar 21, 2011
    Boston Area
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Yeah we figured out over email what happened. He actually was doing the median from all 306 data points but his data got corrupted. He found the corruption. I gave him the link to Eds post for confirmation of his caculations.
     
  19. VioletCrown

    VioletCrown Member+

    FC Dallas
    United States
    Aug 30, 2000
    Austin, Texas
    Club:
    Austin Aztex
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Interesting little tidbit there. The original teams actually already topped the 1996 average in 2007! And the expansion teams pulled the average down!
     
  20. El Naranja

    El Naranja Member+

    Sep 5, 2006
    Alief
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    First wanted to say thanks to Ed for doing this. One of my favorite threads on the whole site.

    Second, it's nice to know that we ended our time at the Rob by increasing attendance each. and. every. year.

    F'in amazing.

    Hopefully we can keep that up in our new home come May 12 (ish) next year.
     
  21. Yoshou

    Yoshou Fan of the CCL Champ

    May 12, 2009
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Well.. Every year starting the 2nd year. There was a 3k drop between 2006 and 2007. Still respectable none the less.
     
  22. El Naranja

    El Naranja Member+

    Sep 5, 2006
    Alief
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Only if you include the doubleheader at Reliant.

    I don't.
     
  23. RfrancisR

    RfrancisR Member+

    Aug 7, 2006
    New Orleans Diaspora
    Just sent out this tweet:

     
    3 people repped this.
  24. gsryank

    gsryank Member

    Apr 23, 2011
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    According to wiki that gives MLS the 10th highest attendance of any domestic soccer league. Here are the top 20.

    1. Bundesliga 42,673
    2. EPL 35,283
    3. La Liga 29,128
    4. FMF 26,722
    5. Seria A 24,031
    6. Primere Arg 20,670
    7. Ligue 1 19,650
    8. Eredivisie 19,116
    9. J. League 18,428
    10.MLS 17,869
    11.Eng. Champ. 17,388
    12.Brazil A 14,839
    13.China 14,581
    14.Bund 2 14,539
    15.Turkey 14,058
    16.Scotish PR. 13,677
    17.Indonesia 12,533
    18.Iran 12,388
    19.Russ Prem. 12,322
    20.Algeria 12,088
     
  25. triplet1

    triplet1 BigSoccer Supporter

    Jul 25, 2006

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