Just thought it would be interesting to see the comparison (Division One figures from Soccernet): Colorado Rapids 14 289,663 20,690 Los Angeles Galaxy 14 266,664 19,047 MetroStars 14 254,174 18,155 Columbus Crew 14 243,999 17,429 N.E. Revolution 14 236,973 16,927 D.C. United 14 231,264 16,519 Dallas Burn 14 183,702 13,122 Chicago Fire 14 180,908 12,922 Kansas City 14 171,568 12,255 San Jose 14 156,104 11,150 OVERALL 140 2,215,019 15,822 Leicester 27,953 Ipswich 27,314 Derby 27,258 Wolverhampton 26,397 Sheff Wed 24,728 Norwich 20,485 Portsmouth 18,376 Nottm Forest 17,912 Crystal Palace 16,173 Sheff Utd 15,456 Coventry 14,935 Preston 14,296 Reading 13,905 Stoke 13,742 Burnley 13,227 Bradford 12,770 Watford 11,059 Gillingham 8,063 Millwall 7,659 Rotherham 7,166 Brighton 6,633 Grimsby 5,819 Walsall 5,000 Wimbledon 2,492 Total 358,818 Average for Division One 14,951
Here's a comparison of mean and median team attendances for 2002: .............................................................Median ......Team...............Mean........Median........Rank 1. Colorado...........20,690........13,198...........8 2. Los Angeles......19,047........14,738...........4 3. NY/NJ...............18,155........15,068...........3 4. Columbus..........17,429........17,614...........1 5. New England......16,927........15,542..........2 6. DC United..........16,519........14,394...........5 7. Dallas................13,122........13,550...........6 8. Chicago.............12,922........13,319...........7 9. Kansas City.......12,255........10,257...........9 10. San Jose..........11,150.........9,621..........10 Here're the teams ranked by median, and how their attendances compared to the MLS median of 14,108 ..................................# games..........# games ...................................less than........greater than .....Team......Median.....MLS median....MLS median 1. Columbus...17,614..........4..................10 2. NE Rev......15,542...........4..................10 3. NY/NJ........15,068...........6...................8 4. LA..............14,738..........4..................10 5. DC.............14,394..........6....................8 6. Dallas........13,550...........8...................6 7. Chicago......13,319..........8...................6 8. Colorado.....13,198..........8...................6 9. KC.............10,257.........10...................4 10. San Jose....9,621..........12..................2
Good ending to the season for MLS. Attendance will definitely be boosted by 2004 when Chicago has a final home that can seat more than 15k. I think MLS is on track to get to 17k in paid attendance by 2004.
it's interesting, although hard to compare really. london, for example, has 20+ professional soccer clubs, while all of california has two.
I agree, an average attendance of 17k by 2004 should be quite attainable. My predictions for 2004 attendance: LA: 24k/game NY/NJ, Columbus, New England, and Chicago: 18k DC and Colorado: 17k Dallas: 14k Kansas City and San Jose: 13 k League avg: 17k
I do not think we should consider these figures final. Means and medians are both useful methods of determining hte league's popularity, but as I posted before, so is total attendance. Last year, including all regular season matches, all playoff matches, the all-star game and MLS Cup, in 2001 the total attendance was 2,599,856 (177 games). So far this year, in 141 games, the total is 2,245,974. If every series goes the distance, an average of 18,625.4 is needed to break last year's totals. Anyway, it is good to note that with two fewer teams (roughly 16% reduction in the overall budget), MLS will only see an overall attendance drop of just under 4%. Now THAT is good news, no matter what way you slice it.
vw, I'm optomistic that MLS is moving in the right direction and will continue to do so. However, I also believe a 17k average for 2004 may be somewhat of a strech. The one I would question most is the 24k per game average for LA. I can see LA moving up to around 20 to 21k per game pretty consistently, but 24k would be a very, very high number relative to the stadium's capacity.
Very true, but my understanding is that not all games will be held at their new stadium. I recall reading somewhere that the 4th of July games and high-drawing doubleheaders will be played at the Rose Bowl. So if you average 13 games at the new stadium that draw, say, 21k apiece with a 4th of July game of 60k you get an average attendance for the regular season of 24k.
Attendance for the last 2 weeks (10 games) of September averaged over 21,000 a game. I think that is a huge achievement considering the NFL is underway. Was it the fact that the games were more heavily promoted or was it that all the games had playoff implications? Do people come out because the games mean more? Some people have said that the regular season is meaningless since 8 of 10 teams make the playoffs. But the flip side of that is that the more playoff spots up for grabs, the more meaningful the FINAL regular season games become.
This is exactly what MLS needs consider with regards to their playoff format. Is it worth it (aka is attendance greater) to have every team in it until the end so that each game means something? Or is this causing a negative effect on the mid-season, where games that are deemed inconsequential are hurting attendance? Hopefully MLS researches this season diligently and determines the causal factors for this second half attendance surge.
A win in mid season is as important as a win late. I'm not sure why the attendance surge but obviously if the home team needs a win late in the season fans want to see that game. No matter what fans say about the playoff system or having two conferences it has served MLS well this year in attendance.
Here're the monthly averages for 2002. As has been mentioned, we ended up the season strongly with especially good attendance numbers for Aug. and Sept. The regular season monthly attendance numbers for 1996 thru 2001 are from Kenn Tomasch's website. http://www.kenn.com/soccer/mls_attendance.html ..............Avg.1996.............................How 2002 Month......thru 2001.........2002...........compares March........16,579..........20,603......2nd best March April...........15,775.........14,840......3rd best April May...........14,735.........16,311......2nd best May June...........14,453.........13,011......6th best June July............15,997.........16,668......3rd best July August........12,955.........14,590......Best August ever Sept...........15,138.........18,305......2nd best Sept. Oct............12,730............N/A
I think you mean England. But why is it remarkable? England has 92 pro teams in a country with a population of 40 million and yet the English First Division has consistently had the highest average attendance of any "second division" league in the world.
Re: Re: mls attendance final figures 2002 I think a statistician might find that World Cup excitement actually detracted from MLS for a while--especially while the cup was going on. Then when the end of the season came around, and all the what-ifs were reminiscent of the WC, attendance got a boost. I know for myself I was a little soccer-ed out for a while, probably more a sympton of sleep deprivation. Now I'm following MLS with as much ferver as the WC. The only problem is that non-soccer people who were all excited a few months ago aren't sharing any of this enthusiasm.
Don't forget the home games prior to the new stadium opening that will be held at Titan Stadium in Fullerton (capasity 10,000)
We were predicting attendance in 2004. Isn't the new stadium supposed to be completed by sometime in 2003?
How's this for a guess? LA: 21 k NY/NJ: 19 k Columbus, New England, DC, Colorado 18 k Chicago 17 k Dallas 15 k KC, San Jose 13 k League avg: 17 k
Even if LA doesn't make 24 k there are other teams such as Colorado that will average around 18 or 19 k. If the double header with Mexico is eliminated form the the schedule this year, Colorado would have averaged better than 18,500.
As always, kenntomasch has analyzed MLS attendance almost every which way on his site: http://www.kenn.com/soccer/
He hasn't updated the data to 2002 yet. The monthly numbers and medians I crunched out on page 1 of the thread may be the only such figures updated to 2002 on the net right now.
I just don't see where 17k in 2004 comes from. It is definitely possible, but there are several big variables. 1) WCQ semifinal round double headers 2) MLS schedule changes (mid summer break?) 3) Fire in new Soldier Field 4) DC United in messed up RFK? (Expos) or elsewhere (Fedex)? 5) Expansion.... Who knows? If the Revs win the Cup then run roughshod over the league next year, they could average 35k/game in 2004. As long as we keep inching forward, I'm happy. I certainly do think that 17k is possible, but there are so many unknowns for 2004 than anything like an educated guess is impossible.