Looking back through the year by year average per team on mlssoccer.com in 1999, Columbus lead the league in attendance with just 17,696 Also, in 2004, Dallas averaged 9,088 during their last season as the Burn. They averaged the all time low for a current MLS club in 2003 with just 7,906. In 2000, Tampa Bay Mutiny averaged 9,452. Miami Fusion set the all time record low with just 7,460 in the year that they were both contracted. LA Galaxy leads the league in seasons with over 20k average in attendance at 10. (TFC-3, DCU-2, NY-2, SSFC-2, NE-1, Col-1) Seattle leads the league in seasons with over 30k average in attendance at 2. (LA has 1) KC leads the league in seasons with under 10k average at 7. (Dal-3, SJ-1)
Cant blame KC... they played in a shoebox. Theres a lot of support there. I hope management does their job.
What numbers are you using? I'm only seeing 5 seasons with Kansas having less than 10k.. All three years they've been in CAB, they've been above 10k. I'm also seeing San Jose with 2 (2001 and 2010). Also, the Galaxy have 12 seasons above 20k, TFC has 4, DCU has 1.
And unprecedented in KC's history. I'd be pleased with a jump up to 14k or 15k.. One thing working against KC is that almost all of their home games will be in the last half of the season, which can mean people will get a bit OD'd on coming to games so may skip a few here and there that they wouldn't have if the home games were spread out over an entire season.
Which would be partially mitigated if they have strong season ticket sales. Easier to get to 14-15k if you have already presold 4-5k if not more.
When KC was at Arrowhead, they looked like they didn't really belong there. Not only was the stadium too big, but maybe people didn't feel like they were going to be permanent residents in KC, let alone at Arrowhead. They were destined to relocate to another city. But when they were bought by the current owners, who showed a deep commitment to the club and the community, and with the move to CAB I think people felt like they finally established themselves, even though it was a minor league baseball park they were playing in. Plus, it doesn't hurt that tickets became harder to get, thus creating greater demand. Now that the new stadium is coming, they have fully established themselves, and people can really get behind them, without fear they will relocate.
Every new club is helping to re-up the standard. Toronto started the trend when they were selling out every single game. Seattle blew everybody out of the water and is doing stuff that every franchise should aim for. Philadelphia didn't have a big stadium, but they had unprecedented supporter group enthusiasm. Portland, Vancouver, and Montreal are continuing the trend. All of these new teams playing in new or renovated stadiums with crowds of 18,500-36,000 just makes the other teams look bad. I take up for them a lot, but it just looks bad whenever Dallas, Colorado, and Columbus are playing in front of 10,000 people at times and you can read what the seats spell out. Its also horrible to see 9,000 people echoing in Gillette Stadium, San Jose playing at a high school field, and DC United languishing in RFK.
LA Galaxy leads the league in seasons with over 20k average in attendance at 10. (TFC-3, DCU-2, NY-2, SSFC-2, NE-1, Col-1) Wow, so what happened with DCU, NE and Col? What years did they average over 20k and why has attendance declined since then?
I believe theres an enitre thread in the New England boards on why.(MArket or Die) From what i could gather from there it came down to the buzz of the team fading, along with the owners intrest, and the latter was due to the crome heads at NE getting a super bowl championship. The krafts were giving more attention to its more championship product rather than the MLS team that hadn't won anything. The Pats became Mom and dads favorite and the Revs became an orphan that slept in a room underneath the staircase. As for how Colorodo decreased, I have no clue. Its not like Colorodo didn't try to market their team a while back. The best they could muster in attendance is during the fourth of July. If I recall they had sold out the home opener in 2008... or maybe it was another year, either way i remember they announced only standing room seats were left. I don't know about DC either
KSE happened to Colorado. With the exception of World Cup bounces the Rapids attendance increased every year under AEG except one (and the post WC years were higher than the pre WC years), and decreased every year under KSE until this year, with the exception of the stadium bump in 2007. This isn't a surprise since almost the very first decision KSE made when they bought the team was to cancel planned away game TV coverage for the remainder of that season, and their decisions for the rest of the time before the Dick opened reflected a plan to spend as little on the team, including marketing, as they could before the Dick opened. Once the Dick opened they had no plan as to how to get those fans back, and the team started to suck at that point. Until this season the Rapids had sold out the Dick for only one game that wasn't and "event". Stadium opener, 4th of July, or Beckham games comprised all but one sellout in Dick history. This year they had 4 games either sold out or within a couple of hundred tickets of a sell-out. Attendance rose for the first time in back-to-back years at the Dick. The team has done a better job in marketing and the addition of the Terraces and the better relationship with all the SG's has brought many of fans back to the stadium. There's still more work to do though. Even in their best years of 2001 and 2002 they only had attendances at the capacity of the Dick or better 9 times (and 3 of those were 2 4th of July games and a double-header with the U.S. Nats playing Derby County). Still that was 9 times in 2 years vs. 4 times this year, and that included the Eastern Conference Final.