MLS broke its record for average attendance for the third year in a row, finishing with an average of 21,692. It also set a record for most fans in a single day with 283,807 fans on Decision Day.
For the eighth straight year — every year since its launch — the Seattle Sounders led MLS in attendance though its average of 42,636 was the lowest since 2011.
Montreal (up 16percent), Toronto FC (up 13 percent) and Vancouver (up 9 percent) were the biggest gainers. Supporters’ Shield champion FC Dallas has the largest drop (down 12 percent).
YEAR AVG.
1996 – 17,406
1997 – 14,603
1998 – 14,312
1999 – 14,282
2000 – 13,756
2001 -14,961
2002 – 15,821
2003 – 14,898
2004 – 15,559
2005 – 15,108
2006 – 15,504
2007 – 16,770
2008 – 16,460
2009 – 16,037
2010 – 16,675
2011 -17,872
2012 – 18,807
2013 – 18,594
2014 – 19,147
2015 – 21.574
2016 – 21,692
2016 MLSAttendance:
AVG TEAM (+/-)
42,636 Seattle (-4%)
31,324 Orlando City (-5%)
27,196 New York City (-6%)
26,583 Toronto FC (+13%)
25,147 LA Galaxy (+8%)
22,330 Vancouver (+9%)
21,144 Portland (-)
20,669 Montreal (+16%)
20,620 NY Red Bulls(+5%)
20,185 New England (+3%)
19,930 San Jose (-5%)
19,759 Real Salt Lake (-2%)
19,597 Sporting KC (-0.5%)
19,021 Houston (-8%)
17,519Philadelphia (+0.4%)
17,125 Columbus (+1%)
17,081 D.C. United (+5%)
16,278 Colorado (+4%)
15,602 Chicago (-3%)
14,094 FCDallas (-12%)
LEAGUE: 21,692 (+0.5%)
Highest Average Attendance:
AVG. COUNTRY, LEAGUE(YEAR)
43,300 (1) Germany, Bundesliga (2015-16)
36,452 (2) England, Premier League (2015-16)
28,168 (3) Spain, La Liga (2015-16)
27.059 (4) *Mexico, Liga MX (2016Apertura)
24,245 (5) *China, Super League (2016)
22,644 (6) Italy, Serie A (2015-16)
21,690 (7) Major League Soccer (2016)
21,000 (8) Argentina, Primera Division (2016,estimate)
20,976 (9) France, Ligue (2015-16)
19,412 (10) Netherlands, Eredivisie (2015-16)
*Season in progress.
Source:
Would love to see comparisons with other major sports in USA, especially baseball, basketball and ice hockey.
NBA = 17,319 (1 franchise above MLS avg)MLB = 26 of 30 franchises > MLSNHL = 17,482 (1 franchise above MLS avg)So why is there a persistent reference to the “four” major sports that omits soccer? What can we do about that?
Kevin, this is something that will take another generation to change and it will. I do find it very interesting that we can get this kind of attendance for MLS on an NFL Sunday. There is zero chance that this would have happened 10 years ago. Basically sell outs everwhere (except Denver which has been a problem since day 1 and is just a straight-forward lousy market). Change in the prevailing wisdom and power structure takes a lot longer to happen than most people realize. You can bet that the rest of the US Professional sports leagues know what is going on with the growth of MLS.
Also FC Dallas, who are on a historic run of form this year, have a “fan base” that is an abject embarrassment.
Convince sponsors that there is money in MLS..They drive $$$ for tv air time..TV air time determines relevance in today’s market (game air time, but more importantly ESPN type talk shows about soccer on the sports channels)..Problem solved.
Another way to look at this is the total attendance. It’s a major revenue stream, in particular for MLS and its small TV deal. MLB’s total attendance is 72.9 million, NBA/NHL is 21.3, NFL is 17.5 and MLS is at 7.4 million. To match MLB, MLS would need to average 214,000 per game. To match the NBA/NHL it would need 62,600. To match the NFL it would need 51,400.
But comparing teams vs teams (the average home attendance the numbers look better for MLS. MLB teams average 30,000 per game. One individual MLS team would need to average 143,000 to match one particular MLB team’s attendance. NBA/NHL is 42,000. For the NFL it’s 32,000.
A lot of apples to oranges comparing going on. Here is one more Sounders 720,000 to Seahawks 540,00 (regular season) or 133% better 🙂
You just did apples to oranges, if you insist, John. Sounders played 17 games, while Seahawks played 8. 212% more.
So based on this, the NFL is the fourth most popular league? You have to take into account the number of games. Obviously baseball will always have the highest total attendance because each team plays 81 home games.
So sad that Dallas has had a superb team with no support.