Teams with biggest crowds disappoint
- by Mike Woitalla @MikeWoitalla, Apr 3, 2012
[MLS ATTENDANCE] After the first month of play, the attendance average remained above the 20,000 mark, although in Week 4 the biggest crowds didn't translate
into home-team wins. For MLS team attendance rankings ...
* In nine Week 4 games, only two home teams -- New York and Colorado -- pulled off victories.
* The teams with the
largest announced attendances disappointed their fans:
Seattle (38,485) lost 1-0 to San Jose.
Los Angeles (21,324) lost 3-1 to New England.
Portland (20,438) lost 3-2 to Real
Salt Lake.
Toronto (18,944) lost 1-0 to Columbus.
* The league-wide attendance after Week 4 is 20,349. It was 17,805 at this point last season.
MLS ATTENDANCE*
| Club (2012 Rank) | Week 4 Home Games | 2012 Home Average | 2011 Home Average (Final) |
| Chicago (11) | -- | 18,075 | 14,273 |
| Chivas USA (18) | 13,372 | 11,853 | 14,830 |
| Colorado (16) | 13,125 | 13,949 | 14,838 |
| Columbus (10) | -- | 18,197 | 12,185 |
| D.C. United (14) | 13,169 | 14,742 | 15,196 |
| FC Dallas (13) | -- | 16,555 | 12,861 |
| Houston (-) | -- | -- | 17,694 |
| Kansas City (12) | -- | 17,469 | 17,810 |
| Los Angeles (3) | 21,324 | 22,263 | 23,335 |
| Montreal (1) | -- | 58,912 | -- |
| New England (17) | -- | 12,925 | 13,222 |
| New
York (4) | 13,415 | 17,220 | 19,749 |
| Philadelphia (8) | 17,189 | 18,132 | 18,259 |
| Portland (5) | 20,438 | 20,438 | 18,827 |
| Real Salt Lake (9) | -- | 18,577 | 17,591 |
| San Jose (15) | -- | 16,171 | 11,858 |
| Seattle (2) | 38,485 | 38,612 | 38,496 |
| Toronto FC (7) | 18,944 | 19,507 | 20,267 |
| Vancouver (6) | -- | 20,197 | 20,406 |
|
Leaguewide | 18,812 | 20,349 | 17,872 |
*
Attendance figures, provided by MLS, reflect tickets sold and distributed.
"Disappointed their fans" isn't really the right word here. I've been to several games that were well-played and hard fought, just to come down to a bad penalty call. In those cases, fans aren't "disappointed."
Well said, Margaret.
A true fan does not support a team simply because they win, if this were the case professional sport would not survive.
A true fan is a fan of the game as much as they are a fan of their team and can be satisfied with a well-played game regardless of the score.
The future of MLS relies not on people becoming supporters of their teams but rather becoming fans of the game.
To make the attendance figures more meaningful, they should also be shown in terms of facility utilization, e.g., if Toyota Park for the Chicago Fire hold 20,000 seats for soccer, to date their facility utilization for MLS games is 90.3 percent.