Republic FC record crowd in class by itself

• by Paul Kennedy  @pkedit, Apr 29, 2014

[ATTENDANCE WATCH] Sacramento Republic FC’s USL PRO record crowd of 20,231 fans for its first home game at Hughes Stadium was remarkable in that it was three times larger than the next largest crowd for a 2014 USL PRO opener.

Rochester was second, drawing 6,358 for Sunday's home opener. Besides Sacramento, Pittsburgh and OKC Energy drew crowds that were announced as sellouts.

2014 USL PRO Open Day Crowds:
ATT. TEAM (CAPACITY)
20,231 *Sacramento (20,231)
6,358 Rochester (13,768)
5,028 Orlando City (5,300)
3,902 Pittsburgh (3,500)
3,741 OKC Energy (4,000)
3,773 Charleston (5,100)
3,507 Richmond (22,000)
3,256 Wilmington (6,000)
2,888 Arizona Utd. (5,000)
1,771 Harrisburg (5,000)
1,259 LA Galaxy II (8,000)
1,221 Orange County (2,500)
1,026 Dayton (5,000)
591 Charlotte (5,000)
*Will move into 8,000-seat Bonney Field at Cal Expo in June.

The Sacramento-Harrisburg attendance was almost double the previous high for a USL PRO regular-season game set in 2013 when Orlando City drew a crowd of 10,697 for a match against the Seattle Sounders Reserves in August 2013. The largest crowd in USL PRO history is 20,886 for the 2013 final between Orlando City and Charlotte at the Florida Citrus Bowl.

League Attendance Records:
ATT. LEAGUE GAME (YEAR)
77,691 NASL (Old) *New York-Ft. Lauderdale (1977)
69,255 MLS LA Galaxy-MetroStars (1996)
34,148 WUSA (women) Washington-Bay Area
21,728 MISL (indoor) Tacoma-Dallas (1987)
20,886 USL PRO *Orlando City-Charlotte (2013)
16,479 NWSL Portland-Seattle (2013)
15,404 WPS Western NY-magicJack (2011)
13,034 NASL (New) Montreal-Ft. Lauderdale
*Playoff game.
(Stand-alone games only.)