Taking Attendance, 8/23/2010 (Updated)
Here are the latest attendance figures from the various soccer leagues around these parts, through yesterday’s games:
| MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER | G | Total | Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seattle Sounders FC | 11 | 397,701 | 36,155 |
| Toronto FC | 11 | 227,205 | 20,655 |
| Philadelphia Union | 9 | 183,112 | 20,346 |
| Los Angeles Galaxy | 9 | 182,871 | 20,319 |
| New York Red Bulls | 10 | 174,249 | 17,425 |
| Houston Dynamo | 11 | 187,668 | 17,061 |
| Real Salt Lake | 11 | 184,310 | 16,755 |
| Chicago Fire | 9 | 139,370 | 15,486 |
| DC United | 11 | 159,182 | 14,471 |
| Chivas USA | 9 | 128,413 | 14,268 |
| Columbus Crew | 11 | 155,903 | 14,173 |
| Colorado Rapids | 9 | 118,420 | 13,158 |
| New England Revolution | 10 | 118,139 | 11,814 |
| FC Dallas | 10 | 108,889 | 10,889 |
| Kansas City Wizards | 11 | 111,202 | 10,109 |
| San Jose Earthquakes | 10 | 96,376 | 9,638 |
| MLS TOTAL | 162 | 2,673,010 | 16,500 |
| WOMEN’S PROFESSIONAL SOCCER | G | Total | Average |
| Boston Breakers | 12 | 53,878 | 4,490 |
| Chicago Red Stars | 10 | 42,056 | 4,206 |
| Washington Freedom | 10 | 39,216 | 3,922 |
| Atlanta Beat | 9 | 32,976 | 3,664 |
| Sky Blue FC | 9 | 29,299 | 3,255 |
| FC Gold Pride | 11 | 33,667 | 3,061 |
| Saint Louis Athletica | 4 | 12,109 | 3,027 |
| Philadelphia Independence | 12 | 34,179 | 2,848 |
| WPS TOTAL | 77 | 277,380 | 3,602 |
| USSF DIVISION II SOCCER LEAGUE | G | Total | Average |
| Montreal Impact | 12 | 147,276 | 12,273 |
| Portland Timbers | 12 | 115,078 | 9,590 |
| Rochester Rhinos | 13 | 81,974 | 6,306 |
| Vancouver Whitecaps | 11 | 55,938 | 5,085 |
| FC Tampa Bay Rowdies | 10 | 43,730 | 4,373 |
| Austin Aztex | 13 | 46,363 | 3,566 |
| AC St. Louis | 11 | 30,438 | 2,767 |
| Puerto Rico Islanders | 12 | 27,428 | 2,286 |
| Carolina RailHawks | 10 | 21,738 | 2,174 |
| Minnesota NSC Stars | 13 | 18,067 | 1,390 |
| Miami FC Blues | 11 | 14,151 | 1,286 |
| Palace Baltimore | 12 | 12,489 | 1,041 |
| USSF2 TOTAL | 140 | 614,670 | 4,391 |
| UNITED SOCCER LEAGUES DIVISION II | G | Total | Average |
| Charleston Battery | 10 | 36,412 | 3,641 |
| Richmond Kickers | 10 | 20,440 | 2,044 |
| Harrisburg City Islanders | 10 | 17,109 | 1,711 |
| Pittsburgh Riverhounds | 10 | 9,409 | 941 |
| Charlotte Eagles | 10 | 9,107 | 911 |
| Real Maryland Monarchs | 7 | 4,259 | 608 |
| USL-2 TOTAL | 57 | 96,736 | 1,697 |
| UNITED SOCCER LEAGUES W-LEAGUE | G | Total | Average |
| Vancouver Whitecaps FC Women | 5 | 7,565 | 1,513 |
| New Jersey Wildcats | 3 | 2,085 | 695 |
| Atlanta Silverbacks | 2 | 1,360 | 680 |
| Seattle Sounders | 5 | 3,098 | 620 |
| Colorado Force | 4 | 2,114 | 529 |
| Charlotte Lady Eagles | 4 | 2,053 | 513 |
| Long Island Rough Riders | 5 | 2,258 | 452 |
| Hampton Roads Piranhas | 5 | 2,037 | 407 |
| Hudson Valley Quickstrike Lady Blues | 3 | 1,097 | 366 |
| Santa Clarita Blue Heat | 3 | 1,083 | 361 |
| Rochester Ravens | 6 | 2,101 | 350 |
| Ottawa Fury | 6 | 1,985 | 331 |
| Quebec City Amiral | 6 | 1,933 | 322 |
| Pali Blues | 5 | 1,494 | 299 |
| Northern Virginia Majestics | 4 | 1,113 | 278 |
| Laval Comets | 6 | 1,594 | 266 |
| North Jersey Valkyries | 4 | 1,030 | 258 |
| Colorado Rush | 5 | 1,185 | 237 |
| Buffalo Flash | 5 | 1,149 | 230 |
| Hamilton Avalanche | 5 | 875 | 175 |
| London Gryphons | 3 | 482 | 161 |
| Toronto Lady Lynx | 5 | 800 | 160 |
| Kalamazoo Outrage | 5 | 755 | 151 |
| New York Magic | 4 | 492 | 123 |
| Chicago Red Eleven | 6 | 666 | 111 |
| Tampa Bay Hellenic | 3 | 323 | 108 |
| NJ Rangers | 5 | 472 | 94 |
| Washington Freedom Futures | 6 | 455 | 76 |
| Cleveland Internationals | 4 | 268 | 67 |
| W-LEAGUE TOTAL | 132 | 43,922 | 333 |
| UNITED SOCCER LEAGUES PDL | G | Total | Average |
| Des Moines Menace | 8 | 28,413 | 3,552 |
| West Texas United Sockers | 8 | 20,011 | 2,501 |
| Fresno Fuego | 5 | 12,214 | 2,443 |
| Carolina Dynamo | 3 | 5,027 | 1,676 |
| Victoria Highlanders FC | 8 | 11,973 | 1,497 |
| Dayton Dutch Lions | 8 | 10,195 | 1,274 |
| Forest City London | 8 | 9,971 | 1,246 |
| El Paso Patriots | 7 | 7,485 | 1,069 |
| New Orleans Jesters | 4 | 4,029 | 1,007 |
| Laredo Heat | 8 | 7,908 | 989 |
| Ventura County Fusion | 8 | 6,987 | 873 |
| BYU Cougars | 8 | 6,862 | 858 |
| Kitsap Pumas | 4 | 3,301 | 825 |
| Thunder Bay Chill | 8 | 6,348 | 794 |
| Los Angeles Legends | 5 | 3,579 | 716 |
| Cincinnati Kings | 7 | 4,790 | 684 |
| Mississippi Brilla | 7 | 4,695 | 671 |
| Western Mass Pioneers | 8 | 5,352 | 669 |
| Portland Timbers U23′s | 8 | 4,925 | 616 |
| Vermont Voltage | 8 | 4,765 | 596 |
| Michigan Bucks | 7 | 4,064 | 581 |
| Ogden Outlaws | 3 | 1,636 | 545 |
| Baton Rouge Capitals | 1 | 540 | 540 |
| Indiana Invaders | 6 | 2,927 | 488 |
| Hampton Roads Piranhas | 7 | 3,085 | 441 |
| Toronto Lynx | 6 | 2,560 | 427 |
| Long Island Rough Riders | 7 | 2,964 | 423 |
| Ottawa Fury | 8 | 3,034 | 379 |
| Ironbound Express | 8 | 3,022 | 378 |
| Central Florida Kraze | 7 | 2,330 | 333 |
| Ocean City Nor’easters | 6 | 1,936 | 323 |
| Rochester Thunder | 5 | 1,609 | 322 |
| St. Louis Lions | 8 | 2,298 | 287 |
| Reading United | 8 | 2,222 | 278 |
| Yakima Reds | 4 | 1,020 | 255 |
| Bermuda Hogges | 6 | 1,524 | 254 |
| Southern California Seahorses | 7 | 1,634 | 233 |
| Nashville Metros | 7 | 1,506 | 215 |
| Tacoma Tide | 2 | 402 | 201 |
| Rio Grande Valley Bravos | 3 | 590 | 197 |
| Springfield Demize | 8 | 1,540 | 193 |
| Albany BWP Highlanders | 8 | 1,478 | 185 |
| Dallas Fort Worth Tornados | 4 | 716 | 179 |
| MPS Portland Phoenix | 7 | 1,226 | 175 |
| Kalamazoo Outrage | 8 | 1,320 | 165 |
| Washington Crossfire | 5 | 790 | 158 |
| West Virginia Chaos | 8 | 1,257 | 157 |
| Atlanta Blackhawks | 5 | 727 | 145 |
| Hollywood United Hitmen | 6 | 867 | 145 |
| Abbotsford Mariners | 8 | 1,155 | 144 |
| Spokane Spiders | 4 | 555 | 139 |
| IMG Bradenton Academics | 6 | 795 | 133 |
| Kansas City Brass | 6 | 783 | 131 |
| Lancaster Rattlers | 5 | 645 | 129 |
| Vancouver Whitecaps Residency | 8 | 1,029 | 129 |
| Houston Leones | 5 | 560 | 112 |
| Brooklyn Knights | 8 | 875 | 109 |
| New Hampshire Phantoms | 7 | 740 | 106 |
| Ft. Lauderdale Schultz Academy | 4 | 410 | 103 |
| New Jersey Rangers FC | 6 | 606 | 101 |
| Central Jersey Spartans | 6 | 600 | 100 |
| Orange County Blue Star | 8 | 740 | 93 |
| Real Colorado Foxes | 6 | 480 | 80 |
| Westchester Flames | 8 | 640 | 80 |
| Cleveland Internationals | 6 | 366 | 61 |
| Chicago Fire | 6 | 318 | 53 |
| Northern Virginia Royals | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| PDL TOTAL | 420 | 230,951 | 550 |
Quick notes:
- MLS has four teams averaging over 20,000 per game. The three holdovers from last year have been joined by Philadelphia, but that’s artificial based on a couple of games held at Lincoln Financial Field. The Union’s PPL Park isn’t large enough for them to average 20k for an entire season.
- On the flip side, USSF D2 has five teams averaging under 2,300 per game, three of them under 1,400. I can’t see how Baltimore, Minnesota and St. Louis return and I’m not optimistic about Puerto Rico.
- MLS’ average for 45 games played after the World Cup (16,169) is slightly below its average for 93 games prior to the World Cup (16,472). In fact, that’s a trend seen at all levels. Every single league has a lower average attendance in games played since the World Cup than it did in games played before. Things in MLS usually pick back up in the fall, so that effect will be mitigated somewhat, and the second division schedule extends deeper into the fall than ever. We’ll see what the final numbers say, but what we have tends to give credence to the notion that the World Cup Bump isn’t as strong as some would like to think it is.
- Charleston averaged 3,534 per game in 2009 in the USL First Division. Despite dropping down to USL-2 this year, the Battery averaged 3,641 (they’ll also host the championship game against Richmond this Saturday).
- The Chicago Red Stars had their biggest crowd of the season Sunday (6,089 to see Marta and FC Gold Pride clinch the regular-season title and berth in the championship game). It was their second-largest crowd ever, trailing only the 7,959 for last year’s home finale against….Marta and the LA Sol.
Tags: attendance, MLS, NASL, PDL, soccer, stuff only I care about, USL2, USSFD2, W-League, women's soccer, WPS
August 23rd, 2010 at 11:05 am
chicago red stars have only played 10 games at home so far (two to go) so the denominator should be 10 not 11 and 1st place in WPS attendance. but this analysis is great, thanks.
August 23rd, 2010 at 11:07 am
Hmmmmmm. Excel gremlins. Thanks for the catch. I’ll have to see what went wrong there.
August 23rd, 2010 at 11:14 am
Ahhhh. I gotcha. I had the 6/6 game against Atlanta in there twice. Hold on. I’ll fix it.
August 23rd, 2010 at 11:20 am
Okay, it’s fixed, but you’re still not leading the league. Boston’s at 4,490. But let me know if all of these are correct:
4/17/2010..Saint Louis Athletica…………5,134
4/25/2010..Sky Blue FC……………………3,136
5/15/2010..Philadelphia Independence…5,645
5/29/2010..FC Gold Pride………………….3,845
6/06/2010..Atlanta Beat……………………4,227
7/07/2010..Atlanta Beat……………………3,091
7/10/2010..Sky Blue FC……………………4,064
7/25/2010..Boston Breakers………………3,673
8/11/2010..Philadelphia Independence….3,152
8/22/2010..FC Gold Pride…………………..6,089
9/01/2010..Philadelphia Independence
9/05/2010..Washington Freedom
August 23rd, 2010 at 11:31 am
hey. went over the numbers and again and found 4 discrepancies between your numbers and mine. after double checking 2 of those were typos on my part but i think the other two might be typos somewhere on your end.
Philadelphia Union: 34,870 + 25,038 + 18,755 + 17,183 + 17,251 + 18,137 + 18,001 + 16,128 + 17,749 = 183,112
http://www.philadelphiaunion.com/schedule
AC St Louis: 5,695 + 2,985 + 3,402 + 2,432 + 2,122 + 2,307 + 2,256 + 2,037 + 2,312 + 2,649 + 2,241 = 30,438
http://ussf.demosphere.com/Teams/20945465/20945480-20952154/TEAM.html
again. thanks for all the good work on the leagues and their attendance.
August 23rd, 2010 at 11:39 am
I appreciate those who check the work. Thank you.
August 23rd, 2010 at 11:41 am
I had 18,147 for that Philadelphia game of 7/31.
I also had 2,694 for that St. Louis game. I often transpose the last two numbers. Thanks for the catch.
August 23rd, 2010 at 11:42 am
grrr. i think you have it right i was counting on the denominator mistake not the extra attendance from double entry. oh well boston is class act, we’ll be second this year since we beat them last year. i think we still have them over the two seasons. but seriously thanks, this is a great service to soccer enthusiasts and stat geeks
August 23rd, 2010 at 11:52 am
i had the same problem of transposition on the two discrepancies i checked that were errors on my end so i totally understand.
August 23rd, 2010 at 11:59 am
@Ole and admin/Kenn/KT- copy and paste is your friend.;)
August 23rd, 2010 at 4:11 pm
Hey Ken! Where they heck are the Kitsap Pumas in your PDL chart?
They averaged 825.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitsap_Pumas
August 23rd, 2010 at 9:00 pm
Charleston’s numbers would suggest (again) that people aren’t all that influenced by the D2/D3 labels, or at least when you have ownership that seems to have a clue.
I also can’t see those three surviving. I wondered for a moment if any of them might try D3 until things stabilize, but even with Dayton moving I doubt it’s feasible for Minnesota or St. Louis.
August 24th, 2010 at 3:23 am
One thing to keep in mind about Charlestons attendance, last season in D2 they played 30 games (not counting exhibitions, playoffs, etc) this season they played 20 games. That’s 5 less home games. Five less games to draw revenue from.
August 24th, 2010 at 6:27 am
And their expenses went WAAAAAAAAAAAAY down as well.
August 24th, 2010 at 7:58 am
Wow, more gremlins. That’s a very old PDL list, based on info from earlier in the season. Updated now.
August 25th, 2010 at 9:14 am
FYI, I have 1042 for Baltimore. Here’s the numbers I have:
1029
1071
1106
1231
2348
757
701
723
507
1238
850
948
August 25th, 2010 at 9:26 am
Also, our Harrisburg total doesn’t match. I just went through and did a double-check on the USL2 website. Here’s the numbers I have:
1433
1657
1385
1373
1713
1902
1812
1578
1417
2389
August 25th, 2010 at 10:10 am
Thank you. Transposition struck again on the Harrisburg thing.
August 25th, 2010 at 10:10 am
Now if we could find those three missing Real Maryland numbers, we’d be cooking with gas.