Posts Tagged ‘soccer attendance’

Soccer Attendance From MLS to PDL

Monday, May 10th, 2010

Other sites may give you the MLS attendance numbers (no one was doing it in 2001, when I started it), but who else gives you numbers for every level of the outdoor game? Now that the last two pro holdouts had their home openers, and the Premier Development League season is well underway, here’s a look at the current (unofficial - corrections welcome) attendance averages for teams in the familiar outdoor leagues.

MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER
Team G Total Average
Seattle Sounders FC 5 180,723 36,145
Philadelphia Union 1 34,870 34,870
Toronto FC 3 60,432 20,144
Los Angeles Galaxy 4 76,978 19,245
New York Red Bulls 3 53,858 17,953
Houston Dynamo 5 78,772 15,754
Real Salt Lake 3 46,853 15,618
DC United 4 61,198 15,300
Chicago Fire 3 44,812 14,937
Chivas USA 4 58,216 14,554
Columbus Crew 3 38,055 12,685
Colorado Rapids 3 31,451 10,484
Kansas City Wizards 3 30,658 10,219
San Jose Earthquakes 4 38,056 9,514
FC Dallas 4 37,407 9,352
New England Revolution 4 36,987 9,247
MLS TOTAL 56 909,326 16,238
 
USSF DIVISION II SOCCER LEAGUE
Team G Total Average
Montreal Impact 3 36,853 12,284
Portland Timbers 3 27,119 9,040
FC Tampa Bay Rowdies 1 8,082 8,082
Vancouver Whitecaps 3 14,652 4,884
AC St. Louis 2 8,680 4,340
Rochester Rhinos 2 8,571 4,286
Austin Aztex 2 5,461 2,731
Puerto Rico Islanders 1 2,498 2,498
Carolina RailHawks 2 3,707 1,854
Minnesota NSC Stars 3 3,690 1,230
Miami FC Blues 4 4,840 1,210
Palace Baltimore 2 2,100 1,050
USSF2 TOTAL 28 126,253 4,509
 
WOMEN’S PROFESSIONAL SOCCER
Team G Total Average
Atlanta Beat 1 7,248 7,248
Boston Breakers 2 10,466 5,233
Washington Freedom 4 19,023 4,756
Chicago Red Stars 2 8,270 4,135
Sky Blue FC 2 8,238 4,119
Philadelphia Independence 3 11,694 3,898
FC Gold Pride 3 9,912 3,304
Saint Louis Athletica 3 9,763 3,254
WPS TOTAL 20 84,614 4,231
 
USL-PRO SECOND DIVISION
Team G Total Average
Charleston Battery 3 10,455 3,485
Richmond Kickers 3 5,682 1,894
Harrisburg City Islanders 1 1,433 1,433
Charlotte Eagles 2 1,632 816
Real Maryland Monarchs 3 2,307 769
Pittsburgh Riverhounds 1 658 658
USL-2 TOTAL 13 22,167 1,705
 
PREMIER DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE
Team G Total Average
West Texas United Sockers 1 2,682 2,682
Fresno Fuego 2 5,082 2,541
El Paso Patriots 1 1,543 1,543
Los Angeles Legends 1 1,500 1,500
Dayton Dutch Lions 1 1,000 1,000
Laredo Heat 1 950 950
Ventura County Fusion 1 712 712
Reading United 1 289 289
Hollywood United Hitmen 1 276 276
Ironbound Express 1 275 275
Dallas Fort Worth Tornados 1 210 210
MPS Portland Phoenix 1 174 174
IMG Bradenton Academics 1 150 150
New Hampshire Phantoms 1 150 150
Orange County Blue Star 1 130 130
PDL TOTAL 16 15,123 945

Some notes:

  • My Tampa Bay Rowdies sold out Steinbrenner Field for their inaugural home opener Saturday night (8,082). The layout wasn’t ideal for soccer, but if they draw okay the rest of the year, it may help them finally get their own stadium built. Their next home game isn’t for more than two weeks, and it’s on a Thursday night, so we’ll see what happens then. In any case, they bear watching.
  • WPS’ Atlanta Beat opened their new stadium last night, and while they didn’t sell the place out (7,248), KSU Soccer Stadium got rave reviews (and looked cool on television).
  • The PDL’s West Texas United Sockers drew 2,682 to their home opener. The second-year team in Midland, Texas plays in a 15,000-seat football stadium.
  • Charleston continues to double the USL-2 league average, pulling in 3,400+ per night in a league averaging 1,700. The drop to a lower division (made amidst the offseason chaos in Division II) hasn’t hurt the Battery at the gate - they averaged 3,534 last year in USL-1.
  • Four USSFD2 clubs - all part of the NASL - are averaging under 2,000 a game.
  • Seattle’s crowd of 36,273 was their largest ever for a league match. And they’ll be crediting their season ticket holders with the cost of a game because they got drubbed.

More Indoor Soccer Attendance Numbers

Saturday, January 16th, 2010

These are from the PASL-Pro, a young league still trying to make inroads. They have the (once again) reincarnated San Diego Sockers, as well as the California Cougars, who you may remember as an MISL expansion team from a few years back.

Team G Total Avg.
Prince George Fury 2 3,445 1,723
San Diego Sockers 5 7,833 1,567
Louisville Lightning 3 2,676 892
Denver Dynamite 4 1,942 486
1790 Cincinnati Express 3 1,323 441
St. Louis Illusion *4 1,685 421
California Cougars 3 1,153 384
Texas Outlaws 4 983 246
Detroit Waza *4 813 203
Edmonton Drillers #1 177 177
Saskatoon Accelerators 1 157 157
Ohio Vortex @3 448 149
Calgary United *0 0 0
Winnipeg Alliance #0 0 0
TOTAL 37 22,635 612
*1 game missing
#2 games missing
@4 games missing

Credit to the PASL-Pro for making it to their second season and continuing to forge ahead. It’s not like anyone in indoor soccer can crow about the state of their league these days.

Final 2009 USL-1 Attendance Numbers

Monday, September 21st, 2009

Updated with the one missing game (thanks to USL’s hard-working Gerald Barnhart), here are my final unofficial attendance figures for USL-1 this year:

Team G Total Avg. Median 2008 Change
Montreal Impact 15 180,494 12,033 12,180 12,696 -5.22%
Portland Timbers 15 146,008 9,734 9,157 8,567 13.62%
Rochester Rhinos 15 96,425 6,428 6,381 7,313 -12.10%
Vancouver Whitecaps 15 79,678 5,312 5,288 4,999 6.26%
Charleston Battery 15 53,013 3,534 3,826 3,991 -11.45%
Puerto Rico Islanders 15 49,391 3,293 3,198 4,423 -25.55%
Minnesota Thunder 15 48,135 3,209 3,311 3,573 -10.19%
Austin Aztex 15 44,611 2,974 2,786 N/A N/A
Carolina RailHawks 15 40,953 2,730 2,377 3,869 -29.44%
Cleveland City Stars 15 22,362 1,491 1,502 N/A# N/A
Miami FC Blues 15 15,952 1,063 922 1,701 -45.80%
USL-1 TOTAL 165 777,022 4,709 3,662 5,164 -8.81%


#Cleveland was in USL-2 last year and averaged 1,634 in a different venue.

Some notes:

  • After three straight years of overall league average attendance growth, USL-1’s average dropped just under 9% in 2009. Only two teams (Portland and Vancouver, who, coincidentally or not, announced they’ll be going to MLS) saw average attendance growth. Everybody else was down - in some cases (Puerto Rico, Carolina and Miami), way down.
  • Despite dropping off just over 5% (an inevitable new stadium sophomore slump?), Montreal still led the league for the fifth straight year.
  • Portland’s 9,734 average made them the only team other than Montreal or Rochester to average over 9,000 per game since 1994.
  • September (5,427) was the best month for USL-1 average attendance, while April (3,689) was the worst (with only 16 games in the first month).
  • The league only averaged 4,168 on Saturdays, but (thanks largely to Montreal playing several games midweek) 7,205 in 10 Wednesday games.
  • Home openers averaged 5,536, home finales 5,079.
  • 22 games on Fox Soccer Channel drew just barely below the league average (4,617).

Whether or not the supposed “breakaway” league comes to fruition, I would have to think we’ve seen the last of Miami and Cleveland in the top flight.