MLS Attendance Drops for 2008

By: Laurie | November 6th, 2008

The biggest lesson to be learned from the 2008 MLS attendance figures? The more the LA Galaxy suck, the more people will go to their games. In 2007 they almost made the playoffs but didn’t, and their figures were best in the league. In 2008 they were even worse and their numbers are up more than 7%.

I know, right?

The 2008 league attendance figures (at bottom) are good for the Galaxy, and for a few other teams, like the New England Revolution and the Houston Dynamo. (Those figures might actually be performance-based. New England and Houston were the teams in the playoff finals in both 2006 and 2007. Which would mean that there might in some cases be a relationship between attendance and performance. Novel concept.) The numbers were also good news for Chivas USA, who were close to the bottom in attendance in 2007, but are now sitting close to the middle.

But good numbers for a few teams didn’t translate to good numbers for the league as a whole, where attendance dropped 1.8% overall, to 16,459 per game. In all, six teams saw their attendance figures rise, while seven saw them drop.

MLS blames the overall league drop on the fact that Kansas City moved to a smaller 10,385-seat stadium this year, but Kansas City had miserable numbers last year too, and the numbers show a drop from last year even when KC is excluded. As a matter of fact, with the party bus (still the best promo idea ever, in my opinion) Kansas City averaged more than a sellout crowd for each game, and 500 per game more than last year (although this was helped by a Galaxy-Beckham game that was moved to the KC Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium.)

This drop isn’t entirely unexpected — it was going to be hard to maintain the excitement that Beckham generated when he came to MLS last year. But it’s still a disappointing sign that the league has a lot of work to do before soccer can compete in the US with the Big Three: football, basketball and baseball.

Maybe it would help if Beckham and the Galaxy made the playoffs?

ATTENDANCE FIGURES:

Team, Avg. attendance, % change

Los Angeles Galaxy, 26,009, 7.20%
Toronto FC, 20,108, -0.10%
D.C. United, 19,835, -5.40%
New England Revolution, 17,580, 5.00%
Chicago Fire, 17,034, 3.30%
Houston Dynamo, 16,939, 6.60%
Real Salt Lake, 16,179, 1.40%
New York Red Bulls, 15,928, -3.60%
Chivas USA, 15,114, 5.70%
Columbus Crew, 14,622, -4.00%
San Jose Earthquakes, 13,713, N/A
Colorado Rapids, 13,659, -7.40%
FC Dallas, 13,024, -14.00%
Kansas City Wizards* 10,686 -7.80%
Totals 16,459, -1.80%
* Includes Sept. 13 game vs. Los Angeles played at Arrowhead Stadium (posted att.: 26,113)

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Category: MLS

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Melissa

It also did not help that the expansion franchise posted such low numbers

They did? Buck Shaw only holds a little over 10,000 people + 2 games in Oakland. That figure above looks pretty good to me actually.
Laurie

SeattleBhoy, the linked article discusses that question as well, and their answer was yes -- it's hard to be big league in a minor league stadium. with luck things will change when KC gets their own stadium. I think I've read mid-2010?
SeattleBhoy

Didn't KC go from Arrowhead stadium to a minor league baseball park as well? I think you have to analyze the numbers. KC had less people but filled a better percentage of their stadium...then again maybe that is why I majored in English.
Laurie

Empshel, good point about DC and Dallas. Probably Colorado as well. And I also think Colorado fans are discovering that a drive way out to visit The Dick in the middle of nowhere isn't quite as much fun as they thought it would be.

Omar, good point about the economy. Seattle sold 17,000 season tickets for next season before the recession hit. I wonder how many they'd sell now.

McTalian, try being a fan of a team that wears the name of a multiply-sued multilevel marketer on their chests. I think the Red Bulls aren't doing so bad on the jersey front. (The name, though? That's a debate. But I still think Red Bulls is better than Metrostars!)
omar

dont u think the semi-recession could have anything to do with it?
McTalian

Hey Laurie. The navies are nice. I just don't like the logo. It's one thing to have a shirt sponsor, it's another thing for your shirt to be the sponsor. Does that make sense?
Empshel

It also did not help that the expansion franchise posted such low numbers, bringing down the league average. In addition to Houston and New England, I think you can add D.C. United and FC Dallas' to the list of clubs with performance-based attendance-movement, although in a negative way.
Laurie

McTalian, I agree. It's hard to get excited about a soccer team when you're playing in a cavernous stadium with football lines. (But I kind of like the navy uniforms myself.)
McTalian

I think attendance for Red Bulls will go up when the new grounds are finished. It's gonna be football-specific and sized to accomodate a crowd up to 25k I believe. That will improve the atmosphere vastly and encourage more attendance. Plus, and I say this only half-kidding, new uniforms would help.