2015 MLS attendances up 16% compared to last year
For the season-to-date through gameweek 30, MLS attendances are up 16% compared to last season. That’s encouraging news given that MLS attendances were up 12% as of July. Plus, so far this season, there have been no reported attendances of less than 10,000. Meanwhile, attendances of 18,000 or more are […]
For the season-to-date through gameweek 30, MLS attendances are up 16% compared to last season.
That’s encouraging news given that MLS attendances were up 12% as of July. Plus, so far this season, there have been no reported attendances of less than 10,000. Meanwhile, attendances of 18,000 or more are up 70% thanks in part to expansion teams New York City FC and Orlando City SC.
For previous MLS attendance data, read my older columns.
SEE MORE: Top 25 most-viewed soccer games on US TV for weekend of 9/25 to 9/27.
Numbers for Gameweek 30:
| Week 30 | 304 GP | YTD | ||||||
| Avg | +/- | GP | Avg | +/- | Avg | +/- | GP | |
| 2011 | 22,207 | NA | 5 | 17,815 | NA | 17,659 | NA | 286 |
| 2012 | 18,224 | -17.94% | 9 | 18,715 | 5.05% | 18,517 | 4.86% | 292 |
| 2013 | 19,793 | 8.61% | 9 | 18,445 | -1.44% | 18,387 | -0.70% | 278 |
| 2014 | 18,143 | -8.34% | 10 | 18,982 | 2.91% | 18,387 | 0.00% | 293 |
| 2015 | 21,193 | 16.82% | 12 | 21,327 | 12.35% | 21,324 | 15.98% | 304 |
Note:
2011: 306 game season,
2012-14 323 game season,
2015: 340 game season.
| YTD – 304 Games | ||||
| Average | Median | %<10K | %>18k | |
| 2011 | 17,815 | 17,519 | 5.59% | 48.36% |
| 2012 | 18,715 | 18,226 | 1.97% | 53.29% |
| 2013 | 18,445 | 18,342 | 5.92% | 54.93% |
| 2014 | 18,982 | 18,596 | 5.92% | 55.26% |
| 2015 | 21,327 | 20,031 | 0.00% | 70.07% |
Home attendance comparisons to 2014:
| MLS Attendance – Equal # of Home Games | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 2015 | ||||||
| – | Att | Cap | Att | Att +/- | GP | % of Cap | Cap |
| Seattle | 42,003 | 43,426 | 42,711 | 1.68% | 15 | 96.08% | 42,081 |
| Orlando | NA | NA | 31,987 | NA | 15 | 96.86% | 33,023 |
| NYCFC | NA | NA | 28,695 | NA | 16 | 97.19% | 29,525 |
| Toronto | 22,591 | 22,591 | 24,125 | 6.79% | 14 | 77.84% | 30,991 |
| LA Galaxy | 20,884 | 27,000 | 23,167 | 10.93% | 16 | 85.80% | 27,000 |
| San Jose | 15,537 | 16,407 | 21,376 | 37.59% | 15 | 86.66% | 24,667 |
| Portland | 20,762 | 20,674 | 21,144 | 1.84% | 15 | 100.00% | 21,144 |
| Houston | 19,979 | 22,039 | 20,690 | 3.56% | 16 | 93.88% | 22,039 |
| Vancouver | 20,371 | 21,000 | 20,552 | 0.89% | 15 | 97.87% | 21,000 |
| Salt Lake | 20,307 | 20,138 | 20,224 | -0.41% | 15 | 100.43% | 20,138 |
| Sporting KC | 20,129 | 18,467 | 19,758 | -1.84% | 15 | 106.99% | 18,467 |
| Red Bulls | 18,846 | 25,189 | 19,744 | 4.77% | 14 | 78.38% | 25,189 |
| NE Revs | 15,676 | 22,500 | 18,169 | 15.90% | 16 | 80.75% | 22,500 |
| Montréal | 17,557 | 27,340 | 17,559 | 0.01% | 16 | 69.83% | 22,820 |
| Philadelphia | 17,604 | 18,500 | 17,460 | -0.81% | 16 | 94.38% | 18,500 |
| Columbus | 15,884 | 20,145 | 16,350 | 2.93% | 16 | 81.88% | 19,968 |
| FC Dallas | 16,786 | 20,500 | 16,192 | -3.54% | 14 | 78.99% | 20,500 |
| Chicago | 15,773 | 20,000 | 15,700 | -0.47% | 15 | 78.50% | 20,000 |
| D.C. United | 16,669 | 23,491 | 15,635 | -6.20% | 15 | 79.58% | 19,647 |
| Colorado | 14,900 | 17,424 | 15,513 | 4.11% | 15 | 89.03% | 17,424 |
Disclaimer about capacity calculations:
For my 2014 calculations, I took the 1 remaining team playing in a football stadium, New England in Foxboro and assigned maximum capacity to 22,500. DCU in RFK set a max at 19,647. I took the 22,500 from an approximate average of the soccer specific stadiums in use. Capacities are adjusted for the few games that are played in larger venues.
Additional note: Over the years, several stadiums’ capacities have been reported with different numbers. If any of you have the accurate soccer capacity for stadiums that differ from mine, please let me know. Also, capacity at CenturyLink in Seattle is a moving target.
