MLS Attendances Up in 2008 — League average could top NBA this season
As many MVN readers know, my debut MLS article for this season was on the growth in popularity of soccer in the U.S. in recent years - a surge that seems to be lost on - and ignored by - so many mainstream sports reporters.
I received many thanks and great responses on this piece, published for the opening weekend of this, the 13th MLS season. “10 Important Facts About Soccer’s U.S. Popularity” includes reasons why I think soccer deserves more attention and respect from the mainstream press and all sportswriters in this country.
There was a problem with naysayers, and that is a part of what I want to address in this short update. This will in turn act as an introduction to the new series of articles on this topic. I will be writing regularly on this throughout the year, and will provide the latest statistics as they become available.
I believe this is the year that MLS league-wide attendance could surpass the NBA’s league-wide attendance.
More than one blogger who challenged my claims used old data to support their own claims that I was exaggerating. I was called names and accused of lacking credibility.
I stand by every claim made in that article, and each claim has a plethora of real data that backs it up.
I used the latest available data, which was from 2008 and 2007, while my detractors used date from 2006 and even in some cases, 2005. Things have changed a great deal in that short time, so using the latest, most accurate and reliable data is of utmost importance.
I constantly research this, so I give it my best on all fronts when publishing any data.
Here is a number: 16,770. That is the number I used to support my claim of MLS attendances being comparable with the NBA last year. That number is the 2007 league-wide attendance average for Major League Soccer. Strangely, that number - widely published after the end of the season in November - is not the used by anyone disputing my claim. The NHL’s league wide average was 16,486, and the NBA’s was 17,757.
All are figures for last season; all concur with official data from the leagues themselves.
Simply put, there is no reason for anyone to dispute my claim - or even my choice of words - any time when I have stated that MLS average was comparable with these other two.
It is slightly higher than NHL and slightly lower than NBA.
I would say that the MLS attendance figure compares favorably with those two by any standard of anyone trying to be fair.
At least one non-soccer blogger wrote on MLS attendances this past month stating that they were very low compared with leagues around the world, but guess what - that is not a fair statement at all.
Here are the top five averages of all leagues’ most recent seasons completed.
German Bundesliga / 37,644
English Premiership / 34, 459
Spanish La Liga / 28,838
Mexican Clausura / 25,379
France’s Ligue 1 / 21, 817
Serie A / 19, 711
This is one indicator that shows how biased American reporters can be in their expectations for Major League Soccer. No one should be expecting our league to have attendance as high as these long-established foreign leagues, and yet, we are already not too far away. When Serie A has an average of just over 19,000, how can anyone rightfully say that MLS attendances are too low, or that MLS isn’t popular ?
Critics must compare our league more fairly, and acknowledge the growth, as well.
Now, in the first 3 weeks of the new season (since my first article was published), the MLS attendances have continued to increase. The teams in soccer-specific venues have had sell-outs or at least 90 percent capacity for the most part. There are already indications that some of the most recently opened stadiums (such as Toyota Park for Chicago and BMO Field for Toronto) may actually have been built too small for the numbers who will be wanting to attend in the near future. The 2007 expansion team Toronto FC have 16,000 season ticket-holders for this year, and the 2009 expansion Seattle Sounders FC reportedly has a number close to that if commitments from fans via deposits for their own inaugural season at Qwest Field.
While Toronto’s season ticket sales had to be cut off at 16,000 due to the small - 20,000 - total capacity of the stadium, Qwest Field will have no such dilemma. They can sell, and sell, and sell - and they WILL !
While it remains to be seen what the NBA 2007-08 attendance figures come out to, there is one thing we already do know - that MLS attendances are growing and show no sign of slowing. Since there was already very little difference between the two leagues’ averages for 2007, there is little reason in my mind to doubt that MLS will continue to grow, perhaps topping the NBA league-wide average for the 2008 season.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 at 1:59 pm and is filed under Soccer.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
THE AUTHOR
RECENT MVN ARTICLES
ARCHIVE
4 Responses to “MLS Attendances Up in 2008 — League average could top NBA this season”
April 16th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Seems appropriate to say that raw attendance figures are equal. I could see people saying that an NBA arena is usually only a 18,000 seat venue while several MLS teams still play in American football stadia designed to hold 60,000. The percentage of the actual seats filled might be an issue and NBA tickets are more expensive. However, those are still just (about) as many warm bodies going to see MLS on an average night as there are to see an NHL/NBA game. You are right. Someone who is being fair would notice that the average attendance is not a matter of 17,000 vs. 500.
Certainly, soccer is still perceived as foreign and really the only idea that people generally have of soccer is something they heard about a ManYoo v. Liverpool game which drew more than the population of Andorra, forgetting that when Charlton play West Ham, no one cares (or goes). MLS attendance is much more evenly spread, so you don’t end up with 80K in the stands, but you get a good consistent 15K base that looks like it’s continuing to grow. And grow I hope it does. And I hope that it gets the respect that it deserves.
April 16th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
I completely agree with you on most points. While some years attendance may be lower i think overall the attendance will grow alot over the next ten years.
The only reason the league average might not increase this year is that there are two teams temporarily playing in 10k stadiums. But even so there is still a good chance that it will hit 17000.
Every team has had bigger crowds for their home openers than last year. Even with chicago and LA playing on thursdays they did better, which is a good sign.
It would be great if the average topped the NBA this year. That would leave us behind only the MLB and NFL. The NFL only plays 8 home games a year which plays a huge factor in it being the highest average attendance. But the MLB and NBA play quite alot of games which has to be considered when comparing them.
May 4th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
My numbers shows that at only 6 weeks in, MLS attendance is up 9% compared to last year. It does hurt that 2 venues seat less than 11K.
Not including those teams that play in the big NFL stadiums, one thing that is discouraging is that many of the SSS stadiums seem just over 1/2 full, the exception being the Home Depot Center when the Galaxy play there and anywhere the Galaxy play where they average 23,676, thanks to the Beckham Effect. Of course Toronto sell out every home game…so that only leaves a few SSS that need to catch up. So while I am always happy to see the attendance averages increase, I’d be more excited to see a higher percentage of seats sold at those other SSS.
With the excitement surrounding Seattle & Philly, plus the general popularity of the sport growing, I don’t put it past the league to start averaging 20K within the next 5 years; there would only need to be a 4% increase every year to reach that by 2012, seems easy enough (based off your 2007 numbers).
I believe that as the league and popularity grow, new teams will start building 30K stadiums instead of 20-25K stadiums, and those existing ones would expand (round out some of the corners for example).
If we can just get a team to the A-T-L…humm.
Anyway, great articles, keep it up!
May 13th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
I just read your article on MLS attendance and also your “10 facts” article. Thank you for setting the record straight on the beautiful game. I am 62 years old, and a soccer junkie. I have fond memories of my dad taking me to Yankees games and as any good American, I watch my share of the NFL…but soccer is a passion. If I have a business trip to Columbus or DC, I’ll schedule it for a week when the Crew or United is playing at home during the week. If I’m driving down the road and see youth soccer in a field, I usually stop. And you know what, I find other older guys who are just as passionate.
You are right. The demographics, and interests of the people are changing and the media hasn’t a clue. My theory is that it has to do with sports betting and what “the guys” discuss at bars. Go to Las Vegas and try to place a bet on a MLS match. The person at the counter will think you are from Mars.
Leave a comment