MLS Attendance Statistics 2012 Week 10

No Premier League? No problem. Major League Soccer has plenty of action through the summer, including two or three major signings with names like Michael Ballack, Alessanro Nesta and Stephen Ireland being thrown around. On the stands things are a bit of a mix bag. While new arenas open (Houston's BBVA Compass), and recent additions shine (Livestrong Sporting Park, PPL Field), older teams and stadiums come flat: New England, DC, Dallas, Columbus. Although the latter two have their own stadiums, they continue to struggle with attendance.

League totals still remain above 2011's due to Montreal's sellouts at Olympic Stadium and the opening of Houston's new stadium. Houston happens to have settled for a downtown location for its home, something that perhaps could have been done to increase attendance in Dallas, for example. New England and DC, on the other hand, desperately need their own soccer specific fields. Seemingly weak attendance (Kansas City) has turned into sold out matches after new stadiums have been opened. 

The numbers:

Team	Average	Relative	Median
DC	13751	71	13619
KC	19017	103	19777
NE	10394	52	11251
CLB	12658	62	11516
TOR	19022	83	18944
CHI	14087	70	14159
NYRB	16204	64	17114
PHI	18437	100	18526
HOU	22039	100	22039
MON	40529	199	41016
LA	23197	86	22696
CHV	12868	68	14127
DAL	13164	64	11702
SJ	11904	113	10364
COL	14507	80	13954
RSL	18344	92	17924
SEA	38627	100	38399
POR	20438	100	20438
VAN	18615	89	19271

MLS 2011 Attendance Statistics Final Week: Part 2

Now we look at the difference between 2011 and 2010 for the whole season and every team. The difference plot shows that MLS overall gained 1142. Compared to 2009 (+2820) the number is even larger. Even with the Beckham effect in 2008 (+1175) and 2007 (+1088), 2011 still shows impressive gains. It comes down to two factors: new soccer specific stadiums and the Pacific Northwest Teams.

Seven teams gained over 1000 seats and 4 approached or surpassed the 2000 seat mark. Kansas City had specific gains due to the opening of Livestrong Sporting Park. New York, LA and Colorado made significant gains since last year. Seattle gained close to 2000 seats due to the New York game and Keller's goodbye match.

The negatives this year included Columbus (-2520 since 2010), Chicago (-1541) and Toronto (-187, although this is negligible). This may be due to the lack of important stars and results for the teams and good DP signings or homegrown stars may ameliorate the numbers in 2012.

MLS 2011 Attendance Statistics Game Week 17

Copa America or not, MLS must continue. Now with most of their players in hand, the league continues to see strong attendance, especially over the holiday weekend with sold out venues from LA to Dallas and San Jose to Colorado. Kansas City's form stretches not only through its impressive unbeaten run but also to its shining new home at Livestrong Sporting Park. San Jose's numbers may seem inflated but this is because it chose to play at a larger venue for the New York match.

Most interesting from the 2011-2010 plot is the fact that 8 teams are in the positive and 8 in the negative (Portland and Vancouver don't count as this is their first year in the league). Of the 8 teams in the negative only 3 are more negative than -1000. However, all 8 teams in the positive are above 1000.

The numbers:

Team	Average	Relative	Median
DC	15696	64	14105
KC	18017	98	18467
NE	12675	63	12337
COL	10483	51	10306
TOR	19876	86	20086
CHI	14026	70	13156
NYRB	17878	71	18081
PHI	18177	98	18372
HOU	16411	61	15176
LA	22739	84	23719
CHV	15111	56	14058
DAL	13278	65	11138
SJ	13367	127	10276
CRD	14735	81	14185
RSL	16066	80	15513
SEA	37265	104	36255
POR	18627	100	18627
VAN	20019	95	20518

MLS 2011 Attendance Statistics Game Week 15

Sorry for the long lapse in stats analysis. It's been quite busy elsewhere and only one person manages the desk at Futbol USA. One of the more important events in the past few weeks is the inauguration of Livestrong Sporting Park in Kansas City, the new home of Sporting KC. Beautiful location and one the national team will remember for a while (just see some comments by Edu, Donovan and Co. at ussoccer.com). In MLS play, the stadium has been sold out and is a welcome sight after years at cavernous Arrowhead Stadium and CommunityAmerica Ballpark (slightly over 10,000 capacity). Because of KC's stadium and the fact that they just now started playing at home, its numbers will look relatively inflated. Remember that it's doubling its previous capacity so crowds will be bigger.

As was posted before, the median of the attendance can now more appropriately be used to gauge the approximate attendance any particular team has had this season. Above is the average - median relationship for the Western Conference. Unlike the East, there is more of a one-to-one relationship for most stadiums. Notable differences are Dallas and Chivas. Dallas had higher attendance for its opening day and when the Galaxy came to town. The same goes for Chivas (sellout at the HDC for the SuperClasico).