MLS Attendance stats final week 2008

Hello, everyone. Final week was last week. Sorry it took me a little bit but it's been a busy month for me. Things should be easier from now on and other random statistics will be computed to show different trends. This year was about equal to last year (check out the difference plot, particularly the total). It was lower by about 97 seats or about 0.52%. Meaningless in statistical terms. Looking at the distribution for total attendance in pie chart format we see that DC and TFC share the majority of percentage (both with 17%), with Chicago (15%) and New England (15%) also showing respectable numbers. It's unfortunate that Columbus is lower (13%) given their sensational season.
Out west we see an obvious winner in the Galaxy (22%) due to the Beckham crowds. A modest Houston comes in second (15%) while RSL and a surprising Chivas (14%) are next in the pecking order. FCD is dissapointing again at 11%, lower than San Jose--their attendance numbers are inflated by games at the McAfee Colisseum. Elswhere, in relative attendance terms it seems that stadiums, on any given week, were about 70-80% full in the east. That's not a bad number compared to previous years. The west would be slightly lower at 60-70% on weekly basis, their numbers enhanced by LAG.

MLS Attendance stats week 30

One more week after this and then more in depth analysis of the season as a whole with caveats about the playoff attendance numbers. It's a weird number to have, but 31 is the allotted number of games for every team (there are 14 teams in the league). Barring any last minute supercrowds at Columbus, New England, Dallas and Colorado, it's safe to bet that this year will fall short of last year's mark but only by about 100 seats (~1%). That's a minuscule amount in the grand scheme of things but certain places like Dallas have seen drops of more than 14%. My weekly difference of 2008 minus total 2007 shows the trends in a clearer manner (see yellow bar graph on right column). To counter that places like LA, Chicago and Houston have seen increases of up to 7%. We can only speculate how these numbers will change next season if Beckham doesn't return until mid-May.

Finally, to synthesize some of the latest numbers in terms of my patented relative attendance, I've decided to post high resolution plots of the median relative attendance, i.e. how full the stadium was on any given matchday. In the east TFC rules the land at 100% for almost every match, KC follows due to its relatively small stadium, and DC and Chicago also show good numbers in the high 70s and 80s. The Red Bulls below 60% is a bit troubling. Let's see how these numbers hold up when the new stadium opens.
For the west LA tops it with most matches as sell-outs, plus San Jose's small stadium. Some surprising numbers include that for Colorado at more than 60% as well as a recovering RSL at 60%. Numbers tend to be smaller in the west for whatever reason.
I will rejoin you with the last installment of MLS attendance stats. Please click on the ads and help support the website ;)

MLS Attendance stats week 28

Back again after a brief respite. Probably will join you next week as the season winds down. There's only 3 more weeks of play after this week. I'm including the mean vs media plot to show some of the more recent happenings in league attendance. DCU was boosted by its last game at home, and they can forget about any further play until next season unless something miraculous happens. No more DP (Gallardo) this season. The guy played okay so no fuss with him, people. He wasn't a complete mess like Denilson. More important is my current focus on Dallas.

The team has very legitimate chances of advancing to the post-season since only 5 points separates them from the Goats and there are 9 points to be had still. They have one more home game against TFC and somehow I doubt they'll have more than 40% of seats full at the Pizza Place they call their stadium. It's sad since they also boast one of the league's top scorers and potential national team star Kenny Cooper (Bradley has yet to name him to the squad and fans are upset). Cooper has 16 goals this season and is second only to record-breaking Landon Donovan (19). Clearly, something needs to be done at the big D if they want to both keep their franchise and/or earn respect. You'll note that they have the lowest mean and the lowest median. Both point to the same huge problem. But I just work with the numbers here people, as sad as some may look. I say bring in another DP player. Maybe a Mexican figure with stature or someone that people actually care about seeing.

MLS Attendance stats week 23

Sorry for the long skip in attendance info. I have a life too and there were several loose ends I had to tie up. I'm gonna make this one brief...
As we start looking towards World Cup qualifying not only in the CONCACAF but in CONMEBOL, UEFA and beyond some of the strain in attendance numbers may be felt as fans are notified that their favorite player will not be on the pitch. Then again, an electrifying performance by team USA in the semifinal round of CONCACAF may attract more attention to the national league. Also, let's keep in mind that that other football has taken to the fields as well and plenty of attention will go there as well, not to mention ugly lines on fields that should not be used for soccer. Added is the end of a long summer hiatus in the world's top leagues, i.e. England, Italy, Spain, Germany, and Co.
So what does this slew of factors mean for MLS attendance? From my humble numbers/analysis.... not much. Not yet, at least. Or maybe, just maybe MLS has finally found its niche and worry should be placed on the international status of the league (the Concachampions, salary caps, designated players).
One more point before I go... Columbus. Notoriously low in numbers for most of the season has shown great promise in the past few games as their great form has transcended onto the stands. The last 3 out of 4 home games have had numbers above 16K, and 2 of those, against KC and FCD weren't exactly against high-caliber oponents. I leave you with the Crew's individual numbers.

MLS Attendance stats week 17

The Becks parade continues to rage on in the Eastern conference, bringing numbers much higher than in the beginning of the season. Although the New York-LA game may not have been as high in attendance as it was last year, it was large enough to bring NYRB's season average above that of last year's (see the 07-08 plot difference). Because I know a lot of you out there in bigsoccerland like to see other aspects of statistics, I'm including median plots for the east and the west in high definition (just click for full page). Note that NY's median is still higher than 15,000 even though they had two games below 10,000 this season. Their relative attendance currently sits at 69%, much better than NE, RSL, CHV, DAL.

New England's meager attendance shows its ugly face in the median analysis (KC not included do to a smaller stadium). Even so, NE's attendance is not much differend than it was a year ago for the entire season (see difference plot). I've also read that KC's game with LA will be held at Arrowhead. This should put another inflationary figure into the Eastern conference and effectively raise KC's average to make it look more like San Jose's out west (>120% relative attendance). Therein lies the Achilles heel of relative analysis and this has prompted me to come up with a relative median that I will introduce in the coming weeks. Such a number will, hopefully, do away with the inflationary effects of switching venues. This isn't the same problem with DC, NE or NY since their inherent MLS capacity is already twice that of SJ and KC.
Just wanted to remind everyone and to alert new visitors to the site: all numbers are based on official public MLS numbers and all plots are on the right column.

PREVIEW: MLS Attendance stats week 16

Since a lot of attendance analysis out in MLS soccerland is looking into other meaningful statistics like median, I thought I would follow along and create some new plots. These plots will not be regulars like the ones on the right column but instead I'll post them from time to time to show interesting trends. I think they speak for themselves by showing the markedly low attendance in places like New England, Kansas City and San Jose. This analysis also takes away the inflationary effects of overattendance due to Beckham and/or scheduled international doubleheaders. The analysis also makes Houston look better than its relative attendance suggests. I still wonder if the 32,000 capacity at Robertson Stadium is also the MLS capacity but I've had no word on a different number. Also note that LA's numbers show just how many times they have sold out the stadium since the median is 27,000. Another surprising number is New York's. Even though they've had two games under 10K, it still doesn't mean attendance has been that bad overall.
These plots are only valid through week 16. Full week 16 numbers and plots will be posted tomorrow.

MLS Attendance stats week 15

Enter DCU. Attendance wise, that is. As DCU fans already know, RFK usually attracts a good crowd. Beckham coming to town last week, coupled with Euro hype drew out a good crowd of 35,979. That was enough to catapult DC to above 20,000 for attendance average, thus surpassing TFC. In relative terms, however, TFC still reigns supreme in the East. Per the request of a BigSoccer member, I decided to look at the average attendance vs relative attendance per team. Today, due to time constraints, I've only done it for the East.
Also, for the sake of completeness, here's the official "MLS capacity" for each of the stadiums:
DC: 24,500
KC: 10,385
NE: 20,000
CLB: 22,500
TFC: 20,000
CHI: 20,000
NYRB: 25,576
Also keep in mind that some of these stadiums (RFK, Giants, Gillette) can hold a lot more in their actual NFL capacity. BMO field is listed at 20,000 but the stadium holds another three to five hundred more seats if necessary. Same goes for some of the other SS stadiums in the league, i.e. Dallas, etc.

*Week 15 does not include 3 games from week 16. They will be posted next week. This is to avoid confusion when looking at the figures so that all teams are well represented.

MLS Attendance stats week 14

Out of the Euro hangover we come to mid-season shake-ups with trades galore from the potential Conde-Ruiz-McBride megadeal to modest acquisitions by the Red Bulls with Rojas, etc. Attendance has finally shown the Beckham effect for the past couple of weeks, if maybe not the immediate ones. Becks has begun his eastern conference tour and numbers for a lot of those teams should be coming up. Don't be too discouraged by the 07-08 difference. Remember that it's the 2007 season total average. On that note, I just recently read that the mean attendance for Fluminense of Brazil is actually around 17,000. Tomorrow's game versus Liga for the Libertadores should attract 90,000+. But isn't it interesting that a brazilian team would have this kind of mean turnout? Actually, it makes sense. People are too poor in latin america to go to every game a-la-EPL. Even some EPL games aren't completely sold out. As always I suggest a certain degree of caution when looking at these numbers. Below is a nice close-up of what the designated players (5 of them, minus Donovan and Reyna) are doing. Note that I will, for the time being, not put american players under this classification to provide a clearer picture. I've highlighted the two spikes (Blanco and Becks) during their visits to San Jose at McAfee. Becks usually hovers around the 100% mark, save for a couple of home games most considered boring. Blanco attracts crowd but it depends on the demographic. Gallardo benefits from the DC crowds and Lopez from the intimacy of the CAB. Angel has dismal numbers from a fickle New York crowd. Also, note that the "stars" may not have played on some of those games.

MLS Attendance stats week 13

Back to reality. No inflammatory Brazils or Becks coming to town to attract the casual viewer and temporarily shift the attendance figures. You'll note that week 13 is a more normal week with attendance averaging just above 15K. I've read a couple of threads over at bigsoccer.com that speak of the "unfortunate stadium situation" with San Jose and Kansas City. I both agree and disagree, for even though the smaller venues will make general attendance figures lower, the atmosphere and the feeling of a full house is much better at Buck Shaw and CAB than a cavernous Crew Stadium or Pizza Hut Park, which currently have the lowest averages in league and usually with empty seats --and those are soccer specific venues. I think a lot of us out there are being a little shortsighted and again I argue that we should look at the relative terms of attendance. Smaller cities will have smaller venues but will fill up the stadiums nonetheless. It's more of a cup is half full sort of idea. Just look at the numbers and plots I provide... doesn't it ring more than one bell when we see extremely small (50%) turnouts while other teams exceed their own MLS capacity (SJ, FCD) for visits from the DPs (right now only Becks and Blanco count for obvious reasons)?
I've also seen a lot of information regarding Philly and Seattle potentially increasing the total turnout numbers. There's been back-and-forth animosity between TFC followers and those that oppose having Canadian teams in the league and I must admit I find this saddening. I would love to see more Canadian teams in the league. I would put both Vancouver and Montreal and have the remaining two spots for a 20 team league come from places such as New York, Miami, Atlanta or St. Louis. But why Canada? More exposure, more experience, more money, that's why. Exposure for the game in North America, experience for a whole new generation of players that will grow up always having a soccer league and always aspiring to be a part of it. This will elevate the level of play in CONCACAF for sure.
But back to the stats. I'm including a new piece below of the relative attendance for all games in which Becks and crew have played. Clearly Becks overflows stadiums and Blanco fills them up to more than 80% as well. Gallardo enjoys the faithful DC followers while Lopez regularly plays at the smaller CAB venue in KC, thus filling the stadium. This may not represent much unless we look at Angel. I might venture to say that if both Gallardo and Lopez played for NYRB then their numbers would be closer to Angel's.

MLS Attendance stats week 12

Euro or no Euro, people seem to be making it out to games even if it's just to see the stars (Becks in San Jose, Blanco and Davino in Dallas) or other countries play (Brazil-Venezuela prior to the New England game). Still, this is a statistics page and we must stay true to the numbers if these are the ones the league will put out at the end of the season. As is customary the general attendance figures will be on the right column. Starting this week I will add the 2008-2007 difference (also zoomed in below). Things don't look great for a lot of teams including Dallas, New York and Columbus but we can expect better numbers from the latter two once Beckham comes around. It's sad to see Dallas in such a precarious position even having had Becks and Blanco show their DP faces in town. Something must be done here to attract more people to the stands, especially considering that Pizza Hut Park is a soccer-specific venue. Denilson's failure last season shouldn't deter investors/owners from picking a new designated player.
I admit that some of the figures do appear a bit inflated at this time but this surpassing of MLS capacity is largely due to moving venues for San Jose (see image below) from Buck Shaw to McAfee for the LA Galaxy game and New England's Brazil crowd (see week 11's posting). The two peaks for San Jose represent the two games played at McAfee so far this year. All in all, conference and league averages were higher than normal and some team averages such as NE skyrocketed out of the cellar and into (ehem) normalcy.

MLS Attendance stats week 11

Welcome to your weekly fix of MLS attendance figures. Granted, Euro 2008 is all over the headlines and world cup qualifiers start this weekend, still people still went out to see their teams. It reminded me that important international matches kind of act like a tease, almost like foreplay for going to see live games. Back in 98 when the US played Iran (a sad day in football) watching the game got me all primed for a live match (el clasico del Astillero--Emelec vs Barcelona SC in Ecuador). So why not have the same sort of enthusiasm here? Not so much, it seems. Save for a near sellout crowd at Toyota Park to watch Blanco's Fire play against Gallardo's DC and a healthy Becks crowd in LA (still no sellout), attendance was pretty slim...especially for New York, which now has one of the lowest averages (13,042). Only KC and San Jose are lower (9,210 and 12,479 respectively) and Columbus with 12,270. KC and SJ have much smaller stadiums, however. Columbus is a sad note and it begs the question of whether the team should be moved to a different city (Miami?*) But wait.... what about New England? Why is their average so low? The magic number is actually 10,289 with an "MLS capacity" at Gillette of 20,000. That is... unless NE claims a higher than normal attendance due to Beckham or (gulp) Brazil??? That's right! The "doubleheader" last week where a surprising Venezuela beat Brazil was featured right after the MLS game. So should this count? Yes and no. This week it doesn't simply because it will fall under next week's numbers. Otherwise a team will play twice in one week and that just doesn't work for our purposes. So for this week we'll still have NE at the low end of the scale. I'm all for enhancing attendance numbers with the presence of Beckham and/or Blanco and that's why the bigger stadiums do tend to sell out and overflow their "MLS capacity." Such was the case with RFK and Giants stadium last year when Becks came to town. NE's recent doubleheader is a cheap way out. They will manage to change their attendance numbers for the season due to this "sellout" game. At least when Becks comes to town there is only one game. And the game includes your own team and nothing else. I have to stay true to the stats, however. Also note that the official attendance for the game has not been posted on the website. It was 54,000 for the Brazil game and hence it will count as their official figure for that day.


*I don't like teams moving. It's sad for the fans.

MLS Attendance stats week 10

Things are finally beginning to level off at this point of the season. Trend setters aside and with highly contested fields both east and west of the Mississippi, this proves why MLS is more competitive than other leagues. This "competitiveness" is a relative term; it does not mean the league is better than, say the EPL or Serie A. It simply means that literally all things are equal. The salary cap, love it or hate it, and the lack of a relegation facet to the league ensures that any and all teams have the ability to win it all. One or two or even three DPs won't necessarily bank you a title. No Beckhams or Donovans or Ruiz put together can accomplish this if the team gets depleted by outside forces, i.e. national call-ups or injuries. But back to the stats... This past week was very poor in the west, especially from Dallas which despite coming out of the Morrow woes has remained below 10K after the Beckham-Buddle show a few weeks back (LA won that game 5-1 at Pizza Hut Park). Colorado also managed to dip below 70% and Chivas attendance remained as low as it ever was. San Diego Chivas anyone? I'm all for it. This derby isn't working. A second NY team would fare better, I think, and Ives Galarcep and others tend to agree with me. Below is the return of pie graphs. Don't be discouraged, DC. TFC has had 6 games at home and this is why they have the bigger chunk of the pie. New England is embarrassingly low and surpassing KC only because they have more games. We must also consider that KC's new stadium is much... cozier. Maybe New England should opt for an 18,000 seater. Maybe that way it can say that it's at least 60% full. Out west LA dominates the picture, and rightly so. Even they haven't completely filled the stadium every time. There have been 3 games below 100% but still above the 70% threshold. They have also played just as much as Chivas, Colorado and Dallas. Beckham brings it still. More star statistics next week.

MLS Attendance stats week 9

Welcome to your weekly MLS attendance stats fix. Took me a couple of days to compile info while I was distracted by national teams, etc. More on the USA loss at Wembley later. As accustomed, I'm including a bonus plot in high-def below that shows the Eastern Conference attendance statistics for each venue. Note that by "week" I mean each time a game is played in a particular venue. TFC wins in this round with a consistently sold out BMO Field as I've stated on several occasions. They are definitely my favorite team to root for when at home. They also tend to bring along a healthy contingent to away matches as was visible in both DC and Columbus on previous matches. DC, with their fervent fans and well-adorned history, is a close second when it comes to attendance both in general and relative terms. They have an average of 77% stadium attendance. This plot shows a little up and down related to Saturday vs Thursday games and a sellout crowd against RSL in late April. Sadly, one of their primetime matches against impressive Columbus drew only around 13K.
The New York Red Bulls have not done well at all if compared to DC and TFC. Some of their games drew 12K or less. This is a sobering sight since they are supposed to be getting a state-of-the-art, 25,000 seat stadium. NY crowds are fickle, however. They tend to draw when big names are out like Beckham and international friendlies as well as club friendlies with premier teams from Europe. Admittedly, the fan base is there, they just need to find a way to coax them into watching a side that already boasts the best attacking tandem in the league with Juan Pablo Angel and Jozy Altidore.
The Columbus Crew is another side that perplexes me. They show up in healthy numbers for some matches, as was the case with the Houston and New England games but not as much on opening day or against KC and Chivas. The recent and unfortunate turn of events cataloged by MLSR and Steve Goff, where some of the unpleasant seeds of hooliganism and racism have shown their ugly face. Racism has no place on the field. I at one point stated that I liked the streamers in TFC and other crowds. I'm beginning to rethink that to maybe that it should be done before the game or during the half or something. As beautiful as it is to see all the flair that soccer can have, I do not want to see players injured by bottles, cans, or flares and even less by the insulting bananas thrown at New England's Dube. Plenty of other websites have chronicled this turn of events so I will not dwell on it here.
Chicago, like TFC has enjoyed a regular crowd that does not fill stadiums to the brim but certainly don't leave it empty. Chicagoans have had to endure the fickle weather of the city and still have made it out to the games. 80% average.
Kansas City has a much smaller venue now at the Community America Ballpark. They gather the usual crowds that now, relatively speaking, do fill up the stadium.
Last, and saddest of all, is New England. MLS Cup runner's up on several occasions may have cost the Revs their fan base. The team has yet to break the 14,000 mark this year and is level with Columbus at 54% average attendance.
Enjoy the new figures. As always, all statistics are based on public MLS numbers and all plots are on the right column.

MLS Attendance stats week 8

Updating you with the latest attendance figures. The Beckham effect is beginning to be felt outside of Carson, CA with the Galaxy's goal show at Pizza Hut Park on Sunday (score was 5-1 with an Edson Buddle hat-trick). Pizza Hut Park (yes, I know that's a cheesy name... pun intended) overflowed its banks outside of its provisional 20,500 (I had been working with the 20,000 mark until now) spaces to fit a Beckham crowd of 22,331. That's still almost 2,000 extra spaces filled by the English international. With international FIFA dates pending in the next few weeks it's safe to be assured that some stadiums may not reach and/or overflow capacity when the Galaxians are in town. I'm sticking in another figure that I use to track the progression of MLS attendance throughout the season. It shows MLS attendance per team (western conference) with the different lines/colors representing the different teams. I have circled the two high attendance peaks corresponding to the Galaxy's visit to both RSL and FCD. Becks has been able to raise the attendance of these two teams by about 1/3. That's a significant number. On the plot you'll also see other times Beckham was present, as was the case with Colorado's opening day (also an overflow of the stadium by about 500 people) and the general attendance at the Home Depot Center (27,000). For a couple of those games attendance was lower than capacity but still healthy compared to pre-Becks Galaxy numbers. Later on I'll provide correlations and other statistical analyses. Blanco is another player that tends to attract fans to the stands (mostly Mexican fans). Can't blame them. For my money and on the field I have to pick Blanco over Beckham. I like both players equally but Blanco has had a better time with the MLS style so far and has been able to bring Chicago out of its slump ever since he joined the team mid-way through last season. As always, Stats are on the right column so scroll down to have a look and sorry for the resolution.

MLS Attendance stats week 7

I have updated the attendance figures and loaded them onto the right column complete with attendance averages and relative averages for each conference. I've done a great deal more in the way of graphical analysis that I will share with you throughout the season. In the meantime I've inserted pie graphs of the current attendance figures and how each team's attendance relates to the other teams in its conference. In the east DCU and TFC lead the way with their fervent fans. I must note that only DC and KC have had 4 games. All other teams have 3 home games each. Out west the story is different. Here we see the large Beckham effect with 5 home games for the Galaxy at or near capacity (27,000). Honorable mention to the great fans of recently-expanded RSL. May their new home continue to bring fans and turn into a new cauldron in the west. Also note that San Jose has a much smaller stadium (Buck Shaw, 10,500) and thus will have a modest presence in this table. Chivas lags far behind, although this may partially be due to unrest amongst factions of its supporters. Enjoy the figs and let me know if there's something else you'd like analyzed and shown here.