MLS 2011 Attendance Statistics Weeks 5 & 6

Weeks 5 and 6 had to be a combo due to the midweek matches. Real Salt Lake gets a pass for the Monterrey games. We're all behind you as MLS fans.

New England continues to struggle, as does Chicago and Columbus. New York, surprisingly, is also well below its stats from last year. This is quite inexcusable due to the form of Henry, Ream, Agudelo, Marquez, Lindpere and just the team in general. The lowest attendance has been 14,000, well below the capacity of 25,000.

I make a lot of points about relative attendance, which is the actual numbers divided by the capacity. It's an interesting statistic worth exploring when one sees how full (empty) a stadium really is. Bigger stadiums look emptier than small ones depending on crowds. When it comes to Western Conference teams, stadiums are typically much fuller than the East. A simple scatter plot above shows the relationship between relative and average attendance. Notice that many teams are close to 100 even though some, like San Jose, have smaller stadiums (i.e. higher relative attendance). Conversely, a team like Chivas is much lower in the relative axis due to its large capacity (27,000).

MLS 2009 Attendance stats week 6

Figures have been updated through week 6. You will notice a dip in TFC attendance (below 20K?!). Not by much, but certainly bogs down on their differential from last season. RSL also had a poor showing and has lost its edge. DCU is understandable given their poor form... Too bad ESPN has to cover them (another weak attendance showing on national TV... when will they learn?!). If it weren't for Seattle and Philly's inflated opening match game we may have the same or even lower average attendance compared with last year's. Keep in mind that we average not the games, but each team's average of their own games. This filters out some of the noise. New York remains strong, despite their less-than-stellar numbers (about 15k+ at their last home game). Anything is better than last year's numbers... on and off the field.

MLS 2009 Attendance stats week 6

I may take a couple of days to post these numbers but they're usually worth it, right? Pretty pictures are usually more intuitive than just random numbers and facts. With that in mind, I'd like to concentrate on this week's numbers. With both TFC and Seattle playing at home, you would expect big numbers. TFC never disappoints and Seattle got its money's worth with Ljundberg and Keller scoring big both on the pitch and in the stands.

As it stands, if you took Seattle and Toronto away, league mean attendance would be scarcely over 12,000. The two teams alone bring the number above 14,000. Columbus and DCU are showing signs of a comeback in attendance terms. Less can be said about the reigning champ's success on the pitch. But it's early and plenty of dreaming to be done. Schellotto may yet show his considerable muscle and this team has a great base to work with.

Qwest field is no Bernabeu and San Jose is no Chelsea, but the stadium boils over with excitement from the crowd nonetheless. More on Champions League after tomorrow's affair. One more check at attendance. On the right is a pie chart of attendance for the western conference. On the left is the same for the east. Clearly, the two attendance leaders overshadow other teams. No Beckham means no huge white chunk (denoting Galaxy) of the pie.