2007 MLS Attendance numbers updated - Part 3

(edit - full season numbers here)

Since it has been about six weeks since I last looked at the attendance numbers for the league, I thought it was about time to do so. So far 1,748,856 fans have attended matches this season for an average of 14,947 per game. Here is how the numbers break down by team:

Home Attendance

Team	HG	Total	Avg	Best vs	Worst vs	HR
LA	8	180,684	22,586	27,000 CV 4/28	19,225 RSL 6/17	3-3-2
TFC	9	180,762	20,085	20,522 LA 8/05	19,123 HD 5/16	4-4-1
DC	8	141,772	17,722	22,358 KC 4/14	12,908 NE 5/03	5-1-2
RSL	9	143,341	15,927	18,678 FCD 4/07	13,003 HD 8/04	2-4-3
CR	9	134,330	14,926	18,458 LA 5/26	10,719 HD 5/05	2-3-4
CF	10	146,850	14,685	20,407 CV 6/09	10,115 CC 6/03	3-3-4
FCD	8	117,448	14,681	20,500 CR 4/22	9,165 NE 4/29	5-2-1
HD	10	144,166	14,417	18,232 NE 5/19	11,114 TFC 7/15	6-2-2
NE	10	142,963	14,296	22,412 CC 6/16	9,508 CF 5/06	4-2-4
CV	7	91,092	13,013	27,000 LA 4/28	8,756 FCD 5/26	6-0-1
CC	10	126,976	12,698	14,203 RSL 7/07	10,254 KC 6/20	5-1-4
NY	9	103,628	11,514	15,546 KC 6/16	7,802 CR 5/13	5-3-1
KC	10	94,844	9,484	13,875 NY 6/02	7,426 CC 5/05	5-3-2

HG: Number of Home Games, HR: Home Record

Home Capacity

Team	Avg Attend	Capacity	Avg % of Cap	Stadium Type
TFC	20,085	20,500	98.0%	SSS
LA	22,586	27,000	83.7%	SSS
CR	14,926	18,086	82.5%	SSS
FCD	14,681	20,500	71.6%	SSS
CF	14,685	20,000	73.4%	SSS
CC	12,698	22,555	56.3%	SSS
CV	13,013	27,000	48.2%	SSS
HD	14,417	32,000	45.1%	CS
DC	17,722	45,016	39.4%	NFL
RSL	15,927	45,634	34.9%	CS
NE	14,296	68,756	20.8%	NFL
NY	11,514	80,242	14.3%	NFL
KC	9,484	79,451	11.9%	NFL

SSS: Soccer Specific Stadium, CS: College Stadium, NFL: NFL Stadium

Since looking at these numbers last, all but five teams have seen their average home gate numbers decline. Those on the up side of things are Chicago (+893), New York (+785), Colorado (+358), Toronto (+97) and DC (+82).

For the teams that dropped, most of them lose around 500 a match, but I am most concerned about what is happening with New England and Chivas.

The Revs saw their average numbers fall 1,593 per match. Since a lot of their early success was based off double-headers, this lower number seems to be closer to the actual number of fans who show up for a game.

Chivas, who has the best home record in the league, continue to see their numbers fall as they dropped over 1,357 folks per game passing through the gates. However, they have only had two additional home games since my last update, so it might just be a freak moment that will correct later.

As I have said every time I've looked at these numbers, Toronto is just amazing. If only they didn't play on the funny turf, the stadium would probably stand as the best place to see a match in the US or Canada.

In the capacity race, everyone stayed close to where they had been except for DC United, but that has to due to a change in their capacity number. Back when I first posted capacity a very helpful comment was left telling me the number was closer to 46k instead of the 56k number I was using, however, I could not find confirmation of that number anywhere until United put out a press release saying all 45,000+ seats had been sold for Thursday's match against LA. From that I was able to find the 45,016 number.

Road Attendance

Team	AG	Total Att.	Avg	AR
LA	5	97,024	19,405	0-2-3
CF	8	129,183	16,148	2-5-1
KC	9	143,308	15,923	3-3-3
CV	10	156,372	15,637	2-6-2
DC	9	139,457	15,495	3-5-1
FCD	11	168,913	15,356	5-4-2
CC	9	135,196	15,022	1-4-4
NY	9	132,927	14,770	3-4-2
RSL	8	115,661	14,458	0-5-3
HD	10	142,683	14,268	4-4-2
NE	9	127,703	14,189	5-2-2
CR	10	130,706	13,070	2-6-2
TFC	10	129,751	12,975	1-5-4

AG: Number of Away Games, AR: Away Record

This chart doesn't tell us a lot but it does point out just how different things are for Chivas and Toronto. At home TFC is a force but they continue to sag on the road while Chivas does much better in different markets then their own. Not a huge surprise as Chivas gets fans of their main club whenever they travel.

One last thing, it will be interesting to see just how much LA's numbers jump once they start hitting the big stadiums with Beckham.

Update: In the comments, someone asked about how these numbers compare to the USL. I looked around for these numbers but could not locate it, however I did find the numbers thanks to Lucas over at Nerdword. His numbers are up to date as of the 5th of August.

Here are the numbers:
Montreal Impact - 10,806
Rochester Raging Rhinos - 8,899
Portland Timbers - 5,711
Vancouver Whitecaps - 5,209
Carolina RailHawks - 4,934
Puerto Rico Islanders - 4,571
Charleston Battery - 3,937
Seattle Sounders - 3,244
Minnesota Thunder - 3,006
Atlanta Silverbacks - 2,476
California Victory - 1,073
Miami FC - 862

Montreal, if they were in MLS, would sit next to bottom between New York and Kansas City while Rochester would be just off the KC mark. The number that stands out most to me is Atlanta. I thought their numbers would be a bit better. Also, Miami FC looks to be in a dangerous place in their second year.