Did You Hear? MLS is third highest attended sport in the US
Getting The Boot: NBA Loses Its Spot As Third-Best-Attended U.S. Pro Sports League
Maybe LeBron James can play goalie?
While the National Basketball Association players and owners continue to bicker and bellyache about divvying up the cash pie, other sports leagues pass them by.
Major League Soccer doesn't get the buzz on sports radio or the blogs, but it has corner kicked its way past the NBA in average attendance, according to the news site Examiner.com. MLS attendance has gone up 6.6 percent this season, helping it become the new No. 3 sports league in the United States, based on per-game attendance.
An average of 17,870 fans have attended MLS games over the course of the 2011 season -- that's 3.0 percent more than the NBA and 4.1 percent more than the National Hockey League.
The National Football League, with an average attendance of 66,950, is the king of kings for American sports fans. Major League Baseball's average attendance of 30,352 is good enough for the No. 2 spot.
Fans in Seattle are the main reason for this impressive MLS move. The Seattle Sounders play in the Seahawks stadium and led the league in attendance with 38,495 fans on average, according to the Examiner.
There's more good news for the domestic soccer league: MLS attendance is 10th-best internationally, ahead of the Scottish Premier League and England League Championship, among others.
Critics will say these numbers are deceiving, since soccer stadiums are much bigger than basketball and hockey arenas. Also, the soccer season is shorter than the never-ending schedules in sports like hockey and hoops. Yet this is still a big step for passionate soccer fans who daydream about the MLS being a relevant sport for Americans.
source: http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/dish/201111/nba-no-longer-3rd-best-attended-us-sports-league
And just in case you are not a Sounders fan, the write-up at SBNation has a few more reasons why (I will only partially quote, go to the link if you want the whole story)
It would be tempting to attribute much of this growth to the Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps, the two well-attended expansion teams. While their combined average of 19,619 is certainly helping the bottom line, even taking them out of the equation leaves a pretty rosy picture.
Stripping out the two expansion markets still gives MLS an average attendance of 17,654, or about 1.2 percent more than the previous record. It also leaves MLS with a total draw of about 4.8 million or roughly 800,000 more than the previous record.The big non-expansion increase comes from Sporting Kansas City, which opened up the palace that is Livestrong Sporting Park. A year after playing in a minor-league baseball stadium that fit fewer than 11,000, the smallest home crowd to see one of their games was 14,791 and just five of their 17 games were played in front of crowds of fewer than 17,000.
A year after playing in a minor-league baseball stadium that fit fewer than 11,000, the smallest home crowd to see one of their games was 14,791 and just five of their 17 games were played in front of crowds of fewer than 17,000. Overall, they saw an attendance increase of 73 percent over last year. Even compared to their best attended season in their history (2003, 15,573), they were up 14 percent.
Other notable team-specific attendance figures: RSL's average of 17,591 was higher than any year since their expansion season of 2005; the Red Bulls average of 19,749 was their highest since 1996; the Galaxy's average of 23,334 was the fourth highest in their history; and the Sounders' average of 38,496 was about 10,000 more than any team had averaged prior to their joining the league in 2009.
This year's numbers were also helped by some huge single-game turnouts. The biggest of those were two Sounders games in which they opened up the entire stadium. They drew 46,065 to see a game against the Red Bulls and 64,140 for Kasey Keller's final regular-season home game. The Earthquakes also cracked 40,000 when they brought in 41,028 to see Fourth of July fireworks. In all, there were 28 games with reported attendances of more than 25,000. The median attendance for all games was 17,639.
The attendance bump was seen almost all the way across the league. Just four teams reported a decrease in average attendance over last year and seven teams reported increases of more than 5 percent.
Even among the teams reporting overall relative declines, there were positive signs. The Crew averaged 14,754 over their final six home games, which is actually more than the averaged last year; the Fire averaged 17,244 over their final six, which is more than they have averaged during any season since 1998; and Toronto FC averaged 20,983 over their final six, which is more than they've ever averaged during an entire season. The other team with a declining attendance, the Philadelphia Union, can blame their relative numbers on the simple fact that they did not play any games in the much larger Lincoln Financial Field, the way they did in Year 1.
MLS averaged more fans than either the NBA or NHL did in their last full seasons. Clearly, this is a watershed year and with the Montreal Impact promising to bring strong crowds in 2012, it could go even higher.
The previous two highest attended seasons both had clear reasons. In 1996, it was the return of first-division soccer after a 12-year absence. In 2007, the league welcomed its first true international star. This year is different, as the addition of two expansion teams was only part of the increase.
Source: http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2011/10/24/2511576/mls-attendance-up-2011-major-league-soccer
As a Sounders fan, and MLS fan, I am stoked. BUT! Let's not dissolve into rivalries and just celebrate this moment. Reactions (optimistic, pessimistic, etc.)?
If I have missed any tags, it's because either the MLS club doesn't have a tag or wasn't mentioned. Though honestly, there are so many tags I might have missed one. Sorry in advance!
Maybe LeBron James can play goalie?
While the National Basketball Association players and owners continue to bicker and bellyache about divvying up the cash pie, other sports leagues pass them by.
Major League Soccer doesn't get the buzz on sports radio or the blogs, but it has corner kicked its way past the NBA in average attendance, according to the news site Examiner.com. MLS attendance has gone up 6.6 percent this season, helping it become the new No. 3 sports league in the United States, based on per-game attendance.
An average of 17,870 fans have attended MLS games over the course of the 2011 season -- that's 3.0 percent more than the NBA and 4.1 percent more than the National Hockey League.
The National Football League, with an average attendance of 66,950, is the king of kings for American sports fans. Major League Baseball's average attendance of 30,352 is good enough for the No. 2 spot.
Fans in Seattle are the main reason for this impressive MLS move. The Seattle Sounders play in the Seahawks stadium and led the league in attendance with 38,495 fans on average, according to the Examiner.
There's more good news for the domestic soccer league: MLS attendance is 10th-best internationally, ahead of the Scottish Premier League and England League Championship, among others.
Critics will say these numbers are deceiving, since soccer stadiums are much bigger than basketball and hockey arenas. Also, the soccer season is shorter than the never-ending schedules in sports like hockey and hoops. Yet this is still a big step for passionate soccer fans who daydream about the MLS being a relevant sport for Americans.
source: http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/dish/201111/nba-no-longer-3rd-best-attended-us-sports-league
And just in case you are not a Sounders fan, the write-up at SBNation has a few more reasons why (I will only partially quote, go to the link if you want the whole story)
It would be tempting to attribute much of this growth to the Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps, the two well-attended expansion teams. While their combined average of 19,619 is certainly helping the bottom line, even taking them out of the equation leaves a pretty rosy picture.
Stripping out the two expansion markets still gives MLS an average attendance of 17,654, or about 1.2 percent more than the previous record. It also leaves MLS with a total draw of about 4.8 million or roughly 800,000 more than the previous record.The big non-expansion increase comes from Sporting Kansas City, which opened up the palace that is Livestrong Sporting Park. A year after playing in a minor-league baseball stadium that fit fewer than 11,000, the smallest home crowd to see one of their games was 14,791 and just five of their 17 games were played in front of crowds of fewer than 17,000.
A year after playing in a minor-league baseball stadium that fit fewer than 11,000, the smallest home crowd to see one of their games was 14,791 and just five of their 17 games were played in front of crowds of fewer than 17,000. Overall, they saw an attendance increase of 73 percent over last year. Even compared to their best attended season in their history (2003, 15,573), they were up 14 percent.
Other notable team-specific attendance figures: RSL's average of 17,591 was higher than any year since their expansion season of 2005; the Red Bulls average of 19,749 was their highest since 1996; the Galaxy's average of 23,334 was the fourth highest in their history; and the Sounders' average of 38,496 was about 10,000 more than any team had averaged prior to their joining the league in 2009.
This year's numbers were also helped by some huge single-game turnouts. The biggest of those were two Sounders games in which they opened up the entire stadium. They drew 46,065 to see a game against the Red Bulls and 64,140 for Kasey Keller's final regular-season home game. The Earthquakes also cracked 40,000 when they brought in 41,028 to see Fourth of July fireworks. In all, there were 28 games with reported attendances of more than 25,000. The median attendance for all games was 17,639.
The attendance bump was seen almost all the way across the league. Just four teams reported a decrease in average attendance over last year and seven teams reported increases of more than 5 percent.
Even among the teams reporting overall relative declines, there were positive signs. The Crew averaged 14,754 over their final six home games, which is actually more than the averaged last year; the Fire averaged 17,244 over their final six, which is more than they have averaged during any season since 1998; and Toronto FC averaged 20,983 over their final six, which is more than they've ever averaged during an entire season. The other team with a declining attendance, the Philadelphia Union, can blame their relative numbers on the simple fact that they did not play any games in the much larger Lincoln Financial Field, the way they did in Year 1.
MLS averaged more fans than either the NBA or NHL did in their last full seasons. Clearly, this is a watershed year and with the Montreal Impact promising to bring strong crowds in 2012, it could go even higher.
The previous two highest attended seasons both had clear reasons. In 1996, it was the return of first-division soccer after a 12-year absence. In 2007, the league welcomed its first true international star. This year is different, as the addition of two expansion teams was only part of the increase.
Source: http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2011/10/24/2511576/mls-attendance-up-2011-major-league-soccer
As a Sounders fan, and MLS fan, I am stoked. BUT! Let's not dissolve into rivalries and just celebrate this moment. Reactions (optimistic, pessimistic, etc.)?
If I have missed any tags, it's because either the MLS club doesn't have a tag or wasn't mentioned. Though honestly, there are so many tags I might have missed one. Sorry in advance!