MLS Attendance: Best Seasons

Historically this category has been owned by the Galaxy. More than half of the 20 best seasons belong to the team from Los Angeles. If you look closely, there's some proof that TFKA Metro hasn't always been inept at getting people to come see soccer. With their new home in Harrison opening next year, it will be interesting to see if they might be able to get their attendance back into this lofty company.

   year team         home avg
1  2009 Seattle      30,897
2  1996 Los Angeles  28,916
3  2008 Los Angeles  26,009
4  2007 Los Angeles  24,252
5  2005 Los Angeles  24,204
6  1996 New York     23,898
7  2004 Los Angeles  23,809
8  2003 Los Angeles  21,983
9  1998 Los Angeles  21,784
10 2001 DC           21,518
11 1997 New England  21,423
12 2007 DC           20,967
13 2006 Los Angeles  20,814
14 2001 New York     20,806
15 2002 Colorado     20,690
16 1997 Los Angeles  20,626
17 2009 Los Angeles  20,416
18 2000 Los Angeles  20,400
19 2009 Toronto      20,344
20 2007 Toronto      20,130

Looking at the numbers in regards to how far above the league average each team was, Seattle's inaugural season is absolutely shocking. Not only did they set the record for average attendance, but they almost doubled up the league average. This absolutely shatters the previous mark. Also interesting in my mind is that Toronto has averaged over 20,000 fans each year, but still can't make the top 20 list.

   year team         diff in %
1  2009 Seattle      92.66
2  1996 Los Angeles  66.12
3  2005 Los Angeles  60.20
4  2008 Los Angeles  58.01
5  2004 Los Angeles  53.02
6  1998 Los Angeles  52.21
7  2000 Los Angeles  48.30
8  2003 Los Angeles  47.56
9  1997 New England  46.54
10 2007 Los Angeles  44.62
11 2001 DC           43.83
12 1997 Los Angeles  41.09
13 2001 New York     39.07
14 1996 New York     37.29
15 2000 DC           35.07
16 2006 Los Angeles  34.25
17 1998 New England  34.07
18 2002 Colorado     30.77
19 2000 New York     28.10
20 2006 Chivas USA   27.96

MLS Attendance: Worst Seasons

As a followup to the post on the teams seen by the smallest percentage of fans I thought it would be interesting to see the worst seasons in terms of average home attendance.

year team         home avg
2000 Miami        7,460
2003 Dallas       7,906
1998 Kansas City  8,073
1999 Kansas City  8,183
1999 Miami        8,689
1997 Kansas City  9,058
2004 Dallas       9,088
2000 Kansas City  9,112
2000 Tampa Bay    9,452
2001 San Jose     9,635
1997 Dallas       9,678
2005 Kansas City  9,691
2009 Kansas City  10,053
1996 Colorado     10,213
1998 Miami        10,284
1996 Colorado     10,213
1998 Tampa Bay    10,312
2003 San Jose     10,466
2001 Tampa Bay    10,479
2008 Kansas City  10,686

From these numbers, it looks pretty grim for soccer in Kansas City. Owners of seven of the 20 worst seasons for attendance in league history they are also the only team to make the list in the last five years... which they did three times. This is interesting since six of the seasons belong to teams which don't exist any more.

However just looking at the raw average attendance doesn't control for the overall attendance ebbs and flows of the league. This list shows the worst home attendances relative to the league average.

year team         diff in %
2003 Dallas       -46.93
2000 Miami        -45.77
1998 Kansas City  -43.59
1999 Kansas City  -42.71
2004 Dallas       -41.59
1996 Colorado     -41.32
1999 Miami        -39.16
1997 Kansas City  -38.04
2009 Kansas City  -37.31
2005 Kansas City  -35.85
2001 San Jose     -35.60
2008 Kansas City  -35.08
1997 Dallas       -33.80
2000 Kansas City  -33.76
1996 Tampa Bay    -32.91
2000 Tampa Bay    -31.29
2007 Kansas City  -30.91
2001 Tampa Bay    -29.96
2003 San Jose     -29.75
2002 San Jose     -29.53

Measuring this way, Dallas' abysmal 2003 season takes over the top spot, underperforming the league average by a whopping 46%. Sadly the Wizards actually add an eighth season to the wall of shame. To be fair, their last two seasons have been played near the capacity of their minuscule temporary stadium, but it'll be interesting to see what happens when they move into their new home. If you're a Wizards fan (or owner,) you have to hope things change drastically.

You Mean It's NOT Porn Night on The Movie Channel

Last night I was flipping through the program guide on Dish Network, and these two movies were playing back to back on The Movie Channel.

Good Dick :: Hot Rod

Someone in the programming department has a sense of humor...

Incoming MLS Players With Great Names

Each year Major League Soccer signs some of the top underclassmen in college soccer to contracts before the SuperDraft. This year's crop has some serious talent, but even better, they have some of the best names to ever grace the league. Three of them have earned special awards from me:

Player most likely to moonlight in adult films: Corben Bone - midfielder from Wake Forest. The movie titles write themselves... Romancing the Bone... Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Bone... Bone Alone...

Player most resembling a Dairy Queen treat: Dilly Duka - midfielder from Rutgers. His dad Mister Misty must be very proud of him.

Player who may actually be a tropical bird: Teal Bunbury - forward from Akron. I hear his name and keep thinking he should be mentioned alongside the Norwegian Blue in this sketch:

MLS Attendance - Teams Seen By the Smallest Percentage of Fans

Here's the year-end update to which teams had been seen by the smallest percentage of fans in a given season. Mea culpa -- I somehow managed to exclude data from 2008 in the post from earlier this year.

You might notice that this list has a lot of teams from the last couple of years. Thinking about this a bit more, that makes sense, as more teams in the league means each team should receive a smaller slice of the overall attendance pie. I still think this is an interesting stat, but it's probably less useful for historical comparisons than I originally thought.

Here's the list of teams who had the smallest percentage of tickets sold to see them.

   year tm    home    away    tm ttl  leage ttl  %seen
1  2009 KC   150,802 225,771  376,573 3,608,359  10.44
2  2009 DAL  186,612 227,434  414,046 3,608,359  11.47
3  2008 KC   160,286 237,319  397,605 3,456,641  11.50
4  2009 COL  184,963 236,908  421,871 3,608,359  11.69
5  1999 KC   130,924 191,229  322,153 2,742,102  11.75
6  2009 SJ   211,717 219,425  431,142 3,608,359  11.95
7  2009 NY   187,359 245,896  433,255 3,608,359  12.01
8  2008 SJ   205,695 210,563  416,258 3,456,641  12.04
9  2008 COL  204,884 220,131  425,015 3,456,641  12.30
10 2000 MIA  119,352 212,710  332,062 2,641,085  12.57
11 2007 KC   173,784 240,809  414,593 3,270,210  12.68
12 2009 DC   241,322 216,852  458,174 3,608,359  12.70
13 2009 SLK  245,628 217,705  463,333 3,608,359  12.84
14 2008 CLB  219,332 227,115  446,447 3,456,641  12.92
15 2009 HOU  255,712 212,395  468,107 3,608,359  12.97
16 2001 KC   142,402 166,060  308,462 2,363,859  13.05
17 1998 KC   129,163 230,245  359,408 2,747,897  13.08
18 2009 NE   205,977 268,590  474,567 3,608,359  13.15
19 2009 CHV  226,375 248,459  474,834 3,608,359  13.16
20 2007 COL  221,229 215,154  436,383 3,270,210  13.34

MLS Attendance - Teams Seen By the Largest Percentage of Fans

Earlier this year I had a mad posh to see which teams had been seen by the largest percentage of fans in a given season. It was interesting enough (to me at least) that I've created this post to update at the conclusion of each year.

The 2009 season didn't change the leaderboard in the least bit, which is not too surprising as each additional team makes it progressively harder to reach the top twenty.

Here's the list of teams who had the largest percentage of tickets sold to see them.

   year tm   home    away    tm ttl  leage ttl  %seen
1  1996 LA  462,650 346,210  808,860 2,785,001  29.04
2  2004 DC  258,484 355,289  613,773 2,333,797  26.30
3  1997 LA  330,015 248,179  578,194 2,339,019  24.72
4  2004 LA  357,137 217,411  574,548 2,333,797  24.62
5  1996 NY  382,360 295,952  678,312 2,785,001  24.36
6  1997 NE  342,762 221,566  564,328 2,339,019  24.13
7  2003 LA  329,752 209,091  538,843 2,234,747  24.11
8  2007 LA  363,782 420,525  784,307 3,270,210  23.98
   2005 LA  387,256 308,241  695,497 2,900,716  23.98
10 1997 DC  267,171 287,944  555,115 2,339,019  23.73
11 2008 LA  390,132 421,978  812,110 3,456,641  23.49
12 1996 NE  304,392 325,401  629,793 2,785,001  22.61
13 2003 KC  233,594 269,478  503,072 2,234,747  22.51
14 2000 LA  326,392 264,084  590,476 2,641,085  22.36
15 1998 LA  348,549 259,795  608,344 2,747,897  22.14
16 1997 NY  270,388 245,763  516,151 2,339,019  22.07
17 2002 LA  266,664 221,462  488,126 2,215,019  22.04
18 2006 LA  333,016 318,870  651,886 2,976,787  21.90
19 2001 DC  258,213 248,399  506,612 2,363,859  21.43
20 2003 CLB 243,756 233,704  477,460 2,234,747  21.37

My Triumphant Return

Contrary to popular belief, I have not abandoned the blog. Real life (aka work) has finally slowed down enough for me to get things rolling again, so let the posting begin!