Friday, July 9, 2010

Attendance Figures

MLS Daily (mls-daily.com) looks at MLS attendance figures on an ongoing basis. They posted a chart with season-to-date average attendance for all the teams, with a percentage change from last season's average for each one.

The Revolution scored pretty low, obviously. Despite an overall MLS increase of 9.63%, three teams have had a decreased average from last season: NE, Chivas, and San Jose. NE's drop is the greatest of the three, at 19.92% (this year's number stands at 10,603). Not only that, but the article provides a link to the final 2009 chart, which shows the Revs yet again with the largest dropoff from the previous season in the league, at 21.90%. What that amounts to is an average attendance that was fourth in the league at 17,580 in 2008, and is now third from bottom at, as noted above, 10,603.

The poor support shows at games, even in the Fort. The home opener this season was great; there was so much going on in the Fort that it was almost its own event, in addition to the game in front of us. Since then, however, even the supporters groups have diminished each week, in numbers as well as enthusiasm. Also, why don't supporters groups show up to non-league games? The Fort was utterly empty at the Cruzeiro game (on a Sunday), and nearly so at the Benfica game (ok, it was a Wednesday). It seems that there's been a deterioration of support to accompany the deterioration of quality of soccer the past couple seasons. Good thing they're not on ESPN too often; if I'm trying to draw casual soccer fans to MLS, I'm showing them the quality of the Galaxy and the full-ish Home Depot Center, or the resurgant Red Bulls in their Red Bull Arena, or Seattle with there 36,000+ crazy-blue-and-green fans per game. I'm not showing them the Revolution. Not in 2010.

-John

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