MLS TV Ratings Worrying

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Over ten years of DA and international rejects are landing MLS and college spots here in the US over US trained players. That tells you all you need to know. The US is making progress but still has years to go before the balance starts to tip the other way

By the time we’re there, they’ll all be too old
Will we ever have players good enough in the now?

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By the time we’re there, they’ll all be too old
Will we ever have players good enough in the now?

Eventually, we will have enough players training overseas to make up a decent Men's NT, but never enough players trained here in the US to make the MLS a quality league.

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Eventually, we will have enough players training overseas to make up a decent Men's NT, but never enough players trained here in the US to make the MLS a quality league.

Spot on post.

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% of season completed
100%
Year Average Median %<10K %>20k
1996 17406 15093 21.9% 26.3%
1997 14619 12733 25.0% 16.3%
1998 14312 11871 26.6% 16.1%
1999 14282 12973 32.3% 15.1%
2000 13756 12690 34.4% 12.5%
2001 14962 13431 26.6% 17.7%
2002 15821 14108 17.1% 18.6%
2003 14898 13641 23.3% 18.0%
2004 15559 13285 24.7% 25.3%
2005 15108 12619 27.1% 17.7%
2006 15504 14175 18.8% 18.8%
2007 16770 15353 8.2% 29.7%
2008 16459 15188 11.0% 24.8%

3rd out of 13 for average
2nd out of 13 for median
2nd out of 13 for <10k
4th out of 13 for >20k


Reported attendance above 15,000: 109/210 games
Above 15,000/below 15,000
1.Los Angeles Galaxy, 15/0
2.Toronto FC, 15-0
3.D.C United, 13-2
4.Chicago Fire, 12-3
5.Houston Dynamo, 9-6
6.Columbus Crew, 8-7
6.Real Salt Lake, 8-7
8.New England Revolution, 7-8
9.New York Red Bull, 6-9
10.Chivas U.S.A, 5-10
11.Dallas FC, 4-11
12.San Jose Earthquakes, 3-12
13.Colorado Rapids, 3-12
14.Kansas City Wizards, 1-14

Reported Attendance
above 20,000: 52 games
15,000-19,999: 57 games
10,000-14,999: 77 games
under 10,000: 24 games

Teams with Soccer Specific Stadiums for whole season
1.Los Angeles 26,009/27,000 capacity, 96.3% of capacity
2.Toronto F.C, 20,108/20,000 100.0%
3.Chicago Fire, 17,034/20,000 (approx) 85.2%
4.Chivas U.S.A, 15,114/27000 56.0%
5.Columbus Crew, 14,622/20,145 72.6%
6.Colorado Rapids, 13,659/18,086 75.5%
7.Dallas F.C, 13,024/20,500 63.5%

Average 17,081/21,819 78.3%

Games with Los Angeles/David Beckham
L.A Home games: 15-390,132-26,009 average
L.A Away games: 15-421,907-28,127 average

League reported attendance excluding L.A Home/Away game (and New England double header game)
179 games 2,590,306 attendance, 14,471 average

including L.A Home games: 194-2,980,438-15,363 average

Team reported attendance averages excluding Beckham/L.A games

1.Toronto F.C 20,108
2.D.C United 18,682
3.Chicago Fire, 16,811
4.Houston Dynamo, 15,811
5.Real Salt Lake, 15,509
6.Chivas U.S.A, 14,265
7.Columbus Crew, 14,046
8.New York Red Bull, 13,727
9.Colorado Rapids, 13,298
10.New England Revolution, 13,108 (also excluding double header)
11.Dallas FC, 11,693
12.San Jose Earthquakes, 10,750
13.Kansas City Wizards, 9,584

Are those soccer specific stadiums or large basketball arenas capacity-wise? Perhaps the high fill rate is due to exceptionally few seats in large cities and many of those tickets being given away or deeply discounted.

[Unregistered]

Are those soccer specific stadiums or large basketball arenas capacity-wise? Perhaps the high fill rate is due to exceptionally few seats in large cities and many of those tickets being given away or deeply discounted.

This data is ancient. This thread was from a decade ago.

[Unregistered]

2018

..Team………………………… Av……..Total…… Gms 2017.. YOY Week 35
1 Atlanta United FC………53,002 901,033 17 48,200 0.10
2 Seattle Sounders……….40,641 690,893 17 43,666 -0.07 42,617
3 Toronto FC………………….26,628 452,675 17 27,647 -0.04 23,895
4 LA Galaxy……………………24,444 415,543 17 22,251 0.10 27,068
5 Minnesota United……….23,902 406,342 17 20,538 0.16
6 Orlando City SC.………..23,866 405,730 17 25,028 -0.05
7 NYC FC.………………………23,211 394,583 17 22,643 0.03 26,441
8 LAFC……………………………22,042 374,716 17 NA…….. NA
9 Vancouver Whitecaps…21,946 373,089 17 21,760 0.01 25,348
10 Portland Timbers………21,144 359,448 17 21,144 0.00
11 Sporting KC..............19,950 339,148 17 19,536 0.02 20,702
12 San Jose Earthquakes19,032 323,547 17 19,875 -0.04
13 Real Salt Lake……………18,605 316,286 17 18,781 -0.01
14 New York Red Bulls…..18,601 316,214 17 21,175 -0.12 20,023
15 Montreal Impact........18,569 315,665 17 20,046 -0.07
16 NE Revolution...........18,347 311,897 17 19,367 -0.05 28,832
17 D.C. United...............17,635 299,803 17 17,904 -0.01
18 Houston Dynamo.......16,906 287,408 17 17,500 -0.03
19 Philadelphia Union…….16,518 280,805 17 16,901 -0.02
20 FC Dallas……………………15,512 263,707 17 15,122 0.03
21 Colorado Rapids…......15,333 260,660 17 15,322 0.00 15,172
22 Chicago Fire..............14,806 251,708 17 17,383 -0.15 19,459
23 Columbus Crew.........12,447 211,603 17 15,439 -0.19 17,677
TOTALS ………………………21,873 8,552,503 391 22,147 -0.01 267,234
WEEKLY AV. 24,294 

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They're not far as apart from each other except for Seattle and Atlanta. 18-22 thousand per game.

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I’m glad you posted the correct data above. I was wondering why the other poster’s data was missing teams who’ve had soccer-specific stadiums for awhile like Phila Union. Stadium attendance has been growing even for the lousy Revs.

TV ratings are another matter. My feeling is that the timing of games (middle of day, etc.) and lack of advertising hurts.

My take is that Americans like sports that originated here, as well as, violent contact sports like hockey, boxing, UFC, etc. I think soccer will always be seen as a “foreign” sport. Even worse, since soccer is a popular kid’s sport in America that most seem to outgrow, it’s regarded as a childish activity like playing dodgeball or something. The pay to play model is also not helping since it turns what should be an assessible, cheap sport (a ball and a field) into an exclusive club.

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Even worse, since soccer is a popular kid’s sport in America that most seem to outgrow, it’s regarded as a childish activity like playing dodgeball or something.

My kids haven't outgrown soccer, but have outgrown the MLS. When they were younger, they used to watch the Revs games every weekend on TV, and we would attend a half dozen games a season. My kids knew all the players and wore the latest Revs jerseys.

Now that they are middle school aged, they watch EPL every weekend, along with Champions League matches and other European league games, if they can find a broadcast. MLS is only tuned into when the other leagues are on their summer breaks and we might attend a game or two every season. It's too bad that even at their ages, they can see the difference in quality and it affects their enthusiasm for the league. We want to keep supporting the MLS to grow the sport in the country, so still try to put the Revs games on during summer weekends, but our kids end up wandering away 10 minutes into the game in search of better entertainment.

[Unregistered]

My kids haven't outgrown soccer, but have outgrown the MLS. When they were younger, they used to watch the Revs games every weekend on TV, and we would attend a half dozen games a season. My kids knew all the players and wore the latest Revs jerseys.

Now that they are middle school aged, they watch EPL every weekend, along with Champions League matches and other European league games, if they can find a broadcast. MLS is only tuned into when the other leagues are on their summer breaks and we might attend a game or two every season. It's too bad that even at their ages, they can see the difference in quality and it affects their enthusiasm for the league. We want to keep supporting the MLS to grow the sport in the country, so still try to put the Revs games on during summer weekends, but our kids end up wandering away 10 minutes into the game in search of better entertainment.

We've taken our kids to Europe a few times (piggyback with work trips and I have an absurd amount of miles) and taken them to a few matches there. They're hooked. They've been to a few MLS games here, they have fun and all, but they watch international matches.

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We've taken our kids to Europe a few times (piggyback with work trips and I have an absurd amount of miles) and taken them to a few matches there. They're hooked. They've been to a few MLS games here, they have fun and all, but they watch international matches.

I cut out of work early yesterday ahead of the snow and watched Man U vs PSG Champions League at 3pm ET. It was great, but not something I could do all the time. Who the heck has time to watch these games in the middle of a work day?! The TV ratings here will always suck since the game times aren’t built around an American audience. Somehow it just isn’t the same watching DVR games, even if I had the time...

[Unregistered]

I cut out of work early yesterday ahead of the snow and watched Man U vs PSG Champions League at 3pm ET. It was great, but not something I could do all the time. Who the heck has time to watch these games in the middle of a work day?! The TV ratings here will always suck since the game times aren’t built around an American audience. Somehow it just isn’t the same watching DVR games, even if I had the time...

Rarely miss a UCL game. I have managed to strategically plan to be work from home, stream, or take a late lunch at the pub.

The games are in Europe and are their time. So, we get them in the afternoon.

Plan accordingly.

[Unregistered]

I cut out of work early yesterday ahead of the snow and watched Man U vs PSG Champions League at 3pm ET. It was great, but not something I could do all the time. Who the heck has time to watch these games in the middle of a work day?! The TV ratings here will always suck since the game times aren’t built around an American audience. Somehow it just isn’t the same watching DVR games, even if I had the time...

Plenty of great games on the weekends. we DVR a few "top" matchups. We rarely watch any MLS games. zzzzzzzz

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Plenty of great games on the weekends. we DVR a few "top" matchups. We rarely watch any MLS games. zzzzzzzz

Saturday mornings on the couch, kid by my side and dogs on the other, are my favorite times of the week.

[Unregistered]

Plenty of great games on the weekends. we DVR a few "top" matchups. We rarely watch any MLS games. zzzzzzzz

It’s hard to even call MLS pro soccer when you watch European games. The ManU game yesterday was non-stop and beautiful ball handling and defense by PSG. Dani Alves is 35 and tears around the field like a 20 yr old the whole game. Watch MLS and we have 20 yr olds that get winded after 15 minutes, stand around, and routinely miss passes. No sign of passion in their faces, they always look like it’s a tryout.

I firmly believe the key for the US to get to that level will require a true MLS academy system starting from U-15 with attractive signing $ if they make it to U-19. College should not even be an option if you want to be a pro since it is a total distraction imo.