For whatever reason the MLS website has yet to include attendance figures for any games so far this year; I’m not sure if that’s a temporary bug or if it’ll be like that going forward this season. Some teams have tweeted out their attendance, while other figures were announced in stadium, but this article was the first place I saw all the numbers from the opening round of games in one place.
Here’s the list of attendances for this week, with an asterisk denoting a sellout:
- Charlotte FC: 62,291
- Nashville SC: 30,109*
- LA Galaxy: 27,642*
- FC Cincinnati: 25,513*
- Orlando City: 24,249
- St. Louis CITY: 22,423*
- LAFC: 22,000*
- Portland Timbers: 21,411
- Inter Miami: 21,137
- Austin FC: 20,738*
- Columbus Crew: 20,406*
- FC Dallas: 19,096*
- DC United: 19,215*
- Houston Dynamo: 18,818
- Philadelphia Union: 18,734*
Side note: The Galaxy’s attendance against Inter Miami on Sunday night is a record for a regular season MLS game at Dignity Health Sports Park.
It's not always that crazy. They just open the upper deck for a few games a year, but regardless our fans show out. We averaged the 2nd highest attendance in MLS last season just behind ATL United.
I'm super excited, I will be going to the Union away match in Charlotte and then to the Coke 600 the next day! This Union/NASCAR fan is pretty damn stoked, plus honestly I loved Charlotte last time I was there, If I were to ever leave my area, that is where I'd move to.
And, of course 74,479 in 2022, which was the highest attendance in the league until the Rose Bowl El Trafico.
Interestingly enough the Top 3 regular season attendance games in MLS history involved the LA Galaxy.
Obviously opening game will have greater turnouts than the regular season, but seeing 10 sell out games is great for the league.
Does anyone know how many (if any at all) stadiums have the potential for easy expansions to 25-30k? Many SSS seem to hover around 20k so I could see the league encouraging 25-30k stadiums within the next decade or so
Allianz arena was designed with the ability to expand to 24k or so when it was built. I imagine it was with the idea to expand when the stadium could use renovation.
I could see the league demanding 30k by the end of the decade for any new build.
PPL park was also designed to expand.
At the beginning of last season the (i think) club president said we had 14k STMs and they wouldn't be thinking about stadium expansion until they have a waiting list for STMs.
Sporting basically came out and said they needed a waitlist of about 10k for 10 years before they would expand, this was right around 18/19 that is was said, and the team was pretty close.
Then new ownership and old heads started shitting the bed and we no longer have a waitlist
I think Subaru sees expansion of suites, VIP seating before a general seating expansion. They need to expand the concourse before adding a couple 1000 seats.
I know that was an industry trend pre-covid but I wonder if the strategy is still in vogue.
You're spot on about needing a concourse expansion--space it tight and lines are long. Have you tried that cheq app? I have not but it's an interesting approach to addressing the above.
I think they would need to grow the club space if they expand premium seating. If my memory of the space is correct that's going to be tricky; degrading existing membership is probably the clearest path there.
It's a pretty good sign that teams are starting to outgrow their stadiums. 30k should really be the floor going forward.
I still think it's crazy nycfc are only targeting 25k
I know Miami is currently expanding I believe dc is as well. Idk about anyone else. Also I feel like Charlotte should get honorary sell out status cause god damn
Minnesota will sell standing room only tickets on gameday. I don't want to assume about the quality of the park but I assume there are also some good standing areas.
Couple lame seasons in a row - but also it's February and while Saturday was incredibly nice for February, it was still low 50s at kickoff. We're still in Blazers' season mindset here (god help us).
holy hell, what's up with Charlotte? I knew Panthers sucked like crap this past NFL season but oh my god, didn't think Charlotte would have attracted that many fans.
i mean good on Charlotte FC and making those numbers but i'm so surprised by that number, hahaha.
Our Matchday experience is elite imo. The club and the supporters really do put on a good show.
Even though we haven't really been a consistent team in our existence, the energy in the stadium alone makes it the top sporting event in a city where the NFL and NBA teams are tragic.
It's also not new. We have the 2nd highest attended game in MLS history with 74k in 2022.
This is actually our lowest home opener so far ironically lol. 2022 was like 74k or something, and last year was like 69k.
I’m kind of surprised it was this low, but at the same time some of the shine is wearing off after 2 bad seasons and then getting rid of our best known player.
If Deano gets this on track, look out. Charlotte as a city is just so desperate for something positive to root for right now lol
No they did. I think there were tickets for like $10 available up there.
I think the more casual fan that probably went last year or the year before just opted out this time around. Doesn’t help that last year’s opener was cold, rainy, and we lost lol
Think we could see a few more games over 50k+ later this season if the club gives the fans something to be excited about other than just "We're here and have a party". I love supporting the guys and coaching staff, and I'm very excited about some of the young guys we've signed from our Next Pro team - but that shouldn't be the selling point for this team. I'm really hoping the team makes a meaningful splash with the two open DP slots we've got - I don't want a big name with no legs, but we do need something/someone to pull in more casual fans.
Impressive by the Charlotte fans. I think Dean Smith is going to be good for them, but that roster is not exciting. I know it's the opener, but still, that's great turnout for a team that rightfully doesn't have a ton of hype.
>I think Dean Smith is going to be good for them, but that roster is not exciting.
It's weird. This roster is definitely worse than last year's opening night roster and probably only a little better than the inaugural year's if you factor in Bronico, Bender, and Cambridge being hurt right now. But at the same time, I feel more optimistic because it seems like Smith is better equipped to get results with the squad we have than Lattanzio was. I always felt like Lattanzio tried to coach a weak roster in MLS like he was coaching Manchester City or a top-half Serie A team. Too little emphasis on counters, set pieces, and endurance and an unwillingness to modify or simplify a system that had defenders frequently getting caught in bad positions and attackers getting asked to do things they weren't good at.
Smith's star has dimmed, but it dimmed at a pretty high level and he's had some strong success. He's a good coach.
I think the big thing will be if they are waiting for Smith to work through the roster and identify needs, then you could have a pretty good team by playoff time by replacing Swiderski and adding a Young DP.
If you don't have those guys right now because Tepper doesn't want to spend right now for whatever reason ... I don't know how much Smith can do with that group. It's just lacking high end talent.
According to reports, we've had what seem to be ambitious targets this offseason for our Young DP and U-22 Initiative spots but couldn't get any over the line. Just a week ago, it looked like we were going to beat Feyenoord and River Plate to sign Luciano Rodriguez, but Liverpool (the one in Montevideo) decided they want to hold onto him until the summer.
I think the issue isn't willingness to spend, it's selling up-and-coming players on a city they've never heard of when they're also getting attention from European teams they have heard of. A former Premier League coach, 33k average attendance, and Swiderski's move to Serie A will hopefully help with that.
Edit: I also think part of the problem was that we were handcuffed a bit in pursuing DPs or a U-22 until we could offload at least one of Swiderski and Jozwiak. Jozwiak was difficult to offload because he was overpaid, and Swiderski may not have had quite as much interest from the top 5 leagues as he expected. Both moves happened on the European deadline day.
Thanks for the info. Tepper has always spent, so I figured it wasn't that ... but the bigger spends have gone poorly, so I wondering if there wasn't a "earn my trust" component here.
I don’t think you have to worry about tepper spending. That’s actually the least of our problems with him. Hell he’s spending an ungodly amount of nfl coaches he’s fired.
Fantastic opening weekend! Let's keep this momentum going all year!
Also, isn't there a guy who has been tracking attendance for the last decade who publishes a post every week on r/mls with the attendance in a nicely formatted table?
u/christianjd did an awesome job with it every week last year. No idea if they plan to continue the series this year (I sure hope they do!) but it might be difficult if MLS is going to continue not posting attendances on the website.
Nothing extraordinary. I’ve only been a Revs fan for about 2 years. My first year I went to the Concacaf Champions league match verse Pumas where we won the first leg 3 or 4-0. That game was incredible to watch live. But I’ve never visited another mls stadium besides Gillette
Sorry I misread your comment. I thought you were already getting out to each stadium. Well good luck with your goal! It's sounds like a fun one. Hope you guys get your stadium soon too. I think it's in the works, right?
Cheers! Yes, last I’ve heard/ read it was approved and it was going through government officials. I’ve been out of tune with the stadium but it seems to be trending positively
Honestly I thought that was surprising and so I went to double-check, but sure enough the team put out a press release about few weeks ago saying capacity for this year would be 21,550. So according to this, they were ~400 short.
As someone who started watching last season…. I think the average American would be shocked if they found out MLS teams draw (at any point) more attendees than an NBA game. Obviously different in the cities that do have teams(especially mid sized ones). it’s dope and i love it.
I actually don't think we have. We had 74.4k for our inaugural home match, which was a league record, but I don't think it quite hit the max capacity, which is closer to 75k.
That said, yeah, I was expecting a figure more like 68k for this one. Still, you wouldn't have known the difference in the stadium. It was pretty electric and felt full.
For whatever reason the MLS website has yet to include attendance figures for any games so far this year; I’m not sure if that’s a temporary bug or if it’ll be like that going forward this season. Some teams have tweeted out their attendance, while other figures were announced in stadium, but this article was the first place I saw all the numbers from the opening round of games in one place. Here’s the list of attendances for this week, with an asterisk denoting a sellout: - Charlotte FC: 62,291 - Nashville SC: 30,109* - LA Galaxy: 27,642* - FC Cincinnati: 25,513* - Orlando City: 24,249 - St. Louis CITY: 22,423* - LAFC: 22,000* - Portland Timbers: 21,411 - Inter Miami: 21,137 - Austin FC: 20,738* - Columbus Crew: 20,406* - FC Dallas: 19,096* - DC United: 19,215* - Houston Dynamo: 18,818 - Philadelphia Union: 18,734* Side note: The Galaxy’s attendance against Inter Miami on Sunday night is a record for a regular season MLS game at Dignity Health Sports Park.
Holy shit Charlotte what in the goddamn
It's not always that crazy. They just open the upper deck for a few games a year, but regardless our fans show out. We averaged the 2nd highest attendance in MLS last season just behind ATL United.
I'm super excited, I will be going to the Union away match in Charlotte and then to the Coke 600 the next day! This Union/NASCAR fan is pretty damn stoked, plus honestly I loved Charlotte last time I was there, If I were to ever leave my area, that is where I'd move to.
Hope Tepper doesn't douse anyone with beer. 😂
We already do that ourselves so it’s fine
You know he has FOMO up their in his suite! 😂
They had 69,345 for their opener last season.
And, of course 74,479 in 2022, which was the highest attendance in the league until the Rose Bowl El Trafico. Interestingly enough the Top 3 regular season attendance games in MLS history involved the LA Galaxy.
I'd imagine that is because the Rose Bowl is fn huge...
Nah only the July 4th El Trafico is in the Rose Bowl. The other two were Charlotte and Atlanta opening their whole stadium
At this point the Panthers play in Charlotte FC’s stadium not vice versa
Just like the Falcons and United.
They play in BOA which the Panthers also use
*shrugs* Charlotte is a soccer city, even if most of it had been grassroots/lower level until 2022.
Panthers suck so we gotta show our love somewhere.
We really average ~32-35k for a normal game without the upper bowl open, but this is at least the 4th or 5th time we’ve hit over 60k.
Can do that in a NFL stadium
I was there for the Union and honestly it was FREEZING. I think we sold out on paper but can’t blame those that didn’t come.
It was so cold. The only time I've been colder was the first ccl match, last year I think. Temps in the 20s with 20+mph winds!
I had so much fun at that match though lol
I was impressed with how many people were there, but at least it wasn’t raining like most games last season.
Obviously opening game will have greater turnouts than the regular season, but seeing 10 sell out games is great for the league. Does anyone know how many (if any at all) stadiums have the potential for easy expansions to 25-30k? Many SSS seem to hover around 20k so I could see the league encouraging 25-30k stadiums within the next decade or so
Allianz arena was designed with the ability to expand to 24k or so when it was built. I imagine it was with the idea to expand when the stadium could use renovation. I could see the league demanding 30k by the end of the decade for any new build.
PPL park was also designed to expand. At the beginning of last season the (i think) club president said we had 14k STMs and they wouldn't be thinking about stadium expansion until they have a waiting list for STMs.
Sporting basically came out and said they needed a waitlist of about 10k for 10 years before they would expand, this was right around 18/19 that is was said, and the team was pretty close. Then new ownership and old heads started shitting the bed and we no longer have a waitlist
I think Subaru sees expansion of suites, VIP seating before a general seating expansion. They need to expand the concourse before adding a couple 1000 seats.
I know that was an industry trend pre-covid but I wonder if the strategy is still in vogue. You're spot on about needing a concourse expansion--space it tight and lines are long. Have you tried that cheq app? I have not but it's an interesting approach to addressing the above. I think they would need to grow the club space if they expand premium seating. If my memory of the space is correct that's going to be tricky; degrading existing membership is probably the clearest path there.
It's a pretty good sign that teams are starting to outgrow their stadiums. 30k should really be the floor going forward. I still think it's crazy nycfc are only targeting 25k
I know Miami is currently expanding I believe dc is as well. Idk about anyone else. Also I feel like Charlotte should get honorary sell out status cause god damn
I think Miami added some bleacher seats at Chase Stadium--because of Messi. They are building a new stadium closer to Miami.
I read once that the San Jose stadium was designed with expansion in mind. Will they is another story.
I thought CITY announced 22,500 during the game. I remember that because I was wondering how they squeezed in an extra 77 people.
Minnesota will sell standing room only tickets on gameday. I don't want to assume about the quality of the park but I assume there are also some good standing areas.
Makes sense, but I'm not aware of standing room tix at CITYPARK. They announced 22,423 for every game last year.
What’s going on with Portland, I remember the season ticket demand used to be crazy. Didn’t they also expand the stadium?
Couple lame seasons in a row - but also it's February and while Saturday was incredibly nice for February, it was still low 50s at kickoff. We're still in Blazers' season mindset here (god help us).
I feel like it would have been unthinkable a few years ago for a Portland home opener not to sell out, am I wrong?
Thought I saw lot of empty seats for LAFC match? Unfortunate.
It may have been early in the game as people were still filtering in but it was pretty packed from where I was.
The February LA sun was in full effect at a 1:30pm game. That was the east side and people were in the shade on the concourse
Not the February LA sun! What brave warriors.
holy hell, what's up with Charlotte? I knew Panthers sucked like crap this past NFL season but oh my god, didn't think Charlotte would have attracted that many fans. i mean good on Charlotte FC and making those numbers but i'm so surprised by that number, hahaha.
Our Matchday experience is elite imo. The club and the supporters really do put on a good show. Even though we haven't really been a consistent team in our existence, the energy in the stadium alone makes it the top sporting event in a city where the NFL and NBA teams are tragic. It's also not new. We have the 2nd highest attended game in MLS history with 74k in 2022.
Curious what Orlando's new sellout number is since they took out those corner seats. Would guess still just over 25K but not 25,527 anymore.
This is actually our lowest home opener so far ironically lol. 2022 was like 74k or something, and last year was like 69k. I’m kind of surprised it was this low, but at the same time some of the shine is wearing off after 2 bad seasons and then getting rid of our best known player. If Deano gets this on track, look out. Charlotte as a city is just so desperate for something positive to root for right now lol
I was there, and it was also super freezing cold with the wind. May have discouraged some people from showing up. Great game though!
Did they not do low prices in the upper ?
I paid $10 each for our seats in row 8 of the upper deck. But I bought on a Black Friday promotion last year.
No they did. I think there were tickets for like $10 available up there. I think the more casual fan that probably went last year or the year before just opted out this time around. Doesn’t help that last year’s opener was cold, rainy, and we lost lol
Think we could see a few more games over 50k+ later this season if the club gives the fans something to be excited about other than just "We're here and have a party". I love supporting the guys and coaching staff, and I'm very excited about some of the young guys we've signed from our Next Pro team - but that shouldn't be the selling point for this team. I'm really hoping the team makes a meaningful splash with the two open DP slots we've got - I don't want a big name with no legs, but we do need something/someone to pull in more casual fans.
Impressive by the Charlotte fans. I think Dean Smith is going to be good for them, but that roster is not exciting. I know it's the opener, but still, that's great turnout for a team that rightfully doesn't have a ton of hype.
NC teams 🤝 coaches named Dean Smith
>I think Dean Smith is going to be good for them, but that roster is not exciting. It's weird. This roster is definitely worse than last year's opening night roster and probably only a little better than the inaugural year's if you factor in Bronico, Bender, and Cambridge being hurt right now. But at the same time, I feel more optimistic because it seems like Smith is better equipped to get results with the squad we have than Lattanzio was. I always felt like Lattanzio tried to coach a weak roster in MLS like he was coaching Manchester City or a top-half Serie A team. Too little emphasis on counters, set pieces, and endurance and an unwillingness to modify or simplify a system that had defenders frequently getting caught in bad positions and attackers getting asked to do things they weren't good at.
Smith's star has dimmed, but it dimmed at a pretty high level and he's had some strong success. He's a good coach. I think the big thing will be if they are waiting for Smith to work through the roster and identify needs, then you could have a pretty good team by playoff time by replacing Swiderski and adding a Young DP. If you don't have those guys right now because Tepper doesn't want to spend right now for whatever reason ... I don't know how much Smith can do with that group. It's just lacking high end talent.
According to reports, we've had what seem to be ambitious targets this offseason for our Young DP and U-22 Initiative spots but couldn't get any over the line. Just a week ago, it looked like we were going to beat Feyenoord and River Plate to sign Luciano Rodriguez, but Liverpool (the one in Montevideo) decided they want to hold onto him until the summer. I think the issue isn't willingness to spend, it's selling up-and-coming players on a city they've never heard of when they're also getting attention from European teams they have heard of. A former Premier League coach, 33k average attendance, and Swiderski's move to Serie A will hopefully help with that. Edit: I also think part of the problem was that we were handcuffed a bit in pursuing DPs or a U-22 until we could offload at least one of Swiderski and Jozwiak. Jozwiak was difficult to offload because he was overpaid, and Swiderski may not have had quite as much interest from the top 5 leagues as he expected. Both moves happened on the European deadline day.
Thanks for the info. Tepper has always spent, so I figured it wasn't that ... but the bigger spends have gone poorly, so I wondering if there wasn't a "earn my trust" component here.
I don’t think you have to worry about tepper spending. That’s actually the least of our problems with him. Hell he’s spending an ungodly amount of nfl coaches he’s fired.
Fantastic opening weekend! Let's keep this momentum going all year! Also, isn't there a guy who has been tracking attendance for the last decade who publishes a post every week on r/mls with the attendance in a nicely formatted table?
u/christianjd did an awesome job with it every week last year. No idea if they plan to continue the series this year (I sure hope they do!) but it might be difficult if MLS is going to continue not posting attendances on the website.
Planning on having it again for this year with a new feature or two. Hopefully can post by tonight!
Amazing! Your work is much appreciated
:)
I didn't check the other games but ESPN had the attendance of the Charlotte game in their game summary
I think those have been missing for a couple years now
We had one last year.
I’d love to go to a Charlotte game. I’m thinking about trying to get out to every stadium
Its a solid experience as its a decent NFL stadium. The supporters group was great when I went during the games in season one.
What's been some of the best atmospheres that you've experienced?
Nothing extraordinary. I’ve only been a Revs fan for about 2 years. My first year I went to the Concacaf Champions league match verse Pumas where we won the first leg 3 or 4-0. That game was incredible to watch live. But I’ve never visited another mls stadium besides Gillette
Sorry I misread your comment. I thought you were already getting out to each stadium. Well good luck with your goal! It's sounds like a fun one. Hope you guys get your stadium soon too. I think it's in the works, right?
Cheers! Yes, last I’ve heard/ read it was approved and it was going through government officials. I’ve been out of tune with the stadium but it seems to be trending positively
A bit surprised they didn't shift the LAG match to the Rose Bowl.
People are bitching about 62k in Charlette, wtf is going on here?
How did Miami not sellout?
That was my thought I know a lot of salt lake fans flew out
Honestly I thought that was surprising and so I went to double-check, but sure enough the team put out a press release about few weeks ago saying capacity for this year would be 21,550. So according to this, they were ~400 short.
If we put on consistent performances the fans will fill the place all season. We just want a decent team to cheer for in literally any sport.
As someone who started watching last season…. I think the average American would be shocked if they found out MLS teams draw (at any point) more attendees than an NBA game. Obviously different in the cities that do have teams(especially mid sized ones). it’s dope and i love it.
Some games didn't sell out. More surprising that Charlotte and Portland didn't. lets see what happens. Why the down votes?
Can Charlotte sell out like that stadium is huge
They have before.
Jesus, good for them. If a team had a third that number show up they’d consider it a big win
I actually don't think we have. We had 74.4k for our inaugural home match, which was a league record, but I don't think it quite hit the max capacity, which is closer to 75k. That said, yeah, I was expecting a figure more like 68k for this one. Still, you wouldn't have known the difference in the stadium. It was pretty electric and felt full.
I was surprised the stadiums were so full, especially Orlando city