RSSThanks to those dudes over at the Business Journal (you know the ones who probably got beat up after school for knowing too much about Geometry at the age of 7, yeah those guys) for releasing this info on MLS Season tickets in comparison to last years.Apparently the same guys will be doing their own sorts of MLS previews in the coming weeks before the season kicks off. I’m sure those will be enlightening as anything from them.
The table below is as of Feburary 17th, so things could have changed a bit since then, but I feel they are probably pretty darn close to what we will see this year in MLS stadiums.
|
Club |
2008 |
2007 |
% CHANGE |
| Chicago Fire | 2,759 | 2,553 | +8% |
| Chivas USA | 837 | 858 | -2% |
| Colorado Rapids | 2,968 | 1,866 | +59% |
| Columbus Crew | 3,227 | 3,190 | +1% |
| D.C. United | 5,976 | 4,721 | +27% |
| FC Dallas | 3,002 | 3,134 | -4% |
| Houston Dynamo | 4,116 | 2,205 | +87% |
| Kansas City Wizards | 1,539 | 464 | +232% |
| Los Angeles Galaxy | 7,915 | 9,308 | -15% |
| New England Revolution | 4,001 | 3,502 | +14% |
| New York Red Bulls | 3,170 | 2,391 | +33% |
| Real Salt Lake | 4,632 | 4,421 | +5% |
| San Jose Earthquakes | 3,822 | N/A | N/A |
| Toronto FC | 16,641 | 12,435 | +34% |
| TOTAL | 64,605 | 51,048 | +26.6% |
Some very interesting numbers really. A lot that jump out to me when I look at it.
- The Beckham Effect really hasn’t taken over like many expected to…for one LA went down in their ticket numbers from last year but they will probably still sell out many of their home games like they normally do
- Colorado’s jump is nice to see, I guess Christian Gomez is giving some fans hope that they will actually be worth watching this season.
- Toronto’s numbers are just staggering in comparison to everyone else. Teams must take a page or two out of their book to even come close to that number of season ticket holders.
- Nice to see Houston jump up in numbers after winning another title.
- KC gets a slight boost even though they are moving into a minor league baseball park, good hope there if you ask me if people are actually starting to buy season tickets in KC now that they are out of Arrowhead.
- Chivas is kind of depressing to look at really, for such a good team they either need their own park, a new name and identity or they need some sort of help…I don’t know really but that may be a topic for another day.
I know that Seattle is already in numbers close to Toronto in terms of season ticket holders for next year, and in Philly they already are at 2000 season ticket holders. Sad really when expansion clubs are dominating current clubs and clubs that have been in the league since it started in terms of season ticket holders.
I think the future is bright though in terms of packed stadiums. Having soccer specific stadiums is really showing it’s effect.
