[KG]

Quote: Originally Posted by TimLawNYC

These attendance numbers don't show what you think they show. Average attendance isn't a reliable indicator because that can vary so much based on arena/stadium size (i.e., NBA arenas generally hold 17,000-20,000 fans, while football stadiums can hold around 70,000), relative ticket prices, and number of games per season. To really evaluate a sport's popularity you need to look at TOTAL attendance--and by that measure, soccer's tiny 6,000,000 number is a drop in the bucket compared to the major sports in the USA. By contrast, over 41,000,000 attended MINOR LEAGUE baseball games in 2013 (see http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp..._milb&sid=milb). I realize that there are many more minor league baseball clubs in the U.S. than there are MLS teams, but it's difficult for you to make a case that soccer is somehow super popular here when nearly SEVEN TIMES more people annually attend minor league baseball. Sure, soccer is "growing" in popularity here, because it has a relatively new league and it really has nowhere to go but up. But even the attendance numbers you cite show only a 935 person increase in attendance per game year to year, which I wouldn't exactly call explosive growth. Bottom line, everybody always gets excited about the World Cup (because it is a legitimately great sporting event), but as soon as it's over (or if the U.S. doesn't advance out of the group stage), everybody will forget about it like they always do and soccer will go back to its rightful place in the U.S. as a third-tier sport. Nobody cares about competitive bobsledding except during the Winter Olympics, either.

Only 4 MLS clubs play in stadiums that also host NFL/CFL teams (Seattle, NE Revolution, DC United, and Vancouver) and no one plays in RFK (DC United) anymore so the stadium has reduced its overall capacity. The other 3 clubs reduce their maximum capacity as well.