Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Drawing Fans, Home and Away

Win at Home, Draw Away. Right?

MLS is different. There is not any relegation for poor performing clubs. From an operational perspective who cares who wins or loses, just as long as the show is good.

With that, the 'real' table isn't so much Wins and Losses, but more about how many fans you can draw. MLS seems to like to parade around with impressive average attendance but most know that a shorter schedule than their MLB, NBA and NHL counterparts means less top line revenue.

How about we look at the 'real MLS table', ticket sales.

Average Home Draw : Team
39066 : Seattle Sounders FC
21661 : Los Angeles
21254 : Montreal Impact
20674 : Portland Timbers
19747 : Vancouver Whitecaps
19420 : Kansas City
19120 : Toronto FC
19098 : Houston
18176 : Real Salt Lake

17497 : Philadelphia Union

17166 : New York Red Bulls
14898 : FC Dallas
14175 : Colorado
13762 : DC United
12840 : Columbus
12679 : New England
12108 : Chicago
10409 : San Jose
8045 : Chivas USA

Let's not stop there. Most know the "home draw". MLS like's to parade that sucker around. How about we look at the "away draw". As in, how do clubs draw when playing away. Does the Crew Black and Gold matter?

Away Draw : Team
21333 : New England
20049 : Montreal Impact
19954 : Los Angeles
19715 : San Jose
19263 : Chicago
18428 : FC Dallas
18249 : Toronto FC
18175 : Kansas City
18100 : Portland Timbers

17888 : DC United

17451 : Seattle Sounders FC
17222 : Houston
17063 : New York Red Bulls
16905 : Chivas USA
15462 : Colorado
14469 : Philadelphia Union
14417 : Columbus
13605 : Real Salt Lake
13425 : Vancouver Whitecaps

Not really.

Actually, the Crew are the only club to linger around the bottom in both home and away, which explains what league commissioner Don Garber likes to visit Columbus.

Not sure why New England draws that much away. I'm sure it has to do with playing popular expansion teams like Seattle. Not going to bother looking it up at this point in the season. They are an outlier. Moving along.

Consider this your Home and Away results.

(Attendance data via ESPN FC through May 26th)

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