For the season-to-date through gameweek 30, MLS attendances are up 16% compared to last season.

That’s encouraging news given that MLS attendances were up 12% as of July. Plus, so far this season, there have been no reported attendances of less than 10,000. Meanwhile, attendances of 18,000 or more are up 70% thanks in part to expansion teams New York City FC and Orlando City SC.

For previous MLS attendance data, read my older columns.

SEE MORE: Top 25 most-viewed soccer games on US TV for weekend of 9/25 to 9/27.

Numbers for Gameweek 30:

Week 30 304 GP YTD
Avg +/- GP Avg +/- Avg +/- GP
2011 22,207 NA 5 17,815 NA 17,659 NA 286
2012 18,224 -17.94% 9 18,715 5.05% 18,517 4.86% 292
2013 19,793 8.61% 9 18,445 -1.44% 18,387 -0.70% 278
2014 18,143 -8.34% 10 18,982 2.91% 18,387 0.00% 293
2015 21,193 16.82% 12 21,327 12.35% 21,324 15.98% 304

Note:
2011: 306 game season,
2012-14 323 game season,
2015: 340 game season.

YTD – 304 Games
Average Median %<10K %>18k
2011 17,815 17,519 5.59% 48.36%
2012 18,715 18,226 1.97% 53.29%
2013 18,445 18,342 5.92% 54.93%
2014 18,982 18,596 5.92% 55.26%
2015 21,327 20,031 0.00% 70.07%

Home attendance comparisons to 2014:

MLS Attendance – Equal # of Home Games
2014 2015
Att Cap Att Att +/- GP % of Cap Cap
Seattle 42,003 43,426 42,711 1.68% 15 96.08% 42,081
Orlando NA NA 31,987 NA 15 96.86% 33,023
NYCFC NA NA 28,695 NA 16 97.19% 29,525
Toronto 22,591 22,591 24,125 6.79% 14 77.84% 30,991
LA Galaxy 20,884 27,000 23,167 10.93% 16 85.80% 27,000
San Jose 15,537 16,407 21,376 37.59% 15 86.66% 24,667
Portland 20,762 20,674 21,144 1.84% 15 100.00% 21,144
Houston 19,979 22,039 20,690 3.56% 16 93.88% 22,039
Vancouver 20,371 21,000 20,552 0.89% 15 97.87% 21,000
Salt Lake 20,307 20,138 20,224 -0.41% 15 100.43% 20,138
Sporting KC 20,129 18,467 19,758 -1.84% 15 106.99% 18,467
Red Bulls 18,846 25,189 19,744 4.77% 14 78.38% 25,189
NE Revs 15,676 22,500 18,169 15.90% 16 80.75% 22,500
Montréal 17,557 27,340 17,559 0.01% 16 69.83% 22,820
Philadelphia 17,604 18,500 17,460 -0.81% 16 94.38% 18,500
Columbus 15,884 20,145 16,350 2.93% 16 81.88% 19,968
FC Dallas 16,786 20,500 16,192 -3.54% 14 78.99% 20,500
Chicago 15,773 20,000 15,700 -0.47% 15 78.50% 20,000
D.C. United 16,669 23,491 15,635 -6.20% 15 79.58% 19,647
Colorado 14,900 17,424 15,513 4.11% 15 89.03% 17,424

Disclaimer about capacity calculations:

For my 2014 calculations, I took the 1 remaining team playing in a football stadium, New England in Foxboro and assigned maximum capacity to 22,500. DCU in RFK set a max at 19,647. I took the 22,500 from an approximate average of the soccer specific stadiums in use. Capacities are adjusted for the few games that are played in larger venues.

Additional note: Over the years, several stadiums’ capacities have been reported with different numbers. If any of you have the accurate soccer capacity for stadiums that differ from mine, please let me know. Also, capacity at CenturyLink in Seattle is a moving target.