For the 2016 MLS regular season, the average attendance was 21,690, which is an 0.66% increase compared to last season.
The 21,690 number is the third year in a row that Major League Soccer has broken its own attendance record. And it means that the league now has a greater average attendance than Argentina’s Primera Division, France’s Ligue Un and the Netherlands’ Eredivisie.
Nine of the clubs reported decreases, with Kansas City and Salt Lake at less than 2%. Seattle dropped a little, which is not surprising given that for most of the season they played mediocre soccer and weren’t a playoff team until the end. New York City FC and Orlando City SC suffered decreases in their attendances, which is not unusual for the second year of expansion teams.
However, Houston Dynamo and FC Dallas suffered the largest decreases. Houston can blame terrible performances all year for their drop, but Dallas is, well, Dallas. You can’t blame the average attendance decrease at Dallas on the reduced capacity at the stadium. After all, the club didn’t hit the 2016 capacity of their stadium in 2015, so the disappointing attendances wasn’t for lack of available seats.
The 0.66% increase in average attendance is unsurprising. That’s not an indictment of the league, but rather it’s the reality that many of the clubs are reporting a high percentage of capacities at their various venues. The one true outlier is FC Dallas, which reduced the capacity at Toyota Stadium from 20,500 to 16,500 to accommodate the new Hall of Fame being built at one end of the park.
Looking ahead to next season, we can expect a larger attendance increase with Atlanta United and Minnesota United joining the league with above average capacity facilities.
Here are the attendance numbers for the 2016 MLS regular season:
| MLS Attendance – Equal # of Home Games | |||||||
| 2015 | 2016 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Att | Cap | Att | Att +/- | GP | % of Cap | Cap | |
| Seattle | 44,247 | 38,500 | 42,636 | -3.64% | 17 | 90.02% | 44,075 |
| Orlando | 32,847 | 46,174 | 31,324 | -4.64% | 17 | 95.54% | 32,785 |
| NYCFC | 29,016 | 35,514 | 27,196 | -6.27% | 17 | 71.13% | 38,237 |
| Toronto | 23,439 | 30,991 | 26,583 | 13.41% | 17 | 87.95% | 30,226 |
| LA Galaxy | 23,392 | 27,000 | 25,147 | 7.50% | 17 | 97.97% | 25,667 |
| Vancouver | 20,507 | 21,000 | 22,330 | 8.89% | 17 | 100.95% | 22,120 |
| Portland | 21,144 | 20,674 | 21,144 | 0.00% | 17 | 100.00% | 21,144 |
| Montréal | 17,750 | 27,340 | 20,669 | 16.45% | 17 | 90.50% | 21,883 |
| Red Bulls | 19,657 | 25,189 | 20,620 | 4.90% | 17 | 81.86% | 25,189 |
| NE Revs | 19,627 | 22,500 | 20,185 | 2.85% | 17 | 62.53% | 32,280 |
| San Jose | 20,979 | 18,000 | 19,930 | -5.00% | 17 | 95.17% | 20,941 |
| Salt Lake | 20,160 | 20,138 | 19,759 | -1.99% | 17 | 98.12% | 20,138 |
| Sporting KC | 19,687 | 18,467 | 19,597 | -0.46% | 17 | 106.12% | 18,467 |
| Houston | 20,658 | 22,039 | 19,021 | -7.92% | 17 | 86.31% | 22,039 |
| Philadelphia | 17,451 | 18,500 | 17,519 | 0.39% | 17 | 94.70% | 18,500 |
| Columbus | 16,513 | 20,145 | 17,125 | 3.71% | 17 | 85.76% | 19,968 |
| D.C. United | 16,244 | 19,647 | 17,081 | 5.15% | 17 | 79.78% | 21,412 |
| Colorado | 15,657 | 17,424 | 16,278 | 3.96% | 17 | 93.42% | 17,424 |
| Chicago | 16,003 | 20,000 | 15,602 | -2.50% | 17 | 78.01% | 20,000 |
| FC Dallas | 16,013 | 20,500 | 14,094 | -11.98% | 17 | 85.42% | 16,500 |
