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NWSL attendance watch: Week 1

Jeff Kassouf April 15, 2013 38

Through four games and one full weekend of play, average attendance for the National Women’s Soccer League is 3,321, about on par with what Women’s Professional Soccer drew for fans. But the average includes one major outlier in Kansas City (a sellout of 6,784) and a fairly ugly number out of Chicago (1,255).

WUSA’s inaugural game on April 14, 2001, in which the Bay Area CyberRays visited the Washington Freedom at RFK Stadium, drew 34,148 fans. Women’s Professional Soccer’s inaugural match between the Washington Freedom and Los Angeles Sol at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., on March 29, 2009, drew 14,832 fans.

NWSL weekend average (four games): 3,321

Portland Thorns FC @ FC Kansas City (Shawnee Mission District Stadium) — 6,784 (Sellout)

Western New York Flash @ Sky Blue FC (Yurcak Field, Piscataway, N.J.) — 2,611

Seattle Reign FC @ Chicago Red Stars (Village of Lisle-Benedictine Sports Complex, Lisle, Ill.) — 1,255

Washington Spirit @ Boston Breakers (Dilboy Stadium, Somerville, Mass.) — 2,634 (Sellout)

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POSTED IN » Analysis, Boston Breakers, Chicago Red Stars, FC Kansas City, NWSL, Portland Thorns FC, Seattle Reign FC, Sky Blue FC, Washington Spirit, Western New York Flash
About the author: Jeff Kassouf View all posts by Jeff Kassouf

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  • http://www.facebook.com/jlriordan Johanna Riordan

    Good thing these matches are being played at smaller stadia then!

    • Gerson22

      There are still expenses to be met. They won’t all be met by crowds <3k.

  • http://www.facebook.com/jbraeback Jeremiah Mitchell Braeback

    Just wait until Sunday. We’re expecting at least 14,000 in Portland for the match against the Reign!

  • Greg

    That small attendance in Chicago is probably partly due to where the Red Stars are playing. On a good day, it probably takes an hour to get out to Lisle from the north side of Chicago. I was really disappointed that they couldn’t work something out with Northwestern University or Loyola or DePaul to play closer to the city.

    • randomhookup

      I went to see what CRS averaged in WPSLE last year, but Kenn’s blog on attendance doesn’t have any data.

    • Gerson22

      Are people from the north side of Chicago the only people who matter? Or who would make up a Red Stars crowd? If they played on the north side, would that not inconvenience someone else? If they played in Bridgeview, would that not inconvenience someone else? I think that small attendance in Chicago is probably MOSTLY due to the Red Stars’ front office. Not the location. Not the weather. Not this or that or the other. But a paucity of resources expended by their front office.

      • Steglitz49

        Your point about the Red Stars’ PR-dept is well taken. More people live in the Chicago metro area than in the whole of Sweden, so why is it not possible to get 6,000 to 9,000 to a game in Chicago? 1255 is abysmal.

        Women’s soccer seems to suffer from entitlement syndrome. It is a florid case. Let’s hope it is not terminal.

  • Momo

    Is it fair to really compare current attendance vs past attendance? Particularly since they are now playing in much smaller stadiums (from what I understand), so it is physically impossible for the average attendance to get anywhere near 10-15k fans simply due to lack of seats that can possibly be filled.

    • newsouth

      yep. flash, boston, washington and sbfc play in old wps stadiums. only difference is less big name internationals and salary caps with federations covering the big contacts. also, ussoccer brings along its’ big money sponsors like nike, gatorade, etc. if atlanta returns, where do you think they will play? kennesaw?

      • randomhookup

        Boston is NOT in their old WPS stadium. They averaged 4,400 in Harvard’s 30k stadium. Their current stadium is Dilboy Field, a state owned stadium in Somerville. Its current seating capacity is 2500 and they are planning to add 1000 seats when the ground is dry enough.

        • Steglitz49

          One of the big advantages that the ladies teams that belong to wealthy clubs have is that those clubs own the fields on which the ladies play. Indeed, for certain matches the ladies play in the men’s stadium. That is how Lyon can cope with such huge numbers.

          To their eternal shame, the women of London did not step up to the plate a couple of seasons ago when Arsenal moved their Ladies match against Chelsea Ladies to Emirates stadium. Only 5,000 spectators showed up. London has a population of 10 to 20 million depending on where you draw the line. With sisters like that, women’s soccer hardly needs enemies.

        • newsouth

          they played a playoff game in that stadium during the wps days, so it’s an old stadium. they knew the seating deal from years ago.

          • http://twitter.com/BostonRedSoccer Boston Red

            If you say so…

            They played their WPSLE season there last year, so no one ever suggested that the seating was a “surprise.” They knew they weren’t going to average what they did in WPS.

  • luke

    3000 is great number, but is it sustainable?
    Even 2000 would be so much better than attendance in european leagues.

    • heremerawr

      Yeah, but the European leagues are supported by wealthy men’s clubs. Portland Thorns is kinda owned by the Timbers — who do not have nearly the same amount of money — and that’s about it. Hopefully we can get the averages to increase rather than decrease for this league.

      • Steglitz49

        For the USAWNT the NCAA can continue to provide the cannon fodder. Nevertheless, if the rich men’s club raise their support, the NCAA will not be enough at the top.

      • Steglitz49

        Not all the wealthy men’s teams support women’s sides. Real Madrid never had one and Man Utd closed down theirs 8 years ago, which Chelsea almost did had it not been for John Terry stepping in and opening his wallet.

        Most women’s team have flourished where there has been no good men’s team. That may well be changing in the second decade of the new millennium.

    • Steglitz49

      Someone has to pick up the tab at the end of the day. If USA can create a financially viable ladies’ professional football league, they will have entered Nirvana and cut the Gordian knot.

  • sol1711

    the german women football, soccer, bundesliga there for 23 years, founded 1990.
    it has a number of spectators in the season 2011/2012 by 148 000
    it is this league for 23 years, it was the first attempt to set up a profi league.
    in the usa, it is the third experiment, and must not fail.

    • Momo

      Where is your 148k number coming from? Are we talking the sum of all attendance for the whole season for all 12 teams for 24 total bundesliga matches in a season? Because that works out to about an average of 600 fans per match per team… If you think throwing out a big number and expecting people to be wowwed, you may want to try again. The German bundesliga is fairly stable, but every year, there are still a couple of teams that face bankruptcy and must be helped either by their municipality or other teams. The NWSL is starting out small with a semi pro setup, like the German bundesliga is doing right now. The advantage the BuLi has right now is that their big teams like FFC, TP and Wolfsburg were able to draw big name sponsors or they are part of men’s teams that are ok with providing them a pitch to play on and practice facilities. However, in terms of attendance, most of the teams outside of CL or cup matches don’t draw well at all.

      • Steglitz49

        Sol is mixing and matching with gay abandon. 148,000 is the total attendance in 132 matches in Germany to compare with 110,000 in Sweden for the same number of matches. Sweden has 1/9th the population of Germany.

        Last season Potsdam averaged 2533 per game, Frankfurt 2446 and Duisburg, who now are in financial dire straits, 1655.

        The median attendance in sweden last year was 563 with an inter-quartile range of 339 to 989. Only 5 matches out of 132 had >2622 spectators. On the other hand, more people live in the Chicago metro area than in Sweden.

        • sol1711

          the usa has a population of 300 000 000 million people, the nwsl and the clubs must 60 000 spectators pro game.

          • Steglitz49

            Even Emirates stadium only seats 60 000 so let’s not set the bar too high.

            USA = 4x Germany so based on that Portland will match Potsdam, Seattle Frankfurt, and KC already are ahead of Duisburg.

      • sol1711

        yes, but the buli is 23 years old and she has 12 clubs, always
        and she has a 2 division with 24 clubs

      • sol1711
  • Keithustus

    Is 3,000 sustainable? That is coincidentally the number that the Washington Spirit owner said was the key figure in a statement to fansposted to the team site a week ago.

    • Steglitz49

      No. Only if the NWSL keeps paying starvation wage and rely on US Soccer for free players.

      All women’s soccer around the globe is an artificial activity in that it is subsidized. The only differences is who picks up the tab.

  • dw

    Lyon drew like 8,000 more than all these games put together…

    • Steglitz49

      And the population of Lyon is that of KC both for the city and the metro area.

      On the other hand, it was a CL semifinal and the other SF in London only got 1500 spectators. Make of that what you will.

    • http://twitter.com/JeffKassouf Jeff Kassouf

      Lyon is Lyon, and that was a Champions League semifinal. What about the rest of the French league? Portland has already sold more tickets for Sunday’s opener than all four of these games combined.

    • necron99

      And even the lowest of these teams brought in more than the 100 people that watch the majority of French D1 games. Other that Lyon few games hit 1000.

  • Steglitz49

    “The average attendance for the National Women’s Soccer League is 3,321″. It depends. Because they are a small number of matches and independent discrete events, it would be better to work with medians and ranges, and inter-quartile ranges once there are enough matches.

    The median attendance was 2,622. That is 700 less than the mean. The mean is skewed by the big crowd in KC. KC is an outlier.

    • Gerson22

      Jesus, not only are you a freaking naive fanboy, you’re a pedant, too?

    • Gerson22

      Jesus, not only are you a freaking naive fanboy, you’re a pedant, too?

      • Steglitz49

        The fans in Portland expect to get 14,000 at their match. If you replace the 6,784 by 14,000 the median does not change while the mean increases to 5,125. That is 1,804 more than 3,321.

        The issue is, as you yourself have noted, why only 1,255 showed up in Chicago? Indeed, why does Boston use a stadium that apparently seats 2,600 when several commentators here claim that 3,000 per game is a minimum?

        Though it is heart-warming that more people show up to the least attended game than to some of the best attended matches in Europe and Japan, it is irrelevant because these matches are being played in USA and in cities with jolly large populations to boot.

  • JD

    Well “Chicago” plays far outside Chicago, and Sky Blue play far outside NYC. Hopefully when/if they add teams next year, they look to Vancouver and Toronto/Montreal.

    • Gerson22

      Which would be great…if an owner in those markets steps forward. If they don’t, where the league “looks” won’t matter. At all.

  • Paul Atkinson

    Think that was an outlier in KC? Wait until the numbers come in from JELD-WEN field this weekend. There will be more fans there than attended all four of last weekend’s games put together.

    That’s not spoken with as much pride as I’d like. Rather, I intend it as a challenge to fans across the league: get out there and support your team! Bring a friend!