The Major Arena Soccer League season is more than a third of the way done, and its crowd figures are very similar to nearly every year in the league’s history.
Through games of Jan. 20, 2025, the MASL’s 12 teams are averaging a collective 2,321, which, if it held up, would only be slightly ahead of last year’s final figure (2,175), and in line with the year before that (2,211) and the last year prior to COVID (2,554). This league isn’t growing very much.
First, the numbers through yesterday, then some analysis.
| Team | G | Total | Average | Median | High | Low |
| Kansas City Comets | 4 | 17,891 | 4,473 | 4,377 | 5,121 | 4,017 |
| Milwaukee Wave | 5 | 17,159 | 3,432 | 3,177 | 4,588 | 2,253 |
| Utica City FC | 3 | 10,066 | 3,355 | 3,291 | 3,756 | 3,019 |
| San Diego Sockers | 6 | 18,869 | 3,145 | 3,353 | 4,508 | 1,789 |
| St. Louis Ambush | 5 | 12,511 | 2,502 | 2,802 | 2,954 | 1,252 |
| Empire Strykers | 5 | 12,226 | 2,445 | 2,592 | 3,409 | 1,000 |
| Tacoma Stars | 3 | 5,515 | 1,838 | 1,987 | 2,497 | 1,031 |
| Dallas Sidekicks | 3 | 4,672 | 1,557 | 1,595 | 1,602 | 1,475 |
| Baltimore Blast | 4 | 5,758 | 1,440 | 1,460 | 1,775 | 1,063 |
| Harrisburg Heat | 2 | 2,723 | 1,362 | 1,362 | 1,404 | 1,319 |
| Chihuahua Savage | 8 | 9,160 | 1,145 | 953 | 1,830 | 759 |
| Texas Outlaws | 3 | 1,845 | 615 | 520 | 924 | 401 |
| MASL TOTAL | 51 | 118,395 | 2,321 | 2,105 | 5,121 | 401 |
NOTES:
- These are all announced numbers and subject to all the caveats that every attendance figure in the history of ever has been subject to.
- Kansas City, which has led the league the last two years in average announced attendance, is on top again (though down slightly from last year).
- San Diego’s new arena (which is about 38 miles north1Distance isn’t always indicative of travel time in California, especially. of the Sockers’ ancestral home) isn’t packing them in just yet. But their announced figures are nearly double what last year’s were, and as they’re keeping the revenue and not paying exorbitant rent2Or if they are, it’s to themselves., they’re likely doing way better financially. Doing better financially is good. The bottom line is the bottom line.
- Even with the departure of last season’s poorest-drawing franchise, Monterrey, the league is slightly down overall because Texas (pictured, above, which is being propped up by other league owners) and Chihuahua (which is putting paid to the notion that all you have to do is win and you’ll draw) are averaging a combined 1,000 fans per game, or slightly less than Monterrey announced last year. Without those two drags, the league is at 2,685, which is still not great, but is at least something.
- If every team in the league held its current average (and things normally pick up after New Year’s because December is such a bad month to try and sell this sport), the MASL would finish at 2,276, or five percent ahead of last year.
There are still 93 games left in the season (over the next two-plus months), so there’s a chance for more growth in San Diego and possibly in Kansas City. Those two are lynchpins and if this league is going to do anything more than just hang around, they (along with Utica) need to be leading the charge.
This is good analysis. You should put it in the MASL fan group. One of the big issues in following the league is there is no independent journalism. Fans depend on press releases and guessing, and the league office never shares the truth. Unless you’re a clear success, why would they. I’ve studied this league with fascination for 10 years. How do they survive. Whatever their formula is, it’s amazing.
The standards in minor leagues are AAA baseball, AHL hockey and now NLL, which I believe is at 6-8k in many of the same arenas. So to survive on 2k as many of these do, is a puzzle, yet admirable.
Some teams have small arenas, so have to factor that in. Utica, which I think is 3800, is almost filling it. Chihuahua is only 2k, and I’d guess they pay no rent. I think Sockers get a pass this season, as they are building a new fan base. New arena is an hour north of their longtime home. Only a few hundred diehard fans are making that trek. So it’s still uncertain if they can convert north county families into fans. Mesquite and Dallas need to merge. And I’d try another club in Mexico.
Thanks for writing, Glenn.
It’s been my experience that MASL fans (at least the ones online) aren’t that interested in truth, only in having what they already “know” to be reinforced. Sharing any type of analysis with most of them is problematic.
It’s hard to believe that there was a time when indoor soccer in America was not only a viable product, but it basically ran *outdoor* soccer out of business, at least as a big-time national sport. It would be a decade after the NASL’s demise for MLS to get going…and by then, indoor soccer was largely played out.
No, not really. Outdoor soccer ran itself out of business, partially (and only partially) because of its dalliance with indoor. The NASL’s grand year-round plan (a blog post sitting in drafts) distracted from their core problems of a lack of infrastructure, vision and dedication.
When MLS launched, indoor was light-years ahead of where it is today. The decline accelerated because players who in the past would have had no choice but to play indoors suddenly had a choice. And that’s been exacerbated by the fact that players can make a decent living (and have CBA-protected working conditions) even in USL and not get blown up on a carpet in Utica on some random Sunday.
Indoor soccer peaked in June 1987. And within months, the slide began. It was viable at a time when there were few other soccer options and, let’s be fair, fewer sportainment options. There was no arena football, no WNBA, no widespread lacrosse. All of those things had a hand in indoor’s slide into irrelevance.
Good article…
I’ve actually wanted to attend a Tacoma Stars game, but the franchise plays in Kent, Washington(which is in King County); I live outside of Tacoma, and if the Stars ever returned to the Tacoma Dome(which is a lot closer to my house than Kent), I would go more often.
There is one other thing that the MASL, and indoor soccer as a whole I wish would do that might at least get more people interested; it sounds unusual, but as Arena Football, Minor League Baseball, Minor League Hockey, and even the National Lacrosse League(NLL) have had video games featuring their franchises over the years, how about an Indoor Soccer video game?
Even as just a downloadable game for the XBox/PlayStation online stores; I mean, I know there’s an indoor mode in FIFA Soccer games, but it’s not the same…
No, you’re not wrong, Adam – not at all.
Those other leagues did (or do) have video games, but only after their popularity reached the point where a game company felt there was enough of a following to make the R&D and marketing worth while. Right now it’s hard to make that case, just as it’s hard to make the case that if you did go through all that, it would boost interest in attending or watching actual MASL games.
Right now, half the teams in the league can’t get 2,000 people to a game, and the online audience at any given point in most games is in the three figures.
The league also thought having games broadcast on Twitch would lead to a whole new audience, and it didn’t. Those who want to play video games seem to want to play, not so much attend and follow, the leagues the games are based on. And until there are more people interested in actually following and attending and caring about the games, a video game might be quite a ways off.
Thanks for taking the time to comment!