The United Soccer League’s 2018 season saw the league draw a Division II record 2.7 million in total attendance, and the league’s average crowd of 4,908 was 14 percent ahead of last year’s. This is despite 19 of the 29 teams that returned from 2017 showing declines in their average crowds ranging from negligible (barely off in the case of Tampa Bay) to very big (34 percent in Rio Grande Valley). (The last column in the table below is year-over-year percentage increase or decrease.)
Success stories included Seattle Sounders 2 (up 226 percent, probably the highest one-year jump ever, though I’d have to check) and good debuts by Nashville FC (averaging 9,561) and Las Vegas Lights FC (6,786). First, the (unofficial) numbers, then, some notes.
| Team | G | Total | Average | Median | High | Low | Diff |
| FC Cincinnati | 17 | 437,197 | 25,717 | 25,667 | 31,478 | 22,407 | +21.3% |
| Sacramento Republic FC | 17 | 192,293 | 11,311 | 11,569 | 11,569 | 9,757 | -2.2% |
| Indy Eleven | 17 | 172,776 | 10,163 | 9,384 | 17,535 | 8,070 | +25.4% |
| Nashville SC | 17 | 162,540 | 9,561 | 8,694 | 18,922 | 7,269 | N/A |
| Louisville City FC | 17 | 134,093 | 7,888 | 7,876 | 10,686 | 6,009 | -8.4% |
| San Antonio FC | 17 | 118,014 | 6,942 | 6,896 | 7,946 | 6,090 | -2.9% |
| Las Vegas Lights FC | 17 | 115,359 | 6,786 | 6,752 | 9,019 | 3,875 | N/A |
| Phoenix Rising FC | 17 | 108,465 | 6,380 | 6,330 | 7,381 | 5,017 | +4.2% |
| Tampa Bay Rowdies | 17 | 99,768 | 5,869 | 5,953 | 7,709 | 4,876 | -0.4% |
| Reno 1868 FC | 17 | 86,128 | 5,066 | 5,060 | 7,103 | 3,224 | -8.9% |
| Fresno FC | 17 | 82,129 | 4,831 | 4,682 | 7,750 | 3,056 | N/A |
| Ottawa Fury FC | 17 | 80,778 | 4,752 | 4,826 | 8,084 | 2,781 | -12.4% |
| North Carolina FC | 17 | 80,414 | 4,730 | 4,026 | 9,505 | 3,169 | +5.8% |
| Rio Grande Valley FC | 17 | 79,049 | 4,650 | 4,468 | 7,846 | 3,058 | -34.2% |
| OKC Energy FC | 17 | 73,071 | 4,298 | 4,041 | 6,757 | 2,574 | +0.1% |
| Saint Louis FC | 17 | 72,615 | 4,271 | 4,039 | 6,018 | 3,127 | -6.6% |
| Richmond Kickers | 17 | 67,594 | 3,976 | 3,867 | 5,869 | 1,519 | -14.8% |
| Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC | 17 | 64,674 | 3,804 | 4,029 | 5,000 | 2,534 | +12.3% |
| Seattle Sounders FC 2 | 17 | 57,285 | 3,370 | 3,051 | 6,049 | 2,090 | +226.2% |
| Orange County SC | 17 | 52,618 | 3,095 | 3,056 | 4,206 | 2,236 | +22.5% |
| Tulsa Roughnecks FC | 17 | 52,599 | 3,094 | 3,058 | 5,203 | 2,135 | -19.7% |
| Charleston Battery | 17 | 48,824 | 2,872 | 2,697 | 4,659 | 1,322 | -8.8% |
| Atlanta United 2 | 17 | 44,158 | 2,598 | 2,087 | 5,615 | 1,269 | N/A |
| Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC | 1The Riverhounds hosted Toronto’s originally scheduled April 7 home game.18 | 43,212 | 2,401 | 2,296 | 3,811 | 840 | -9.0% |
| Bethlehem Steel FC | 17 | 37,832 | 2,225 | 2,220 | 3,342 | 262 | -27.1% |
| Penn FC | 17 | 36,495 | 2,147 | 2,095 | 4,507 | 852 | -11.6% |
| Portland Timbers 2 | 17 | 34,276 | 2,016 | 1,548 | 5,857 | 1,017 | -20.1% |
| Real Monarchs SLC | 17 | 29,432 | 1,731 | 1,644 | 4,065 | 835 | -32.8% |
| Charlotte Independence | 2Charlotte hosted Toronto’s May 19 home game because of poor field conditions in Toronto.18 | 30,218 | 1,679 | 1,547 | 3,312 | 982 | +3.9% |
| LA Galaxy II | 17 | 17,818 | 1,048 | 1,123 | 1,714 | 478 | -13.7% |
| Swope Park Rangers | 17 | 15,496 | 912 | 941 | 1,592 | 458 | -10.2% |
| Toronto FC II | 3Toronto played four “home” games in Rochester and had two other home games moved to Pittsburgh and Charlotte.15 | 12,414 | 828 | 288 | 4,100 | 50 | -13.9% |
| New York Red Bulls II | 17 | 13,805 | 812 | 713 | 1,592 | 498 | +28.5% |
| USL TOTAL | 561 | 2,753,439 | 4,908 | 3,830 | 31,478 | 50 | +14.3% |
NOTES:
- That league average is the highest in Division II since the NASL set the record of 5,913 in 2015. Four of those eleven teams are now in USL, one is in MLS, one is set to play in the new Canadian Premier4tee-hee League in 2019 and three are defunct.
- The 31,478 FC Cincinnati drew for its home finale was a USL record and, effectively, a Division II record, though Minnesota’s announced crowd of 34,047 on August 2, 2014 against Ottawa was higher. The Minnesota/Ottawa match was a postscript to a friendly between Manchester City and Olympiakos. Nowhere near 34,047 stuck around for the NASL match, but if we’re going to be consistent about doubleheaders, it is what it is. Cincinnati’s total and average are far and away DII records.
- The USL’s “independent” teams averaged 6,137, while those owned and operated or under the dominant auspices of an MLS team combined to draw an average of 2,033 per game. The bottom four clubs – and six of the bottom seven – on the attendance chart are MLS2 teams whose objective is player development and not ticket sales. (The lowest-drawing independent club is, aptly, the Charlotte Independence.) The lowest-drawing team, New York, still saw its average go up 28 percent with a move to Montclair State University.
- Month-by-month, USL was very consistent, with five of the eight months of the season averaging between 4,800 and 4,900. June’s 5,341 average was the highest (in 81 games), while April’s 4,605 average was the lowest (63 games).
- Looking for a World Cup bump? USL averaged 4,811 for 219 prior to the tournament in Russia, 5,164 during the games and returned to 4,906 afterwards. (Every club had at least one home game during the World Cup, with a median of 3,845.)
- Real Monarchs SLC may be the first team ever to open a new stadium and see its average attendance drop (from 2,577 to 1,731 in the 5,000-seat Zions Bank Stadium). I would have to check.
- Saturdays were (as they almost always are) the best attended days, on average (5,719), while Thursdays (1,618 for just seven matches) were the worst. And weekend dates (no matter how you define them, whether you count Fridays as a weekend date or not) drew about 50 percent more fans than weekday ones. (Still, the 3,592 average for Monday through Thursday matches would have been a great overall DII average just 15 years ago.)
- Toronto FC II (which will drop to Division III, or USL League One, in 2019), drew better for its “home” games in Rochester (1,491) than in Toronto (667, including a crowd of 50 – five-oh – on April 18 against North Carolina FC).
- Moving from the stadium at IUPUI to the NFL Colts’ Lucas Oil Stadium enabled Indy Eleven to bump its average 25 percent, from 8,102 to 10,163. How that worked out financially overall is still to be revealed.
- Last year’s USL Cup playoffs averaged 5,338, about 1,000 fans per game more than in the regular season. With Cincinnati and Louisville both hosting first-round games in the East and Sacramento and Phoenix home sides in the West’s first round, this year’s playoffs may get off to a good start.
- The to-be-renamed USL Championship will lose Cincinnati to MLS next year (and Nashville, eventually), and Toronto, Richmond and (in 2020) Penn FC to USL League One. They’ll also gain expansion clubs in Austin, Birmingham, El Paso, Hartford, Loudoun, Va., Memphis and Albuquerque. Given the success of most recent USL expansion teams, there’s plenty of reason to be optimistic about what will be a very interesting year in North American soccer.
- These are, as always, unofficial numbers and subject to all the normal caveats about announced attendance versus tickets sold/distributed versus butts in seats. Corrections are always appreciated.
Thanks for this.
I’m not sure how important this is, but it does strike me as amazing how many more soccer teams there are drawing 5000+ a game in the US and Canada now, as opposed to 20-25 years ago. There are probably better indicators of growth than that, and 5000 is a pretty arbitrary number. Nevertheless, a hell of a lot more people in a hell of a lot more locations are in stadiums watching their local team play these days.
You could not be more right, Clyde. The difference is striking. (We also have tons more teams than in 1993, but that’s another indicator.)