Seattle Success Showing Up Other MLS Support?

While the recent announcement that the expansion Seattle Sounders FC has sold some 20,000 season tickets marks an “unprecedented” success and seems like a huge shot in the arm for the league, it also serves to cast a spotlight on just how few MLS teams regularly draw those kinds of crowds.

As Goal.com’s Kyle McCarthy writes, of the league’s 15 teams, “only Toronto (16,000 or so season ticket holders, a lengthy waiting list and a rocking BMO Field every game) and Los Angeles (26,000 average at the Home Depot) can approach those numbers.” McCarthy goes on to point out that “most teams can’t draw crowds of 18,000 consistently, never mind cycling that number of season-ticket holders through the turnstiles on a regular basis.”

While acknowledging that MLS is operating on “relatively sturdy footing,” he also maintains that “Seattle and Toronto’s resounding commercial success redefines what it means to prosper as a MLS franchise” and that “suddenly, the consistent numbers and the steady business models followed in Chicago, Houston and D.C. pale in comparison.”