photo courtesy of Jarred DonalsonContinuing with another attendance comparison after Kansas City's 3rd game of the season. The game last night was announced as a sell out, 18,467, that means through 3 games so far this season, KC is averaging 18,953. As I said in the original write up on this, I'm going to compare the attendance as the season goes on. The attendances are pulled from the press releases or the media guide for the team.
Here is the 3rd home game attendance for Kansas City, for the first two weeks, check out the previous entry here.
1996 - Arrowhead
17,706
Average - 15,898
1997 - Arrowhead
6,272
Average - 8,292
1998 - Arrowhead
11,500
Average - 8,643
1999 - Arrowhead
4,815
Average - 9,546
2000 - Arrowhead
7,380
Average - 6,723
2001 - Arrowhead
14,521
Average - 10,661
2002 - Arrowhead
21,301
Average - 14,569
2003 - Arrowhead
16,006
Average - 17,665
2004 - Arrowhead
27,969 - third highest in team history
Average - 19,293
2005 - Arrowhead
10,007
Average - 11,833
2006 - Arrowhead
8,138
Average - 11,572
2007 - Arrowhead
10,141
Average - 8,335
2008 - Community America Ballpark
8,096
Average - 9,071
2009 - Community America Ballpark
10,385
Average - 9,231
2010 - Community America Ballpark
10,045
Average - 10,219
2011 - LiveSTRONG Sporting Park
18,467
Average - 18,953
Below are the rankings of the average attendances per season. The number in parenthesis is the amount the year has moved up or down compared to their rankings after two home games.
1. 2004 - 19,293 (+3)
2. 2011 - 18,953 (-1)
3. 2003 - 17,665 (-1)
4. 1996 - 15,898 (-1)
5. 2002 - 14,569 (+3)
6. 2005 - 11,833 (-)
7. 2006 - 11,572 (-2)
8. 2001 - 10,661 (+4)
9. 2010 - 10,219 (-)
10. 1999 - 9,546 (-3)
11. 2009 - 9,231 (+2)
12. 2008 - 9,071 (-2)
13. 1998 - 8,643 (+2)
14. 2007 - 8,335 (-)
15. 1997 - 8,292 (-4)
16. 2000 - 6,723 (-)
The biggest movers between the years was 2001 which moved up 4 spots with over 14,000 in attendance for the third game of the season, and the 1997 season which fell 4 spots after only 6,272 showed up. The 2011 season falls to second currently thanks to almost 28,000 showing up for KC's third game of the season in 2004, the third highest attendance in team history.
9 comments:
There had to be a couple thousand empty seats last night...that many people bought tickets and didn't show up? Strange.
It seems that they are going to call every game a sellout. But yes, I stayed home to watch the US - Mexico game and I couldn't be happier having watched that game live
Well, there are supposed to be some 11,000+ season ticketholders, and it is tough to make it to every single game. A hot night in late June when the US was playing Mexico might have sounded like a good game to miss for a good few STH.
It's a matter of reporting tickets sold. All teams do this, it's not unique to KC, don't try to make something out of nothing.
Also, look at the photo at the start of the article. There are tons of people on the area above the Cauldron that arent sitting in their seats...maybe if they did it wouldnt have looked like there were so many empty seats...Hell I spent some time up there myself and the view totally rocks!
re: dan -- not sure anyone was making a deal of the policy of counting seats sold, not butts in seats. I think all the comments were operating on that understanding, and discussing theories why people who purchased tickets would not show up.
re:Iknowthatwewillwin -- the picture is not from this weekend's game, when we beat Vancouver. The opposing team in that photo is Chicago, the opening night opponent, when the announced attendance was 20,000+.
That does raise something of a question -- do we assume that when they do manage to sell a bunch of SRO tickets, like on opening night such that the announced attendance actually exceeds the listed capacity for the stadium, that they are just counting the "total tickets sold, including SRO" or do they then use an actual attendance number?
MLS and MLS teams have always fudge attendance. Look at FCD, they rarely look to have the same amount of people there as they say. The stand across from the main TV camera showed quite a few empty seats for the game. But Sporting KC is still finding their feet and they're still an MLS 1.0 team playing an expansion team, so I feel that has something to do with it. Both teams are still near the bottom of the league, too.
KC Gunner - yes, you are correct about the game photo. I should have been more specific. But that doesnt invalidate my point, which was that there have ALWAYS been lots of people up there (yes always means all 3 game nights), even on Sat night...including me!
@Drew
I asked a similar question about Dallas a while ago.
The response I got was that the apparent lack of attendance is is due to the lack of roof covering in the texas heat and the fact that neither cameras or fans like to look directly into the sun.
Makes sense, but empty seats is still empty seats.
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