MLS Next Pro 2024 Attendance Report
With the 2024 regular season on the books, let's talk attendance...
In terms of attendance, the 2024 season was a banner year for the league. It saw the continued success of existing clubs Huntsville City and North Texas SC, welcomed two new independent teams in Chattanooga FC and Carolina Core, saw two reserve teams enter into partnerships that relocated and rebranded them to Ventura County FC and The Town FC, and saw reserve team St. Louis CITY 2 break the all-time attendance record, twice.
MLS Next Pro is more of a mixed bag when it comes to attendance than I think most realize. While the majority of the teams in the league see very small crowds, true, around 10 or so get normal D3 soccer crowds (~1k - 4k) and would fit in just as well in USL1.
Consistent Reporters
Thanks to the new independent clubs, the league now has four teams that consistently report attendance (which, if anyone from those clubs are reading this, is very much appreciated!). As you’d expect, these teams tend to have some of the best and most passionate support in the league.
Huntsville City ends the year with a slight drop in attendance (I suspect it’s “tickets distributed”) after a highly successful inaugural season. Some of that drop is likely the newness wearing off, but some of it is also likely the poor results on the field which saw the team win just 3 games at home all year. Despite that, they once again top the league in average attendance.
For Carolina Core, it wasn’t a forgone conclusion that they would have such impressive attendance. They didn’t enter the season with over a decade of history like their fellow indie club in Chattanooga, and they didn’t have the financial support and marketing reach of a parent MLS club like Huntsville and North Texas do. Even so, they come in at #2 on the list and have shown they know how to pack their stadium. With a growing Supporter’s Group known as “Carolina Skulk”, this team has a bright future ahead.
With Chattanooga FC however, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that they are near the top of the league in average attendance. Their fans would show up during armageddon if the team happened to be playing a game at the time. In 2024, the club set a new club record for average attendance, so any questions about whether MLSNP would hurt attendance can be comfortably put to bed.
The final club on our list is a North Texas SC, who have always shown a willingness to be transparent and publish data, and that allows us to dive a bit deeper with them. While an average attendance of 1,090 isn’t groundbreaking, a 3% uptick compared to last year is notable. Further, it’s also a continuing trend of year-over-year improvement after Covid derailed the 2020 USL season.
It’s an encouraging sign for a club stuck in a less-than-deal stadium situation. You see, NTX plays in a former Major League Baseball stadium with a capacity of over 48,000. As you can imagine, any sort of atmosphere is drowned out under the layers of empty upper decks. Looking to the future though, it is highly likely that a new 5k-capacity soccer stadium being built in Mansfield, TX will be their future home.
Occasional Reporters
This next group are some of the most frustrating clubs in the league when it comes to attendance. In most cases, they consistently get great attendance and yet still don’t release those numbers except for the occasional season high. Or, in CITY2’s case, whenever they break the attendance record (again).
CITY2 tops this group after breaking the all-time attendance record twice this season. Earlier in the year, they became the first club in MLSNP history to break 10,000 (10,671). Then, on decision day, they shattered it again with a crowd of 12,022. While these games are of course outliers, it should be noted that even a normal game gets somewhere around 2,000-3,000 based on what I’ve seen and heard. Unfortunately they choose not to release those numbers.
The Town FC has just one number that was “reported” this season. In a press release prior to their first ever home game at PayPal Park (which is not their normal stadium), they announced “over 5,500” tickets were distributed. I’ve rounded down here for obvious reasons. With that said, as with CITY2, based on what I’ve seen from broadcasts, pictures, and videos, they routinely attract crowds of 1,500-3,000.
Update: Per a social media post on December 6th, The Town averaged 1,200 fans.
Ventura County FC had an impressive first season attendance wise, especially when you consider they were formally introduced to the world just weeks before the season and didn’t have much of a runway to build excitement. Nonetheless, they’ve been able to grow a passionate fanbase in short period of time, and based on what I’ve seen I suspect they average around 1,000-1,500.
FC Cincinnati 2 has been the league’s most improved club on the field, finishing 1st in the Eastern Conference after a very rough first two seasons. But it’s what they are doing off of it that is worth paying attention to. This season the club announced 3 regular season sellouts (~1,000 tickets available), each with about a ~60% show rate. They’ve also announced on the 18th that Sunday’s Round 1 playoff game is sold out.
Looking to the future, FCC2 is (“allegedly”) launching a full rebrand for the 2025 season. In my opinion, the club has been using 2024 to prepare for this launch while slowly introducing the Northern Kentucky community to the team.
Crown Legacy is included here, but they have not reported any attendance. Carolina Core actually reported their number after Matchweek 1. Carolina sent over 500 traveling supporters to that game.
Never Reporters
Every other team lands in this grouping. With 21 teams not reporting anything, there is inevitably going to be a variety of unique circumstances. To make it easier to understand, I’ve put them into these 2 groups:
Small crowds, but welcoming to fans
Austin FC II - They generally have a great home atmosphere and I’d estimate ~600 fans on average depending on the game. Their crowds were even covered in the local news last year due to the buzz around “FCito”.
Crown Legacy - In their inaugural season last year they averaged an attendance of 1,200. This year, the eye test tells me attendance has dipped a bit.
Union II & Capys (Crew2) - I’m including both of these teams in here, but mostly because each has a dedicated SG (Bridge Brigade & Capy Brava respectively) that the FOs welcome and support. However, neither club seems to be putting a lot of resources into it either. Both teams play in MLS stadiums as well, which certainly does not help.
There are a number of other teams in this group such as SKC II, NE Revs II, Rapids 2, MNUFC II, etc. who don’t push fans away, but also don’t put much effort into bringing them in. I’d argue the majority of teams in the league fall into this category.
Small crowds, actively avoiding fans
Inter Miami II - This club does not make tickets available at all as far as I can tell. They haven’t mentioned “tickets” on their socials since 2022 (save for the playoff game this year)… It’s clear they explicitly do not want crowds outside of friends & family, or the occasional STH.
Tacoma/TFC2/Fire2/ATL2 - These teams do a bit better than Miami by at least having tickets available, but they really don’t promote them much either (if at all).
Real Monarchs - This club probably would have been in the above group last year, but this season has seen a complete and total abandonment of the club. Resources have very clearly been taken away from the team, and for me this might be the most disappointing situation of them all. The potential is there, the effort from the club is not.
Final Thoughts
MLS Next Pro has a reputation for not having many fans at games, and in most cases it’s well-earned. However, that is clearly changing as more and more clubs figure out who they want to be, or look to hand the game day operations over to a 3rd party like we’ve seen in California.
The vision for the league is clearly to have more Ventura County FC’s than Inter Miami II’s. I believe it will get there, even if a number of teams drag their feet on investing the necessary resources to pull it off.
Lastly, if you want to share anything, you can always email me via nextpronews@gmail.com or DM me on Twitter.
As a semi-regular attendee of SKC II matches in Lawrence, I feel that the team has made attempts to draw in fans (they partnered with the town's tourism board to give out free tickets) but I don't think there was a ton of on-the-ground outreach about getting people out to matches. They could have done more to get fans out if they'd had more of a presence at community events or had done more advertising in town. Our regular season attendance probably was on par with the University of Kansas soccer team's average attendance. Last year's playoff game against Austin was a really good atmosphere, though.
PS - I love the work you're doing on this site!
A potential investor in an indie MLSNP would be scared off by the lackluster to no or negative effort put in by many teams in the league, and which has no consequences. It's a malaise that is contagious and damaging to drumming up potential interest --and profits-- in MLSNP. The crappiest clubs in the league are tolerated. Furthermore, being hidden behind the AppleTV paywall further limits exposure. Thus overall, the USL is thus a more assured and promising options for that money, with a rising tide (and culling of fraudulent and underperforming clubs).