October 8 – With 16 matches of the regular season still left to play, Major League Soccer has announced a new league attendance record of more than 11 million fans.
This figure surpasses the 2023 season record of 10,900,804 and is the third consecutive season the MLS has broken the 10 million collective attendance figure.
With the MLS growing its number of franchised clubs – it has now reached 29 and will add San Diego FC and the 34,000-capacity Snapdragon Stadium in 2025 – it is inevitable that aggregate attendance records will be broken,
But the season to date has also seen the setting of a new average attendance record 23,240 per match.
“The arrival of international stars and the work from Clubs to create more unique fan friendly ticket packages and game day experiences are among the key drivers of the continued surge of record-breaking attendance across MLS,” said the league.
Certainly the arrival of Lionel Messi at InterMiami has been a game changer for clubs throughout, many of whom have switched grounds from smaller capacity soccer-specific stadia to local, larger capacity, NFL stadia to accommodate the interest in seeing Messi play.
InterMiami have been sold out all season but have a limited 21,550-capacity at the current stadium in Fort Lauderdale, below the league’s stadium average capacity.
They have a new 25,000-capactiy stadium being built in Miami for opening in 2026. It is not certain that Messi will still be playing by then, but if he isn’t, the stadium may still be too small if the MLS keeps on growing and InterMiami keep winning.
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