If MLS is set to pass the NHL in popularity how long ago did it pass the NBA?

I think you have to also factor in SCHEDULE. I have no idea how many games MLS play but I cannot imagine that they have 41 home dates. Less than half that? Someone will fill in that blank.

When you look at it from that perspective.........the NFL gets 70k at a game.......but there is no way they could do that if they played 30-40 games at home per year. They play 8 home dates so they can do it. Ditto Nascar, would they do that if they had that many races in the same locale?

Just looked it up........34 regular season games so that is 17 home dates.

If NHL teams had 17 home games which were all scheduled on the week-ends then they could get 30-40k per game.

It's all relative. Higher average attendance does not equal more popularity. Although, apparently NASCAR is hugely popular....but soccer is not up there.

EDIT- Thank You

As others have said, average attendance is meaningless if you are comparing popularity. Total attendance for the season is of more use, and ticket prices also factor in. Yes, he Seattle Sounders sold and average of 30,000 tickets at $30 for 17 games. That means that their fans were willing to shell out $15 million to see their games. The Vancouver Canucks (their closest NHL team) on the other hand sold 18,860 for 40 home games @$65, or over $50 million for gate alone.

A team that can sell $50 million worth of tickets is obviously a lot more viable than one that can sell $15 million. Remember, the Sounders have the BEST attendance in th MLS, the Canucks are down the list a bit in the NHL (although only because of building size).

MLS is not even remotely on a par with the NHL, let alone any of the more popular team sports in the US.

Those numbers are so phony in the real world of sports. As of this season only the Seattle and Toronto teams are even profitable and the league has a crazy low salary cap (even though they have the "exception" rule to sign stars....how they landed Beckham). Also if you take away the Philly and Seattle numbers the attendance is paltry at best and both of those are new entries into the world of soccer....lets see where their attendance levels off to once the honeymoon period is over. They note how a couple teams have better attendance than the Blackhawks...the Hawks play to a full arena while the 2 teams with higher attendance both play to less than half capacity. Sounds like a promo piece written by a soccer fan trying to make reality out to be meaningless. Once they start achieving profitability and play to capacity crowds, land real tv deals and actually pay out reasonable salaries (by the sports world standard) then maye they can talk but for now they can only pretend to be a real factor in establishing a niche in the greater sports world in the states. Certainly with the changing demographics there may come a time especially given the increased popularity of the sport at the high school level that is will challenge the "big 4" as a player but that day is still a ways off. Bottom line is as sports action goes soccer will always struggle to be mainstream because of the lack of speed, pace of game and lack of scoring.

Quick name 3 MLS teams and 2 players on that team. U probably can't and that is one example of how this article is bs. One, average attendance is a terrible way of measuring attendance between sports. Total attendance is much better and looking at the 2009 stats for each team u can see that only the sounders had a higher total than only the Pheonix team. Also if u look at the tv ratings for the finals last year the NHL destroyed the MLS. The NHL got about a 3.5 overnight rating while the MLS got about a .6 which is not even close. You can also look at the salary cap for each league, NHL has about 60 million cap while MLS is about 4 million.

You can't compare these things for all sorts of reasons. But the main reason is a 32 game season in MLS(34 this season). 16 home games. That isn't even HALF the total home games an NHL or NBA team plays. Don't you think that makes a difference? If NFL teams played 41 home games would it still pack stadiums night after night? Or, if baseball played fewer games, would the place still look so empty? Supply obviously plays a role in ticket sales.

I promise you if MLS teams played 41 home games they would not average anywhere near that number. That's all anyone really needs to know in comparing MLS attendance to the NBA/NHL. It's apples to oranges.

It seems to me that article took the one metric it could possibly find and stated it completely out of context to make a point that everyone and their mother knows isn't true.

I'm going to copy and paste a comment on that article and I think it sums what I have to say up:

"Actual game attendance really is a terrible statistic to go by to measure popularity. They play outdoors at larger stadiums. I guess we should move all the sports down and count NASCAR as the #1 sport then. If MLS is about to pass the NHL then the NBA shouldn't be very far behind either.

Come back when it has the same TV viewership as the other sports. "

I'm no expert for this Question, but I'll give my opinions on it lol

After reading the article, The number one thing that stood out to me what the "Hispanic popularity". Obviously Hispanics love the sport of Soccer....and It doesn't surprise me that not to many of them are into watching Hockey. The growing number in Hispanics coming to America I guess could potentially hurt the NHL. (Not to get all political, but I wonder how many of them are legal?) With that being said, I think the size of an arena definately matters.

The Article says "Among the largest crowds, the Seattle Sounders’ average of 36,173 MLS fans a game dwarfed the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks, who drew an average 21,353 fans."

But, the article fails to mention other Hockey Leagues, Like Europe and College Hockey. Michigan vs Michigan state's "Big Chill at the Big House" drew in 113,411 attendence (they ended up certifying it at 104,173). And that's an outdoor College Hockey game, that holds the record for Largest crowd ever in Any Ice Hockey tournement. So I think the Stadium holding the event of the sport can result in the attendence automatically.

I don't know like I said lol. I just think the Growing rate of the MLS depends on several things, The race of a person, the city your live in, the country you live in, etc. The South loves their Nascar, Hispanics love Soccer, Canadians love Hockey, but that doesn't mean everyone falls into a "Stereotype". Not once have any of my friends or anyone I've met in real life has ever brought up their love for Soccer, or watching a Soccer game. However, Hockey, Basketball, Football and Baseball is always brought up. I obviously cannot speak for everyone, but that's my experience. Hopefully the NHL will just continue to grow in ratings, Like on Versus or NBC. Here though we don't get the TSN channel, and I think the more Hockey channels available for people would help out the popularity of the sport. ESPN is a joke when it comes to Hockey, So It's basically relying on Versus, NBC, and Local Sports Network, Like Fox Sports Detroit. CBC is great to have, though not everyone can get that channel either...unless your close to Windsor like Detroit is.

casey is exactly right. The television ratings of nhl far go ahead of nba and mls and nascar. nascar, mls, mlb, and nfl play in much bigger arenas. nhl and nba can fit 20,000 people in an arena. im a huge flyers fan and every flyers game is sold out, i dont know anybody who goes to watch a mls game. but no i dont think that will ever surpass nhl or nba

@US Soccer klinsmann the receivers would be all right at soccer but i can just imagine those 300 pound 50% body fat linemen lasting about a minute and a half. Football players dont have to run much and i dont think they could play all 90 mins of a soccer/real football game without getting a heart attack

Here's a list of attendance's for all major sporting events in the world. It's interesting how much Hockey has caught up to Basketball, Im sure it's past it this season.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sports_attend...