Major League Soccer picked an unfortunate year to move its season-opening date forward two weeks.
Instead of its usual position starting the same weekend as Major League Baseball, MLS is already three weeks into the 2009 campaign, making it the first sport to open its season in the face of the down-turned economy, and the first to see what appears to be a significant effect on attendance.
D.C. United has averaged 14,245 fans in its first two home games, well off from season averages of 19,835 last year and 20,967 in 2007.
“We do feel the economy is a factor early on as has been the weather prior to last weekend,” said D.C. United spokesman Doug Hicks. “But it’s not typical that we have two games before Easter.”
League-wide, attendance is down from 16,460 last year to 14,696 so far — despite an average of more than 30,000 over two games in Seattle. Half of teams have only played one game at home, and league spokesman Dan Courtemanche preferred not to comment until more games have been played.
Just under 16,000 showed up at RFK Stadium for United’s chilly, misty home opener on March 28. But less than 13,000 were on hand last Saturday to see United beat two-time MLS champion Houston, 1-0, despite perfect weather conditions. A cherry blossom-filled weekend of activities across Washington also may have been partly to blame.
“One of the main things that we’re seeing that has a negative effect on attendance to this point is youth soccer just started this past weekend,” said Hicks.
United’s season tickets haven’t taken a big hit — renewals for the year are above 90 percent — and similar to baseball, the number of single-game attendees should start to rise as the temperature goes up.
“The economy forces people at times to pick and choose games to go to rather than having carte blanche to games whenever they like,” said Hicks. “Given that case, they look at things like when the weather is better.”
