With LAFC and the Galaxy playing at the Rose Bowl this week, it's fair to question whether MLS teams should still be playing games in smaller stadiums.
Major League Soccer was born 28 years ago in cavernous NFL stadiums. Three seasons later, the league was averaging 14,312 fans a game in venues built to house five times that many. At most games it was so quiet you could hear each team’s profits drop. So with the league on the verge of bankruptcy in 2002, clubs began building their own soccer-specific stadiums with smaller grandstands, wider fields and a much better atmosphere.
Two seasons later, Nashville’s average attendance of 28,605 in fifth-best in MLS, trailing four teams that play in NFL stadiums. “We have 24,000 season-ticket holders and we’ve been sold out of premium since Day 1,” Ayre said. “So I think we made the right decision. Maybe we need to be bigger.” Teams with a more modest season-ticket base have chosen to take high-demand games to nearby football stadiums.
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