Tuesday, May 22, 2007

State Attendance Records

With the news that the Los Angeles Galaxy and David Beckham will play a friendly in Minnesota came a nice story from the Star Tribune, which allowed me to correct that state's record. Since I first checked this back in August, there's been a couple of changes, most notably the USA-Mexico friendly setting a new mark for Arizona.

What fallows below is the highest crowds for a soccer match in each US state, as well as the District of Colombia, to the best of my knowledge. This is compiled from news reports and my research on the net, and many thanks go to the people on the Bigsoccer thread who have helped out. I'm sure many of the marks from the smaller states will be corrected eventually.

I only put crowds of 1,000 of more on the list, so if you're from Alaska, North Dakota, or Wyoming, let me know if any games have reached that level. I'll also note that New York's record is so low because Giants Stadium is in New Jersey.

State Records

California 101,799 Olympics
Georgia 86,117 Olympics
Alabama 83,810 Olympics
New Jersey 79,005 Friendly
Michigan 77,217 World Cup
Texas 70,550 MLS
Pennslyvania 68,396 Friendly
Washington 66,830 Friendly
Illinois 65,080 W.World Cup
Arizona 64,462 Friendly
Florida 62,387 World Cup
Massachusetts 61,316 MLS Cup
Colorado 61,202 MLS
D.C. 58,012 Olympics
Maryland 54,462 W.World Cup
Minnesota 52,000 NASL
New York 46,000 Friendly
Utah 45,511 Friendly
Connecticut 44,579 US Cup
Missouri 37,391 WC Qualifying
Oregon 35,528 Soccer Bowl
Kentucky 35,211 W.Friendly
Ohio 31,550 MLS
Oklahoma 30,831 NASL
Tennessee 26,141 Friendly
North Carolina 24,000 ASL
Virginia 21,319 NCAA Tourney
New Mexico 17,805 W.Friendly
Louisiana 15,074 W.Friendly
Hawaii 14,578 Friendly
Indiana 14,000 P.A. Games
Rhode Island 13,000 US Open Cup
Wisconsin 12,572 Friendly
Nevada 9,736 CCC
Kansas 9,688 MISL
Iowa 6,612 PDL
South Carolina 6,456 US Open Cup
Mississippi 6,200 Friendly
Vermont 5,000 NCAA Tourney
Nebraska 4,830 W.College
Maine 4,254 Friendly
Delaware 3,500 USISL
West Virginia 2,153 College
New Hampshire 2,076 USL-2
South Dakota 1,811 PDL
Arkansas 1,487 W.College
Montana 1,100 W.College
Idaho 1,059 W.College

Comments on "State Attendance Records"

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (4:15 PM, May 23, 2007) : 

This may show my ignorance of where the KC Wizards play or what their actually attendance is, but 9,688 for an MISL game in Kansas just cannot be right.

 

Blogger L.B. said ... (8:06 AM, May 26, 2007) : 

Awesome list.

I was at the US-Mexico Gold Cup final game as a fan in 1998 at the Coliseum. I think officially the attendance was at 92,500 but I can tell you there were probably more than 100,000 fans there. A large section of the stadium was at first blocked off because it was being refurbished but that didn't stop fans from filling that section up.

Check out this picture:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:11-11-06-LA-Coliseum-USC-UO.jpg

The attendance for this game is at around capacity but that entire section where the retired numbers are was full of fans. And there were even another 7000 at the nearby LA Sports Arena who were unable to get seats watching on closed circuit TV!

 

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