MLS broke its regular season attendance record in 2024, the league announced earlier this month. With more than 11.4 million fans, MLS surpassed the 10.9 million mark set in 2023.
It’s easy to attribute that uptick to the arrival of Lionel Messi, who joined Inter Miami CF midway through last season in July 2023. On April 13, 2024, Sporting Kansas City drew 72,610 fans, the fourth-largest crowd in MLS history, to Arrowhead Stadium, where it lost to Messi’s visiting squad. Later that month, the New England Revolution hosted Inter Miami at Gillette Stadium in front of 65,612 fans, more than double its home average for the season. Those were two of the highest-attended matches of the year, and both figures were club records.
A closer look at the data, however, reveals Messi to be only partly responsible for the larger trend. MLS’ average attendance of 23,222 per game this year was indeed a record, but the 22,691 average when you exclude Inter Miami road games would still have surpassed the all-time high of 22,111 by a significant margin. It also represents a 4% increase over last season’s 21,799 average with the same exclusion. Through October 8, 17 of the league’s 29 clubs had drawn at least 1% more fans per game in 2024 than 2023, while only five had decreases of more than 1%.
The impact of Messi on MLS popularity in general is hard to measure. For instance, the Vancouver Whitecaps had a year-over-year attendance increase of more than 50%, which led the league, due to a boost in season ticket purchases. After not hosting Miami in 2023, the club did in May 2024, which could have drummed up interest. Then, when Messi ended up missing the game in Vancouver, the Whitecaps offered fans a complementary future ticket as a consolation.
Several clubs offered fans targeted deals to capitalize on Inter Miami coming to town.
Multiple other factors, however, at least somewhat contributed to the league’s attendance achievement. In a June 24 statement on the attendance increase, MLS wrote that “driving forces include: consistency in scheduling (Saturday nights), [and] growing season ticket bases (up 15%).”
Starting in 2023 with its new Apple TV deal, the league committed to playing most games on Saturdays, with regular weeknight games on Wednesdays, and a sprinkling of games on Sundays. In addition to Saturday being a prime day for attracting an in-person audience, the regularity of the schedule may enable fans to better plan trips to the stadium.
There is also a growing spotlight on soccer in the United States. The country hosted Copa América over the summer, both the men’s and women’s national teams made at least the quarterfinals at the 2024 Olympics (with the women winning gold) and the NWSL is gaining in popularity.
Messi, though, is undeniably driving a banner year for MLS, despite missing multiple months of the season due to injury. Inter Miami’s star-studded roster still won 22 games this year, more than any other club, and is the favorite to win the MLS Cup. The league can only hope for such an outcome.
