The home debut of Megan Rapinoe (center) helped draw a slightly larger than usual crowd in Seattle on Saturday. (Photo Copyright Danielle Lorenzo for The Equalizer)
It was a regular week in the NWSL attendance files as there were mostly average crowds at all of the games. Sky Blue FC went back to drawing poorly after a big crowd last week, further showing Portland’s importance to the league. Boston, hosting two games, had less than average in each of their matches.
Megan Rapinoe’s home debut drew an above average crowd in Seattle, which was a nice surprise. With Rapinoe on the team and the Reign playing better, maybe Seattle can start drawing bigger crowds.
Next week the league will hit the 200,000 number for the season. We will see if Washington can continue to fill the house with a mid-week game against Boston.
Boston Breakers Note:
For most of their games, Dilboy Stadium’s capacity is 2,600. They did have one game early in the year when they brought in bleachers, which increased the total capacity. These are not in use for every home game, so their capacity is not the same for every game.
Here are the NWSL’s attendance numbers through Week 12 (50 games):
Average Attendance: 3,981
(Average Attendance Without Portland’s Home Games: 2,771)
Attendance Standard Deviation: 3,648
Median Attendance: 2,929
Total Attendance to date: 199,061
(Total Attendance Without Portland’s Home Games: 121,919)
Week Twelve Attendance Numbers:
Seattle Reign FC @ Boston Breakers (Dilboy Stadium) – 2,012
FC Kansas City @ Sky Blue FC (Yurcak Field) – 1,126
Washington Spirit @ Western New York Flash (Sahlen’s Stadium) – 3,364
Chicago Red Stars @ Seattle Reign FC (Starfire Stadium) – 2,318
Portland Thorns FC @ FC Kansas City (Verizon Wireless Field) – 4,774
Sky Blue FC @ Boston Breakers (Dilboy Stadium) – 1,876
| Average Home Attendance | |||
| Team | Games | Average | Capacity |
| Portland Thorns FC | 6 | 12,857 | 63% |
| FC Kansas City | 7 | 4,378 | 71% |
| Washington Spirit | 5 | 4,268 | 95% |
| Western New York Flash | 6 | 3,632 | 26% |
| Boston Breakers | 7 | 2,242 | 84% |
| Seattle Reign FC | 6 | 1,949 | 54% |
| Sky Blue FC | 7 | 1,751 | 35% |
| Chicago Red Stars | 6 | 1,417 | 40% |
