When U.S. Soccer chose to host U.S. men’s national team friendlies in Kansas City, Kansas, and Cincinnati, Ohio during the September international window, it seemed like a safe enough bet.
Kansas City sits in America’s soccer heartland and is home to Sporting Kansas City, among MLS’ most consistently supported sides, and the NWSL’s Kansas City Current, who have become an instant smash with fans of the women’s game with the return of professional women’s soccer to the area.
Cincinnati, too, has its own history and love affair with soccer. FC Cincinnati, its MLS club, is among the league’s most competitive sides and the club has resonated with locals, who turn out in droves for matches.
The USMNT wouldn’t exactly be facing any elite opponents — last month’s matches were against Canada and New Zealand — and nobody was expecting a pair of sellouts. But the wide swaths of empty seats visible on the broadcasts of both matches caught some off guard. The crowd in Kansas City barely broke five figures. The 15,000 or so U.S. faithful in Cincy was about 7,500 short of the average for an MLS match in the city.
This is not for lack of love for soccer. pic.twitter.com/F73hClk356
— Pat Brennan (@PBrennanENQ) September 10, 2024
In the moments after both matches, fans took to social media with their theories as to why nobody was turning out: in the days leading up to Mauricio Pochettino’s appointment as the side’s new manager, nobody wanted to watch a B team being led by an interim manager, some said. Others pointed to the USMNTs dreadful performance at this summer’s Copa America, or blamed ticket prices, scheduling congestion and competition with other sports — college, high school and NFL football, for example.
Others were less kind: fans hadn’t turned out, they said, because the USMNT isn’t doing much to be compelling these days, and is sometimes downright bad.
Just a month later, a near-sellout crowd turned out in Austin, Texas to watch the USMNT take on Panama. And just like that, the attendance heartburn got shelved — for now.
U.S. fans cram into the Q2 stadium for Pochettino’s first game in charge (Logan Riely/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
Yet the reality of the USMNT’s intermittent struggles to resonate with fans is much more complicated and won’t be solved on any social media platform or message board.
Examining home attendance data over the last 30 years makes things clearer in some regards and more complicated in others. The data paints a picture of a federation that continues to raise ticket prices, often choosing to play matche… (truncated)…
(Top photos: Getty Images; Design by Meech Robinson)