Attendance Boom

Revolution fans traveled to New Jersey in record numbers on Sunday.

While 2014 started off with nothing too out of the ordinary attendance-wise, despite a solid start to the season from the New England Revolution, the regular season finished off in impressive fashion and it has carried over into the playoffs. New England set a non-MLS Cup home playoff attendance record in the Conference Semifinals against the Columbus Crew, almost certainly set a traveling fans record in the first leg of the Conference Finals in New York, and now looks set to break the playoff record set against the Crew in the second leg against New York.

Additionally, New England’s average regular season attendance of 16,681, though well short of the club’s record average of 21,423 set in 1997, was a 12.38% increase over 2013’s average of 14,844. Only D.C. United (24.8%), Toronto FC (21.81%) and the San Jose Earthquakes (17.09%) saw larger increases from 2013. The average growth in MLS was 2.64%, with the now defunct Chivas USA’s 15.58% decrease in attendance doing its part to bring that number down.

New England Average Attendance by Month:

This year’s number was largely impacted by 32,766 fans attending the regular season finale 1-0 win against Toronto FC on Oct. 25, the club’s third highest attended regular season home match and the largest crowd since the David Beckham hype brought 39,256 to watch the Revolution face the English star’s Los Angeles Galaxy side on Aug. 30, 2008. The club’s only other Oct. match was its third best attended game with 23,143 on hand for the team’s 2-1 win over the Crew on Oct. 4.

2014 Attendance

Building on that momentum, New England set a club play-off record with 20,184 in attendance for the second leg of the Eastern Conference Final against the Columbus Crew on Nov. 9. Only MLS Cup 2002 with 61,316 had a larger MLS postseason attendance.

New England followed that up with what must surely be another club record: over 1,200 fans traveled to Harrison, New Jersey to watch the Revolution defeat the New York Red Bulls 2-1 at Red Bull Arena on Sunday, Nov. 23.

Now, according to Revolution President Brian Bilello, New England is set to break the mark set against the Crew with at least 25,000 and possibly over 30,000 expected for the Revolution’s final home game of 2014, the second leg of the Eastern Conference Final against New York. This, despite temperatures only expected to reach a high of 38° F in Foxboro on Saturday. After the 2-1 road win, the Revolution advance to the MLS Cup with a win, draw or even a 1-0 loss.

Lot’s of attendance questons for me. We’re already ahead of the last playoff game. We’ll certainly be over 25,000 maybe over 30,000

— Brian Bilello (@RevsPrez) November 25, 2014

And the Revolution have given the large home crowds plenty to cheer about. New England hasn’t lost a home match since July 27, a nine game unbeaten run (8-0-1), and is currently riding a seven game home winning streak. Overall, the club has lost just once in 15 games (12-1-2) since Aug. 3. Keep that streak up on Saturday – even New England’s loss in that streak, 1-0 to Columbus Crew, would’ve been enough for the Revolution to advance in this scenario – and the club will be packing its bags for its fifth MLS Cup final.

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