It isn't that the little soccer league is up 11% while baseball is down 2%. Although that makes me smile and cry at the same time, for many reasons.
But something that I noted here ages ago is even more true again.
The top 3 teams in attendance are not part of the MLS Originals. It is the expansion sides that care. The common rebuttal amongst long time league supporters is that it will fade away. Even the early rounds of Garber led expansion do much better than the teams that were founded in the Logan era.
Five of the top eight teams in attendance this year are from Garber's expansion/relocation efforts. His worse team is Chivas USA which is bettering six teams.
What is it about those first three seasons of the league that hurt the love of the game in those cities? They had good numbers then. The LEAGUE had good numbers then.
Here's the data. I did a small amount of rounding, but it is based off of the MLSDaily numbers
| Team | Home Games | Avg Att | Total | Team | Home Games | Avg Att | Total |
| Seattle | 5 | 36,144 | 180,720 | LA | 5 | 19,397 | 96,985 |
| Philadelphia | 2 | 29,954 | 59,908 | NY | 4 | 17,939 | 71,756 |
| Toronto | 3 | 20,144 | 60,432 | DC | 5 | 14,953 | 74,765 |
| Houston | 5 | 15,754 | 78,770 | Chicago | 3 | 14,937 | 44,811 |
| Salt Lake | 4 | 14,949 | 59,796 | Columbus | 4 | 13,270 | 53,080 |
| Chivas | 4 | 14,554 | 58,216 | Colorado | 3 | 10,483 | 31,449 |
| 23 | 497,842 | New England | 5 | 10,119 | 50,595 | ||
| Kansas City | 4 | 9,703 | 38,812 | ||||
| San Jose | 4 | 9,514 | 38,056 | ||||
| Garber | 21,645 | Dallas | 4 | 9,351 | 37,404 | ||
| Logan | 13,115 | 41 | 537,713 |