FanPost

MLS, Timbers, and Facebook "Likes"

Checking in on the Timbers’ website lately, I started noticing the amount of Facebook “Likes.” I was curious whether the amount of “Likes” had any correlation to attendance, so I checked all the “Likes” for all the teams (boring Sunday). Ironically, I’m not even on Facebook, but I think social media are interesting.

I’m not sure if the amount of Facebook recognition is a cause of, or a result of attendance. There are also a lot of other complicating factors: population, Facebook advertising (RSL jersey release), amount of time in the league, whether a team is in the US or Canada (maybe?), etc.

Just glancing at the list, it looks to me like there is a strong correlation. I could have probably guessed 4 of the bottom 5 in the Facebook column, excluding the Whitecaps (you can’t really take anything from that number). Houston and New England stick out to me as exceptions to the trend.

Facebook Attendance

Seattle Sounders 140,594 (1) 36,173 (1)

Philadelphia Union 51,903 (2) 19,252 (4)

Red Bull New York 49,424 (3) 18,441 (5)

Real Salt Lake 42,269 (4) 17,095 (7)

LA Galaxy 37,046 (5) 21,473 (2)

Chicago Fire 32,557 (6) 15,814 (8)

Toronto FC 27,746 (7) 20,453 (3)

New England Revolution 25,012 (8) 12,987 (13)

DC United 24,915 (9) 14,532 (11)

Sporting Kansas City 24,479 (10) 10,287 (15)

Portland Timbers 20,270 (11) NA

Houston Dynamo 16,063 (12) 17,310 (6)

Columbus Crew 13,973 (13) 14,642 (9)

San Jose Earthquakes 13,049 (14) 9,659 (16)

FC Dallas 12,808 (15) 10,815 (14)

Colorado Rapids 11,887 (16) 13,329 (12)

Chivas USA 6,920 (17) 14,574 (10)

Vancouver Whitecaps 5,399 (18) NA

My conclusion: it looks to me like teams near the top have owners that care, and teams near the bottom have owner’s that tend to not care as much (excluding Vancouver). Obviously, you can’t measure how much an owner cares, but that’s what it looks like to me.

Edit: the word "care" was a poor choice. I guess I should have used "are active participants with their teams," or something similar.

What do you guys and girls think? Useful number? Did I just waste an hour for a completely useless list of nonsense? Anyone know how to make a chart?

This FanPost was written by a Stumptown Footy community member and does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the site or its staff.

In This FanPost

Teams

Trending Discussions