Who Says the MLS Isn't a Big Draw?

With the Major League Soccer regular season winding down this weekend, David Biderman of the Wall Street Journal asks this question of this country's sports fans: Please stop saying nobody in the U.S. cares about soccer.

Half of the league's teams are averaging more than 15,000 fans per match, and while that's not astronomical—the NFL's lowest-drawing teams get 40,000-plus—it actually puts the league in the same conversation with a handful of NBA teams, who start their own regular seasons next week. Thirteen of the 16 MLS teams are based in the same area as NBA teams and five of them are outdrawing what their basketball counterparts did in 2009-10, including the Houston Dynamo (16,832) besting the Houston Rockets (16,528) and the New York Red Bulls (18,625) drawing 42% more fans than the New Jersey Nets (13,103).

As impressive as these numbers may be, it would be silly to assume that soccer has knocked off the NBA. MLS teams charge a fraction of what NBA teams do for tickets. Moreover, some NBA teams can't draw more fans because they don't have any more tickets to sell. While the Los Angeles Galaxy average 11.5% more fans per game than the Lakers, the Galaxy are only at 80% capacity. The Lakers are sold out.