USMNT Attendance This Year Best Since 2015

Despite posting a record of 6-6-2 (W-L-D) in 2024, the USMNT had their best attendance in nearly a decade. By averaging 37,925 fans per game over the course of twelve games played on US soil, the USMNT snapped a streak of eight straight years where they did not average 30,000 fans per game. This jump in attendance could not come at a better time as the United States begins gearing up to host the 2026 World Cup (along with Mexico and Canada).

Here is the attendance for every game the USMNT played at home in 2024.

The most obvious reason for the jump in attendance this year was that the United States hosted Copa America, which is South America’s continental championship. 2024 was not the first time that Copa America has been played on American soil, with a special Centenario edition of the tournament played here in 2016. It too, was a tremendous attendance and financial success.

In addition to the games at Copa America, the USMNT played a pair of friendlies against big name opponents with massive support in the US: Colombia and Brazil. Both of those games immediately prior to the tournament drew over 55,000 people. And naturally the Nations League double header at the home of the Dallas Cowboys drew very well given that Mexico was involved.

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows however. Following the disastrous showing by the team at Copa America, Gregg Berhalter was fired by US Soccer. They eventually made the massive hire of Mauricio Pochettino, who has managed at some of the biggest clubs in the world like Tottenham Hotspur, Paris Saint Germain, and Chelsea. But before they could make the hire official, the USMNT had a pair of home friendlies under an interim manager in the month of September. The attendance for those two friendlies was understandably low. The on-field performance of the team combined with the fact that Kansas City and Cincinnati are routine destinations for US Soccer, meant that enthusiasm for the two games was very low.

But at the end of the day, the hire of Pochettino was finally made official and the final two home games for the US saw much better crowds (despite Austin and St. Louis also being routine stops for US Soccer). And now that the USMNT is done playing for the year, the average attendance is officially the best since 2015.

Here is the annual average attendance over the last several years for the USMNT.

Perhaps even more encouraging that the attendance being the best since 2015, is that 2024 was the second straight year than USMNT attendance was better than the year before. After bottoming out in 2022 (when the average of 21,383 was the worst since 2006), attendance went up 38% in 2023 and up another 28% this year. In fact, since 2022, attendance is up a whopping 77%.

Again, this could not be happening at a better time for US Soccer. The 2026 World Cup is less than two years away and excitement for the national team is an absolute must to ensure as much excitement for the tournament as possible. Attendance has gone up two straight years, the USMNT has a world class manager, and there finally seems to be some belief in the team that hasn’t been seen since prior to the 2014 World Cup. But there is still more that can be done to get the attendance and excitement even higher. One thing that many fans wish US Soccer would do, is take the MNT to new and different places that they either haven’t been to in a long time or haven’t ever been to at all. It isn’t too much of a stretch to think that part of the reason the crowd for the game against Panama at Copa America was so big is that the USMNT had not played in Atlanta since 2015. It’s also worth noting that the game against Slovenia was played in a USL Championship stadium in San Antonio (a city the USMNT had not visited since 2015). Unsurprisingly, the crowd of over 9,000 people was the largest in the history of the stadium. Cities like Louisville, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, and Birmingham should all get the chance to see the national team.

The first four games of 2025 for the USMNT have already been announced. They will begin with two games at the annual January Camp, first on January 18 against Venezuela at Chase Stadium in Ft. Lauderdale and followed up by a friendly against Costa Rica at Inter & Co Stadium in Orlando on January 22. Then in March is the Nations League semi-finals and final, set to be played at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. The USMNT will face Panama in the semi-finals on the 20th and then face either Canada or Mexico on the 23rd. The USMNT will also compete in the 2025 Gold Cup, CONCACAF’s biennial continental championship. The venues have been selected (all in the western half of the country to accommodate the Club World Cup taking place in the eastern half of the country) but teams have not been drawn so the US does not yet know it’s three group stage venues.

With attendance rising for the MNT the way it has risen each of the last two years, many fans are hopeful that it will continue to rise heading into the 2026 World Cup. With so much high level soccer being played in the United States between 2023 and 2028, the sky could be the limit for the growth of the sport in this country. The Gold Cup was here in 2023, Copa America was here in 2024, the Gold Cup and the Club World Cup are here in 2025, the World Cup is here in 2026, the Gold Cup figures to be here in 2027, and Olympic soccer is here in 2028. If soccer can’t “make it” now, will it ever?

Photo Credit: Los Angeles Times