The return of a local professional soccer team to the St. Louis television airwaves seemed like an intriguing idea when the plan was announced last spring. But the STLFC club has been a major ratings dud on KPLR (Channel 11), as the team has had viewership numbers that sometimes don’t even beat infomercials airing in the wee hours. And the soccer telecasts have been in prime time.

At times, more people apparently would rather watch a couple of local attorneys bopping around town with corny reports on local landmarks at 3 o’clock in the morning than a live soccer telecast of the local minor-league squad.

There have been six STLFC matches shown thus far on KPLR, with the games being seen in an average of just 0.3 percent of homes with a TV. That’s according to Nielsen, which measures viewership. It translates into about 3,900 homes, out of the approximately 1.2 million in the market that have a TV. There are four more telecasts to come, starting on Aug. 19 when the local club entertains Pittsburgh.

The team drew a 0.6 rating last Saturday (about 7,400 homes), a paltry number — but it tied for the season high. That follows three games that averaged 2,000 homes.