Recently MLS posted a poll asking people about the biggest MLS rivalries. As with all things MLS and fan-related polls (Goal of the Week, Save of the Week, All Star Voting, etc), the most popular teams dominated the results.

However, these numbers don’t do justice to the hatred or love many fans may have for other teams. Many fans of smaller market teams might have more hatred for their closest rival, resulting in a bigger rivalry for those fans. In order to put the question to bed, I designed a poll asking people who their teams were, which teams they love, and which teams they hate. I collected responses from 176 people on reddit, which has a solid community of MLS supporters from all different teams and areas. You can view and download the results here, or I made a nifty spreadsheet with some short-answers. Mind you, this is a relatively small sample size, so take these numbers with a grain of salt. Also remember I am not a statistician, so these numbers can be crunched even more to analyze age demographics, etc.

How The Survey Worked

In the survey, I asked people to identify their team, and to rate their views of other teams. A score of 1 identified hatred, 2 dislike, 3 no opinion, 4 like, and 5 love; the lower the overall score, the more hatred for that team from fans across the league, and vice versa. In order to ensure popularity did not skew votes, I listed the averages for a team’s participants, and compiled an overall average for each team. For example, Orlando City SC had 17 people take the survey to Vancouver’s four. Orlando averaged a 2.59 rating of AUFC while Vancouver averaged a 2.5, showing that Vancouver has a bit more animosity for AUFC despite OCSC having more surveyed fans.

Each team had a corresponding team with the lowest surveyed score, identifying the “rival” for that team’s fans. To cross-check the rivalry, I added the rival’s view of that team to arrive at a final rivalry calculation. This is to ensure both sides identify a potential rivalry, not just one side trying to push for one. This is why Seattle-L.A. is not a bigger rivalry than San Jose-L.A.; L.A. fans identify a bigger rivalry with San Jose than with Seattle despite Seattle fans identifying L.A. as their biggest rival. A score of two would be the lowest possible score (each team having an average rating of each other as “1” and adding those numbers together). In short, the lowest total score is the biggest rivalry as it shows the most animosity/dislike for fans. For teams that had more than one rival (lowest score was tied with other teams), I took the lowest scoring team from among those teams as their biggest rival. Example: Minnesota had three “lowest scoring teams” but ATL had the lowest view of Minnesota of those three teams, so ATL was “awarded” the rivalry.

No one identified Colorado or LAFC as their favorite team, so those scores are not factored into the overall averages. Also, only one person surveyed identified Minnesota United as their favorite team, so that one person represents the fanbase of Minnesota. All other teams have at least three or more responses. Remember, this is a VERY non-scientific poll, but the results can be used to identify trends, even if the margin of error may not be low.

Fanbases & Their Overall Hatred of Other Teams

Columbus Crew (2.47) Philadelphia Union (2.50) Chicago Fire (2.52) Sporting KC (2.61) Vancouver Whitecaps (2.7)

These fans displayed the most dislike/hate for all MLS teams, including their own. Columbus tops the list of fans that averaged the lowest number, or the most hatred. Not far behind are Philly and Chicago. The fans with the most MLS love? Minnesota United (3.39) and Atlanta United FC (3.19). Don’t worry, soon you will let the hate flow through you, and your journey to being an MLS club will be complete.

Teams Most Hated By Other Teams

LA Galaxy: 5 (Houston, New England, RSL, San Jose, and Seattle) DC United: 2 (NY Red Bulls, ATL) Toronto FC: 2 (Columbus, Montreal) NY Red Bulls: 2 (DC United, NYCFC) Columbus Crew: 2 (Orlando City, Toronto) Seattle Sounders: 2 (Philadelphia, Portland) Houston Dynamo: 2 (FC Dallas, Sporting KC) NYCFC: 1 (Chicago Fire) San Jose: 1 (LA Galaxy) Atlanta: 1 (Minnesota United) Portland: 1 (Vancouver) New England: (Most hated by non-identified fans)

The L.A. Galaxy have the most hatred by team fanbases with five teams (Dynamo, Revs, Quakes, RSL, and Seattle) identifying L.A. as their “most hated” rival team. New England was identified as a hated team by fans that did not give any MLS affiliation. DC, Toronto, NY Red Bulls, and Columbus all appear to be gaining some hate from other fans as they are the target of not one, but two MLS teams’ fanbases.

Top Five Hated Teams & Overall Rating

L.A. Galaxy (2.17) NYCFC (2.48) Seattle Sounders (2.58) Houston (2.60) San Jose Earthquakes (2.71)

Overall, the Galaxy continue to show there is no love lost between them and the rest of the league’s fans, and I’m sure that suits Galaxy fans just fine. With Pirlo, Mix, Villa, and Lampard joining NYCFC, it’s easy to see how they are gaining some enemies. Seattle’s a team people love to hate with their enormous fanbase. I’m not sure what Houston did to warrant their hatred (San Jose, RSL, Philly, Sporting KC, and FC Dallas all shared a lot of hate for the Dynamo). San Jose got a lot of hate from L.A. (1.64) and PTFC (1.5) and Seattle (1.65) to round out the most hated list.

Most “Loved” Teams

Orlando City SC (3.23) Minnesota United FC (3.21) Montreal Impact (3.19) Portland Timbers (3.08) Columbus, Toronto, and Sporting KC (2.94)

Not a lot of hate for recent expansion teams Orlando and Minnesota. Who can hate Montreal after their improbably CONCACAF run? Portland seems to have a lot of support from non-West Coast teams.

Biggest Rivalries in MLS

Portland & Seattle (2.24)* DC United and NY Red Bulls (2.61) SJ Earthquakes and LA Galaxy (2.64) Columbus Crew and Toronto FC (2.88) FC Dallas and Houston (2.93)

*Ironically, Seattle fans hates LA Galaxy more (scoring a 1.19) than PTFC (1.24), but because of PTFC’s average of 1.0 for Seattle and LA Galaxy’s lack of engagement of rivalry with Seattle (2.20), Portland and Seattle win the biggest rivalry.

So some proof that PTFC/Seattle really is the biggest rivalry in MLS, according to fans surveyed. I’m not too surprised by the results. Cascadia Cup has a lot of history, DC and NY Red Bulls/Metro Stars have a history which dates back to the league’s inaugural season, Galaxy and Quakes continue to show no love for each other, Crew and TFC seem to be kindling some animosity, and the Texas showdown seems to be consistent.

Biggest takeaway for me: practically everyone hates L.A. Galaxy and their five MLS Cups. Can’t say I blame them. 🙂

I hope you enjoyed the surveys and results! I will keep the survey open and post any changes next week.

Comments

comments