Look, I tried. I really did.

I figured we can’t have meaningful conversations about the relative strengths of lower-level soccer leagues and teams without some data, so I went after the data. But it has proved to be tougher to mine than you might think. I’ve asked every NPSL team I have contact info for to share their attendance data – multiple times, in some cases – and I’m very grateful for those clubs who have been gracious enough to do so. I’ve asked the league on multiple occasions. But I only have complete data from about 21 percent of the teams and only have any data from fewer than half of the 96 teams in the league. In all, I’ve uncovered about a third of the data, which is much less than I’d hoped for.

Anyway, here’s everything I have, with clubs for which I have no data included only to give you an idea of how much land there is still to be covered (the number of games missing from a team’s data set is noted in the “?” column):

Team G Total Average Median High Low ? Detroit City FC 7 37,567 5,367 5,154 6,972 4,354 0 Chattanooga FC 6 25,089 4,182 4,349 5,700 2,200 0 Grand Rapids FC 7 18,113 2,588 2,319 3,617 1,744 0 Little Rock Rangers 5 10,786 2,157 2,115 2,556 1,746 0 Asheville City Soccer Club 6 12,398 2,066 2,102 2,504 1,558 0 FC Arizona 5 8,533 1,707 1,800 2,157 1,136 3 Atlanta Silverbacks 1 1,667 1,667 1,667 1,667 1,667 5 Napa Valley 1839 FC 3 4,632 1,544 1,200 2,291 1,141 3 Syracuse FC 6 7,590 1,265 1,083 2,037 1,006 0 Albion SC 3 3,650 1,217 1,100 1,700 850 5 Birmingham Hammers 1 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 5 Hartford City FC 6 5,195 866 833 1,310 450 0 Kalamazoo FC 1 800 800 800 800 800 6 Milwaukee Torrent 7 5,591 799 762 1,105 590 0 Kingston Stockade FC 6 4,752 792 725 1,129 489 0 Midland-Odessa FC 4 3,002 751 762 863 615 1 Lansing United 4 2,858 715 705 824 625 3 Inter Nashville FC 1 650 650 650 650 650 5 Med City FC 7 4,234 605 561 1,246 285 0 Orange County FC 3 1,801 600 521 876 404 5 Minneapolis City SC 7 3,046 435 436 651 236 0 Memphis City FC 5 2,028 406 390 538 340 1 Boston City FC 6 2,270 378 341 606 216 0 Georgia Revolution 4 1,425 356 338 675 75 2 AFC Cleveland 1 350 350 350 350 350 5 Oxnard Guerreros FC 4 1,300 325 350 400 200 4 Duluth FC 7 1,720 246 246 355 112 0 Jacksonville Armada U-23 1 220 220 220 220 220 5 SoCal SC 4 850 213 200 250 200 4 TSF FC 6 1,255 209 188 450 80 0 VSLT FC 4 780 195 180 250 170 3 East Bay FC Stompers 6 1,165 194 163 375 90 0 Buxmont Torch 5 964 193 217 275 119 0 Spokane Soccer Club Shadow 3 567 189 217 230 120 2 Temecula FC 3 543 181 137 327 79 5 Rhode Island Reds FC 1 175 175 175 175 175 5 New Jersey Copa FC 4 637 159 160 222 95 0 Michigan Stars FC 7 1,020 146 80 450 50 0 Greater Lowell NPSL FC 4 530 133 138 175 80 2 Seacoast United Phantoms 6 550 92 100 120 50 0 Seacoast United Mariners 1 90 90 90 90 90 5 Junior Lone Star FC 3 255 85 80 100 75 2 Sports Club Corinthians USA 1 50 50 50 50 50 7 New York Athletic Club 1 34 34 34 34 34 5 FC Indiana 1 25 25 25 25 25 6 City of Angels FC #0 0 0 0 0 0 0 New York Cosmos B *0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Riverside Coras 8 AFC Ann Arbor 7 Dakota Fusion FC 7 LC Aris FC 7 Minnesota TwinStars 7 Sioux Falls Thunder 7 Beaches FC 6 Boca Raton FC 6 Brooklyn Italians 6 CD Aguiluchos USA 6 Dayton Dynamo 6 Elm City Express 6 Erie Commodores 6 FC Buffalo 6 FC Carolina United 6 Fort Pitt Regiment 6 Knoxville Force 6 Kraze United 6 Miami Fusion FC 6 Miami United FC 6 Naples United FC 6 New Orleans Jesters 6 Rochester Lancers 6 Sacramento Gold 6 Sonoma County Sol FC 6 Clarkstown SC Eagles 5 Dallas City FC 5 Demize NPSL 5 Dutch Lions FC 5 Electric City Shock 5 FC Wichita 5 FCM Portland 5 Fort Worth Vaqueros 5 Greater Binghamton FC Thunder 5 Hershey FC 5 Houston Regals SCA 5 Kitsap Soccer Club 5 OSA FC 5 Ozark FC 5 PDX FC 5 Pierce County FC 5 Shreveport Rafters FC 5 Tulsa Athletic 5 Tyler FC 5 West Chester United Soccer Club 5 FC Frederick 3 Fredericksburg FC 3 Legacy 76 3 Virginia Beach City FC 3 NPSL TOTAL 184 181,757 988 450 6,972 25 373 #City of Angels FC played all games “behind closed doors,” with no crowds.

*The Cosmos did not track their B team’s attendance figures this year.

So here’s what we know, and a few things we can conclude:

The data we have for the NPSL shows the average attendance at 988. The actual league average is probably somewhat south of that, as many of the clubs I have nothing for are likely drawing well under that . The median of the data I have is 450 (meaning half of games drew more than that and half drew under that number), so the average is likely somewhere in between, shading towards the lower figure.

Detroit City and Chattanooga are far and away the top clubs in the league at the gate, but Grand Rapids, Little Rock and expansionist Asheville all reported averages over 2,000 per game.

Detroit actually played 16 home games this season (Seven league matches, four playoff matches, two domestic friendlies and three international friendlies) and drew 87,965 for an average of 5,498, very close to their league average listed above.

On the flip side, we have 15 clubs averaging under 200 per game.

Elm City drew 3,112 for the NPSL Championship Game. I have no data on their regular season crowds. (This is why I tried to do this, folks, so we can have actual data when someone writes that a club drew “increasingly large crowds” during a season.)

How does this compare to the PDL, the other high-level amateur league that plays in the summer? Good question. PDL numbers used to be way easier to get (I have them through 2014 here), but they stopped putting final numbers in their media guide in 2015 and the data rarely if ever appears in box scores on the league’s own website. (I’ve asked the league if they have data and have heard nothing.) The PDL’s historic average was around 500 a game, with some outliers (like Des Moines and Fresno), but they never had a club announce 5,000 fans per game.

So what happens now? If, as rumored, Detroit and Chattanooga explore joining the nascent NISA, that takes the NPSL’s two biggest-drawing clubs out of the league. (We’ll apparently know by next month, as the NISA has to make its case for Division III status soon.) They’ll likely lose some clubs (SoCal SC has already folded, more will inevitably follow) and add several, some of whom may be like Asheville, while others surely will not be. They need to stabilize the turnover, get clubs entrenched in their communities and shift their schedule a bit so one of their finalists doesn’t run into the problem Midland-Odessa did when it nearly could not play the final because of a lack of players. Easier said than done.

So this is (very likely) it. This is the last NPSL attendance update you’re likely to get from me. Anyone else who would be willing to try to compile all this, have at it . If you have any of the missing data to share, feel free to drop it into the comments below and I’ll update this post as warranted. But past that, this is on you now. Good luck.