A recently released chart, depicting average attendances in Major League Soccer, has reinvigorated the seemingly age-old discussion on all those empty seats at Toyota Stadium. FC Dallas boasts a fantastic atmosphere, courtesy of its four supporters groups, but noise doesn't mean numbers. The average attendance has consistently been one of the lowest in MLS and, while improving in recent years, it is now down 13 percent from last season's 16,038 in regular-season and postseason play.

There are the excuses. The stadium is too far for some, the lack of mass transit in Frisco, the dreaded Dallas North Tollway, the way season-ticket renewals were handled last year, maybe even the stacked DFW sports market. These are things that can't just be changed. One thing that can, and needs to, is that FC Dallas simply fails to engage the public. DFW can fit 90,000 people in AT&T Stadium during a CONCACAF Gold Cup game, or 50,000 at an international friendly at the Cotton Bowl, so let's put those excuses to one side. If you polled those soccer fans on FC Dallas, most would ask if Dallas even had a professional team. At the National Soccer Hall of Fame announcement last year, a media member even felt the need to ask former Burn GM, and co-host of The Kickaround, Andy Swift, that very question.

I was recently in Seattle. I didn't attend a game at CenturyLink Field, but that didn't stop me from seeing a lot of Sounders merchandise and even some Seattle Reign gear. If you even see an FCD T-shirt in Dallas, it feels like there should be some kind of awkward wave in acknowledgement of such a rarity, even though that is any team's best source of marketing. It happened to be LGBT Pride weekend while I was in Seattle, which the Sounders took to heart. Where 19 of the 20 MLS teams acknowledged the ruling of same-sex marriage being a constitutional right last year, FC Dallas stayed strangely quiet. Now, you risk offending the more conservative folks by acknowledging it, but when all of your four supporter groups are socially active, three are holding an LGBT Pride night on Sept. 18, two fly Texas-themed Pride flags, and one is even attending the Dallas Pride parade, isn't it safe to say soccer is inclusive enough to not alienate your fanbase?

A team, or group, acknowledging a particular community doesn't represent the owners' views, or those of players, coaches, or anyone individually. It simply comes down to celebrating and engaging people. Seattle sent out Brad Davis and Stefan Frei, armed with Pride-themed cupcakes, on the day of their game with NYCFC. In Dallas, you may just happen to be at a Fiesta where an unadvertised player appearance takes place. The Sounders had 50,000 Pride flags created with a monochrome Sounders logo. Regardless of how many Sounders fans attended the parade, you could not go anywhere in the city without seeing a flag or scarf. It was the ultimate advertising campaign, and you've got to think that hundreds of those people taking home those tiny flags will appreciate that community spirit and want to pay it back to the Sounders, soccer fan or not.

Dallas has the sixth largest LGBT population in America, but there is a far bigger group that is being ignored. DFW is around 27 percent Hispanic, Dallas itself is 42 percent. It's mind boggling that there isn't a Spanish-language online presence beyond Carlos Alvarado's match previews. The soccer-mad people you may play pick-up or indoor with are speaking Spanish, and they wear Chivas, Club America, or Tigres jerseys, when they could be wearing FC Dallas red. There's a reason that El Matador exists, and that Vamos Toros provides such excellent coverage for a market the team deems unnecessary. The Copa America final was the most watched television show in the Dallas-Fort Worth area on its day, with most of those viewers watching the Spanish-language presentation. We throw big names around, calling them marketable. Wouldn't some of the 6,000 Hondurans living in Dallas be keen on their local team if Maynor Figueroa was more accessible to them?

Think back to that visual engagement while walking around Seattle, seeing all of the jerseys and flags. Add to that the Downtown team store, the dozens of bars that display Sounders signs, and the permanent billboards. In other MLS cities, there is that same permanent reminder. As you enter Houston, you're greeted by a Tyler Deric billboard, there are numerous Fire adverts throughout Chicagoland, both New York teams plaster the city. I remember seeing DC United erect a billboard of Dwayne De Rosario, close to the White House, that was almost as big as the enormous Apple advertisement in Downtown Dallas. Here, we get the occasional 12-inch tall banner on the back of a bus, advertising a game that has long since passed. Similarly, there was the fantastic first impression made by advertising the July 4 game during the Euro 2016 final, close to a week after the advertised game took place. There is the first time offer for new fans, which is largely just targeted banner ads on websites, the kind most people use ad-blockers for, and you only see if you've entered the search term "FC Dallas".

Kenny Price and Phil Crone posted differing views over at Big D Soccer on whether the club let down the D-FW area, or vice versa. Both raised valid points, and I don't personally feel it's one way or the other. We've all read differing views on increasing the attendance, because it isn't good enough for a metropolitan area of over 6 million people, let alone a hotbed of soccer. The answer isn't food trucks, a downtown stadium, or has-beens from Europe. Those may help to a degree, but it all begins with marketing. Go out and find the soccer fans, whether it's parents watching their children play at Craig Ranch, people playing indoor at Blue Sky, or just some guys watching a Premier League game at any number of bars in the area. This was one of the best features of the Party at the Pubs, which FC Dallas bizarrely stopped running, except for national team games. Locations aren't hard to find, the supporters groups rotate between close to a dozen "soccer bars" in DFW, and they will all gladly accept the extra business. Find those soccer fans, and sell them on why they should try FC Dallas. Selling them on FC Dallas is not a matter of when Steven Gerrard limps around the field next, when the best team in MLS is at their disposal. Show Maxi's bicycle kick at San Jose, the passion in Vic's celebration in LA, Walker's penalty against Seattle, or Mauro doing almost anything. Get them in the stadium, and the atmosphere that the four supporters groups generate will do the rest.

We can all agree that the ticket situation going into 2016 was a disaster. The price rises were in line with most MLS teams, but the way renewals and price locks were handled made it a sore subject. Sales have made a large readjustment and further simplified the price bands. In 2017, you can watch the best team in the US and Canada from the front row, on the halfway line, for 40 percent less than you could in 2016. Most tickets are around 30 percent-40 percent cheaper than they were back in 2015. Why are they not selling that line, and trying to spin any positives possible from the ticketing situation? Here is a map of the differences, similar to the article I wrote about price rises last year. Green means good, good should sell easily.

A map comparing 2017 season ticket prices at Toyota Stadium, compared with those in 2016.

FC Dallas has amazing PR staff, that will move Heaven and Earth to help build a rapport with fans and media. The digital team does some tremendous work, by far the best in MLS. Dan Hunt, notoriously quiet, hosts online chats and does more than his fair share of public appearances to push the brand. Dallas boasts the best team in the nation, with a shot at four trophies. Unfortunately, that's all lost on the majority, when the people who are there to source an audience, fail to do so. We don't buy the best quality products and services, we buy what is marketed best, what we are told is best for us. If you want a perfect example of marketing over substance, look at the Cowboys. We have a remarkable team on our doorstep, but no one seems to know it.