In Seattle and Portland, millennial soccer fans gather for a lengthy “March to the Stadium” before Major League Soccer games, crossing through their respective downtowns on foot to attend sold-out matches.

That’s impossible to do in the freeway-laced suburbs of Los Angeles, where the L.A. Galaxy — among the best teams in the league — are winning titles but have a hard time filling seats in the StubHub Center.

While MLS game attendance is breaking records, the league is eyeing urban, millennial-friendly markets such as St. Paul and Minneapolis for a good reason: Suburban stadiums are struggling.

Urban stadiums allow younger fans — the league’s core audience — to emulate European counterparts and take light rail into a game or grab a beer next door afterward.

What does that mean for St. Paul? To clinch a stadium deal with the league, officials will have to prove that St. Paul’s Midway area offers the same amenities as a typical downtown, from pubs, skyline and sidewalks to public transit.

“Don Garber, who is the MLS commissioner, is insisting on downtown stadiums,” said Kevin Baxter, who covers Major League Soccer for the Los Angeles Times. “The new New York team is playing in Yankee Stadium, because he doesn’t want the team to go out to the suburbs.”

St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce President Matt Kramer said he understands why Garber might need some convincing about St. Paul’s Midway.

MLS teams garner less money from television deals and promotions than other professional sports do, and team owners across the country share in the league’s profits and losses.

The St. Paul Midway site offers plenty of room for future development, a light-rail line and Metro Transit’s future “A Line” bus rapid-transit route on Snelling Avenue.

“Absolutely right, it’s not downtown,” Kramer said. “But it’s not the suburbs. I defy you to find cows, or cornfields or a chinchilla ranch in the Midway.

“Will fans come to a Major League Soccer stadium in Midway? I’m convinced they will,” Kramer added. “Major League Soccer just needs to wrap their heads around (it). The local ownership structure is sold on this. The only ones who aren’t sold are Major League Soccer.”

SUBURBAN STADIUM STRUGGLES

When it comes to MLS, the news from suburban Bridgeview, Ill., is downright depressing. The Chicago Fire have failed to heat up Toyota Park, and the city is scrambling to pay off debts associated with the professional soccer stadium it financed a decade ago. That’s a loss of at least $3 million annually.

The stadium could seat 30,000 fans. Most games draw about half that.

In Chester, Pa., a $122 million MLS soccer stadium opened five years ago with high hopes of new economic development nearby. Located 15 miles from Philadelphia, PPL Park remains ringed by undeveloped land, high crime rates and poverty. Game attendance is well below the league average of 21,000 fans.

“If your audience is that younger, professional demographic, they’re probably not as likely to travel out to the suburbs,” said Larry McCarthy, a faculty member at the Center for Sports Management at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. “They’re more prone to attending if the facility was located in the city.”

Smaller-than-capacity crowds have inspired the L.A. Galaxy to lower ticket prices at suburban StubHub Center, which hosts 27,000 seats but is drawing fewer than 23,000 fans per game this year at the second-largest soccer-specific stadium in the league.

In contrast, the Seattle Sounders attract roughly 43,000 fans per game at downtown CenturyLink Field, according to the league. With the longest waiting list in MLS, the Portland Timbers also draw sellout crowds — more than 21,000 people — to downtown Providence Park.

“The teams that have traditionally struggled are those that play in the suburbs, such as Chicago, or Colorado or Dallas,” said EmpireofSoccer.com writer Ryan Brister.

Meanwhile, sellout crowds are flocking to Toronto, Portland and Seattle, which “have stadiums that are in downtown,” Brister said. “They were a couple of the first teams to do that, and show the potential of what MLS could draw.”

Brister believes that national demographic changes are fueling stadium decisions.

MLS expanded into New York City and Orlando this year, with plans for Atlanta in 2017 and Los Angeles in 2018. The league’s future in St. Paul or Minneapolis remains yet to be determined.

“Beyond soccer, you’re seeing a trend of younger people moving into the city, and younger people are the demographic that MLS is going after,” Brister said. “Beyond that, there’s logistical difficulties in going out to the suburbs, if it’s a long drive at 7 p.m. on a Thursday night. That will turn people away.”

Baxter agreed that soccer is targeting the young fan.

“Millennials are more interested in soccer than any other age group — 16 percent more likely to be interested. They come to the table without the same prejudices. If you’re a sports entrepreneur, do you want to take a 50-year-old baseball fan who grew up watching baseball and try to convert them into a soccer fan?”

Minnesota United FC, which currently plays in the second-division North American Soccer League, draws near-capacity crowds to the National Sports Center in Blaine, but that capacity is limited. The leased stadium seats about 8,500 spectators, with standing room for 1,500 more.

“Our average is 8,927,” Minnesota United spokesman Eric Durkee said in an email. “Our single-game (franchise record) high is 9,412. Our sellout number shifts depending on stadium configuration/standing-room-only tickets.”

The team is dreaming bigger.

In March, Minnesota United FC announced plans for an 18,500-seat MLS stadium in Minneapolis, and has more recently flirted with prospects of an 18,000- to 20,000-seat stadium off Snelling and University avenues in St. Paul.

At double the size, would a soccer-specific Twin Cities stadium in the urban core draw extra fans?

The league and the team have declined to comment on any stadium specifics until a deal is made public, but the positive experience of urban soccer stadiums around the country seems to indicate it’s a possibility.

The stadiums that appear to be doing best, however, enjoy the backdrop of a downtown skyline. While St. Paul’s Midway is hardly the suburbs, a soccer-specific stadium would still be a few miles from either downtown.

That could be a hangup for the MLS commissioner. But “the fact that you’re served by light rail is good,” said Baxter, the L.A. Times writer. Garber “really likes the energy of the urban environment.”

In both St. Paul and Minneapolis, sites for an MLS stadium would sit within a quick walk of a Metro Transit light-rail station, in addition to other public transit options.

That’s key, Brister said.

“Having access to public transportation is really what helps these stadiums prosper,” he added.

Among the teams that have confronted uneven or below-capacity ticket sales, the New England Revolution have averaged 17,655 fans per game this season at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. (population 17,000). The 68,000-seat football stadium’s lower-level could accommodate 20,000 soccer fans.

On the flip side, the San Jose Earthquakes are drawing capacity crowds of 18,000 fans to the new Avaya Stadium in San Jose (population 999,000), where attendance is up more than 40 percent compared with 2014. They previously played in a much smaller stadium on the Santa Clara University campus in Santa Clara, Calif. (population 116,000).

Even in high-density areas, many suburban stadiums have seen declining ticket sales at a time when overall league attendance is breaking records.

Located on the Carson, Calif., campus of California State University, 10 miles south of Los Angeles, the $150 million StubHub Center is also home to tennis facilities, track and field, and a bicycle-racing velodrome course.

Average attendance for an L.A. Galaxy game was just over 22,000 people last year, down 4 percent from 2013, according to EmpireofSoccer.com. Attendance has picked up a bit this season but remains below 23,000.

The departure of celebrity soccer player David Beckham after the 2012 season hurt ticket sales, but the StubHub Center’s location probably isn’t helping.

“It’s a ‘suburban shopping mall’-type environment — it’s antiseptic,” Baxter said.

In a sign of league confidence in the urban market, the L.A. Galaxy will soon have company, and competitors.

A second MLS team — the Los Angeles Football Club — is coming to Los Angeles in 2018, and plans a $250 million, 22,000-seat soccer-specific stadium in downtown L.A. as its new home.

Youssef Rddad and Nick Woltman contributed to this report.

Frederick Melo can be reached at 651-228-2172. Follow him at twitter.com/FrederickMelo.

MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER

Overall attendance at Major League Soccer matches is breaking records at an average of more than 21,000 fans per game, but there’s wide variety between stadiums located in the cities and the suburbs.

Urban stadiums tend to run close to or even over capacity, using overflow sections and standing-room-only ticket sales, while suburban stadiums tend to see below-capacity sales. The 2015 season for the 20-team league ends in October.

Average fans per home game, 2014 (with 2015 averages through Sept. 13); C = stadium capacity:

URBAN/DOWNTOWN STADIUMS:

Seattle Sounders: 43,734 fans (42,711); C: 39,000*

Portland Timbers: 20,805 fans (21,142); C: 21,444

San Jose Earthquakes: 14,947 fans (21,618); C: 18,000*

SUBURBAN/ SMALL-TOWN STADIUMS:

New England Revolution: 16,681 fans (17,655); C: 20,000*

L.A. Galaxy: 21,258 fans (22,911); C: 27,000

Philadelphia Union: 17,631 fans (17,639); C: 18,500

*CenturyLink Field in Seattle is a football stadium with a capacity of 67,000 seats. The San Jose Earthquakes’ average exceeds the capacity of Avaya Stadium because of some home games being played at larger venues. Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., is a football stadium with a capacity of 68,756 seats. Soccer seats are limited to the lower levels, but overflow sections can be opened.

Sources: MLSSoccer.com, MLSattendance.blogspot.com, EmpireofSoccer.com, SoccerStadiumDigest.com