Your annual (and extremely belated) look at Detroit City FC’s home attendance numbers.

Links to previous editions: 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Data Sources:

Detroit City FC attendance numbers are announced at matches and posted to the club’s official Twitter account.

USL numbers come via Soccer Stadium Digest.

Previous home attendance averages (competitive matches only):

2012: 1295 CLICK HERE for game-by-game table

2013: 1715 CLICK HERE for game-by-game table

2014: 2857 CLICK HERE for game-by-game table

2015: 3528 CLICK HERE for game-by-game table

2016: 5208 CLICK HERE for game-by-game table

2017: 5925 CLICK HERE for game-by-game table

Final numbers for 2018:

Graphs:

Competitive matches only

Number of home matches in parentheses

Notes

(1) In 2018, City drew at least 5000 fans to every regular season home match for the first time.

(2) Total attendance for the six 2018 friendlies – 40,380 – was higher than every season total when City played at Cass Tech (9948 in 2012; 15,914 in 2013; 23,022 in 2014; 29,743 in 2015)

(3) The 7000 mark was reached once in 2016 (vs. AFC Ann Arbor) and once in 2017 (vs. Midland-Odessa). It was reached four times in 2018.

(4) Over the course of seven seasons and 74 total home matches, City has drawn 296,440 fans.

How do we measure up?

If City had competed in the USL in 2018, their competitive match average attendance of 5274 would’ve put them 10th (out of 34 teams), between Tampa Bay (5553) and Reno (5066).

Overview

When I started doing these posts in 2013, I decided to base my average attendance numbers on competitive matches, since the friendlies of that time were generally against low-profile competition on weeknights, which resulted in lower than average attendances. I felt these numbers were outliers and weren’t indicative of the overall upward trend that had been obvious in the regular season and playoffs.

That’s changed since the move to Keyworth, though. Most friendlies are now marquee events against well-known, highly-visible clubs from around the world, and this has resulted in much higher attendance numbers than the old days when matchups consisted of the Crew College Program and Windsor Stars.

On its face, the above graph for average game attendance might look concerning, but that’s because I resisted the urge to cherry-pick the data and stuck to my original method of omitting friendlies. If I had included them, average attendance (5946) would be right on par with 2017.

Digging deeper, the trends are still positive. While overall attendance was down from 2017, City played three fewer matches in 2018. If three matches at the average attendance level (5274) were added to 2018, it would raise the season total to over 93,000, a healthy increase from the year before.

In 2017, there were a few low numbers (~4300 for FC Indiana and Michigan Stars, ~4000 for the Dayton, Crew, and Windsor friendlies), but in 2018 there was only one real blip – the U.S. Open Cup match against the Michigan Bucks (3416). Every other home match drew at least 5322 people.

In my opinion, this shows that the “Attendance Floor” is steadily moving upward. A few years ago, 5000 would’ve been seen as a big number; now it’s become the norm. And while 4000-4500 would’ve been considered about average in 2016, most supporters would now probably groan if that number was announced over the PA system.

Now, with the stands at Keyworth Stadium completely renovated and open for butts and feet, the 8000 mark will surely be topped this year, with 9000 a very realistic possibility.

Also, bear in mind that no international friendlies have been announced yet. Okay, yes Windsor, but I’m not counting that one. If one of those happens to be a big fish, the golden mark of 10,000 may be within reach, though current stadium capacity may prevent that from happening.

As for averages, I think that 6000 is a reasonable expectation for the NPSL Classic season. It will be interesting to see how much of an increase there is, if any, once City begins Founders Cup play in August.