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Attendance at Rapids home openers

April 21, 2009 | 8:00 am 2
By George Tanner

dicks-525                                                                                 (Photo by George Tanner/ColoradoSoccerNow.com)

As the Rapids prepare for their second home game of the season on Saturday, we look at attendance totals at Major League Soccer home openers for each year of the Colorado Rapids franchise. 

1996 vs. Kansas City Wiz at Mile High Stadium: 21,711

1997 vs. Columbus Crew at Mile High Stadium: 15,325

1998 vs. Los Angeles Galaxy at Mile High Stadium: 19,252

1999 vs. Miami Fusion at Mile High Stadium: 15,592

2000 vs. Tampa Bay Mutiny at Mile High Stadium: 17,105

2001 vs. MetroStars at Mile High Stadium: 18,495

2002 vs. San Jose Earthquakes at Invesco Field at Mile High: 25,010

2003 vs. San Jose Earthquakes at Invesco Field at Mile High: 20,816

2004 vs. Los Angeles Galaxy at Invesco Field at Mile High: 13,417

2005 vs. FC Dallas at Invesco Field at Mile High: 9,253

2006 vs. Columbus Crew at Invesco Field at Mile High: 12,124

2007 vs. D.C. United at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park: 18,086

2008 vs. Los Angeles Galaxy at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park: 18,713

2009 vs. Kansas City Wizards at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park: 11,885

So this year’s opener had the second-lowest attendance in the team’s history, the worst coming in 2005. Interesting to note that the highest home attendance (in 2002) and the lowest (2005) at a home opener both came at Invesco Field.

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2 Comments »

  • wahleyed said:

    So, what do you think is happening? economy, weather, collapse of western civilization, all of the above?

  • George Tanner (author) said:

    well, this year it was partly the weather. the other two home openers at dick’s were sold out. sure, one was the first game at the stadium ever. the other was beckham’s first (only?) appearance as a player in colorado. this year, the game was awful early on the calendar, and it was cold. denver had just gotten over a snowstorm and was not thinking about how lovely it would be to spend two hours outdoors in the evening. if the home opener saw the weather we had today, it would’ve been a different story. i was out at the DU-rapids reserves scrimmage, and it was beautiful out.

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