Tampa Bay Mutiny Historical Attendance

I have had quite a few followers ask for historical attendance data for each team, so for the next few weeks I will post each team and their attendance over the years since they have joined the MLS.

First ever MLS game on ESPN

I will start today with one of the two defunct franchises, the Tampa Bay Mutiny. The Mutiny were one of the original 10 MLS franchises to start in 1996. They had some initial success but lacked support later on as they traded their big name players for little in return. Don Garber was unable to find an owner for the team so the team folded.

They played their first three years in Houlihan's Stadium which had a capacity of 74,301 and was the home of the Tampa Buccaneers. The stadium was reduced to a capacity of 16,000 for soccer games. The final soccer game played in Tampa Stadium featured a crowd of 27,597 as the Mutiny beat the New York MetroStars (now the New York Red Bulls) 2-1.

Advertisement for the final game in Houlihan's Stadium

The Mutiny moved to Raymond James Stadium along with the Buccaneers in 1999. The stadium had a capacity of 66,321 at the time, but once again it was artificially reduced to 32,000 for Mutiny soccer games. Listed is the attendance of all six years that the Mutiny were active in the MLS. They had an overall average of 11,106 over the six years.

Year	Average Attendance	Capacity
1996	11,679	16,000
1997	11,338	16,000
1998	10,312	16,000
1999	13,106	32,000
2000	9,452	32,000
2001	10,479	32,000

An empty stadium and football lines doomed the franchise