MLS math doesn't always add up

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http://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/la-sp-soccer-baxter-20161029-story.html

MLS math doesn't always add up

Kevin Baxter / On Soccer

Major League Soccer says it drew more than 7.37 million spectators this season, breaking its attendance record for the third straight season.

What MLS won’t say publicly, however, is how many paid to get in — or how many even bothered to show up at all. And that could be a problem for a league that depends on the local fortunes of its teams to build and fund its growing success throughout the U.S. and Canada.

MLS, like the NBA, NHL and even the English Premier League, bases crowd figures on the number of tickets distributed, a practice that has become an industry standard. Major League Baseball measures the number of tickets sold.

But none of the top North American leagues use an old-school turnstile count, meaning none of the attendance figures they release reflect the number of people who actually attend the events.