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Football is unquestionably the world’s game, with groups playing it in all four corners of the globe. Even the US is starting to succumb to the beautiful game, with Major League Soccer seeming to go from strength to strength with every passing season.
With that in mind, we here at Football FanCast have decided to rank all of the stadiums in MLS, starting with the Eastern Conference.
15
Yankee Stadium – New York City FC
Kicking things off is one of America’s most famous and nicest sporting grounds, the Yankee Stadium. Its place on the bottom of this list might confuse you, given how beloved and storied it is as a sporting venue, but there is a good reason, we promise.
It’s a terrible place to watch football.
While the maximum capacity of the stadium in its current guise is only 46,000, the vast gap between the stands and where the pitch is makes watching games more difficult than it should be. Worse still, the team averaged just 17,180 fans at home in 2022, making the cavernous stadium feel even more so.
In short, it’s a fantastic stadium but a terrible place to watch the football.
14
Gillette Stadium – New England Revolution
Coming in ever so slightly ahead of Yankee Stadium on our list is New England Revolution’s Gillette Stadium.
The main issue with the stadium is that it was designed for American football, meaning that it is absolutely massive, and with the Rev’s lack of success in recent years, they get nowhere close to filling the thing.
The only reason it just edges Yankee Stadium is that the seats are at least much closer to the pitch, making it far easier to actually see what’s going on in the game.
13
Soldier Field – Chicago Fire
You might be noticing a bit of a trend here, but another ground low on the list and another ground built for a sport other than football.
Chicago Fire shares Soldier Field with NFL side Chicago Bears, and while this has probably helped the team financially, it hurts the atmosphere at games.
The stadium can hold 61,500 fans, but the Fire averaged just 15,848 per game last year.
12
Bank of America Stadium – Charlotte FC
Right, this is the last NFL stadium on our list, technically, and it’s the Bank of America stadium, home of Charlotte FC and the Carolina Panthers NFL franchise.
The ground shares all the other NFL-related issues as the ones before it on this list, but it finds itself higher for two reasons. One, it held the second largest crowd to attend an MLS game ever, 74,479, when the LA Galaxy visited for Charlotte’s inaugural MLS game last March.
Second, the team averaged 35,260 fans at home last season, the second highest in the entire league.
11
DRV PNK Stadium – Inter Miami
Here we are, the first ground on the list explicitly built for football, Inter Miami’s DRV PNK Stadium.
That said, while they earn some bonus points for having a ground built for football, they also lose some points as it’s just temporary, something that becomes very apparent when you see the temporary stands.
There was also an issue with atmosphere and attendance until a certain Argentine arrived from Paris earlier this summer. Since then, getting a ticket for games has been practically impossible, and the atmosphere has dramatically improved.
We aren’t sure we can give that to the ground, though.
10
Audi Field – D.C. United
Opened in 2018. DC United’s Audi Field is a genuinely nice-looking ground and has seen some impressive moments in recent years.
The one that instantly springs to mind is that Wayne Rooney performance against Orlando City when he won a tackle on the halfway line and produced a stunning cross for Luciano Acosta to score the 96th-minute winner.
The club averaged 16,256 fans a game last season, which is pretty good going with a max capacity of 20,000.
9
Saputo Stadium – CF Montreal
The first stadium on the list that isn’t in the USA is CF Montreal’s (formerly the Montreal Impact) Saputo Stadium.
There really isn’t an awful lot wrong here. It’s a nice-looking, football-specific ground that generally wouldn’t look out of place in a European football league. In fact, its design somewhat reminds us of Union Berlin’s ground, well, a little bit, anyway.
The club averaged 15,905 fans a game last season, which, considering the stadium’s capacity is just 19,619, we reckon is pretty good going.
8
TQL Stadium – FC Cincinnati
FC Cincinnati’s TQL Stadium is one of the newest grounds in the MLS, seeing its first action in the 2021 season.
From a purely visual standpoint, it’s a stunner. The outside of the stadium is covered in thin aluminum poles that light up in the team’s dynamic blue and orange colour scheme, and the wraparound roof actually covers all the seats.
The ground can hold 26,000 fans, with the team averaging 22,487 fans per game last season. The fans have also built up a reputation as some of the most passionate in the country.
7
Red Bull Arena – New York Red Bulls
This is an interesting one as New York Red Bulls’ Red Bull Arena is, for all intents and purposes, a fantastic football ground, with everything you could want from a modern ground and generally a decent atmosphere on game days.
However, there are two issues with its location. First of all, despite being called the New York Red Bulls, they don’t actually play in the city – let alone the state – instead, the stadium is located in New Jersey, making getting there more difficult than it should be for fans.
The second problem is that it’s surrounded by industrial sites and warehouses, making the journey to the ground a pretty miserable affair for all involved.
Columbus Crew’s new Lower.com stadium is easily one of the nicest-looking grounds in the entire league, let alone the Eastern Conference.
Its sharp angles on the outside and steep two-tiered seating on the inside make for an incredibly visually appealing football stadium and should help cultivate an intimidating atmosphere. Oh, there’s also the small bonus of the multiple taprooms within the stadium for beer lovers.
With a maximum capacity of 20,371, the Crew did incredibly well to average 19,237 fans a game last season.
5
Geodis Park – Nashville SC
Nashville SC played their first season of MLS football at Geodis Park last season, and in the view of many, the stadium has quickly established itself as one of the best in the league.
That’s in part thanks to its sleek design that allows for easy viewing from all angles, but also the atmosphere generated from inside the ground by the incredibly passionate fans.
Its max capacity is 30,000, just a bit more than the 27,554 fans they averaged per game last season.
4
Exploria Stadium – Orlando City
Before Lionel Messi moved to Florida and made Inter Miami one of the biggest teams in the world, they weren’t even the biggest team in Florida. That title belonged to Orlando City.
After spending their first few seasons playing at the Citrus Bowl, Orlando settled on the Exploria and made it their own.
The best part of the ground is its safe standing area that can accommodate over 3000 fans and has been nicknamed the wall.
The atmosphere at games is also one of the best in the league, with plenty of drums and pyro to get the players fired up.
3
Subaru Park – Philadelphia Union
Philadelphia Union’s Subaru Park gets some bonus points for its setting. The ground is positioned just on the banks of the Delaware River, and fans in the ground can get a fantastic view of the Commodore Barry Bridge, which just looks all the cooler as the sun is setting and the floodlights come on.
The maximum capacity of 18,500 is on the smaller side of things for the league. Still, it really only helps to make the atmosphere even better, which it usually is, thanks to their average attendance of 18,126 last year.
2
BMO Field – Toronto FC
The second Canadian ground in our list is home to one of the league’s best-supported teams, Toronto FC.
BMO Field is an interestingly designed ground as, akin to Oxford United’s Kassam stadium, it only has three full stands, with one end practically open, giving those sitting opposite great views of the Toronto skyline.
The Canadian national team has also used the ground numerous times.
1
Mercedes-Benz Stadium – Atlanta United
Come on now, was there really going to be any other stadium that made it to the top of this list?
Atalanta United’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium is an absolutely gorgeous feat of modern engineering, and even though it’s approaching its tenth birthday, it still looks futuristic compared to all other stadiums in the league.
It is shared with the Atalanta Falcons NFL team but can be configured to suit either sport. When configured for football, it usually holds 42,500 fans but can be increased to 71,000 if – or when – it’s required. And the giant 360-degree screen above the pitch is just the icing on the cake.
Last year, the team welcomed an average of 47,116 fans per game, which was the highest in the entire league, by about 12,000 fans.
And there you have it, our ranking of the stadiums in the MLS Eastern Conference.