Sporting KC offers free tickets — will it create new fans amid dropping attendance figures?

With Sporting Kansas City suffering a second straight defeat, losing 3-1 to Real Salt Lake on Saturday, the club announced the continuation of the First Game On Us program.

Sporting Kansas City introduced the First Game On Us program in 2025. The scheme gives fans who have never experienced a Sporting Kansas City match the opportunity to do so for free.

Fans who have never experienced a Sporting Kansas City Major League Soccer game can receive two free tickets–parking fees may apply for those who drive. First-time supporters can get First Game On Us tickets for any of the next four Sporting Kansas City home fixtures against the San Jose Earthquakes, Seattle Sounders, LA Galaxy, and New York Red Bulls. 

Sporting hopes to ignite more excitement amongst locals for the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup by offering free tickets. All four games will take place at Sporting Park prior to the start of the World Cup tournament in June.

Of course, this is a great initiative to get new fans interested in Sporting Kansas City. However, the cynic in me, which there is a big one, looks at the program as a way for Sporting to attempt to create new fans from a small, dwindling base. 

The initiative was first introduced during the 2025 campaign, an awful season in which Sporting Kansas City finished dead last in the Western Conference. With Sporting Kansas City already dead last in the Western Conference after six games this season and difficult to watch due to a low-quality squad, the front office is looking for ways to bring fans out once more.

The reality inside Sporting Park

Sporting KC have played three home matches in 2026 MLS play. According to Transfermarkt, where all data for this article comes from, the team is averaging 16,618 fans per game. Sporting Park has a soccer capacity of 18,467, although this number can be expanded. 

Watching any of the three fixtures played at Sporting Park, it is easy to see that there are plenty of empty seats. If Sporting continue their current form, more seats are going to be empty as the season wears on. Once you lose fans, it is difficult to get them back.

In 2025, Sporting averaged 16,604 fans per match. That figure put the club into the bottom five of MLS’s average attendance figures. Now, take that with a grain of salt. Why? Because any of the 17 teams that hosted Inter Miami had a major boost in attendance to inflate their numbers. The Messi-effect masks the actual number of fans teams across MLS attract.

If you don’t believe in the Messi-effect, then just look at Sporting KC’s 2024 average attendance. The club welcomed 21,193 fans across 17 MLS regular-season games. How is that possible when the team were 27th overall in a 29-team league that campaign?

The answer is Messi. Sporting Kansas City and Inter Miami attracted 72,610 to Arrowhead Stadium for their match on April 13. Sporting KC lost 3-2. There were likely plenty of locals from both sides of the Missouri-Kansas border who witnessed their first ever Sporting KC, MLS, or soccer match–perhaps all three. Some may still be showing up. Some may have rekindled their interest in the club. Some may have continued their previous disinterest in the team.

The data behind the decline

According to Transfermarkt, Sporting Kansas City have not had a sell-out at Sporting Park since the 2019 season–there was one during the 2020 COVID season, but as it wasn’t a full 17-game home schedule, I’ve omitted it. Five seasons have come and gone with Sporting Kansas City not having a sell-out crowd.

The chart available at Transfermarkt shows clear spikes in attendance coupled with on-pitch success. The clearest surge in attendance for Sporting Kansas City was in the early 2010s. At the time, there was genuine matchday demand.

When success filled every seat

Between 2011 and 2014, the club regularly sold out matches, peaking with a perfect 17/17 sellout record in 2013 and 12 sellouts the following season. Average attendances hovered around the 19,500 to 20,000 mark. Those numbers would have made Sporting a reliable draw around MLS. 

Why were attendances so strong? This period aligns with sustained competitive success, including playoff appearances, a recognizable playing style, and, most crucially, silverware. All of this turned occasional attendees into committed supporters. Success didn’t just fill seats; it created demand.

Supporters don’t keep coming out due to the food menus, merchandise, or stupid free gimmicks that are given out. They come out regularly because they love the club and there is success. Sporting was allowed to drift in recent years. That drift feels like it is continuing despite the positive changes made in 2026.

The illusion of stability

The previous momentum largely held through the mid-to-late 2010s. Even as sellouts became less frequent, average attendances remained consistently high. This suggests the club had built a strong baseline fan culture that could withstand minor fluctuations in performance. 

There’s an argument here that success creates a lag effect: fans don’t immediately disappear when results dip slightly, because habits, traditions, and emotional investment have already been formed. In this sense, Sporting Kansas City’s earlier success effectively “raised the floor” of attendance for several seasons.

Keep in mind, in the early 2010s, Sporting Park was new, the club had rebranded from the Wizards to Sporting KC, and there was finally a buzz around the area for the club. This made the club an in-demand experience. It was also a time that the Kansas City Chiefs and Kansas City Royals were struggling. 

The drop we’re seeing now

The more recent data points to a different trend. The 2023 and 2024 seasons saw a spike back above 21,000 on average—one of the highest figures in the dataset. This was, of course, created by the Messi-effect.

Yet that was followed by a sharp drop to around 16,600 in 2025 and the early part of 2026. When crowds fall by several thousand per game, it often reflects fading momentum, reduced fan belief, and a less compelling team to watch and relate to.

Sustained success builds culture and consistency, while inconsistency or decline erodes it faster than clubs might expect regardless of your stadium’s matchday experience, beer vendors, or new hipster food offerings. 

Sporting Kansas City’s attendance history shows a winning team can create one of the league’s most reliable fanbases and how quickly that advantage can slip when performances no longer match expectations.