Attendance:
The XFL week 2 attendance numbers have been made official by the XFL, and the overall number for attendance is up almost 6,500 people to 76,285 (week one total 69,818).
Here’s the breakdown:
DC Defenders (2nd home game): 15,031
Seattle Dragons (1st home game): 29,172
LA Wildcats (1st home game): 14,979
Houston Roughnecks (2nd home game): 17,103
Both DC and Houston who played their second straight home game saw a dip in attendance. DC was down 2,132 spectators from their week one total (17,163), Houston saw a much smaller loss, down just 712 spectators from 17,815 in week one.
Overall the week received quite a boost from the 29+ thousand people who went to the Dragons home opener.
In week three, two more teams play their first home game. So we can’t yet determine which markets aren’t embracing their teams by going to games in person and supporting them by watching on television. That is still to come as Tampa Bay and St. Louis will be at home for the first time.
Fox Television Ratings:
Earlier this week, we saw the ratings for the two ABC games from week two, now, we’re getting a look at the ratings on Fox and Fox Sports 1 from via ShowBuzzDaily.com and Sports TV Ratings on Twitter.
Here are the numbers:
FOX
Saturday 5 PM: Tampa Bay @ Seattle: 2.324 Million Viewers
FS1
Sunday 6 PM: St. Louis @ Houston: 1.359 Million Viewers
Both numbers are down from the previous week. But that is to be expected as the XFL integrates with new channels. In week one, there were three games on broadcast networks and one on a cable channel, ESPN. Week two was the same breakdown, three on networks and one on a cable channel, FS1.
It’s clear there is less of a “dial recognition” with FS1 compared to ESPN, so it should be an encouraging sign for the XFL for their late Sunday game on FS1 to rake in 1.359 million viewers.
While not outperforming the prior week’s cable game, the FS1 game featuring the St. Louis BattleHawks and the Houston Roughnecks actually beat the St. Louis Blues, the local NHL team in ratings on Sunday as Frank Cusumano of KSDK in St. Louis tweeted.
Ratings will mean more to the longevity of the league as the season progresses. Also, initial attendance numbers in Tampa Bay and St. Louis will be interesting to see and are expected to easily outpace those put up in DC and LA.
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