2016 Major League Soccer season


The 2016 Major League Soccer season featured 20 total clubs. The regular season began on March 6 and ended on October 23. The playoffs began on October 26 and ended on December 10. The defending MLS Cup champions were the Portland Timbers, while the New York Red Bulls were the defending Supporters' Shield winners. FC Dallas won the Supporter's Shield for the first time, and the Seattle Sounders FC won their first MLS Cup in their history after defeating Toronto FC 5–4 in a penalty kick shootout, after playing to a 0–0 result after regulation and added extra time.
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Teams

Personnel and sponsorship

Note: All teams use Adidas as kit manufacturer.
TeamHead coachCaptainShirt sponsor
Chicago Firesortname|Veljko|Paunović

Attendance

Average home attendances

Ranked from highest to lowest average attendance.
Team
1Seattle Sounders FC17724,80953,30239,26942,636
2Orlando City SC17502,47860,14723,80231,324
3New York City FC17462,33637,85822,73627,196
4Toronto FC17451,91730,26222,21226,583
5LA Galaxy17427,49227,16719,65125,147
6Vancouver Whitecaps FC17379,60327,03818,83622,330
7Portland Timbers17359,44821,14421,14421,144
8Montreal Impact17351,36627,54516,31820,669
9New York Red Bulls17350,53525,21815,16720,620
10New England Revolution17343,15039,58710,14420,185
11San Jose Earthquakes17338,81650,81618,00019,930
12Real Salt Lake17335,90920,38918,03619,759
13Sporting Kansas City17333,15520,61818,56319,549
14Houston Dynamo17323,36121,60115,04519,597
15Philadelphia Union17297,82518,68115,01117,519
16Columbus Crew SC17291,12820,38913,11417,125
17D.C. United17290,38130,94312,09417,081
18Colorado Rapids17276,72118,75910,67016,278
19Chicago Fire17265,23418,97612,07315,602
20FC Dallas17239,60116,21510,38114,094
–Total3407,375,14460,14710,14421,692

Highest attendances

Regular season
RankHome teamScoreAway teamAttendanceDateWeekStadium
1Orlando City SC2–2Real Salt Lake60,1471Orlando Citrus Bowl
2Seattle Sounders FC3–1Portland Timbers53,302August 21, 201625CenturyLink Field
3San Jose Earthquakes1–1Los Angeles Galaxy50,81615Stanford Stadium
4Seattle Sounders FC2–1Real Salt Lake50,022October 23, 201634CenturyLink Field
5Seattle Sounders FC1–1Los Angeles Galaxy48,458July 31, 201622CenturyLink Field
6Seattle Sounders FC0–2New York City FC47,537June 25, 201615CenturyLink Field
7Seattle Sounders FC1–0Vancouver Whitecaps FC47,111September 17, 201630CenturyLink Field
8Seattle Sounders FC0–1Colorado Rapids41,02811CenturyLink Field
9Seattle Sounders FC0–1Los Angeles Galaxy40,813July 9, 201618CenturyLink Field
10Seattle Sounders FC5–0FC Dallas40,101July 13, 201619CenturyLink Field

Player statistics

Hat-tricks

PlayerClubAgainstResultDate
sortname|Bradley|Wright-Phillips

Assists

RankPlayerClubAssists
1

Player transfers

Allocation ranking

The allocation ranking is the mechanism used to determine which MLS club has first priority to acquire a player who is in the MLS allocation list. The MLS allocation list contains select U.S. National Team players and players transferred outside of MLS garnering a transfer fee of at least $500,000. The allocations will be ranked in reverse order of finish for the 2015 season, taking playoff performance into account.
Once the club uses its allocation ranking to acquire a player, it drops to the bottom of the list. A ranking can be traded provided that part of the compensation received in return is another club's ranking. At all times each club is assigned one ranking. The rankings reset at the end of each MLS season.
Original
ranking		Current
ranking		ClubDate allocation used
Player signedPrevious clubRef
11Chicago Fire
42New York City FC
53Real Salt Lake
64Houston Dynamo
75Orlando City SC
86San Jose Earthquakes
97Toronto FC
108New England Revolution
119Sporting Kansas City
1210LA Galaxy
1311D.C. United
1412Montreal Impact
1513Seattle Sounders FC
1614Vancouver Whitecaps FC
1715FC Dallas
1816New York Red Bulls
1917Columbus Crew SC
2018Portland Timbers
219Colorado Rapids20 3 2016

Television

United States

In the 2016 MLS season, 96 games aired in the United States on national television. English-language broadcasts once again included Soccer Sunday doubleheaders — 29 games on ESPN and 5 on ESPN2, 4 on Fox, and 30 on Fox Sports 1. The 2016 season marked MLS's debut on the Fox network channel. Spanish-language broadcasts included 28 games on UniMás.
DateESPNFS1UDNRefNotes
1March 6362267148The UDN match aired from 10:00pm to 12:08am, outside its usual window.
2March 11–1319717584
3March 18–2017918498MLS matches went head-to-head against the NCAA basketball tournament.
4March 25–27No Games on TV.
5April 1–3261185No Games on ESPN.
6April 8–10386183
270		192Two Games on FS1, 183k NYCFC-CHI, 270k LAG-POR
7April 15–17229138109
8April 22–24180176No Games on Unimas.
9April 29–May 130219951
10May 6–822519993
May 20–22463636*
210		190*New York derby was broadcast on FOX instead of FS1.
July 1–3439136
July 8–1022317184
July 15–17322118
AVG2016262.1205.81202016 Average

Notes:
  • All viewership numbers are in thousands.
  • Average viewership for the previous 2015 season was 245,000, 197,000, and 244,000.

Other countries

TSN, RDS and Sportsnet aired matches in Canada of primarily the three Canadian-based teams.
MLS aired on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom, Eurosport in Continental Europe, Abu Dhabi Media in the Middle East and North Africa, Letv Sports in China, beIN Sports in Asia-Pacific, ESPN and Fox Sports in Latin America, SporTV in Brazil and Fox Sports in Africa.

2016 attendances

The following is a list of the average attendance for each of the twenty MLS teams at their regular-season games. It includes the team, the average attendance for the 2016 regular season and the 2015 regular season, the percentage change in attendance from season-to-season, the home venue, the home venue's capacity, and the percent of capacity.
Note: Vancouver's and Seattle's attendances are both over 100% capacity because, for select games, they open up additional sections above the regular limited capacity. Orlando's and New England's attendances are over 100% because their capacities are artificial; both teams regularly sell more tickets than the limit. San Jose's attendance is over 100% capacity because they played one game at Levi's Stadium.

Coaches

Eastern Conference

Western Conference