FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Sunday afternoon’s regular-season finale was, perhaps, the New England Revolution’s most dominant performance of the 2016 campaign. The Revs registered a season-high 25 shots en route to their largest margin of victory, 3-0 over the visiting Montreal Impact.
Juan Agudelo played a key role in the performance, claiming the Revolution’s Golden Boot award with his seventh goal of the season and generally wreaking havoc on the Impact defense.
Asked after the game what sparked New England’s dominance on a night when the postseason was virtually out of reach, Agudelo didn’t immediately point to tactics or a formation. He didn’t even point to the players.
Instead, he pointed to the stands.
“I think it was the fans,” Agudelo said when asked about the Revolution’s motivation on Sunday. “It was really special to have so many fans come out to our stadium, and we could hear it.
“We just wanted to show them a great game so that they could come back, because it definitely helps us offensively. I heard them yelling and I didn’t want to stop running. It helps.”
A crowd of 39,587 came out to Foxborough for Sunday’s finale, New England’s largest crowd of the season and the second-largest crowd to take in a Revolution game at Gillette Stadium. That figure is only topped by last year’s regular-season finale against Montreal, which drew 42,947 fans.
Overall, New England’s average home attendance for 2016 was up approximately three percent from the previous year, topping the 20,000 per game mark for the first time since 1997. And that year includes a caveat, as 1997’s average attendance was boosted by a crowd of 57,407 that attended a doubleheader that also featured a World Cup qualifier between the United States and Mexico.
This year’s average (20,184) included no such boost.
“The fact that these were all stand-alone Revolution games, and people were coming here to see the Revs, they’re engaged with the Revs and they love the club, I think it’s a pretty cool thing that we hit that (20,000) number,” said Revolution president Brian Bilello.
Bilello attributes New England’s continued growth to two things: the club’s on-field performance, and their commitment to devoting resources toward fan development and engagement.
While he admits that both 2015 and 2016 fell short of expectations for a club that came inches away from lifting MLS Cup in 2014, Bilello is confident that the Revs have built an entertaining roster that – with a few key additions – can once again contend for a title in 2017.
With Season Membership renewals on the rise – thanks in part to an increased focus on marketing and customer service – it’s now up to the Revs to reward their fans’ faith with a worthy on-field product.
“Really the onus is on us as a club to now, once again, deliver those levels of performances to our fans,” Bilello said. “That’s a huge item that we’re already working on for 2017, making sure we can deliver that.”
Ultimately, the benefits are twofold; success on the field leads to bigger crowds, while bigger crowds can often lead to more success on the field.
“It makes it a little bit easier playing in front of a bigger crowd,” said goalkeeper Cody Cropper, who made his MLS debut on Sunday. “It gets the adrenaline pumping. It felt really good.”
