Most Popular MLS Team by State

To determine the most popular MLS team in each state, Holiday Calendar developed a composite index drawing from three independent data sources over the six-month period from January through July 2024. First, we analyzed anonymized secondary-market ticket sales data by buyer location to assess which MLS teams generated the highest purchase volume in each state. Second, we examined Google Trends search interest for all MLS team names and related terms, weighted by state-level search volume relative to population. Third, we collected and analyzed geotagged Twitter/X mentions of MLS team names and official handles, mapping posts to state of origin based on user profile location data. Each data source was normalized on a 0–100 scale and weighted equally to produce a composite popularity score for each team in each state. States were assigned to the team with the highest composite score. This multi-source approach was designed to capture fan engagement across purchasing behavior, online search interest, and social media conversation, providing a more holistic measure of fandom than any single metric alone.