Washington state tops list for nation’s most soccer crazed

It should come as little surprise so many around here will be ditching work to catch World Cup soccer games over the next month, especially when the United States is in action. And a new ranking is cementing Seattle and the state’s reputation as soccer-mad.

The real estate search site Estately looked at a number of categories to determine the level of soccer enthusiasm in each state, with Washington coming out on top of the heap.

Among the criteria are average attendance for Major League Soccer and Northwest Women’s Soccer League matches, the number of youth soccer clubs per capita, the number of Facebook users per capita expressing interest in soccer, Google searches, and most importantly, the number of soccer-friendly pubs per capita.

“I think that’s something you’ve really seen in the last 10 years, with more of those soccer-themed bars and a bunch of other bars and pubs focused on soccer,” says Ryan Nickum, researcher and blogger for Estately.

Attendance for Sounders FC far surpasses all other MLS teams, with Seattle averaging over 40,000 fans per game.

The state comes in second in soccer-friendly pubs per capita, and second per capita in youth soccer clubs, Nickum says.

Washington is followed by Maryland, District of Columbia, New Jersey and New York. Alabama, where college football reigns supreme, is the least soccer crazed, the survey finds. Suffice it to say, most bars probably will be showing University of Alabama spring practices over the World Cup.