Seattle’s Win Seen by 3.5M on TV, the Most-viewed MLS Final

NEW YORK (AP) — Seattle's penalty-kicks win over Toronto last weekend drew 3.5 million television viewers, the most for a Major League Soccer final.

Seattle's 5-4 victory following a 0-0 tie Saturday night was seen by 1,411,000 viewers on Fox, the network said Tuesday. That was up 111 percent from the 668,000 that viewed Portland's 2-1 win over Columbus in last year's final, televised by ESPN on a Sunday afternoon, and the most U.S. viewers for the MLS final since 1.5 million tuned in for San Jose's victory over the LA Galaxy in 2001.

MLS said 601,000 viewed Spanish-language U.S. coverage on UniMas, 1.43 million saw TSN's English-language coverage in Canada and 92,000 tuned in for RDS's French-language broadcast.

The total surpassed the 2.2 million viewers for D.C. United's win over Colorado in 1997, when there was no Canadian broadcast and Spanish-language coverage was via SAP on ABC.