MLS Cup Ratings: Move from primetime impacts viewing numbers

Max Aquino / Sounder at Heart The massive crowd inside the stadium didn’t quite equate to equally big audience on TV.In Seattle, the interest in the MLS Cup championship game between the Seattle Sounders and Toronto FC was at record levels. Elsewhere across the country, not so much.

The final viewership numbers for the championship game on ABC — the first time the game has been broadcast on an over-the-air ABC channel in more than 10 years — are in and a total of 823,000 viewers watched the Sounders triumph over Toronto FC, according to a release from ESPN. The number represents a modest increase from the 2017 final broadcast — also between the Seattle Sounders and Toronto FC — on ESPN, a…