MLS Stadiums: As seen from above

Since football soccer is still fighting to get a stronghold in the United States, the football stadiums in the country are small compared to Europe.

From the inauguration of the Major League Soccer, teams started playing in multi-purpose stadiums and often shared them with NFL or college rugby football teams. That has changed since, with the construction of soccer-specific stadiums.

There are a total of 18 stadiums used by the 19 MLS clubs. LA Galaxy and Chivas USA share the Home Depot Center. Seattle Sounders have the luxury of the largest capacity at the CenturyLink Field (38,500) while San Jose Earthquakes play in the Buck Shaw Stadium which has the smallest capacity of the lot (10,525).

Although all RFK Stadium, BC Place, Gillette Stadium and even the CenturyLink Field itself have larger capacities but they are artificially reduced due to the smaller turn-out to the soccer matches.

Only five of the stadiums currently used in the 2013 MLS season are from the 20th century. The Columbus Crew Stadium was finished in 1999 and the oldest is the Jeld-Wen Field, home of Portland Timbers (1926). The newest being Houston Dynamo’s BBVA Compass Stadium, which was completed in May 2012.

Below is a gallery of overhead shots of all the 18 MLS stadiums (courtesy of Google Maps and Bing Maps).

For similar photos of stadiums in other leagues, see: Premier League Stadiums, La Liga Stadiums, Bundesliga Stadiums, Serie A Stadiums, Ligue 1 Stadiums, Eredivisie Stadiums.

Source: Reddit.