The 2025 Major League Soccer season will reach its conclusion this weekend when Inter Miami faces the Vancouver Whitecaps in the MLS Cup Final. For DC United, the final match of the season came well over a month and a half ago, and the offseason will be incredibly important for the club. There’s a new general manager in charge, René Weiler will have a full offseason to get the players he thinks will help the Black-and-Red be successful, and there are fences to be mended with a fractured fanbase. 

Our friends at SixOneFive Soccer do an annual survey on all things MLS, and this year we were honored to be asked to participate in that survey. It gave us a chance to ask fans about the team, what you think is the cause for the Black-and-Red earning the Wooden Spoon as the league’s worst team, and other questions about the team and the league at large. 

Ben Wright of SixOneFive Soccer provided some general insight on the MLS side for all of the 3489 responses we had to the survey. You can check out that general data here. We are going to break down how you felt about the DC United section of the lengthy survey.

There were 186 people who marked DC United as their team, 5.3% of the total number of survey responses. So from there, we can start to break down the various aspects of the 2025 DC United season.

Season Performance

We start with the overall season performance, and y’all didn’t hold back. Almost 60% of the responses called the 2025 season the worst ever for DC United. 2013 may have been the worst season statistically, but the Black-and-Red did win the U.S. Open Cup that year. The only trophy that the 2025 team will hold is the Wooden Spoon, and all of the other issues on and off the field contribute to many of you thinking this was the bottom of the bottom for the club.

We then got into the performances of several people, from former coach Troy Lesesne and former GM Ally Mackay to current coach René Weiler and the club’s majority owners, Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan.

Lesesne, who was fired back in July, led the team for just over half the season, and most fans thought he did a bad to terrible job. Only a select few thought he did a good job. Mackay had a slightly worse rating, with most people thinking he did a bad job in his role as general manager.

It was probably unfair to consider René Weiler’s performance given that he took over a sinking ship in August, and respondents agreed. They were fairly neutral on his performance thus far. However, for the majority owners, almost everyone thought they have been abysmal. Over 160 respondents gave them the lowest rating for their performance in 2025. 

Who’s to Blame

There is a ton of blame to pass around for the club’s struggles in 2025, but the buck stops at the top. It’s quite clear: the fans are pointing the blame squarely at majority owners Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan. Additionally, they don’t feel that the owners are capable of turning it around. “Sell The Team” is a rallying cry that has been chanting at many matches at Audi Field this season, and that is reflected in this survey.

The other major thing that has been missing from DC United’s structure is a MLS Next Pro team. With the team’s no longer having Loudoun United as a reserve team, Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan mentioned when they spoke with The District Press back in September that an announcement of a partnership with a MLS Next Pro team was imminent as they continued to pursue establishing their own in Baltimore. That announcement never happened, but many fans think that a lack of a reserve team means that younger players don’t have a chance to get the competitive minutes they need to further their development. Almost half of respondents thought that the lack of a MLS Next Pro team is a definite factor for the team’s inability to compete with the rest of the league, but it’s the main issue facing the club.

Offseason Focus

Now that the offseason is in full swing, there’s a lot that DC United have to do to climb out of the MLS cellar and start competing for the playoffs and for trophies. Because of the mountain of things the club presumably needs to do in order to improve, fans were split as to what the number one issue that needs addressing. 36% of respondents said that improving club culture from top to bottom was the biggest priority, while 32.3% said it was improving the roster. 23.1% said that the front office needs to rebuild fan trust in their abilities.

As for realistic goals for next year? Fans are pretty clear: just get to the playoffs. With 18 teams making the playoffs, including 9 in the Eastern Conference, it doesn’t take much of an improvement to compete for the playoffs. 52.7% of responses listed that as the goal, thought 29.6% are just saying “don’t hold onto the Wooden Spoon, please.”

The jury is still out for René Weiler, as almost 80% of respondents aren’t sure if he’s the right coach for DC United. Offseason moves and on field performance will paint a better picture for fans to evaluate. The strategy is something that everyone has differing opinions, with the plurality of people thinking that getting Designated Players from Central and South America is the best move for the club. However, overwhelmingly, fans think that upgrades are needed at every single position on the field.

A lot of people pay attention to the style of play a club has. However, in the case of DC United, fans think style can be important, but it doesn’t matter what it is so long as they play. In the US Open Cup, the overwhelming majority either loves the Open Cup or otherwise wants the team to seriously compete to win it. Thankfully for those fans, the Black-and-Red will participate in the 2026 U.S. Open Cup and they will get a chance to win their first one since 2013.

When the survey was released back in October, a major roster question centered around the club’s Designated Player, Christian Benteke. Despite missing a ton of time due to injuries, he still led the team in goals this season. The plurality of fans thought that the team should go in a different direction, while there was strong sentiment in bringing Benteke back in some capacity. Earlier this week, Benteke announced that he will leave the club after DC United did not exercise his contract option for 2026.

As for the rest of the team, fans were asked for each player whether they wanted them to stay or leave. Despite the team announcing their end-of-season decisions on contracts for the roster, here’s what the fans thought of each player:

Stay (14): Christian Benteke, Caden Clark, Gabriel Pirani, Aaron Herrera, João Peglow, Matti Peltola, David Schnegg, Connor Antley, Kristian Fletcher, Jackson Hopkins, Hosei Kijima, Jacob Murrell, Garrison Tubbs, Gavin Turner
Leave (14): Kim Joon-hong, Boris Enow, Kye Rowles, Dominique Badji, Luis Barraza, Lucas Bartlett, Derek Dodson, Randall Leal, Lukas MacNaughton, Brandon Servania, Jared Stroud, Jordan Farr (barely), Hakim Karamoto, Rida Zouhir

Fans don’t really care if DC United brought in a player that would be conidered in the USMNT player pool. The basic quality is trying to acquire talent that can help the team win, whether they are with the USMNT or international, whether they come in from abroad or within MLS.

When asked to consider players from outside of MLS that they would want the club to bring in, USMNT players like Alex Zendejas, Yunus Musah, and Weton McKennie were among the favorite choices. Paulo Dybala and Mo Salah were other popular options. Within MLS, Evander and Diego Luna were the two most popular choices.

Overall, how confident are DC United fans that the team will improve? Well, confidence might be at its lowest point. Over 150 respondents are pessimistic or extremely pessimistic about DC United’s chances to get better.

The Audi Field Experience

We then get into the fans who attended matches at Audi Field and their overall experience while at the 7-year-old stadium. Over two-thirds of repondents went to Audi Field for a match this season and were overall satisfied with the stadium. They are very split about their experience, presumably because of the dull product on the field.

Most season ticket members this year, over 60% of respondents, have made the decision not to renew for 2026 because of the product on the field and the experience is not worth the price of admission. Getting to and from Audi Field gets relatively high marks, with most people utilizing public transit to get to Buzzard Point. Food and drink opinions swere solidly mixed.

Two-thirds of respondents do not identify with one of the many supporters groups that dedicate their time to the team. Reviews of the supporters culture is once again solidly mixed, but overall fans don’t feel like the club treats them well. The poor results have zapped morale, and with fan trust at an all-time low, the club has some serious work to do to improve that fan-club relationship.

MLS Season Pass/Apple TV

We turn our attention to how fans are able to watch DC United play when they’re not in the stadium, and that’s on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. A whopping 83.3% of respondents subscribed to MLS Season Pass this season, and 55.4% said they play to renew. After the survey’s deadline was reached, MLS announced the end of the MLS Season Pass paywall-within-a-paywall. Starting in 2026, all matches will be made available on Apple TV, with no premium Season Pass subscription needed. That may help some decide to renew if they already have Apple TV, but have all matches behind a paywall is still a huge issue for many fans. The team’s failures this season had a huge effect on fans deciding whether to renew Apple TV/MLS Season Pass, but the subscription price had a mixed effect on decisionmaking.

Despite being the only way for fans to watch DC United matches, they feel the league is doing a terrible job marketing the league’s matches and how to find them. MLS Season Pass made it very hard for fans, especially new or casual soccer fans, to find a match on TV when they were on the go. The premium subscription added further barriers to growing the game. The majority of fans feel the league needs to get back to regular matches on linear TV with an accompanying streaming option to pull in new fans.

Local Media

The final component of the survey was local media and how fans get their DC United content. The plurality of fans said that written articles was how they got their DC United news fix, with a mix of podcasts and written articles making up the vast majority of content consumption.

Of the 186 respondents, 110 of you said that you come here to The District Press for your DC United news, and for that we are eternally grateful! The Washington Post – especially Steven Goff’s coverage – was the most popular option, and MLS Season Pass right behind The District Press. Other popular options include The Athletic, the MLS website, and the RFK Refugees Podcast.

While fans are thankful for the independent media coverage of the team, there are wide concerns about DC United re-establishing themselves with local traditional media. Steve Goff’s departure from the Washington Post (and later taking a role with Yahoo! Sports that is more nationally focused) has fans deeply worried that there will not be a ton of local coverage of the team. They hope that void can be filled so that they can get as much news about the team as possible. We of course will continue to do what we can to provide that content that you crave (if you’re someone interested in funding our efforts, please holler!) and hopefully other outlets will see the value in DC United coverage. The team’s lack of success lately has made it hard for outlets to see the point in continuing to cover the team, but through the ups and downs, we’ll be there to provide the coverage you desire.

Thank you to everyone who filled out the survey to give us your take on the team and the league as a whole. And once again, thank you to Ben Wright and his crew at SixOneFive Soccer for inviting us to be a part of it. We look forward to doing it all again in 2026, hopefully with better results on the field to discuss.