A method for transmitting load information in a wireless local area network. The method according to one embodiment includes generating, by an access point (AP), basic service set (BSS) load information, the BSS load information including a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) channel underutilization field; and transmitting, by the AP, the BSS load information. The MIMO channel underutilization field indicates a spatial stream underutilization that is defined as a percentage of time that the AP has one or more underutilized spatial domain resources for a given busy time of a wireless medium. The spatial stream underutilization is calculated based on a maximum number of spatial streams supported by the AP and a number of one or more utilized spatial streams transmitted by the AP.