Good crowds attended this week’s eight matches, except of course in Dallas. The league averaged just over 16,600.

The week began with west leading Chivas USA visiting Houston. A midweek turnout of over 14,500 saw the Dynamo continue its good form.

On Saturday, the east’s top teams clashed in DC in front of over 18,300. Toronto hosted the hapless Red Bulls with its usual sellout. Kansas City also sold out for the visit of the Revs. 19,718, around their YTD average, saw the Galaxy’s undefeated streak end. A throng of 28,999 witnessed Seattle rebound from its loss to Chivas last week.

Decent weather and a top opponent couldn’t bring out more than 12,700 to Columbus on Sunday.

While 5 clubs are up in average attendance, it’s disturbing that five others, Chicago, Dallas, DCU, LA and San Jose are down over 22%.

After week 13 the numbers look like this…

  5 year comparison
  WK 13 100 GP YTD
  Avg +/- GP Avg +/- Avg +/- GP
 2005   12,309     8   14,335     14,160     87 
 2006   13,440   9.19%   9   14,914   4.04%   14,924   5.40%   81 
 2007   11,574   -13.88%   6   15,178   1.77%   15,059   0.90%   85 
 2008   17,594   52.01%   9   16,324   7.55%   16,836   11.80%   93 
 2009   16,634   -5.46%   8   14,883   -8.82%   14,883   -11.60%   100 

Here are the attendance comparisons to 2008’s equal number of home games(100):

MLS Attendance Averages – Equal # of Home Games
  2008 2009
  Att Cap Att Att +/- GP % of Cap Cap
 Seattle  0   0.00%   29,401   NA  7   91.88%   32,000 
 Toronto  20,133   91.61%   20,220   0.43%   9   92.00%   21,978 
 LA Galaxy  24,876   92.13%   19,298   -22.42%   7   71.47%   27,000 
 Houston  16,736   74.38%   15,480   -7.51%   7   68.80%   22,500 
 Real Salt Lake  16,419   76.25%   15,449   -5.91%   6   79.88%   19,340 
 ChivasUSA  14,376   53.25%   15,312   6.51%   8   56.71%   27,000 
 D.C. United  20,817   92.52%   14,811   -28.85%   8   65.83%   22,500 
 Columbus Crew  12,270   54.40%   12,417   1.20%   6   55.05%   22,555 
 Colorado Rapids  14,540   80.40%   12,410   -14.65%   4   68.61%   18,086 
 Chicago  16,440   82.20%   11,726   -28.67%   6   58.63%   20,000 
 NE Revolution  10,289   45.73%   11,511   11.88%   5   51.16%   22,500 
 N.Y./N.J. Red Bulls  13,525   53.69%   10,966   -18.92%   7   43.54%   25,189 
 San Jose  16,483   72.70%   10,882   -33.98%   6   88.23%   10,300 
 KC Wizards  9,483   91.32%   9,703   2.32%   7   93.44%   10,385 
 FC Dallas  13,447   65.59%   8,770   -34.78%   7   42.78%   20,500 

Capacity Disclaimer

YTD – 100 Games
  Average Median %<10K %>20k
 2005    14,335     12,106    30.00%   15.00% 
 2006    14,914     13,148    22.00%   16.00% 
 2007    15,178     14,235    12.00%   22.00% 
 2008    16,324     15,148    11.00%   26.00% 
 2009    14,883     14,138    16.00%   16.00% 
Week 13 Games
Houston 1 Soccer y Fútbol – Barnard Fallas
Chivas USA 0 Dentro del Rebaño, (‘Inside the Flock’)
 
DC United 2 Behind the Badge
Chicago 1 Fire Official Site
 
Toronto FC 2 TFC Official Site
RBNY 1 Red Bulls Reader
 
FC Dallas 1 3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick
Houston 3 <Soccer y Fútbol – Barnard Fallas
 
Kansas City 3 Hillcrest Road
New England 1 Revolution Official Site
 
Los Angeles 0 LA – Official Blog
Real Salt Lake 2 Behind the Shield
 
Seattle 2 Seattle Times
San Jose 1 Mercury News
 
Columbus 2 Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra
Chivas USA 1 Dentro del Rebaño, (‘Inside the Flock’)

Why No Game Reviews?

After writing brief reviews of matches for the past few weeks, I figured, what the hell, there are folks out there much better equipped to give you the ‘what happened’ information. So from here on I’ll present(along with attendance) a scoreboard with links that I use to get the lowdown.

End of Week First Thoughts

  • No Draws This Week!!!!!!
  • Houston is proving to be the best in the league as we approach the halfway mark.
  • DCU has surged passed Chicago to sit atop the east. Is Blanco the match that fans the Fire?
  • FC Dallas was listed by Forbes as one of the teams that made money in 2007. Wonder if they’ll finish in the black this year.
  • KC, in its familiar Jeckyl and Hyde mode, convincingly beat the visiting Revs. Houston visits on July 4.
  • SuperLiga begins next week for Chivas USA, Chicago, Kansas City and New England. The next league games for all of them is on July 4.
  • They shoulda had goals: Alan Gordon, Andre Rocha, Kenny Cooper. At least these are the ones I saw.
  • The fun of MLS and International conflicts continues its consecutive run of weeks that won’t end until the Gold Cup final on July 26. The next round of World Cup qualifiers is the 2nd week of August.
  • Will Huckerby’s return change the Quakes fortunes?
  • Yallop is wondering where ‘that’ Cam Weaver was.
  • The Dynamo like it hot. Wins at home(91 degrees) and on the road(94 degrees).
  • The Crew are cruising, undefeated in 9.
  • Tough week for Chivas USA, my pick to win the west, losing to Houston and Columbus.

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    The Lamar Hunt US Open Cup.continues with the 2nd round. The eight MLS clubs will join the competition in the 3rd round on June 30.