After week 16 the numbers look like this…

5 year comparison
WK 15 118 GP YTD
Avg +/- GP Avg +/- Avg +/- GP
 2005  23,776  6  14,568  14,807  107
 2006  13,158  -44.66%  6  14,724  1.07%  14,632  -1.18%  106
 2007  12,473  -5.21%  4  15,217  3.35%  15,043  2.81%  107
 2008  14,475  16.05%  5  16,565  8.86%  16,878  12.19%  111
 2009  16,142  11.51%  6  15,238  -8.01%  15,238  -9.72%  118

Here are the attendance comparisons to 2008’s equal number of home games(118):

MLS Attendance Averages – Equal # of Home Games
2008 2009
Att Cap Att Att +/- GP % of Cap Cap
 Seattle  0  0.00%  29,715  NA  9  92.86%  32,000
 Toronto  20,144  91.66%  20,288  0.71%  10  92.31%  21,978
 LA Galaxy  25,348  93.88%  19,292  -23.89%   9  71.45%  27,000
 Real Salt Lake  15,101  71.96%  16,045  6.25%  8  71.15%  19,340
 Houston  16,566  73.63%  15,689  -5.29%   8  69.73%  22,500
 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  12,881  64.40%  13,056  1.36%  8  65.28%  20,000
 Colorado Rapids  14,017  77.50%  13,045  -6.93%   7  72.13%  18,086
 San Jose  15,420  73.77%  11,774  -23.64%   7  44.93%  10,300
 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  17,679  70.18%  11,385  -35.60%   8  45.20%  25,189
 KC Wizards  9,596  92.40%  9,789  2.01%  8  94.26%  10,385
 FC Dallas  13,687  66.76%  9,306  -32.01%   9  45.40%  20,500

My disclaimer about the capacity calculations

For my calculations, I’ve taken the 4 teams playing in football stadiums, DCU in RFK, Houston in Robertson, New England in Foxboro, and RBNY in the Meadowlands and assigned maximum capacities as follows, DCU-22,500, Houston-22,500, New England-22,500 and RBNY-25189(the posted capacity of Red Bull Arena). I took the 22,500 from an approximate average of the soccer specific stadiums in use. Capacities have also been adjusted for the few games that were moved to larger venues, such as San Jose playing twice in Oakland Alameda Colliseum for 2 of it’s 7 matches in ‘08 and three times in ’09.
I’m now using 32,000 for Seattle’s capacity. Thier previous announced cap was 27,000. Since they haven’t drawn less than 28,000, I’ve recalculated all of the Sounders’ games to the new number.

Observations

Good crowds attended this week’s six matches as you would expect on the holiday weekend. The league averaged just over 16,100. A decent week, not a great one.

The week began with RSL hosting the Quakes before a good Friday night crowd of 17,400+. An OK turnout, nothing special saw Columbus host east leaders DC United. Colorado continued its tradition of July 4th attendance highs with its best turnout of the year. The Wizards played to capacity against west leaders Houston. LA welcomed the injury stricken Revs and a crowd of 20,609.

YTD – 118 Games
Average Median %<10K %>20k
 2005    14,568   12,043  31.36%  16.95%
 2006    14,724   13,036  22.03%  16.95%
 2007    15,217   14,130  11.02%  22.03%
 2008    16,565   15,274  11.86%  25.42%
 2009    15,238   14,406  14.41%  16.95%
Week 16 Games
Real Salt Lake 1 Behind the Shield
San Jose 1 Center Line Soccer
 
Columbus 1 Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra
DC United 1 Soccer Insider – Steve Goff
 
Colorado 1 Undercurrent
Chicago 2 Chicago – Official Site
 
Kansas City 0 Hillcrest Road
Houston 1 Soccer y Fútbol – Barnard Fallas
 
FC Dallas 2 3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick
RBNY 1 Red Bulls Reader
 
Los Angeles 1 LA – 100 percent soccer
New England 0 New England – Official Site

Gold Cup and MLS

Gold Cup Rosters at CONCACAF
Players, League Games Missed Due to Gold Cup Group Play
Players Opponent
 3-Jul  4-Jul  11-Jul
 Chicago Fire   Busch, Pause, Segares(CRC)  Colorado  Columbus
 Chivas USA   Bornstein*, Kljestan*
Thomas(JAM), Harmse(CAN)		  LA
 Colorado Rapids   Clark, Perkins, Casey*
Cummings(JAM), Ceus(HAI)		  Chicago  FCD
 Columbus Crew   Rogers, Marshall  DCU  Chicago
 DC United   Quaranta, Jakovic(CAN)  Columbus
 FC Dallas   Cooper  RBNY  Colorado
 Houston Dynamo   Ching, Holden, Hainault(CAN)  KC  Seattle
 Kansas City Wizards   Arnaud, Conrad  Houston  NE
 Los Angeles Galaxy   Ricketts(JAM)  NE  Chivas USA
 New England Revolution   Heaps, Joseph(GRE)**  LA  KC
 RBNY   Pacheco(SLV), Richards(JAM)  FCD
 Real Salt Lake   Beckerman, Johnson(CAN)
Alexandre(HAI)		  SJ
 San Jose Earthquakes   NONE  RSL  TFC
 Seattle Sounders FC   Evans, Marshall(JAM)  HOU
 Toronto FC   Cronin, Gerba(CAN)  SJ

* – Added when CONCACAF allowed the US to add 7 to the roster due to its participation in the Confederations Cup. These players will not travel with the team but are expected to join when the matches are geographically proximate.

** – Joseph in injured and didn’t play for club or country.

If I’ve missed anyone, hopefully our readers will let me know in the comment section.

This list encompasses the MLS matches that coincide with Gold Cup group play which ends on July 12. I will update the list as we go through the knock-out rounds.

Toronto’s new signing Gerba scored for Canada in its tuneup match and its Gold Cup opener.

Seattle’s new signing Gonzalez will join the Sounders after his participation in the Gold Cup for Costa Rica is completed.

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End of Week Thoughts

 

  • RBNY’s road woes continue.
  • The Rapids will play without in form striker Omar Cummings(Gold Cup) for its July 4 match. For a while it looked like they might also be without Conor Casey, but he is not on the final list of 23 for the USMNT.
  • Chicago ends league losing streak with victory on the road, and a mile high at that.
  • Did Houston’s win at KC unmask the Wizards as pretenders?
  • Alecko nets game winner in Galaxy debut.
  • July 4th and a USMNT game. Tough call. 3 matches were played at the same time as the USMNT so that planned Independence Day fireworks could be wrapped into game packages.
  • 2 home wins, 2 road wins, 2 draws this week. I like symmetry.======

    Just Some Stuff

    Chicago has a better record on the road than at home. They average 1 point per game at Toyota Park, 2 points per game away from home.

    The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals are on Tuesday, July 7. MLS teams DC United, Houston, Kansas City and Seattle will play. Seattle was off this week, DCU is off next week, so Houston and KC will be playing 3 matches in 8 days during the July 4-11 time period.