After week 18 the numbers look like this…

5 year comparison
WK 15 130 GP YTD
Avg +/- GP Avg +/- Avg +/- GP
 2005  8,365  2  15,023  14,568  118
 2006  11,399  36.28%  7  15,558  3.56%  14,549  -0.13%  120
 2007  15,894  39.43%  6  15,853  1.89%  15,024  3.26%  117
 2008  13,013  -18.13%  6  16,542  4.35%  16,939  12.75%  122
 2009  16,634  27.83%  6  15,490  -6.36%  15,490  -8.55%  130

Here are the attendance comparisons to 2008’s equal number of home games(130):

MLS Attendance Averages – Equal # of Home Games
2008 2009
Att Cap Att Att +/- GP Cap Cap
 Seattle  0  0.00%  29,984  NA  10  93.70%  32,000
 Toronto  20,173  91.79%  20,278  0.52%  11  92.26%  21,978
 LA Galaxy  25,348  93.88%  19,292  -23.89%   9  71.45%  27,000
 ChivasUSA  14,286  52.91%  16,211  13.48%  9  60.04%  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
 D.C. United  20,133  89.48%  15,193  -24.53%   9  67.53%  22,500
 NE Revolution  16,584  73.71%  13,242  -20.15%   7  58.85%  22,500
 Columbus Crew  12,881  64.40%  13,041  1.24%  9  65.20%  20,000
 Chicago  16,667  83.34%  12,839  -22.97%   8  64.19%  20,000
 N.Y./N.J. Red Bulls  17,385  69.02%  12,702  -26.94%   9  50.43%  25,189
 Colorado Rapids  14,612  80.79%  12,431  -14.93%   8  68.73%  18,086
 San Jose  16,752  85.56%  11,513  -31.28%   8  47.54%  10,300
 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

Observations

Week 18 opened with the much balleyhoo’d return of David Beckham to the LA Galaxy as they visited the Red Bulls in the media center of the country.
RBNY’s overall average was raised by their largest crowd of the year. What, however shall we glean from the numbers in camparison? In 2007 this match drew 66,237(Aug 18), in 2008 46,754(Jul 19). Thursday’s attendance: 23,238.
Toronto had its usual full house for Houston’s visit. The DCU/Rapids, Columbus/RSL and Chicago/SJ games were played directly opposite the USMNT Gold Cup Quarterfinal match. DCU and Chicago drew above their YTD averages while Columbus came close to its average. The week’s league play culminated with a modest 10,997 in a late Sunday afternoon match at Foxboro. All told, a decent week averaging over 16,600.

Seattle filled the house, over 65,000, to see its friendly vs Chelsea FC.

YTD – 130 Games
Average Median %<10K %>20k
 2005    15,023   12,167  30.00%  16.15%
 2006    15,558   12,979  22.31%  17.69%
 2007    15,853   14,235  10.77%  23.08%
 2008    16,542   15,324  11.54%  26.15%
 2009    15,490   14,479  14.62%  19.23%
Week 18 Games
 
RBNY 1 Red Bulls Reader
Los Angeles 3 LA – 100 percent soccer
 
Toronto 1 TFC Connected
Houston 1 Soccer y Fútbol – Barnard Fallas
 
DC United 3 DCU – Steve Goff – Soccer Insider
Colorado 1 Undercurrent
 
Columbus 3 Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra
Real Salt Lake 1 RSL – Behind the Shield
 
Chicago 2 Chicago – En Fuego Official Blog
San Jose 0 Center Line Soccer
 
New England 2 Revolution Soccer
Chivas USA 0 Chivas USA – MLSNet

Gold Cup and MLS

Players, League Games Missed Due to Gold Cup Semifinal and Final Matches
Players Opponent
 16-Jul  18-Jul  25-Jul
 Chicago Fire   Busch, Pause. Segares(CRC)  SJ  SEA
 Chivas USA   Bornstein*, Kljestan*
Harmse(CAN)**
 NE
 Colorado Rapids   Clark, Perkins, Casey*
Ceus(HAI)**
 DCU  RBNY
 Columbus Crew   Rogers, Marshall  RSL  TFC
 DC United   Quaranta, Jakovic(CAN)**  Colorado  SJ
 FC Dallas   Cooper  RSL
 Houston Dynamo   Ching, Holden, Hainault(CAN)**  TFC  NE
 Kansas City Wizards   Arnaud, Conrad  LA
 Los Angeles Galaxy   NONE  RBNY  KC
 New England Revolution   Heaps  Chivas USA  HOU
 RBNY   NONE  LA  NE
 Real Salt Lake   Beckerman, Johnson(CAN)**
Alexandre(HAI)**
 Columbus  FCD
 San Jose Earthquakes   NONE  Chicago  DCU
 Seattle Sounders FC   Evans  Chicago
 Toronto FC   Cronin, Gerba(CAN)**  HOU  CLB

* – Added when CONCACAF allowed the US to add 7 to the roster due to its participation in the Confederations Cup. With Adu, Davies, Cherundolo, Feilhaber and Parkhurst returning to their clubs in Europe, more MLS’ers will be on the field for the USMNT.

** – xxx eliminated this week.

Casey, Bornstein and Kljestan were with their clubs this weekend. We’ll have to see if they get called for the semifinal on Thursday.

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

Naturally the column for the games on the 25th is for those that win the semis on the 23rd.

With Canada eliminated, Toronto will welcome new signing Gerba who scored for Canada in its pre Gold Cup tuneup match and in 2 Gold Cup matches.

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End of Week Thoughts

  • The Galaxy looked pretty sharp for the first 45 in their match with RBNY.
  • McBride’s surgery a big blow to the Fire.
  • KC’s Jimmy Conrad took a hard knock and had to come out of the US match vs Panama.
  • Can’t say much about the other Saturday games as I was watching the Nats. All field players were MLS’ers.
  • Huzzah! Chicago wins at home.Streaking
  • LA has won 4 games in a row.
  • RBNY is winless in 11.
  • Chivas USA is winless in 4.
  • Seven teams have not lost when scoring the first goal.
  • Six teams have not won when allowing the first goal.
  • Three teams, Houston, DCU and Columbus, are undefeated at home.
  • Two teams, RBNY and San Jose, are winless on the road.======

    Just Some Stuff

    The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup semifinals are on Tuesday, July 21. The USL-1 Rochester Rhinos meet defending champions D.C. United at the Maryland Soccerplex in Boyds, MD. The other semi features Houston at Seattle at the Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila, WA.