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Take Me Out to the Ballgame – Week 12

Take Me Out to the Ballgame – Week 12

June 14, 2010 Leagues: Major League Soccer, Major League Soccer, MLS, MLS Attendance, New England Revolution, US Open Cup 1 Comment

As MLS heads into the World Cup hiatus(play resumes June 25), the Week 12 numbers look like this…

  5 year comparison
  Week 12 93 GP YTD
  Avg +/- GP Avg +/- Avg +/- GP
 2006   12,309     5   15,047     15,169     72 
 2007   13,600   10.48%   7   15,049   0.01%   15,324   1.02%   79 
 2008   18,426   35.48%   7   16,229   7.84%   17,329   13.08%   84 
 2009   13,148   -28.65%   8   14,729   -9.24%   14,947   -13.74%   92 
 2010   19,861   51.06%   4   16,472   11.84%   16,472   10.20%   93 
YTD – 93 Games
  Average Median %<10K %>20k
 2006    15,047     13,280    22.58%   16.13% 
 2007    15,049     14,203    12.90%   20.43% 
 2008    16,229     14,919    11.83%   26.88% 
 2009    14,729     14,051    16.13%   16.13% 
 2010    16,472     14,287    11.83%   23.66% 

Here are the attendance comparisons to 2009:

MLS Attendance – Equal # of Home Games
  2009 2010  
  Att Cap % Att Att +/- GP Cap % Cap
 Seattle  29,364   90.63%   36,146   23.10%   8   101.82%   35,500 
 Philadelphia NA NA  29,954  NA  2   78.83%   18,500 
 Toronto  20,151   91.69%   20,537   1.92%   5   93.45%   21,978 
 LA Galaxy  19,228   71.21%   19,635   2.12%   6   72.72%   27,000 
 Houston  15,480   68.80%   16,685   7.79%   7   74.16%   22,500 
 N.Y./N.J. Red Bulls  10,966   43.54%   16,282   48.48%   7   64.64%   25,189 
 Real Salt Lake  15,449   71.74%   15,817   2.38%   6   81.78%   19,340 
 D.C. United  14,303   63.57%   14,734   3.01%   7   65.49%   22,500 
 ChivasUSA  14,555   53.91%   14,501   -0.37%   5   53.71%   27,000 
 Chicago  11,726   58.63%   14,267   21.66%   6   71.33%   20,000 
 Columbus Crew  12,369   61.84%   14,244   15.16%   5   71.22%   20,000 
 Colorado Rapids  12,211   67.52%   12,787   4.72%   5   70.70%   18,086 
 FC Dallas  8,801   41.53%   10,448   18.70%   6   49.30%   21,193 
 NE Revolution  13,616   60.51%   10,319   -24.21%   6   45.86%   22,500 
 KC Wizards  9,590   92.34%   9,896   3.19%   6   95.29%   10,385 
 San Jose  10,882   48.00%   9,384   -13.77%   6   91.11%   10,300 

My disclaimer about the capacity calculations

For my calculations, I’ve taken the 3 teams playing in Amercan football stadiums, DCU in RFK, Houston in Robertson and New England in Foxboro and assigned maximum capacities at 22,500. I took the 22,500 number from an approximate average of the soccer specific stadiums in use.

  • Philly’s first two home games were played at Lincoln Financial Field. The announced capacity for the Union was published as 38,000 and will be calculated as such.
  • San Jose 4th match in 2009 was at Oakland Alameda Coliseum and drew over 15,800.

    Observations

    Chicago announced crowd of just over 13,600 seemed a bit high, at least from the view on the tube. I was all set to hear the mantra of the BlackHawks playing in the Stanley Cup finals keeping the turnout low, but that won’t seem necessary. A fantastic showing in Salt Lake with over 19,000. This is exactly what you would expect in a matchup of last year’s MLS Cup finalists, competitors in the west and the top team in the league visiting. Kansas City had a near full house as it broke its long winless streak. Seattle sent MLS into the World Cup break with its usual full house.

    Rookie Watch: Academy product Andy Najar and draftee Barry Rice performed well for DC United in their win over Seattle. Must be honest and say I can’t say that either Stephens(LA) or LaBeaux(CO) stood out in their appearances this week.

    A couple of players on my preseason ‘watch list'(bottom of post) had good games. Ryan Smith played well(assist) and Kei Kamara scored for the Wizards.

    Week 12 Games
     
    Chicago 2 Chicago Fire Confidential
    Colorado 2 Undercurrent
     
    Real Salt Lake 1 RSL – Behind the Shield
    Los Angeles 0 LA – Official Blog
     
    Kansas City 2 Kansas City – Hillcrest Road
    Philadelphia 0 Philadelphia Union Talk
     
    Seattle 2 Seattle Times
    DC United 3 DCU – Steve Goff – Soccer Insider
       GP  W  D  L  GF  GA  GFA  GAA  PPG  PTS  GD
     Los Angeles  13   10   2   1   22   4   1.69   0.31   2.46   32   18 
     Real Salt Lake  12   7   2   3   22   11   1.83   0.92   1.92   23   11 
     Columbus  11   6   3   2   16   11   1.45   1.00   1.91   21   5 
     NY Red Bull  12   7   0   5   14   16   1.17   1.33   1.75   21   -2 
     Colorado  11   6   2   3   13   9   1.18   0.82   1.82   20   4 
     San Jose  11   5   2   4   15   14   1.36   1.27   1.55   17   1 
     Toronto FC  11   5   2   4   15   14   1.36   1.27   1.55   17   1 
     Houston  13   5   1   7   18   19   1.38   1.46   1.23   16   -1 
     Dallas  11   3   6   2   13   11   1.18   1.00   1.36   15   2 
     Seattle  13   4   3   6   14   17   1.08   1.31   1.15   15   -3 
     Chicago  11   3   5   3   16   16   1.45   1.45   1.27   14   0 
     Kansas City  11   3   3   5   11   13   1.00   1.18   1.09   12   -2 
     New England  12   3   2   7   13   20   1.08   1.67   0.92   11   -7 
     Chivas USA  12   3   1   8   13   18   1.08   1.50   0.83   10   -5 
     DC United  12   3   1   8   10   22   0.83   1.83   0.83   10   -12 
     Philadelphia  10   2   1   7   11   21   1.10   2.10   0.70   7   -10 

    Streaking

    • TFC has not lost at home in 11 straight.
    • TFC ended its 13 game road winless streak.
    • RSL are unbeaten in their last 16 regular season home games.
    • Los Angeles finally yielded a road goal(albeit controversial). And their 15 game regular season unbeaten streak is over.
    • Kansas City ended its winless streak at 9(all competitions).

    MLS Throw Ins

    • There have been 18 draws compared to 35 in ’09 thru the first 93 matches.
    • There have been 58 clean sheets in the first 93 matches, counting scoreless draws as 2
    • Through 89 games: goal scoring is slightly down from 2009, 2.54 vs 2.59.
    • RSL has lost only twice in its last 35 home matches. They lost only once in ’08 and ’09, a feat matched by Houston.

    At the World Cup

    These are the MLS players that are at the World Cup. As of Friday May 28(15 days before the start of the tournament), each of the clubs receives $1600 per day per player from FIFA until one day after the last game played by their respective teams at the World Cup.

    On WC Rosters
     Players  Team
     Buddle, Donovan  LA
     Bornstein  CHV
     Findley  RSL
     Espinoza  KC
     Boyens  RBNY
    6/25 – End of WC Group Phase

    Getting Friendly

    This Week’s Friendlies
    Opponents Venue Date Friendlies Att
     Cruzeiro v NE Revolution  Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, MA Sun, June 13  Club  12,160 

    Note: Steve Ralston made his return to the Revs in the match only to suffer a dislocated elbow.

    Lamar Hunt US Open Cup

    The MLS play-in matches for the Open are complete. RBNY and DC United will join the top 6 league finishers in 2009 in the tourney proper. Seattle are the defending cup holders, and as such will compete in the 2010-11 CONCACAF Champions League.

    • Colorado Rapids defeated the Kansas City Wizards 2-1.
    • Real Salt Lake beat the San Jose Earthquakes on PK’s 5-3 after playing to a 3-3 score.
    • New York Red Bulls downed Philadelphia 2-1.
    • DC United beat FC Dallas 4-2, the 2nd year in a row that DCU eliminates FCD.
    • New York Red Bulls downed New England 3-0.
    • New York Red Bulls beat Colorado 3-0 to claim one of the two play in spots.
    • DC United defeated RSL 2-1 to grab the other spot.

    The structure for the tourney has been finalized. Round 1 begins June 15, Round 2 June 22, Round 3(when the 8 MLS teams join in) June 29.

    In case you were wondering, here is the World Cup schedule(June 11-July 11). Note that the latest start time(ET) is 2pm.

    • About The Author

    peter c

    One Response

    1. Nick June 14, 2010

      San Jose’s attendance is hurting. Should be doing much better with this market.

      Reply

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