MLS attendance report: Aug. 16, 2009

After week 22 the numbers look like this…

5 year comparison
WK 22			155 GP		YTD
Avg	+/-	GP	Avg	+/-	Avg	+/-	GP
2005	15,573	4	14,897	14,844	144
2006	13,932	-10.54%	6	15,263	2.46%	15,361	3.48%	143
2007	16,209	16.34%	6	16,022	4.97%	16,005	4.19%	144
2008	15,294	-5.64%	9	16,423	2.50%	16,875	5.44%	148
2009	16,236	6.16%	6	15,764	-4.02%	15,764	-6.58%	155

Here are the attendance comparisons to 2008’s equal number of home games(155):

MLS Attendance – Equal # of Home Games
2008		2009
Att	Cap	Att	Att +/-	GP	Cap	Cap
Seattle	0	0.00%	30,204	NA	11	94.39%	32,000
Toronto	20,147	91.67%	20,308	0.80%	12	92.40%	21,978
LA Galaxy	25,513	94.49%	19,379	-24.04%	10	71.78%	27,000
Real Salt Lake	14,855	72.34%	16,213	9.14%	11	74.80%	19,340
ChivasUSA	14,286	52.91%	16,211	13.48%	9	60.04%	27,000
Houston	16,324	72.55%	15,836	-2.99%	11	70.38%	22,500
San Jose	14,917	87.50%	15,692	5.20%	11	76.84%	10,300
D.C. United	20,133	89.48%	15,193	-24.53%	9	67.53%	22,500
NE Revolution	16,799	74.66%	14,592	-13.14%	9	64.85%	22,500
Columbus Crew	13,569	67.84%	13,660	0.67%	11	68.30%	20,000
Chicago	17,092	85.46%	13,027	-23.78%	9	65.13%	20,000
Colorado Rapids	13,628	75.35%	12,771	-6.29%	11	70.61%	18,086
N.Y./N.J. Red Bulls	16,759	66.53%	12,487	-25.49%	10	49.57%	25,189
KC Wizards	9,619	92.62%	10,019	4.16%	10	96.47%	10,385
FC Dallas	14,072	68.64%	9,229	-34.42%	11	45.02%	20,500

My disclaimer about the capacity calculations

Observations

Week 22 games drew a very respectable 16,236, over 6% higher than the corresponding period last year. Columbus’ top crowd of the year were treated to the Crew remaining undefeated at home. RBNY, not unexpectedly, drew under 10,600 as they lost again to visiting Chivas USA. The surprise to me was the 20,162 at the Home Depot Center. With Becks, Donovan and Ljungberg on the pregame menu, I would have expected a near sellout.

This weekend marked the first MLS home game for the Galaxy with Beckham in the squad. Becks proceeded to get red carded in the 17th minute. 5 minutes later Seattle ended their scoring drought of over 330 minutes. Good thing this wasn’t the national TV game with Ljungberg and Donovan on the bench(until the 2nd half) and Becks carded so early.

Last week I posted the Beckham ‘away game’ effect. With one game played at home in 2009, here is the statistically irrelevant ‘home game’ effect table.

Beckham Home Game Effect
With	Without(9)			With(1)
2008	2009	+/-		+/-
Att	228,132	173,632	-54,500	-23.89%	20,162	N/A	-20.46%
Avg	25,348	19,292	-6,056		20,162	-5,186

YTD – 155 Games
Average	Median	%<10K	%>20k
2005	14,897	12,311	30.13%	16.03%
2006	15,263	13,056	21.29%	16.77%
2007	16,022	14,640	9.68%	23.23%
2008	16,423	15,118	11.61%	25.16%
2009	15,764	14,516	14.84%	19.35%

Week 22 Games

Toronto	2	TFC Connected
DC United	0	DCU – Steve Goff – Soccer Insider

RBNY	0	Red Bulls Reader
Chivas USA	2	Chivas USA – MLSNet

Columbus	2	Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra
FC Dallas	0	3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick

Real Salt Lake	0	RSL – Behind the Shield
Houston	0	Soccer y Fútbol – Barnard Fallas

Los Angeles	0	LA – Official Blog
Seattle	2	Seattle Times

Kansas City	0	Kansas City – Hillcrest Road
Chicago	2	Chicago – En Fuego Official Blog

Week 22 Weird Factoid

Every game ended with a clean sheet. One game, RSL/Houston, was a double clean sheet match.

Streaking

Columbus is unbeaten in 8.
FC Dallas has won 4 straight at home.
DCU has not won on the road(9 matches).
KC has no wins in its last 5.
RBNY hasn’t won in 13.
San Jose and RBNY are winless on the road.Just Some Stuff
The CONCACAF Champions League group phase begins this week. DC United, Houston and Columbus will be representing MLS in the regional club championship. RBNY and Toronto FC were eliminated in the preliminaries.

CONCACAF Champions League

Aug 18-19 Aug 26

Group Game 1 Group Game 2

DCU and Columbus play Aug 18, 26

Houston plays Aug 19, 26

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The finalists for the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup are DC United and Seattle. DCU looks to defend its crown while the Sounders are looking for their first hardware as an MLS club. The final is on September 2 at RFK stadium in DC.

Just because I liked it… an article about a fan experience at an MLS match.