This week’s seven matches averaged just under 13,800, slightly up from last year’s week 10 average. It was good to see an increase, albeit a small one, with Seattle on the road.
After 75 matches, exactly the 1/3 mark of the season, the league is drawing 1,128 fewer per game than the first 75 games last year, a 7.1% decrease. Not too bad considering the overall economic environment.

TFC were home and rewarded its usual packed house with a victory over east rivals New England. KC greeted league toppers Chivas USA with a full house. Any thoughts that Houston’s(the old San Jose) fans view the San Jose visit as part of a ‘special’ matchup were put to bed as the Dynamo had their lowest crowd of the year. Last year’s visit by the Earthquakes barely caused a rumble, it was Houston’s 2nd lowest gate for 2008. On the other hand, the Rapids enjoyed their largest crowd of the year for Seattle’s visit, filling Dick’s Sporting Goods Park to over 90% capacity. FCD drew a bit better, but still under 10,000 for its encounter with the Galaxy. Showers may(or may not) have kept the numbers down, but last year’s match with the Gals drew over 22,000. Finally in the Meadowlands… well, maybe if Chicago resurrected Al Capone and announced a search for Jimmy Hoffa, a bigger turnout might have resulted; 10,762 came out to see the eastern frontrunner and undefeated Fire. I won’t believe they stayed home to watch the Indy 500.

After Week 10 the numbers look like this…

  5 year comparison
  WK 10 75 GP YTD
  Avg +/- GP Avg +/- Avg +/- GP
 2005   22,482     7   14,547     14,853     65 
 2006   12,000   -46.62%   8   15,258   4.89%   15,615   5.13%   60 
 2007   16,317   35.97%   6   15,214   -0.28%   15,248   -2.35%   65 
 2008   13,498   -17.28%   7   15,868   4.30%   15,789   3.55%   70 
 2009   13,779   2.09%   7   14,740   -7.11%   14,740   -6.65%   75 

Here are the attendance comparisons to 2008’s equal number of home games(75):

MLS Attendance Averages – Equal # of Home Games
  2008 2009  
  Att Cap Att Att +/- GP Cap Cap
 Seattle  0   0.00%   29,536   NA  5   98.45%   30,000 
 Toronto  20,091   91.42%   20,198   0.53%   7   91.90%   21,978 
 LA Galaxy  24,965   92.46%   19,139   -23.34%   5   70.88%   27,000 
 Houston  17,113   76.06%   15,561   -9.07%   5   69.16%   22,500 
 ChivasUSA  12,415   45.98%   14,833   19.48%   6   54.94%   27,000 
 D.C. United  18,772   83.43%   14,816   -21.07%   6   65.85%   22,500 
 Real Salt Lake  17,437   77.48%   14,629   -16.10%   5   73.12%   20,008 
 Columbus Crew  11,574   51.31%   13,263   14.59%   4   58.80%   22,555 
 Colorado Rapids  14,540   80.40%   12,410   -14.65%   4   68.61%   18,086 
 San Jose  17,958   71.41%   11,028   -38.59%   5   86.56%   10,300 
 Chicago  16,027   80.14%   10,998   -31.38%   4   54.99%   20,000 
 N.Y./N.J. Red Bulls  13,042   51.77%   10,787   -17.28%   6   42.83%   25,189 
 NE Revolution  10,094   44.86%   10,368   2.71%   3   46.08%   22,500 
 KC Wizards  9,445   90.95%   9,431   -0.15%   5   90.81%   10,385 
 FC Dallas  14,170   69.12%   9,417   -33.54%   5   45.94%   20,500 
YTD – 75 Games
  Average Median %<10K %>20k
 2008    15,868     14,919    14.67%   25.33% 
 2009    14,740     14,225    17.33%   16.00% 

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 5 matches in ’08.
I’m now using 30,000 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.

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The top two teams in shot attempts, RSL and DC United met this weekend. Coming into this week RSL were the league leaders in shots with 136, 17 more than DC United. So you’d expect a game with some scoring right? In 2009 fashion, the game was a scoreless draw, continuing RSL’s road frustration. RSL has failed to score a single goal in its 5 road games, but at least recorded its first road point.

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Chicago is STILL the only undefeated team with a clean sheet over the Red Bulls. The Wizards showed grit as they held lead leaders Chivas USA to a draw despite going down to 9 men in the 83rd minute. San Jose sunk to the bottom of the table, losing to Houston while FCD, down a man at the 25th minute, were earning a point with a draw against LA at Pizza Hut Park.

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Through 75 games, 31 have been drawn, with 4 more this week. That’s 41.3% this year vs 20.0% in 2008.

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Overall, 23.4% of goals are being scored after the 75th minute, 57.3% in the 2nd half. Teams have scored 18 fewer goals this year, an 8.6% decrease.

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Seattle and Colorado will meet in the last MLS play-in match of the US Open Cup on Tuesday.

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MLS’ers Brian Ching, Landon Donovan, Sasha Kljestan, Frankie Hejduk, Pablo Mastroenni, Jonathan Bornstein and Marvelle Wynne were called into the USMNT camp for the 2 upcoming World Cup Qualifiers, vs Costa Rica(away) on June 3 and Honduras in Chicago on June 6.

Gonzalo Segares was called up by Costa Rica.

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Oguchi Onyewu’s Standard Liege has won its second consecutive Belgian Jupiler League.

Maurice Edu and Damarcus Beasley were also on a championship team as Rangers took the Scottish title.

All three players are on the recently named WCQ squad.