Supporters' Shield Trophy

After week 14 the numbers look like this…

  5 year comparison
  WK 14 106 GP YTD
  Avg +/- GP Avg +/- Avg +/- GP
 2005   9,538     6   14,692     13,862     93 
 2006   10,494   10.02%   7   14,814   0.83%   14,602   5.34%   88 
 2007   15,376   46.52%   12   15,035   1.49%   15,174   3.91%   97 
 2008   17,581   14.35%   7   16,448   9.40%   16,888   11.30%   100 
 2009   16,192   -7.90%   6   14,957   -9.07%   14,957   -11.43%   106 

Here are the attendance comparisons to 2008’s equal number of home games(106):

MLS Attendance Averages – Equal # of Home Games
  2008 2009
  Att Cap Att Att +/- GP % of Cap Cap
 Seattle  0   0.00%   29,364   NA  8   91.76%   32,000 
 Toronto  20,133   91.61%   20,220   0.43%   9   92.00%   21,978 
 LA Galaxy  24,876   92.13%   19,298   -22.42%   7   71.47%   27,000 
 Houston  16,566   73.63%   15,689   -5.29%   8   69.73%   22,500 
 Real Salt Lake  16,419   76.25%   15,449   -5.91%   6   65.41%   19,340 
 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  12,270   54.40%   12,417   1.20%   6   55.05%   22,555 
 Colorado Rapids  14,556   80.48%   12,211   -16.11%   5   67.52%   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  9,483   91.32%   9,703   2.32%   7   93.44%   10,385 
 FC Dallas  13,862   67.62%   8,679   -37.39%   8   42.33%   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, except of course in Dallas. The league averaged just under 16,200. A decent week brought down by Dallas and Colorado.

The week began with DC United visiting Qwest Field and its 29,000+ fans. The Galaxy played San Jose in a match played at Oakland Alameda. The Quakes 2 home matches vs LA drew over 59,000 in ’08. This year’s two matches drew a total of just under 33,000. I wonder if they had to pay more for the stadium and if the extra 12,000(vs sellouts at Buck Shaw) was worth it. Not a bad turnout of over 14,300 in the rain at the Meadowlands. Dallas. Over 17,000 showed up in sultry Houston, but only 11,416 saw the Rapids continue their strong play.

If you’re wondering why San Jose’s capacity percent fell from 72.70% last week to 44.93%, it’s because their 3 matches at Oakland Alameda with a capacity of 47,416 are now fully factored into the Quake’s numbers.

The Red Bulls numbers took a hit as it’s 8th game last year was Beckham’s visit, drawing over 46,700.

YTD – 106 Games
  Average Median %<10K %>20k
 2005    14,692     12,167    30.19%   16.04% 
 2006    14,814     13,064    22.64%   16.98% 
 2007    15,035     14,194    11.32%   20.75% 
 2008    16,448     15,415    10.38%   25.47% 
 2009    14,957     14,248    16.04%   16.04% 
Week 14 Games
 
Seattle 3 Seattle Times
DC United 3 Washington Post – Steve Goff
 
RBNY 1 Red Bulls Reader
Seattle 1 Seattle Times
 
Houston 1 Soccer y Fútbol – Barnard Fallas
Real Salt Lake 1 Behind the Shield
 
Colorado 3 Undercurrent
DC United 0 Behind the Badge
 
FC Dallas 2 3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick
Columbus 1 Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra
 
San Jose 2 Mercury News
Los Angeles 1 LA – Official Blog

End of Week Thoughts

  • ESPN – !$&*!##$!*&^&$!!!!
  • FC Dallas, yes FCD is only 6 points out of the last playoff spot.
  • SuperLiga began this week for Chivas USA, Chicago, Kansas City and New England. The next league games for all of them is on July 4.
  • The fun of MLS and International conflicts continues its consecutive run of weeks that won’t end until the Gold Cup final on July 26. The next round of World Cup qualifiers is the 2nd week of August.
  • Ryan Johnson had a heckuva day for the Quakes.
  • The Dynamo remain top of the table with games in hand.
  • The Crew’s undefeated streak of 9 snapped by FCD!?!
  • No need to choose between club and country as MLS was ‘dark’ on Sunday, when the USMNT played Egypt.
  • RBNY are 9 points out of the playoffs with all of its competition having games in hand.
  • Montero is back on form.

    Confederations Cup extended callups, OH My!

    The stranger than fiction conclusion of group play in the Confederations Cup has extended the US participation in the tourney. They face current #1 Spain in a semifinal on Wednesday. MLS players will miss another week of matches(MLS and SuperLiga).

    Gold Cup possible callups

  • Chicago – Segares(Costa Rica), Thorrington(USA)
  • Chivas USA – Thomas(Jamaica), Jazic(Canada), Bornstein(USA)
  • Colorado – Cummings(Jamaica), Ceus(Haiti), Casey(USA), Mastroenni(USA)
  • Columbus – Gaven(USA), Rogers(USA)
  • DCU – Jakovic(Canada)
  • FCD – Cooper(USA)
  • Houston – Hainault(Canada), Clark(USA), Holden(USA)
  • KC – Espinoza(Honduras), Arnaud(USA)
  • LA – Ricketts(Jamaica), T. Marshall(Jamaica)
  • NE – Joseph(Grenada)
  • RBNY – Richards(Jamaica), Pacheco(El Salvador)
  • RSL – W. Johnson(Canada), Alexandre(Haiti)
  • SEA – T. Marshall(Jamaica)
  • TFC – De Rosario(Canada), Serioux(Canada), Harmse(Canada), Attakora-Gyan(Canada), Wynne(USA)

    USMNT U-20’s callups for Egypt trip: June 22-30

  • Chivas USA – Flores, Gerson
  • FC Dallas – Marosevic
  • Houston – Cruz

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    SuperLiga 2009

    The first round of the N.A. SuperLiga 2009 was played this weekend. The MLS teams are Chivas USA, Chicago, Kansas City and New England. These are considered 2008’s ‘2nd tier’ MLS teams. The new eligibility rules for the CONCACAF Champions League and SuperLiga do not permit an MLS team to participate in both tournaments, a welcome change to clubs that were overwhelmed with fixtures and short rosters in previous years. So with the ‘top’ clubs, i.e.; Supporters’ Shield Champion, MLS Cup finalists, and the Lamar Hunt US Open Champion going to the CCL, the ‘best of the rest’ go to SuperLiga. This year, with Columbus winning the Supporters’ Shield and being an MLS Cup finalist, the extra CCL slot went to Houston, with the next most points in the regular season. That meant that the next best teams(points in the regular season) got the SuperLiga slots.

    The four MLS clubs were not scheduled this week, nor are they scheduled next week. But they will each play 3 SuperLiga group matches in 8 days. The semifinals are on July 15 and the final is on August 15. Looking ahead, Chivas USA is scheduled to play on August 15, while Chicago and Kansas City play on August 16. There are no conflicts on July 15.

    SuperLiga 2009 – Matchday 1
    Group A
    Game Score Pts  
    Chicago 1 3 Chicago – MLSNet
    San Luis 0 0 San Luis – Wikipedia
     
    Chivas USA 1 0 Chivas USA – MLSNet
    Tigres UANL 2 3 Tigres UANL – Wikipedia
    Group B
    Kansas City 0 1 Kansas City – Hillcrest Road
    Atlas 0 1 Atlas – The Offside
     
    New England 4 3 Revolution Soccer
    Santos Laguna 2 0 Tigres UANL – Wikipedia

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    The Lamar Hunt US Open Cup continued with the 2nd round. The Ocean City Barons won $10,000 as the last amateur team standing. The eight MLS clubs will enter the competition in the 3rd round on June 30. Joining them will be the PDL Barons, 2 USL-2 teams, Wilmington and Harrisburg, and 5 USL-1 clubs, Charleston, Rochester, Minnesota, Austin and Portland.

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    In case you missed it, Toronto pulled off a stunner in the Canadian Nutrilite Championship, beating Montreal 6-1 and becoming the 5th MLS team in the 2009-10 CONCACAF Champions League. Toronto came into the game needing a 4 goal margin to overcome Vancouver and win the title.TFC will face USL-1 side and CFU Championship runner-up Puerto Rico in the preliminary round of the CCC, beginning in late July.