SUMmer of Soccer Continues

First let me apologize for the tardiness of this post. I Amtraked across America to visit family, go to a wedding, and I’m going to cram in a trip to Giants’ Stadium for the Gold Cup Final. Can you believe it, no Wi-Fi in any Amtrak station between Arizona and Chicago, nor between Chi-town and New York, so a ‘just the numbers’ abbreviated post before the weekend(actually very late Friday night). My normal ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame’ post may also be a tad late, but we’ll see how things go. Now on to the footie news.

The ‘Summer of Soccer’ which began on June 20, rolls on. After this past weekend, 31 events, including 14 doubleheaders comprising 45 matches have drawn 416,259, for an average of 18,098.

Here’s how last week’s events fared …

Summer of Soccer Attendances
Opponents Venue Date Event Att
 AC Milan v LA Galaxy  Home Depot Center, LA, CA Sun, July 19  Friendly  27,000
 Inter Milan v Club America  Stanford Stadium
Palo Alto, CA		 Sun, July 19  WFC  31,026
 qtr-Guadeloupe v Costa Rica
qtr-Mexico v Haiti		  New Cowboy Stadium
Dallas, TX		 Sun, July 19  Gold Cup  82,252
 Chelsea v Seattle  Qwest Field, Seattle, WA Sat, July 18  Friendly  65,289
 Cruz Azul v Tigres UANL  Myers Stadium, Austin, TX Sat, July 18  Copa Aztex  7,044
 qtr-Hondura v Canada
qtr-Panama v USA		  Lincoln Financial Field
Philadelphia, PA		 Sat, July 18  Gold Cup  31,087
 semi-New England v Chicago
semi-Santos Laguna v Tigres UANL		  Gillette Stadium
Foxborough, MA		 Wed, July 15  SuperLiga  7,215
 Rapids vs Club America  Dick’s Sporting Goods Park
Denver, CO		 Wed, July 15  Friendly  10,492
 total  261,405 
 average  32,676 

U of Texas Athletics teamed with USL-1 club Austin Aztex to bring international soccer to the Austin for the first time. This year’s Copa Aztex match, the first in a three-year engagement, pitted Mexico City’s Cruz Azul against Tigres of Monterrey.

Another ch-ching week for Soccer United Marketing(SUM).

What a great scene at Qwest Field as Seattle packed the house for the friendy vs Chelsea FC.

USMNT Gold Cup
MLS Same Day Attendance v Average
  Quarterfinal  6/16/2007  07 Avg  7/18/2009  09 Avg
  Chivas USA  10,490  14,305
  New England  22,412  16,742
  DC United  20,161  20,967  18,248  14,811
  Columbus  12,922  13,056
  Chicago  14,228  12,640
  Toronto  20,172  20,228
  Semifinal  6/20/2007  07 Avg  7/23/2009
  Columbus  10,254  15,230
  Final  6/24/2007  07 Avg  7/26/2009
  Kansas City  8,091  11,586
The 2009 matches at DCU, Columbus and Chicago
were all played at the same time as the US Men.

For those of us that are looking for MLS to eliminate the scheduling conflicts with FIFA and CONCACAF, once again these numbers give the bean counters more reason to advise standing pat. For the most part, attendances on MLS match days that coincided with the USMNT match days were above 2009 seasonal averages.

Congestion Eases Significantly

SuperLiga after Semifinals
Total Game Dates Average
2007  234,751  14  16,768
2008  186,148  14  13,296
2009  86,948  11  7,904
3 Doubleheaders in 2009 meant
3 fewer separate game dates
Chicago beat Revs on July 15
Final on Wed, Aug 5

Sunday completed a 29 day run in which the Revs have played 8 matches(MLS, USOC, SuperLiga). Bounced from the tourneys, the New England will be able to focus entirely on league play.

Chicago has only the SuperLiga final to contend with, but will be hurting a bit more since learning of McBride’s extended absence due to surgery.

As I’ve mentioned before, expect changes to the SuperLiga after this year. If the tournament survives in 2010, a World Cup year, and remains essentially unchanged, it will be a sure indication that live attendance and wide distribution of English language coverage in the US are irrelevant. That will demonstrate where the real money comes from; sponsorships and Spanish language TV. SuperLiga in August or September next year?

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US Open
Sep 2
Final
DCU vs Seattle

Seattle will play DC United in its bid to win its first trophy as an MLS club.

DCU played on July 18th, and both play on July 25th. DCU has a CONCACAF Champions league match on July 28. Seattle played Chelsea FC on the 18th.

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CONCACAF Champions League
Jul 28 – Jul 30 Aug 4 – Aug 6
Prelim First Leg Prelim Second Leg
DCU, RBNY, TFC

DCU and TFC play MLS league games on Jul 25 and August 2. That means they will each play 4 times during the period Jul 25-Aug 6(13 days). RBNY play an MLS game on Jul 25, but are off the week of August 2.

All told, between July 18 and August 8, DCU has 4 MLS matches, 2 CONCACAF Champions league matches and 1 US Open Cup match. 7 matches in 22 days.