The playoff numbers look like this…
| 5 year comparison | ||||||
| Conference Semifinals – 1st Leg | ||||||
| Avg | +/- | Home Teams | ||||
| 2005 | 12,147 | NA | Chicago | NY | Colorado | Los Angeles |
| 2006 | 9,533 | -21.52% | Chicago | NY | Colorado | Chivas USA |
| 2007 | 14,245 | 49.42% | Chicago | NY | Dallas | Kansas City |
| 2008 | 10,476 | -26.46% | New England | NY | Salt Lake | Kansas City |
| 2009 | 19,985 | 90.77% | New England | Seattle | Salt Lake | Chivas USA |
| 5 year comparison | ||||||
| Conference Semifinals – 2nd Leg | ||||||
| Avg | +/- | Home Teams | ||||
| 2005 | 14,400 | NA | New England | Dallas | San Jose | DC United |
| 2006 | 15,938 | 10.69% | New England | Dallas | Houston | DC United |
| 2007 | 19,838 | 24.47% | New England | Chivas USA | Houston | DC United |
| 2008 | 19,444 | -1.99% | Chicago | Columbus | Houston | Chivas USA |
| 2009 | 21,526 | 10.71% | Chicago | Columbus | Houston | Los Angeles |
| Quarterfinals Totals(both legs) | ||||||
| Avg | +/- | Teams | ||||
| 2005 | 13,273 | NA | CHI, COL, DAL, DCU, LA, NE, RBNY, SJ | |||
| 2006 | 12,736 | -4.05% | CHI, COL, CHV, DAL, DCU, HOU, NE, RBNY | |||
| 2007 | 17,041 | 33.81% | CHI, CHV, DAL, DCU, HOU, KC, NE, RBNY | |||
| 2008 | 14,960 | -12.22% | CHI, CHV, CLB, HOU, KC, NE, RBNY, RSL | |||
| 2009 | 20,755 | 38.74% | CHI, CHV, CLB, HOU, LA, NE, RSL, SEA | |||
Observations
The 2nd legs of the conference semifinals began with an extremely disappointing crowd of just over 10,000 in Columbus. This showing was so poor as to prompt Jason Davis of Match Fit USA to write that it’s time for the Crew to move. No such issues in Chicago, whose fans didn’t turn out in great numbers during the regular season, but sold out Toyota Park, with 21,528 in attendance. In Houston, 27,400 saw the Dynamo eliminate the Sounders. The round finished off with a sellout at the HDC.
The home offices of MLS must be feeling pretty good. As you can see from the above table, the quarterfinal round of the playoffs drew over 38% higher attendance averages than last year, despite less than stellar turnouts in Columbus, New England and Salt Lake.
| Playoff Games – 2nd Leg | ||
| RSL Advances 4-2 | ||
| Columbus | 2 | Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra |
| Real Salt Lake | 3 | RSL – Behind the Shield |
| Chicago Advances 3-2 | ||
| Chicago | 2 | Chicago Fire Confidential |
| New England | 0 | Revolution Soccer |
| Houston Advances 1-0 | ||
| Houston | 1 | Soccer y Fútbol – Barnard Fallas |
| Seattle | 0 | Seattle Times |
| Los Angeles Advances 3-2 | ||
| Los Angeles | 1 | LA – Official Blog |
| Chivas USA | 0 | Chivas USA – MLSNet |
MLS Final Four
Los Angeles hosts Houston Fri, Nov 13, 11pm ET – Chicago will host RSL Sat, Nov 14, 7pm ET
It seems as though Bob Bradley will have to eliminate Landon Donovan, Rico Clark, Stuart Holden and Brian Ching for consideration for the upcoming USMNT friendlies against Slovakia(Nov 14) and Denmark(Nov 18). But with Columbus’ loss, expect two-time MLS Defender of the Year Chad Marshall to get a call.
MLS Throw Ins
And …
The US team lost to Italy in the round of 16 of the FIFA Men’s U-17 World Cup.
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CleartheBall
November 10, 2009 at 12:22 pm
RSL attendance would have been much better NOT on Halloween. Friday night would have been great.
dan
November 9, 2009 at 1:38 pm
well columbus had 2 things going against them. 1 is was very cold that night and 2. the local media sucks at promoting the crew.
basically Crew fans are just going to have to take a more grass roots aproach to keep there team in columbus.
personally i support picketing the local news media until they start helping on supporting the MLS Teams.
Rex
November 9, 2009 at 1:34 pm
63,000 people came out to watch the Dynamo and Seattle series. I am sure that’s got to rank towards the top. Throw in Galaxy/Chivas and you have 115,000. That’s probably the highest numbers the western conference has ever seen.
Charles
November 9, 2009 at 11:39 am
Was it just because I am in pain, or was the only team he mentioned being eliminated, the Sounders ?…..ouch.
MLS had to be nervous about the 1st leg crowds and the Columbus crowd to start the 2nd half.
I just don’t get the disparity. At all.
Rob
November 9, 2009 at 12:38 am
Davis said he wrote the piece “tongue in cheek,” but he still provided an interesting point of view. Great crowds for the most part, though.