MLS attendance report: May 25, 2009

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.