MLS attendance report: June 28, 2010

The Week 13 numbers look like this…

5 year comparison
Week 13			101 GP		YTD
Avg	+/-	GP	Avg	+/-	Avg	+/-	GP
2006	13,440	9	14,768	14,924	81
2007	11,574	-13.88%	6	15,144	2.55%	15,059	0.90%	85
2008	17,594	52.01%	9	16,339	7.89%	17,285	14.78%	93
2009	16,634	-5.46%	8	15,024	-8.05%	15,082	-12.74%	100
2010	14,965	-10.03%	8	16,353	8.84%	16,353	8.42%	101

YTD – 101 Games
Average	Median	%<10K	%>20k
2006	14,768	13,016	22.33%	15.53%
2007	15,144	14,203	11.88%	21.78%
2008	16,339	15,271	10.89%	25.74%
2009	15,024	14,225	15.84%	16.83%
2010	16,353	14,287	10.89%	21.78%

Here are the attendance comparisons to 2009:

MLS Attendance – Equal # of Home Games
2009		2010
Att	Cap %	Att	Att +/-	GP	Cap %	Cap
Seattle	29,364	90.63%	36,146	23.10%	8	101.82%	35,500
Philadelphia	NA	NA	26,221	NA	3	83.24%	18,500
Toronto	20,151	91.69%	20,249	0.49%	6	92.13%	21,978
LA Galaxy	19,228	71.21%	19,635	2.12%	6	72.72%	27,000
Houston	15,689	69.73%	16,318	4.01%	8	72.52%	22,500
N.Y./N.J. Red Bulls	10,966	43.54%	16,282	48.48%	7	64.64%	25,189
Real Salt Lake	15,840	74.65%	15,874	0.21%	7	82.08%	19,340
D.C. United	14,303	63.57%	14,734	3.01%	7	65.49%	22,500
ChivasUSA	14,833	54.94%	14,446	-2.61%	6	53.50%	27,000
Columbus Crew	12,417	62.08%	14,426	16.18%	6	72.13%	20,000
Chicago	11,726	58.63%	14,267	21.66%	6	71.33%	20,000
Colorado Rapids	12,211	67.52%	12,787	4.72%	5	70.70%	18,086
NE Revolution	13,242	58.85%	10,603	-19.93%	7	47.12%	22,500
FC Dallas	8,801	41.53%	10,448	18.70%	6	49.30%	21,193
KC Wizards	9,703	93.44%	9,966	2.70%	7	95.96%	10,385
San Jose	10,882	48.00%	9,384	-13.77%	6	91.11%	10,300

My disclaimer about the capacity calculations

For my calculations, I’ve taken the 3 teams playing in Amercan football stadiums, DCU in RFK, Houston in Robertson and New England in Foxboro and assigned maximum capacities at 22,500. I took the 22,500 number from an approximate average of the soccer specific stadiums in use.

Philly’s first two home games were played at Lincoln Financial Field. The announced capacity for the Union was published as 38,000 and will be calculated as such.

San Jose 4th match in 2009 was at Oakland Alameda Coliseum and drew over 15,800.

Observations

RSL opened the ‘second season’ with a turnout of over 16,000. Maybe it was because everyone was drained from the USA/Ghana game, but the Saturday games drew mediocre crowds. 15,300+ in Columbus, a non sellout in Toronto, 13,700+ in Houston, 14,100+ for Chivas USA. KC however had a sellout in the bandbox that is Community America Ballpark. As expected PPL Park in Chester, PA opened with a sellout+. The weekend ended with the Revs pulling in just over 12,300.

Rookie Watch: Ike Opara and Steve Beitashour both had pretty decent games vs RSL. Danny Mwanga(PHL) capped a good game with a goal. Glad to see Nowak’s experiment of playing him in the midfield is over. Sorry, but can’t speak to other rookie performances. Was just too wiped out to watch MLS matches on Saturday.

Week 13 Games
Real Salt Lake	0	RSL – Behind the Shield
San Jose	0	San Jose Center Line Soccer
Columbus	2	Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra
DC United	0	DCU – Steve Goff – Soccer Insider
Toronto	0	TFC Connected
Los Angeles	0	LA – Official Blog
Kansas City	0	Kansas City – Hillcrest Road
RBNY	3	Red Bulls Reader
Houston	2	Soccer y Fútbol – Jose de Jesus Ortiz
Colorado	2	Undercurrent
Chivas USA	1	Chicago Fire Confidential
FC Dallas	2	3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick
Philadelphia	3	Philadelphia Union Talk
Seattle	1	Seattle Times
New England	0	Revolution Soccer
Chicago	1	Chicago Fire Confidential

GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GFA	GAA	PPG	PTS	GD
Los Angeles	14	10	3	1	22	4	1.57	0.29	2.36	33	18
Real Salt Lake	13	7	3	3	22	11	1.69	0.85	1.85	24	11
Columbus	12	7	3	2	18	11	1.50	0.92	2.00	24	7
NY Red Bull	13	8	0	5	17	16	1.31	1.23	1.85	24	1
Colorado	12	6	3	3	15	11	1.25	0.92	1.75	21	4
Dallas	12	4	6	2	15	12	1.25	1.00	1.50	18	3
San Jose	12	5	3	4	15	14	1.25	1.17	1.50	18	1
Toronto FC	12	5	3	4	15	14	1.25	1.17	1.50	18	1
Chicago	12	4	5	3	17	16	1.42	1.33	1.42	17	1
Houston	14	5	2	7	20	21	1.43	1.50	1.21	17	-1
Seattle	14	4	3	7	15	20	1.07	1.43	1.07	15	-5
Kansas City	12	3	3	6	11	16	0.92	1.33	1.00	12	-5
New England	13	3	2	8	13	21	1.00	1.62	0.85	11	-8
Chivas USA	13	3	1	9	14	20	1.08	1.54	0.77	10	-6
Philadelphia	11	3	1	7	14	22	1.27	2.00	0.91	10	-8
DC United	13	3	1	9	10	24	0.77	1.85	0.77	10	-14

Streaking

TFC has not lost at home in 12 straight.
RSL are unbeaten in their last 8 regular season games.
RSL are unbeaten in their last 17 regular season home games.
Chivas USA has lost 6 straight.
Colorado are unbeaten in their last 5 games.
Dallas are unbeaten in their last 5 road games.
Toronto are unbeaten in their last 13 regular season home games(7 in ’09).

MLS Throw Ins

There have been 21 draws compared to 36 in ’09 thru the first 101 matches.
There have been 65 clean sheets in the first 101 matches, counting scoreless draws as 2.
Through 101 games: goal scoring is down around 6% from 2009, 2.50 vs 2.66.
RSL has lost only twice in its last 36 home matches. They lost only once in ’08 and ’09, a feat matched by Houston.

At the World Cup

These are the MLS players that were at the World Cup. As of Friday May 28(15 days before the start of the tournament), each of the clubs received $1600 per day per player from FIFA until one day after the last game played by their respective teams at the World Cup.

On WC Rosters
Players	Team	$$$
Buddle, Donovan	LA	$99,200
Bornstein	CHV	$49,600
Findley	RSL	$49,600
Boyens	RBNY	$46,400
Espinoza	KC	$48,000

Getting Friendly

Friendlies
Opponents	Venue	Date	Friendlies	Att
Colo Colo v FC Edmonton	Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton Alb	Sun, June 20	Friendly	5,500
El Salvador v DCU	RFK Stadium, Washington, DC	Sat, June 19	Friendly	10,240
Puntarenas v RSL	Rio Tinto Park, Sandy, UT	Sat, June 19	Friendly	9,420
CD Aguila v HOU	Robertson Stadium, Houston, TX	Sat, June 19	Friendly	11,843
Cruzeiro v RBNY	Red Bull Arena, Harrison, NJ	Fri, June 18	Friendly	7,680
total	44,683
average	8,937

Lamar Hunt US Open Cup

The MLS play-in matches for the Open are complete. RBNY and DC United will join the top 6 league finishers in 2009 in the tourney proper. Seattle are the defending cup holders, and as such will compete in the 2010-11 CONCACAF Champions League.

3rd round schedule (All Times ET) June 29

7 pm New York Red Bulls (MLS) v Harrisburg City Islanders (USL-2) Skyline Sports Complex; Harrisburg, PA.
7:30pm Rochester Rhinos (USSF D-2) v Columbus Crew (MLS) Columbus Crew Stadium; Columbus, OH
8:30pm Charleston Battery (USL-2) v Chicago Fire (MLS) Toyota Park; Bridgeview, IL
8:30pm Miami FC (USSF D-2) v Houston Dynamo (MLS) Carl Lewis Track Stadium; Houston, TX
10:30pm AC St. Louis (USSF D-2) v Los Angeles Galaxy (MLS) The Home Depot Center; Carson, CA
10:30pm Austin Aztex (USSF D-2) v Chivas USA (MLS) California State-Fullerton; Fullerton, CA

June 30

7:30pm Richmond Kickers (USL-2) v D.C. United (MLS) George Mason Stadium; Fairfax, VA
10:30pm Seattle Sounders (MLS) v Portland Timbers (USSF D-2) PGE Park; Portland, OR

The Lamar Hunt US Open Cup structure

In case you were wondering, here is the World Cup schedule(June 11-July 11). Note that the latest start time(ET) is 2pm.