Good crowds attended this week’s eight matches, except of course in Dallas. The league averaged just over 16,600.
The week began with west leading Chivas USA visiting Houston. A midweek turnout of over 14,500 saw the Dynamo continue its good form.
On Saturday, the east’s top teams clashed in DC in front of over 18,300. Toronto hosted the hapless Red Bulls with its usual sellout. Kansas City also sold out for the visit of the Revs. 19,718, around their YTD average, saw the Galaxy’s undefeated streak end. A throng of 28,999 witnessed Seattle rebound from its loss to Chivas last week.
Decent weather and a top opponent couldn’t bring out more than 12,700 to Columbus on Sunday.
While 5 clubs are up in average attendance, it’s disturbing that five others, Chicago, Dallas, DCU, LA and San Jose are down over 22%.
After week 13 the numbers look like this…
| 5 year comparison | ||||||||
| WK 13 | 100 GP | YTD | ||||||
| Avg | +/- | GP | Avg | +/- | Avg | +/- | GP | |
| 2005 | 12,309 | 8 | 14,335 | 14,160 | 87 | |||
| 2006 | 13,440 | 9.19% | 9 | 14,914 | 4.04% | 14,924 | 5.40% | 81 |
| 2007 | 11,574 | -13.88% | 6 | 15,178 | 1.77% | 15,059 | 0.90% | 85 |
| 2008 | 17,594 | 52.01% | 9 | 16,324 | 7.55% | 16,836 | 11.80% | 93 |
| 2009 | 16,634 | -5.46% | 8 | 14,883 | -8.82% | 14,883 | -11.60% | 100 |
Here are the attendance comparisons to 2008’s equal number of home games(100):
| MLS Attendance Averages – Equal # of Home Games | |||||||
| 2008 | 2009 | ||||||
| Att | Cap | Att | Att +/- | GP | % of Cap | Cap | |
| Seattle | 0 | 0.00% | 29,401 | NA | 7 | 91.88% | 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 | 16,736 | 74.38% | 15,480 | -7.51% | 7 | 68.80% | 22,500 |
| Real Salt Lake | 16,419 | 76.25% | 15,449 | -5.91% | 6 | 79.88% | 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 | 14,540 | 80.40% | 12,410 | -14.65% | 4 | 68.61% | 18,086 |
| 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 | 13,525 | 53.69% | 10,966 | -18.92% | 7 | 43.54% | 25,189 |
| San Jose | 16,483 | 72.70% | 10,882 | -33.98% | 6 | 88.23% | 10,300 |
| KC Wizards | 9,483 | 91.32% | 9,703 | 2.32% | 7 | 93.44% | 10,385 |
| FC Dallas | 13,447 | 65.59% | 8,770 | -34.78% | 7 | 42.78% | 20,500 |
| YTD – 100 Games | ||||
| Average | Median | %<10K | %>20k | |
| 2005 | 14,335 | 12,106 | 30.00% | 15.00% |
| 2006 | 14,914 | 13,148 | 22.00% | 16.00% |
| 2007 | 15,178 | 14,235 | 12.00% | 22.00% |
| 2008 | 16,324 | 15,148 | 11.00% | 26.00% |
| 2009 | 14,883 | 14,138 | 16.00% | 16.00% |
| Week 13 Games | ||
| Houston | 1 | Soccer y Fútbol – Barnard Fallas |
| Chivas USA | 0 | Dentro del Rebaño, (‘Inside the Flock’) |
| DC United | 2 | Behind the Badge |
| Chicago | 1 | Fire Official Site |
| Toronto FC | 2 | TFC Official Site |
| RBNY | 1 | Red Bulls Reader |
| FC Dallas | 1 | 3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick |
| Houston | 3 | <Soccer y Fútbol – Barnard Fallas |
| Kansas City | 3 | Hillcrest Road |
| New England | 1 | Revolution Official Site |
| Los Angeles | 0 | LA – Official Blog |
| Real Salt Lake | 2 | Behind the Shield |
| Seattle | 2 | Seattle Times |
| San Jose | 1 | Mercury News |
| Columbus | 2 | Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra |
| Chivas USA | 1 | Dentro del Rebaño, (‘Inside the Flock’) |
Why No Game Reviews?
After writing brief reviews of matches for the past few weeks, I figured, what the hell, there are folks out there much better equipped to give you the ‘what happened’ information. So from here on I’ll present(along with attendance) a scoreboard with links that I use to get the lowdown.
End of Week First Thoughts
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The Lamar Hunt US Open Cup.continues with the 2nd round. The eight MLS clubs will join the competition in the 3rd round on June 30.
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