Take Me Out to the Ballgame - Week 29; 2010 Season

The Week 29 numbers look like this…

	5 year comparison
	Week 29			Thru Week 29		YTD
	Avg	+/-	GP	Avg	+/-	GP
2006	20,277		6	15,502		192
2007	20,575	1.47%	7	16,767	8.16%	195
2008	17,338	-15.73%	7	16,460	-1.83%	210
2009	22,165	27.84%	7	15,878	-3.53%	205
2010	20,048	-9.55%	9	16,651	4.87%	231

Thru Week 29
	Average	Median	%<10K	%>20k
2006	15,502	14,175	18.75%	18.75%
2007	16,767	14,655	8.21%	29.74%
2008	16,460	15,188	10.95%	24.76%
2009	15,878	14,534	15.61%	19.51%
2010	16,651	15,124	7.36%	22.51%

Here are the attendance comparisons to 2009:

MLS Attendance – Equal # of Home Games
	2009		2010
	Att	Cap %	Att	Att +/-	GP	Cap %	Cap
Seattle	30,897	95.36%	36,173	17.08%	15	101.90%	35,500
LA Galaxy	19,946	73.87%	21,183	6.20%	14	78.45%	27,000
Toronto	20,344	92.57%	20,453	0.53%	15	93.06%	21,978
Philadelphia	NA	NA	19,252	NA	15	91.24%	18,500
N.Y./N.J. Red Bulls	11,861	47.09%	18,625	57.03%	14	73.94%	25,189
Real Salt Lake	16,375	81.00%	17,095	4.39%	15	88.39%	19,340
Houston	16,160	71.82%	16,833	4.16%	14	74.81%	22,500
Chicago	14,689	73.44%	15,814	7.66%	15	79.07%	20,000
ChivasUSA	15,132	56.05%	14,557	-3.80%	14	53.92%	27,000
Columbus Crew	14,279	71.39%	14,330	0.36%	14	71.65%	20,000
D.C. United	16,075	71.44%	14,279	-11.17%	14	63.46%	22,500
Colorado Rapids	12,031	66.52%	13,014	8.18%	14	71.96%	18,086
NE Revolution	13,732	61.03%	12,987	-5.43%	15	57.72%	22,500
FC Dallas	12,441	58.70%	10,815	-13.07%	15	51.03%	21,193
KC Wizards	10,030	96.58%	10,199	1.69%	14	98.21%	10,385
San Jose	14,478	92.80%	9,661	-33.27%	14	93.80%	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’s 4th match in 2009 was at Oakland Alameda Coliseum and drew over 15,800. Their 7th match was also at OAC and they drew over 17,100. Their 11th was part of a doubleheader with Barcelona and drew over 61,500.

FC Dallas’ 14th home match in 2009 was part of a doubleheader(Mexico v Colombia), played at the Cotton Bowl, drawing over 51,000.

Observations

Chicago had 12,200+ for a Tuesday matchup that ran at the same time as a USMNT match. Seattle, for the 2nd season in a row, set the home attendance record, after 36,000+ show up for the regular season home finale. Minority owner Drew Carey mentioned how the Sounders will be looking at ways to expand the capacity again for next year. Terrific weekend crowds. Over 19,000 in Chicago for Brian McBride’s last home game. More than 18,000 in Toronto, Philadelphia and New England. Salt Lake set a home game attendance record with a SRO turnout of 20,236. San Jose also had a SRO crowd. And finally, the Galaxy reported a sellout for the 2nd home game in a row.

Rookie Watch: Teal Bunbury had a goal and assist for Kansas City.

Kei Kamara, on my preseason ‘watch list'(bottom of post) had an assist for Kansas City.

Week 29 Games

Chicago	0	Chicago Fire Confidential	12,230
Kansas City	2	Kansas City – Hillcrest Road	12,230

Seattle	2	Seattle Times	36,356
Chivas USA	1	Chicago Fire Confidential	36,356

Toronto	2	TFC Connected	18,084
Columbus	2	Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra	18,084

Chicago	0	Chicago Fire Confidential	19,056
DC United	0	DCU – Steve Goff – Soccer Insider	19,056

Philadelphia	2	Philadelphia Union Talk	18,578
RBNY	1	Red Bulls Reader	18,578

New England	1	Revolution Soccer	18,298
Kansas City	0	Kansas City – Hillcrest Road	18,298

Real Salt Lake	2	RSL – Behind the Shield	20,236
FC Dallas	0	3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick	20,236

San Jose	0	San Jose Center Line Soccer	10,597
Houston	1	Soccer y Fútbol – Jose de Jesus Ortiz	10,597

Los Angeles	1	LA – Official Blog	27,000
Colorado	3	Undercurrent	27,000

	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GFA	GAA	PPG	PTS	GD
Los Angeles	29	17	5	7	42	25	1.45	0.86	1.93	56	17
Real Salt Lake	29	15	10	4	43	18	1.48	0.62	1.90	55	25
Dallas	29	12	14	3	41	26	1.41	0.90	1.72	50	15
Seattle	29	14	6	9	38	33	1.31	1.14	1.66	48	5
NY Red Bull	29	14	6	9	36	29	1.24	1.00	1.66	48	7
Columbus	29	13	8	8	37	33	1.28	1.14	1.62	47	4
Colorado	29	12	9	8	42	30	1.45	1.03	1.55	45	12
San Jose	28	12	7	9	30	29	1.07	1.04	1.54	43	1
Kansas City	29	10	6	13	32	34	1.10	1.17	1.24	36	-2
Chicago	29	8	9	12	33	37	1.14	1.28	1.14	33	-4
Toronto FC	29	8	8	13	30	39	1.03	1.34	1.10	32	-9
New England	29	9	5	15	32	48	1.10	1.66	1.10	32	-16
Philadelphia	29	8	7	14	34	46	1.17	1.59	1.07	31	-12
Houston	29	8	6	15	38	48	1.31	1.66	1.03	30	-10
Chivas USA	28	8	4	16	30	38	1.07	1.36	1.00	28	-8
DC United	29	6	4	19	19	44	0.66	1.52	0.76	22	-25

It was a weekend of failure. First Kansas City lost the early game on Saturday, eliminating themselves from their slim playoff hopes. Then Philadelphia denied RBNY the Eastern Conference clinching win, and finally the Galaxy failed to clinch the West, losing to the Rapids at home.

Seattle sits above RBNY because of its head to head advantage, whereas New England and Toronto split their two games, overall goal differential determines the standings after head to head.

Streaking

RSL are unbeaten in their last 25 regular season home games, an MLS record.
RSL are unbeaten in their last 13 MLS games.
Dallas’ unbeaten run ended at 19 games, losing to RSL.

MLS Throw Ins

There have been 57 draws thru the first 231 matches compared to 69 in all of ’09.
There have been 145 clean sheets in the first 231 matches, counting scoreless draws as 2.
Through 231 games: goal scoring is down around 4.7% from 2009, 2.41 vs 2.53.
RSL has lost only twice in its last 45 home league matches(3 seasons).
Houston lost only one home game in ’08 and in ’09. They’ve lost 6 at home this year.
DC United have yielded 17 goals in the last 15 minutes of games.
DC United set a MLS record, being shut out 17 times in one season.
The Philadelphia Union are the best in not allowing late goals(as a percentage of total goals allowed). Interestingly, the are also the best at scoring late goals.

CONCACAF Champions League

RSL are thru to the quarterfinals. Columbus controls its own destiny and a win at Joe Public will send them thru. Toronto and Seattle are eliminated. Seattle assured its place in next year’s CCL by winning the US Open Cup.

Aug 17 — Toronto 2 Cruz Azul 1
Aug 18 — Columbus 1 Municipal 0
Aug 18 — Real Salt Lake 2 Arabe Unido 1
Aug 19 — Marathón 2 Seattle 1

Aug 24 – Arabe Unido 1 Toronto 0
Aug 24 – Santos Laguna 1 Columbus 0
Aug 25 – Cruz Azul 5 Real Salt Lake 4
Aug 25 – Seattle 0 Monterrey 2
Aug 19 – Marathón v Seattle–>

Sep 14 — Columbus 3 Joe Public 0
Sep 14 — Saprissa 2 Seattle 0
Sep 15 — Real Salt Lake 4 Toronto 1

Sep 21 — Columbus 1 Santos Laguna 0
Sep 21 — Cruz Azul 0 Toronto 0
Sep 22 — Arabe Unido 2 Real Salt Lake 3
Sep 22 — Monterrey 3 Seattle 2

Sep 28 — Toronto 1 RSL 1
Sep 29 — Municipal 2 Columbus 1
Sep 29 — Seattle 2 Marathón 0

Oct 19 — Toronto v Arabe Unido
Oct 19 — RSL v Cruz Azul
Oct 19 — Seattle v Saprissa
Oct 21 — Joe Public v Columbus

CONCACAF Champions League
A	w	d	l	pts	gd
Cruz Azul(MEX)	3	1	1	10	8
RSL(USA)	3	1	1	10	5
Toronto(CAN)	1	2	2	5	-4
Arabe Unido(PAN)	1	0	4	3	-9

B
Santos Laguna(MEX)	3	1	1	10	7
Columbus(USA)	3	0	2	9	3
Municipal(GUA)	2	2	1	8	1
Joe Public(T&T)	0	1	4	1	-11

C
Monterrey(MEX)	4	1	0	13	6
Saprissa(CRC)	2	1	2	7	3
Marathon(HON)	2	0	3	6	-5
Seattle(USA)	1	0	4	3	-4

D
Olimpia(HON)	3	1	1	10	2
Puerto Rico(CFU)	2	2	1	8	1
Toluca(MEX)	2	1	2	7	5
FAS(SLV)	0	2	3	2	-8

CONCACAF Champions League Group Phase
Group A	Arabe Unido	RSL	Cruz Azul	Toronto	Home
Arabe Unido(PAN)	X	500	2,975	501	1,325
RSL(USA)	10,626	X	NP	11,579	11,103
Cruz Azul(MEX)	5,015	6,156	X	5,280	5,484
Toronto(CAN)	NP	10,581	16,862	X	13,722
Away	7,821	5,746	9,919	5,787
Group B	Columbus	Municipal	Santos Laguna	Joe Public	Home
Columbus(USA)	X	5,745	6,298	5,445	5,829
Municipal(GUA)	3,534	X	10,414	2,498	5,482
Santos Laguna(MEX)	4,700	NP	X	7,000	5,850
Joe Public(T&T)	900	500	NP	X	700
Away	3,045	3,123	8,356	4,981
Group C	Monterrey	Saprissa	Seattle	Marathon	Home
Monterrey(MEX)	X	12,042	19,697	9,628	13,789
Saprissa(CRC)	1,635	X	3,000	2,899	2,511
Seattle(USA)	22,513	NP	X	11,768	17,141
Marathon(HON)	NP	1,820	1,990	X	1,905
Away	12,074	6,931	8,229	8,098
Group D	Toluca	Olimpia	Puerto Rico	FAS	Home
Toluca(MEX)	X	NA	5,165	NP	5,165
Olimpia(HON)	4,654	X	NP	9,200	6,927
Puerto Rico(CFU)	4,122	2,632	X	2,050	2,935
FAS(SLV)	3,500	1,000	3,500	X	2,667
Away	4,092	1,816	4,333	5,625
	No Report on the Toluca/Olimpia match

MLS Playoff Attendance – 2005-2009

Just a taste to remind you that Take Me Out to the Ballgame will morph into Take Me Out to the Playoffs, as we did last season.

5 year comparison
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
Semifinals Totals
	Avg	+/-	Teams
2005	15,454	NA	NE v CHI – COL v LA
2006	21,330	38.02%	DCU v NE – HOU v COL
2007	20,645	-3.21%	NE v CHI – HOU v KC
2008	17,348	-15.97%	CLB v CHI – RSL v RBNY
2009	23,548	35.74%	LA v HOU – CHI v RSL
Finals Totals
	Avg	+/-	Teams	Venue
2005	21,193	NA	NE v LA	Pizza Hut Park, Frisco, TX
2006	22,427	5.82%	NE v HOU	Pizza Hut Park, Frisco, TX
2007	39,859	77.73%	NE v HOU	RFK Stadium, Wash DC
2008	27,000	-32.26%	RBNY v CLB	Home Depot Center, LA, CA
2009	46,011	70.41%	RSL v LA	Qwest Field, Seattle, WA
Playoff Totals
	Avg	+/-
2005	14,390	NA
2006	15,179	5.49%
2007	19,771	30.25%
2008	16,488	-16.60%
2009	23,559	42.88%