Take Me Out to the Ballgame – Week 18

Posted on July 19, 2009 by Peter C

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After week 18 the numbers look like this…

  5 year comparison
  WK 15 130 GP YTD
  Avg +/- GP Avg +/- Avg +/- GP
 2005   8,365     2   15,023     14,568     118 
 2006   11,399   36.28%   7   15,558   3.56%   14,549   -0.13%   120 
 2007   15,894   39.43%   6   15,853   1.89%   15,024   3.26%   117 
 2008   13,013   -18.13%   6   16,542   4.35%   16,939   12.75%   122 
 2009   16,634   27.83%   6   15,490   -6.36%   15,490   -8.55%   130 


Here are the attendance comparisons to 2008’s equal number of home games(130):

MLS Attendance Averages – Equal # of Home Games
  2008 2009  
  Att Cap Att Att +/- GP Cap Cap
 Seattle  0   0.00%   29,984   NA  10   93.70%   32,000 
 Toronto  20,173   91.79%   20,278   0.52%   11   92.26%   21,978 
 LA Galaxy  25,348   93.88%   19,292   -23.89%   9   71.45%   27,000 
 ChivasUSA  14,286   52.91%   16,211   13.48%   9   60.04%   27,000 
 Real Salt Lake  15,101   71.96%   16,045   6.25%   8   71.15%   19,340 
 Houston  16,566   73.63%   15,689   -5.29%   8   69.73%   22,500 
 D.C. United  20,133   89.48%   15,193   -24.53%   9   67.53%   22,500 
 NE Revolution  16,584   73.71%   13,242   -20.15%   7   58.85%   22,500 
 Columbus Crew  12,881   64.40%   13,041   1.24%   9   65.20%   20,000 
 Chicago  16,667   83.34%   12,839   -22.97%   8   64.19%   20,000 
 N.Y./N.J. Red Bulls  17,385   69.02%   12,702   -26.94%   9   50.43%   25,189 
 Colorado Rapids  14,612   80.79%   12,431   -14.93%   8   68.73%   18,086 
 San Jose  16,752   85.56%   11,513   -31.28%   8   47.54%   10,300 
 KC Wizards  9,596   92.40%   9,789   2.01%   8   94.26%   10,385 
 FC Dallas  13,687   66.76%   9,306   -32.01%   9   45.40%   20,500 


My disclaimer about the capacity calculations

Observations

Week 18 opened with the much balleyhoo’d return of David Beckham to the LA Galaxy as they visited the Red Bulls in the media center of the country.

RBNY’s overall average was raised by their largest crowd of the year. What, however shall we glean from the numbers in camparison? In 2007 this match drew 66,237(Aug 18), in 2008 46,754(Jul 19). Thursday’s attendance: 23,238.

Toronto had its usual full house for Houston’s visit. The DCU/Rapids, Columbus/RSL and Chicago/SJ games were played directly opposite the USMNT Gold Cup Quarterfinal match. DCU and Chicago drew above their YTD averages while Columbus came close to its average. The week’s league play culminated with a modest 10,997 in a late Sunday afternoon match at Foxboro. All told, a decent week averaging over 16,600.

Seattle filled the house, over 65,000, to see its friendly vs Chelsea FC.

YTD – 130 Games
  Average Median %<10K %>20k
 2005    15,023     12,167    30.00%   16.15% 
 2006    15,558     12,979    22.31%   17.69% 
 2007    15,853     14,235    10.77%   23.08% 
 2008    16,542     15,324    11.54%   26.15% 
 2009    15,490     14,479    14.62%   19.23% 

Week 18 Games
 
RBNY 1 Red Bulls Reader
Los Angeles 3 LA – 100 percent soccer
 
Toronto 1 TFC Connected
Houston 1 Soccer y Fútbol – Barnard Fallas
 
DC United 3 DCU – Steve Goff – Soccer Insider
Colorado 1 Undercurrent
 
Columbus 3 Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra
Real Salt Lake 1 RSL – Behind the Shield
 
Chicago 2 Chicago – En Fuego Official Blog
San Jose 0 Center Line Soccer
 
New England 2 Revolution Soccer
Chivas USA 0 Chivas USA – MLSNet



Gold Cup and MLS

Players, League Games Missed Due to Gold Cup Semifinal and Final Matches
  Players Opponent
     16-Jul  18-Jul  25-Jul
 Chicago Fire   Busch, Pause. Segares(CRC)    SJ  SEA
 Chivas USA   Bornstein*, Kljestan*
 Harmse(CAN)**		    NE  
 Colorado Rapids   Clark, Perkins, Casey*
 Ceus(HAI)**		    DCU  RBNY
 Columbus Crew   Rogers, Marshall    RSL  TFC
 DC United   Quaranta, Jakovic(CAN)**    Colorado  SJ
 FC Dallas   Cooper      RSL
 Houston Dynamo   Ching, Holden, Hainault(CAN)**    TFC  NE
 Kansas City Wizards   Arnaud, Conrad      LA
 Los Angeles Galaxy   NONE  RBNY    KC
 New England Revolution   Heaps    Chivas USA  HOU
 RBNY   NONE  LA    NE
 Real Salt Lake   Beckerman, Johnson(CAN)**
 Alexandre(HAI)**		    Columbus  FCD
 San Jose Earthquakes   NONE    Chicago  DCU
 Seattle Sounders FC   Evans      Chicago
 Toronto FC   Cronin, Gerba(CAN)**    HOU  CLB


* – Added when CONCACAF allowed the US to add 7 to the roster due to its participation in the Confederations Cup. With Adu, Davies, Cherundolo, Feilhaber and Parkhurst returning to their clubs in Europe, more MLS’ers will be on the field for the USMNT.

** – xxx eliminated this week.

Casey, Bornstein and Kljestan were with their clubs this weekend. We’ll have to see if they get called for the semifinal on Thursday.

If I’ve missed anyone, hopefully our readers will let me know in the comment section.

Naturally the column for the games on the 25th is for those that win the semis on the 23rd.

With Canada eliminated, Toronto will welcome new signing Gerba who scored for Canada in its pre Gold Cup tuneup match and in 2 Gold Cup matches.

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End of Week Thoughts

  • The Galaxy looked pretty sharp for the first 45 in their match with RBNY.
  • McBride’s surgery a big blow to the Fire.
  • KC’s Jimmy Conrad took a hard knock and had to come out of the US match vs Panama.
  • Can’t say much about the other Saturday games as I was watching the Nats. All field players were MLS’ers.
  • Huzzah! Chicago wins at home.


    Streaking

  • LA has won 4 games in a row.
  • RBNY is winless in 11.
  • Chivas USA is winless in 4.
  • Seven teams have not lost when scoring the first goal.
  • Six teams have not won when allowing the first goal.
  • Three teams, Houston, DCU and Columbus, are undefeated at home.
  • Two teams, RBNY and San Jose, are winless on the road.

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    Just Some Stuff

    The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup semifinals are on Tuesday, July 21. The USL-1 Rochester Rhinos meet defending champions D.C. United at the Maryland Soccerplex in Boyds, MD. The other semi features Houston at Seattle at the Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila, WA.

    This entry was posted in Jimmy Conrad, Major League Soccer, MLS, MLS Attendance, MLS Talk. Bookmark the permalink.

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