Take Me Out to the Ballgame – Week 21
An abbreviated post due to my just returning from the road.
After week 21 the numbers look like this…
| 5 year comparison | ||||||||
| WK 21 | 149 GP | YTD | ||||||
| Avg | +/- | GP | Avg | +/- | Avg | +/- | GP | |
| 2005 | 12,985 | 6 | 14,776 | 14,823 | 140 | |||
| 2006 | 14,771 | 13.76% | 9 | 15,264 | 3.30% | 15,424 | 4.05% | 137 |
| 2007 | 17,381 | 17.67% | 9 | 15,979 | 4.69% | 15,996 | 3.71% | 138 |
| 2008 | 15,625 | -10.11% | 7 | 16,557 | 3.62% | 16,977 | 6.14% | 139 |
| 2009 | 23,667 | 51.47% | 6 | 15,745 | -4.91% | 15,745 | -7.26% | 149 |
Here are the attendance comparisons to 2008′s equal number of home games(149):
| MLS Attendance – Equal # of Home Games | |||||||
| 2008 | 2009 | ||||||
| Att | Cap | Att | Att +/- | GP | Cap | Cap | |
| Seattle | 0 | 0.00% | 30,204 | NA | 11 | 94.39% | 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 | 15,109 | 73.14% | 16,137 | 6.81% | 10 | 73.66% | 19,340 |
| Houston | 16,324 | 72.55% | 15,836 | -2.99% | 11 | 70.38% | 22,500 |
| San Jose | 14,917 | 87.50% | 15,692 | 5.20% | 11 | 76.84% | 10,300 |
| D.C. United | 20,133 | 89.48% | 15,193 | -24.53% | 9 | 67.53% | 22,500 |
| NE Revolution | 16,799 | 74.66% | 14,592 | -13.14% | 9 | 64.85% | 22,500 |
| Columbus Crew | 13,681 | 68.40% | 13,114 | -4.14% | 10 | 65.57% | 20,000 |
| Chicago | 17,092 | 85.46% | 13,027 | -23.78% | 9 | 65.13% | 20,000 |
| Colorado Rapids | 13,628 | 75.35% | 12,771 | -6.29% | 11 | 70.61% | 18,086 |
| N.Y./N.J. Red Bulls | 17,385 | 69.02% | 12,702 | -26.94% | 9 | 50.43% | 25,189 |
| KC Wizards | 9,596 | 92.40% | 10,024 | 4.46% | 9 | 96.52% | 10,385 |
| FC Dallas | 14,072 | 68.64% | 9,229 | -34.42% | 11 | 45.02% | 20,500 |
My disclaimer about the capacity calculations
Observations
Week 21 games drew 23,667 with the help of a strong turnout in Houston, the ‘Beckham’ effect in New England and a doubleheader in San Jose where Barcelona and Chivas de Guadalajara played the backend game after the Quakes/Crew match leading to San Jose’s YTD attendance being on the plus side.
Well, whaddaya know, Columbus is top of the table.
No draws this week.
Meanwhile the ‘Summer of Soccer’ rolls on with Barcelona and Seattle pulling in 66,848, TFC and Real Madrid selling out the 22,089 BMO seats and Real Madrid’s visit to DCU at RFK drawing 72,368 proving that great clubs and celebrity will bring fans to soccer matches in the US.
| Beckham Road Game Effect | ||||
| Without Beckham in ’09 | ||||
| 2008 | 2009 | +/- | ||
| Colorado | 18,713 | 12,180 | -6,533 | -34.91% |
| FC Dallas | 22,331 | 9,595 | -12,736 | -57.03% |
| RSL | 25,571 | 16,155 | -9,416 | -36.82% |
| SJ(2) | 59,043 | 32,990 | -26,053 | -44.12% |
| Total | 125,658 | 70,920 | -54,738 | -43.56% |
| Beckham Road Game Effect | ||||
| With Beckham | ||||
| 2008 | 2009 | +/- | ||
| RBNY | 46,754 | 23,238 | -23,516 | -50.30% |
| KC | 26,113 | 11,906 | -14,207 | -54.41% |
| NE | 39,256 | 26,623 | -12,633 | -32.18% |
| Total | 112,123 | 61,767 | -50,356 | -44.91% |
While the attendances of Beckham’s road games are down from last year, they’re still above the YTD averages in the cities he’s visited.
| YTD – 149 Games | ||||
| Average | Median | %<10K | %>20k | |
| 2005 | 14,776 | 12,252 | 30.00% | 14.67% |
| 2006 | 15,264 | 13,016 | 22.15% | 17.45% |
| 2007 | 15,979 | 14,577 | 10.07% | 22.82% |
| 2008 | 16,557 | 15,257 | 11.41% | 25.50% |
| 2009 | 15,745 | 14,441 | 14.77% | 18.79% |
| Week 21 Games | ||
| FC Dallas | 1 | 3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick |
| Houston | 0 | Soccer y Fútbol – Barnard Fallas |
| New England | 1 | Revolution Soccer |
| Los Angeles | 2 | LA – Official Blog |
| San Jose | 0 | San Jose Center Line Soccer |
| Columbus | 3 | Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra |
| Real Salt Lake | 1 | RSL – Behind the Shield |
| Seattle | 0 | Seattle Times |
| Colorado | 4 | Undercurrent |
| Chivas USA | 0 | Chivas USA – MLSNet |
| Houston | 3 | Soccer y Fútbol – Barnard Fallas |
| Chicago | 2 | Chicago – En Fuego Official Blog |
Streaking
Just Some Stuff
The finalists for the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup are DC United and Seattle. DCU looks to defend its crown while the Sounders are looking for their first hardware as an MLS club. The final is on September 2 at RFK stadium in DC.
Regarding Kartik’s post, MLS: Taking the Good With the Bad, and his statement that “fans have also made MLS a better supported league in its stadiums than two of the top three leagues in the world”, I present this European data from the regular season attendance reports.
| League | 08-09 |
| Bundesliga | 42,521 |
| EPL | 35,594 |
| La Liga | 27,672 |
| Serie A | 24,462 |
| Ligue 1 | 20,549 |
| MLS* | 15,724 |
| SPL | 15,537 |
| * 2009 YTD | |
7 Responses to Take Me Out to the Ballgame – Week 21
Just look at that attendance, KC and Dallas LAST, and you have to go all the way up to NE to find numbers substantially better than the Fusion drew. WTF are you doing in KC and Dallas MLS? COME BACK TO SOUTH FLORIDA!!
KC is selling out practically every game. They need a new stadium. Dallas is a problem because the ownership is dumb, the team sucks and the stadium is out in the boonies.
Derek:
I certainly see your point about Dallas and there has been much written about the atrocious attendance. As one of the teams that Forbes listed as having made a profit in ’07, will be interesting to see what impact their precipitous decline in gate receipts will mean.
As for KC, they are playing in Community America Ballpark, capacity 10,385 until their new stadium is completed. A bit unfair to point to them as candidate for relocation until we see how they draw in their new digs.
But as you can see below, they will need to do better once they move as their history of attendance has not been good. Only twice, ’03 and ’04, have they drawn over 14,500.
As for South Florida, I can’t say that the Fusion or FC Miami(USL-1) have shown that they can draw well enough to entice an investor.
Miami KC
98 10,284 8,073
99 8,689 11,952
00 7,460 9,112
01 11,177 10,954
Peter covered whatever I was going to say about Kansas City, but I will add that their supporters section is a fairly large one and they always provide a great atmosphere.
As for Dallas, where to begin… We could talk about the problems for a significant amount of time, but I think it is to no avail in the near future because of Pizza Hut Park. According to the FC Dallas Wiki page, their all time average attendance (not including this year) is 11,535, and with the clubs management so successful in getting Pizza Hut Park built back in ’04, FC Dallas is here to stay for the time being. It would have been a smarter move for MLS to move Dallas to Houston back in the day, but like I said ground was already broken on PHP in February of ’04.
The “If we build it, they will come” hope that came along with Pizza Hut Park has not worked out thus far, and it is a shame really.
It is a shame about PHP though. It is a great facility. But as Lars said, it is in the boonies. It is on the NE side of the Dallas metro while everything else is in the western areas of the metro. Still, Dallas will not be moving because 1. PHP 2. Dallas is a major sports market 3. Dallas is a major TV market
I agree FC Dallas has no clue how to market their team.
Simple conclusion to MLS attendance, split the season in two!! The only reason why the attendance goes down is because the season is too long. If the season is split in two the games in the second half of the season won’t be as empty!! And bring San Jose team to Miami, why do they get a second chance AT MLS!!! And we don’t. We have a stadium ready, and if not we can build one in downtown where the old miami arena is at!!!