Take Me Out to the Ballgame – Week 25
After week 25 the numbers look like this…
| 5 year comparison | ||||||||
| WK 25 | 175 GP | YTD | ||||||
| Avg | +/- | GP | Avg | +/- | Avg | +/- | GP | |
| 2005 | 15,302 | 6 | 14,878 | 14,912 | 162 | |||
| 2006 | 12,373 | -19.15% | 8 | 15,115 | 1.59% | 14,997 | 0.57% | 167 |
| 2007 | 18,809 | 52.02% | 8 | 16,497 | 9.14% | 16,251 | 8.36% | 167 |
| 2008 | 15,671 | -16.68% | 7 | 16,469 | -0.17% | 16,873 | 3.83% | 168 |
| 2009 | 10,176 | -35.06% | 3 | 15,744 | -4.40% | 15,732 | -6.76% | 175 |
| YTD – 175 Games | ||||
| Average | Median | %<10K | %>20k | |
| 2005 | 14,878 | 12,409 | 28.98% | 16.48% |
| 2006 | 15,115 | 13,280 | 20.57% | 16.57% |
| 2007 | 16,497 | 15,033 | 8.57% | 26.86% |
| 2008 | 16,469 | 15,257 | 11.43% | 25.14% |
| 2009 | 15,744 | 14,516 | 16.00% | 19.43% |
Here are the attendance comparisons to 2008′s equal number of home games(175):
| MLS Attendance – Equal # of Home Games | |||||||
| 2008 | 2009 | ||||||
| Att | Cap | Att | Att +/- | GP | Cap | Cap | |
| Seattle | 0 | 0.00% | 30,587 | NA | 13 | 94.40% | 32,400 |
| Toronto | 20,147 | 91.67% | 20,308 | 0.80% | 12 | 92.40% | 21,978 |
| LA Galaxy | 25,648 | 94.99% | 20,072 | -21.74% | 11 | 74.34% | 27,000 |
| ChivasUSA | 15,557 | 57.62% | 16,107 | 3.53% | 10 | 59.65% | 27,000 |
| Real Salt Lake | 14,889 | 72.85% | 16,091 | 8.08% | 12 | 74.91% | 19,340 |
| Houston | 16,155 | 71.80% | 15,938 | -1.35% | 12 | 70.84% | 22,500 |
| D.C. United | 19,993 | 88.86% | 15,887 | -20.53% | 10 | 70.61% | 22,500 |
| San Jose | 14,917 | 90.48% | 15,137 | 1.48% | 12 | 77.31% | 10,300 |
| Chicago | 17,257 | 86.29% | 14,113 | -18.22% | 12 | 70.56% | 20,000 |
| Columbus Crew | 13,569 | 67.84% | 13,660 | 0.67% | 11 | 68.30% | 20,000 |
| NE Revolution | 17,751 | 78.89% | 13,221 | -25.52% | 12 | 58.76% | 22,500 |
| Colorado Rapids | 13,565 | 75.00% | 12,476 | -8.02% | 13 | 68.98% | 18,086 |
| N.Y./N.J. Red Bulls | 15,986 | 63.46% | 12,070 | -24.49% | 12 | 47.92% | 25,189 |
| KC Wizards | 11,118 | 107.06% | 10,010 | -9.97% | 11 | 96.39% | 10,385 |
| FC Dallas | 13,494 | 63.67% | 9,311 | -31.00% | 12 | 43.94% | 21,193 |
My disclaimer about the capacity calculations
Observations
Week 25′s 3 games drew under 10,200. New England was off -30% from its season average. FC Dallas pulled in barely over 10,200, but that’s good enough to be nearly 1,000 over its average. I’d say that’s scary, but FCD home support has been a disaster since game 2. The club hasn’t come close to matching opening day(15,905). Colorado was off 15.3% but that’s no different than their last home game There are lots of ways to explain the low numbers. A good one is that it was opening day for many college football teams. Then, there was this little match that the US Men played. As I mentioned last week, well, here read it yourself…
Well, what can you say? First the good: MLS scheduled only 3 games this coming weekend, which is a FIFA International calendar period. That surely minimized any potential conflict for many possible USMNT’ers who might be called into service for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers. In fact, for US players, only Conor Casey, on September 5th, stands to miss a match if he’s selected. Not the solution many fans want, which would be no MLS matches during FIFA International periods, but a lot better than having a full slate of games on the schedule. Now the WTF!: The USMNT game v El Salvador is at 8pm ET, the three MLS matches start at 7:30, 8:00 and 10:00 ET. Are you kidding me? Wait, it gets better. On Wednesday, Sep 9, the US travels to Trinidad and Tobago and will play at 7pm ET. MLS has ONE midweek match scheduled, on you guessed it, Wed the 9th. Not only that, it begins at 8:00pm ET. There are no words.
USSF President Sunil Gulati is also the President of Kraft Soccer, owner of the Revs, and even his team played on Saturday. What is wrong with this picture?
| World Cup Qualifier Same Day Attendance v Average | ||||||
| 9/3/2005 | 05 Avg | 05 +/- | 9/5/2009 | 09 Avg | 09 +/- | |
| Colorado | 17,044 | 12,618 | 35.1% | 10,821 | 12,771 | -15.3% |
| FC Dallas | 8,023 | 10,793 | -25.7% | 10,219 | 9,229 | 10.7% |
| New England | 13,342 | 12,525 | 6.5% | 9,489 | 13,561 | -30.0% |
| Chivas USA | 15,770 | 18,166 | -13.2% | - | - | - |
| RBNY | 8,765 | 14,443 | -39.3% | - | - | - |
| Real Salt Lake | 17,876 | 19,020 | -6.0% | - | - | - |
| Total | 80,820 | 87,565 | 30,529 | 35,561 | ||
| Total +/- | -6,745 | -7.7% | -5,032 | -14.1% | ||
The 2005 match was v Mexico, played at Crew Stadium.
MLS Scoreboard
| Week 25 Games | ||
| New England | 2 | Revolution Soccer |
| Kansas City | 4 | Kansas City – Hillcrest Road |
| FC Dallas | 2 | 3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick |
| DC United | 2 | DCU – Steve Goff – Soccer Insider |
| Colorado | 1 | Undercurrent |
| Toronto | 0 | TFC Connected |
So How Are They Doing?
| Points after 175 Games | ||||
| Pts | GP | PPG | GD | |
| Houston | 40 | 25 | 1.60 | 9 |
| Columbus | 39 | 23 | 1.70 | 9 |
| Chicago | 38 | 24 | 1.58 | 5 |
| Los Angeles | 38 | 24 | 1.58 | 5 |
| Colorado | 36 | 23 | 1.57 | 9 |
| Seattle | 34 | 24 | 1.42 | 6 |
| Real Salt Lake | 33 | 24 | 1.38 | 8 |
| DC United | 33 | 24 | 1.38 | 1 |
| Chivas USA | 33 | 22 | 1.50 | -1 |
| New England | 33 | 22 | 1.50 | -2 |
| Toronto FC | 31 | 24 | 1.29 | -4 |
| Dallas | 24 | 23 | 1.04 | -4 |
| Kansas City | 24 | 22 | 1.09 | -7 |
| San Jose | 20 | 22 | 0.91 | -13 |
| NY Red Bull | 16 | 24 | 0.67 | -21 |
Four teams at 33 points. RSL holds the edge in goal differential, while DCU, unbeaten at home, will play 5 of its last 6 at RFK. But Chivas USA and the Revs each have two games in hand, which makes them favorites to overtake them. With 34 points in 24 games, Seattle is only slightly less vulnerable to being overtaken for a playoff position. Columbus is poised to overtake Houston for the Supporters’ Shield with its 2 games in hand.
Streaking
Despite their league unbeaten home streak, DCU has lost its last 2 games at RFK. The first to Toluca in the CONCACAF Champions League and then to Seattle in the US Open Cup Championship match.
Some MLS Youth News
D.C. United Academy goalkeeper Bill Hamid signs with first team
U20 Red Bulls win Super-20 Finals Championship
Just Some Stuff
After 2 group play matches in the CONCACAF Champions League Houston has 4 points, Columbus has 3 points, while DC United sit last in Group B with 0 points.
| CONCACAF Champions League | |
| Sep 15-16 | Sep 22-24 |
| Group Game 3 | Group Game 4 |
| Houston plays Sep 15, 22 | |
| Columbus plays Sep 16, 23 | |
| DCU plays Sep 16, 24 | |
=====
The Seatte Sounders won the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, defeating the defending champion DC United at RFK stadium in DC. The win earns the Sounders a berth in the next edition of the CONCACAF Champions League.
About the USMNT’s win over El Salvador
I’m always interested in reading the various player evaluations after a big match. Here’s a sampling on the US Men v El Salvador…
Ridge Mahoney of SoccerAmerica writes …
Jack Ball of NY Times writes …
Zac Lee Rigg of Goal.com writes …
Shourin Roy of SoccerBlog.com writes …
Noah Davis of Goal.com writes …
Steve Davis of ESPNSoccernet writes …
5 Responses to Take Me Out to the Ballgame – Week 25
christ the Dynamo/Crew game is huge.
your 2009 attendance averages for % of capacity are still incorrect for seattle and san jose.
doesn’t it bother you in the slightest, as a journalist, to continue to post incorrect information? i love this site and the posts are usually great and informative reads, but it just kills me every time that you’re too lazy to put up the correct information because it requires an extra 1 minute of math.
i understand why you make up your own capacities for teams like new england and dcu, but to just do that for whichever team you please because it requires less work is shameful for a site that likes to fashion itself as a source for news/opinions. call it whatever you want, but wrong information is wrong information.
What numbers would you use for the Seattle and San Jose capacities?
Seattle keeps changing theirs while San Jose is pretty cut and dried.
From the Sounders Official Website …
“The XBOX Pitch at Qwest Field is the official home of Major League Soccer’s Seattle Sounders FC has a seating capacity of 27,700 for soccer…”
“Due to overwhelming demand, we have opened additional seating in the South endzone beginning with the June 28th match. Seating capacity at Qwest Field will be approximately 32,000 – the same seating capacity featured for the Inaugural Match on March 19th.”
(don’t remember where I got the 32,400 Seattle capacity)
Since Seattle announced the new capacity at 32,000, their listed numbers via MLSNet have been 32,526, 32,404, 32,405, 32,705 and 32,679. So what is their capacity?
The San Jose capacity number has the matches played away from Buck Shaw calculated in. 15,682 and 17,128 for the 2 Galaxy games played at 47,416 capacity Oakland Alameda. Also the 61,572 capacity crowd counted on the books for their part in the Chivas de Guadalajara/Barcelona doubleheader at Candlestick Park.
As for the numbers used for the teams still playing in football stadiums(excluding Seattle), why would I use 70,000+ for the Red Bulls, Revs, etc? Using the average caps for US soccer specific stadiums seemed the most fair way to present the information. As I’ve noted in the case of the Red Bulls, I’m using their posted capacity at the new Red Bull Arena, scheduled to open next season. I would bet the folks planning stadiums in San Jose, Houston and elsewhere are looking at capacities in a similar fashion.
However, if my calculations are incorrect, please specify, and I’ll be happy to make any corrections.
And while I’m not a journalist by profession(just a very interested fan), I do take pride in presenting information as accurately as possible.
oh, and Sunil Gulati couldn’t manage his way out of a paperbag. outside of the second george bush, has there ever been a worse president of ANYTHING? good lord it’s like sunil is trying to keep soccer a second-class sport in this country, and honestly, i’m not sure how the guy can have like 5-7 jobs, because apparently he can’t even do one right. he needs to go yesterday!
I skipped the Rapids game in order to go to Utah for the men’s national team game, but I noticed none of their promotional emails for the game mentioned the MNT game. I believe the Rapids kick-off was 2 hours after the World Cup Qualifier, why not show the game on the big screen or at least in the stadium bar and promote it as a double header night? Even if I had stayed in town, I wouldn’t have gone to the Rapids because I don’t if the game was on anywhere at the stadium.