After week 22 the numbers look like this…
| 5 year comparison | ||||||||
| WK 22 | 155 GP | YTD | ||||||
| Avg | +/- | GP | Avg | +/- | Avg | +/- | GP | |
| 2005 | 15,573 | 4 | 14,897 | 14,844 | 144 | |||
| 2006 | 13,932 | -10.54% | 6 | 15,263 | 2.46% | 15,361 | 3.48% | 143 |
| 2007 | 16,209 | 16.34% | 6 | 16,022 | 4.97% | 16,005 | 4.19% | 144 |
| 2008 | 15,294 | -5.64% | 9 | 16,423 | 2.50% | 16,875 | 5.44% | 148 |
| 2009 | 16,236 | 6.16% | 6 | 15,764 | -4.02% | 15,764 | -6.58% | 155 |
Here are the attendance comparisons to 2008′s equal number of home games(155):
| 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 | 20,147 | 91.67% | 20,308 | 0.80% | 12 | 92.40% | 21,978 |
| LA Galaxy | 25,513 | 94.49% | 19,379 | -24.04% | 10 | 71.78% | 27,000 |
| Real Salt Lake | 14,855 | 72.34% | 16,213 | 9.14% | 11 | 74.80% | 19,340 |
| ChivasUSA | 14,286 | 52.91% | 16,211 | 13.48% | 9 | 60.04% | 27,000 |
| 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 | 13,569 | 67.84% | 13,660 | 0.67% | 11 | 68.30% | 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 | 16,759 | 66.53% | 12,487 | -25.49% | 10 | 49.57% | 25,189 |
| KC Wizards | 9,619 | 92.62% | 10,019 | 4.16% | 10 | 96.47% | 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 22 games drew a very respectable 16,236, over 6% higher than the corresponding period last year. Columbus’ top crowd of the year were treated to the Crew remaining undefeated at home. RBNY, not unexpectedly, drew under 10,600 as they lost again to visiting Chivas USA. The surprise to me was the 20,162 at the Home Depot Center. With Becks, Donovan and Ljungberg on the pregame menu, I would have expected a near sellout.
This weekend marked the first MLS home game for the Galaxy with Beckham in the squad. Becks proceeded to get red carded in the 17th minute. 5 minutes later Seattle ended their scoring drought of over 330 minutes. Good thing this wasn’t the national TV game with Ljungberg and Donovan on the bench(until the 2nd half) and Becks carded so early.
Last week I posted the Beckham ‘away game’ effect. With one game played at home in 2009, here is the statistically irrelevant ‘home game’ effect table.
| Beckham Home Game Effect | |||||||
| With | Without(9) | With(1) | |||||
| 2008 | 2009 | +/- | +/- | ||||
| Att | 228,132 | 173,632 | -54,500 | -23.89% | 20,162 | N/A | -20.46% |
| Avg | 25,348 | 19,292 | -6,056 | 20,162 | -5,186 | ||
| YTD – 155 Games | ||||
| Average | Median | %<10K | %>20k | |
| 2005 | 14,897 | 12,311 | 30.13% | 16.03% |
| 2006 | 15,263 | 13,056 | 21.29% | 16.77% |
| 2007 | 16,022 | 14,640 | 9.68% | 23.23% |
| 2008 | 16,423 | 15,118 | 11.61% | 25.16% |
| 2009 | 15,764 | 14,516 | 14.84% | 19.35% |
| Week 22 Games | ||
| Toronto | 2 | TFC Connected |
| DC United | 0 | DCU – Steve Goff – Soccer Insider |
| RBNY | 0 | Red Bulls Reader |
| Chivas USA | 2 | Chivas USA – MLSNet |
| Columbus | 2 | Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra |
| FC Dallas | 0 | 3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick |
| Real Salt Lake | 0 | RSL – Behind the Shield |
| Houston | 0 | Soccer y Fútbol – Barnard Fallas |
| Los Angeles | 0 | LA – Official Blog |
| Seattle | 2 | Seattle Times |
| Kansas City | 0 | Kansas City – Hillcrest Road |
| Chicago | 2 | Chicago – En Fuego Official Blog |
Week 22 Weird Factoid
Every game ended with a clean sheet. One game, RSL/Houston, was a double clean sheet match.
Streaking
- Columbus is unbeaten in 8.
- FC Dallas has won 4 straight at home.
- DCU has not won on the road(9 matches).
- KC has no wins in its last 5.
- RBNY hasn’t won in 13.
- San Jose and RBNY are winless on the road.
Just Some StuffThe CONCACAF Champions League group phase begins this week. DC United, Houston and Columbus will be representing MLS in the regional club championship. RBNY and Toronto FC were eliminated in the preliminaries.
CONCACAF Champions League Aug 18-19 Aug 26 Group Game 1 Group Game 2 DCU and Columbus play Aug 18, 26 Houston plays Aug 19, 26 =====
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.
Just because I liked it… an article about a fan experience at an MLS match.
Very respectable numbers for MLS given that the EPL kicked off this week and NFL football(pre-season) started up again. Both are strong on American TV screens. Also, a lot of fans maybe a bit worn out after a big match this week with the US v. Mexico taking up headlines. The conclusion I think is that the more soccer available to American’s the better for MLS.
It would be interesting to determine in this summer of soccer if MLB has been hurt by all the attention to the pitch by Americans the last few weeks. MLB is a after thought for me know.
Wow, I thought Seattle/Galaxy would be a must see. Very surprising.
The game has every reason to be a sellout. Beckham, Donovan and Ljungberg. LA surging in the west. I figured the Galaxy fans would wanna show Seattle that they have an atmosphere of their own.
Heck, I really wanted to see the match and I don’t like either team.
EPLNFL, it’s not that hard. If you could get this year’s attendances and average tv ratings for MLB for me, I can do a comparison with probably the past two decades, and then we could get Peter to do what he always does. The Football numbers.
Thank you Lars
No problem. I have the number for attendances at least up to 2005. I need to check to see if the 06, 07, 08 attendances are up yet for MLB.
Alternatively we could look at NHL or NFL, and perhaps EPL. Haven’t used the database in a while…
Got it from 2008 back, along with revenues, expenses, player salaries, value of teams, ticket prices and tv revenue to name half of them.
Hey what a surprise, Dallas still sucks and Miami still doesn’t have a team! Great job MLS!