Take Me Out to the Ballgame – Week 23

After week 23 the numbers look like this…

	5 year comparison
	WK 23			164 GP		YTD
	Avg	+/-	GP	Avg	+/-	Avg	+/-	GP
2005	15,133		7	14,807		14,857		151
2006	11,814	-21.93%	10	15,065	1.74%	15,139	1.89%	153
2007	17,413	47.39%	7	16,126	7.04%	16,019	5.82%	151
2008	19,222	10.39%	6	16,393	1.65%	16,966	5.91%	154
2009	16,665	-13.31%	9	15,826	-3.46%	15,813	-6.80%	164

YTD – 164 Games
	Average	Median	%<10K	%>20k
2005	14,807	12,305	29.70%	15.76%
2006	15,065	12,979	21.34%	16.46%
2007	16,126	14,680	9.15%	24.39%
2008	16,393	15,188	11.59%	24.39%
2009	15,826	14,573	15.24%	19.51%

Here are the attendance comparisons to 2008′s equal number of home games(164):

MLS Attendance – Equal # of Home Games
	2008		2009
	Att	Cap	Att	Att +/-	GP	Cap	Cap
Seattle	0	0.00%	30,412	NA	12	95.04%	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	15,557	57.62%	16,107	3.53%	10	59.65%	27,000
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
NE Revolution	16,615	73.85%	14,188	-14.61%	10	63.06%	22,500
Chicago	17,288	86.44%	13,912	-19.53%	11	69.56%	20,000
Columbus Crew	13,569	67.84%	13,660	0.67%	11	68.30%	20,000
Colorado Rapids	13,628	75.35%	12,771	-6.29%	11	70.61%	18,086
N.Y./N.J. Red Bulls	16,376	65.01%	12,229	-25.32%	11	48.55%	25,189
KC Wizards	11,118	107.06%	10,019	-9.89%	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

Note I grabbed Sunday’s Fire/Rapids attendance from the good folks at MLS Daily as MLSnet has yet to post. Good job getting Chicago’s gate TJ.

Observations

Week 23 games drew 16,665, despite poor crowds at San Jose, New England and the Meadowlands(rain). Chicago had its first sellout for the Galaxy’s visit. The normal Seattle sellout helps for comparitive purposes as this week last year the Revs drew over 39,000 in New England for Becks. Rain most likely kept the crowd down in DC, where they still pulled in over 22,000 for Goldenball’s appearance, a drop of over 13,800 from last year’s nearly 36,000. San Jose’s poor play is showing at the gate, especially against a weak Kansas City opponent, as they only drew 9,031. Chivas USA’s season keeps percolating along with a decent(not great) crowd of over 15,000. Didn’t expect a big crowd for the Red Bulls and Dallas, rain at kickoff didn’t help: 9,648. Alert! Red Bulls Win! New England drew a tepid 10,552 for its RSL match. Houston pulled in over 17,000 as the Sounders came to town.

Last week I posted the Beckham statistically irrelevant ‘home game’ effect(only 1 home game with Becks). With the Gals on the road for 2 games this week, thought I’d update the ‘away game’ effect table.

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%
CHI	20,156	20,000	-156	-0.77%
DCU	35,979	22,134	-13,845	-38.48%
Total	168,258	103,901	-64,357	-38.25%

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Week 23 Games
Chicago	0	Chicago Fire Confidential
Los Angeles	2	LA – Official Blog
Seattle	0	Seattle Times
New England	1	Revolution Soccer
DC United	0	DCU – Steve Goff – Soccer Insider
Los Angeles	0	LA – Official Blog
San Jose	1	San Jose Center Line Soccer
Kansas City	0	Kansas City – Hillcrest Road
Chivas USA	2	Chivas USA – MLSNet
Toronto	0	TFC Connected
RBNY	2	Red Bulls Reader
FC Dallas	1	3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick
Chicago	3	Chicago Fire Confidential
Colorado	2	Undercurrent
New England	3	Revolution Soccer
Real Salt Lake	1	RSL – Behind the Shield
Houston	1	Soccer y Fútbol – Barnard Fallas
Seattle	1	Seattle Times

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So How Are They Doing?

Points after 164 Games
	Pts	GP	PPG	GD
Houston	40	24	1.67	10
Columbus	39	22	1.77	10
Chicago	38	23	1.65	6
Los Angeles	35	23	1.52	4
Seattle	33	23	1.43	6
Chivas USA	33	20	1.65	4
Colorado	30	21	1.43	7
New England	30	20	1.50	-1
Toronto FC	30	22	1.36	-3
DC United	29	22	1.32	0
Real Salt Lake	27	22	1.23	3
Dallas	23	22	1.05	-4
Kansas City	21	20	1.05	-8
San Jose	20	21	0.95	-12
NY Red Bull	13	23	0.57	-22

Notice that the last 3 teams in playoff positions have games in hand over the teams chasing them. Seattle might be the most vulnerable to being overtaken.

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Streaking

• LA is unbeaten in 6 road games.
  
• Columbus is unbeaten in 8.
  
• FC Dallas has won 4 straight at home.
  
• DCU has not won on the road since April 26(9 matches).
  
• Columbus(11matches) and DCU(10 matches) have not lost at home.
  
• KC has no wins in its last 6(4 losses).
  
• RBNY has won 1 in a row.
  
• RBNY is winless on the road.
  

  
  Just Some Stuff

  The CONCACAF Champions League group phase began last week. DC United, Houston and Columbus are representing MLS in the regional club championship. RBNY and Toronto FC were eliminated in the preliminaries.

  Houston defeated Isidro Metápan and Columbus beat Puerto Rico in their opening matches, played at home, while DC United lost on the road to Marathón.

  CONCACAF Champions League
  Aug 26	Sep 15-16
  Group Game 2	Group Game 3
  Houston plays Aug 26, Sep 15
  DCU and Columbus play Aug 26, Sep 16

  
  I believe Houston’s participation in recent SuperLiga and CONCACAF Champions Cup/League tourneys was a contributing factor in signing their first Designated Player, Luis Landín, a 24 yr old striker, on a 16 month loan from Mexican club Cruz Azul.

  =====

  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.

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