Take Me Out to the Ballgame – Week 25

By Peter C on September 7, 2009 (2 years ago)

soccer balls 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

5 Responses

  1. todd
    todd
    September 7, 2009 at 2:40 pm | | Reply


    christ the Dynamo/Crew game is huge.

  2. ryan
    ryan
    September 7, 2009 at 5:26 pm | | Reply


    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.

    1. Peter C
      Peter C
      September 7, 2009 at 6:46 pm | | Reply


      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.

  3. ryan
    ryan
    September 7, 2009 at 5:33 pm | | Reply


    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!

  4. Tom
    Tom
    September 7, 2009 at 11:39 pm | | Reply


    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.

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