I'm sure the relationship isn't linear, but it's hard to argue that there is not a positive relationship between quality of play and interest in a league. Why doesn't the PDL or USL draw as well as MLS then? It's hard to argue that quality of play isn't one of the reasons.
Well, based on the crowd noise, it was quite possible that not a single person there was over 12 years old.
I wonder if poor weather for a couple matches in a row actually helps the attendance of matches when the weather finally clears up. Clearly a lot of people go to only a few matches a year, and they might have been at one of those earlier matches, rather than this one, had the weather had been OK. I mean - if you only go to 4-5 matches a year you are likely to skip then ones in bad weather. Common sense I guess, but over the course of a season I tend to think weather is not such a big deal.
I agree, and I have no doubt that the Freedom is hurting United attendance for all the reasons you suggested. And while its true that the overlap is not massive between the audiences its very real. Frankly, I was surprised with the interest and support for the WUSA, and now WPS among United's season ticket holders on the "quiet side". While I truly have close to zero interest in the women's game (except when my daughter plays travel), a number of ticket holders around me were very much aware of the Freedom, where they were playing and their games. I would estimate that United has lost an average of around a 1,000k per game due to the Freedom. Although this group hardly makes up that core group of supporters, there loss is a significant drop in Revenue.
I'm sure that's because of the guy who walked around with the sign that said, "Save the WUSA." I think he's a got a "Support the WPS" sign now.
16,649 for the Galaxy. Chivas had 16,223. Would the Galaxy dare announce a lower attendance than Chivas for a back-to-back at the HDC?
Saturday night for a good team versus early Sunday afternoon for a bad team, and I'm not sure they'd care, except for the glee that Galaxy-haters would profuse after such a fact, a vast majority of LA's soccer media included. But I do give credit to Goats Lite for finally figuring out how to sell more tickets. Its only taken three GM's, including their second AEG refugee, to figure that out....
So the defending MLS champs are a "bad team" but DC is a "good team" because they have three wins in ten games? I know Columbus has started very slow, but to assert that they're a bad team is a little ridiculous, considering just six months ago they were in the HDC hoisting the MLS Cup.
