Today was Flash vs. ASA Chesapeake Charge 4:00 Sunday afternoon game. Probably the biggest crowd this season; I am going to guess more than 2,000. Flash dominated the game - and won 4-0. Ashley Spivey from the Charge seemed to be their best player. She will be a freshman at Maryland this fall. I guess she has had some looks with the youth national team, but I do not know if she is still in the player pool. Their first half keeper Lyndsey Hokanson did very well to save a number of shots. She will be a sophomore at George Mason. Toni Pressley for the Flash center defense is tall and can boom the ball with her left foot - but does not have a very good 'short' game. Her passes are not weighted well at all - mostly too soft with some too hard. Kathryn Renolds played left back and Tori Huster played right back, with Nikki Marshall in the middle. Tickets are on sale for the playoffs. For $20 you can get a very good seat for 3 games - both semi-finals and the final. I am worried for the Flash's playoff run. Sunday the 22nd they play Boston at home (fortunately) , then the semis are Wednesday and the Finals on Saturday.
You're right on. They announced just over 2,000 at the end of the game. (2,017 if memory serves, which it probably doesn't.)
It is good to see WPSL getting good crowds without superstars like Hope Solo and Abby Wambach. I wonder if overall the WPSL gets better crowds then USL-W on the west coast? In the USL-W, other then Seattle Sounders women (due to Solo and Morgan), who else gets attendance into the thousands? I understand the Red Stars have been getting good crowds as well.
I checked DCU-W and they have attendance from 400-700 at their home games and about 400-500 for road games. I watched Pali Blues online yesterday and it was impossible to judge attendance as the side they showed was almost empty (but it didn't seem to be that big). They don't report attendance on their site (and they use 2-3 home fields, so that can cause problems gaining a following) but they are the other top team in the west.
The home numbers are accurate, but some of the road numbers are a joke - the Majestics' Hellwig Field doesn't even have seating for more than about a 100 fans.
I only have numbers for 18 of the 45 games to this point, but of the ones that I have (officially, not guesstimates): Boston - 2,173 average (6 games) WNY - 1,358 (3 games) New York - 1,300 (1 game) New England - 784 (4 games) Philadelphia - 782 (1 game) Indiana - 430 (2 games) Chesapeake - 400 (1 game) Chicago - I have no official attendance figures for Chicago LEAGUE AVG - 1,310 (Any additions are welcome). W-League leaders: Seattle - 4,333 avg Vancouver -994 DC United - 549 Charlotte - 514 Quebec City - 500 N. Virginia - 453 Santa Clarita - 407 Virginia Beach - 401 LEAGUE AVG - 472
Thanks for researching the attendance. Kudos to the Breakers. I think name recognition of the players is a big factor. Boston has six players back from last year, including Osborne and Whitehilll full time and O'Reilly when she's around. Also Boston has always been well supported.
My impression is that attendance has been pretty scant for Charge matches, sad to say - a few hundred, at the most.
They probably would be doing much better in terms of attendance numbers if Dilboy was bigger, too. I mean, even thought the numbers vary a teensy bit, it's almost always called a sellout and I'm inclined to believe it.
True, they used to draw about 4400 consistently to Harvard, which is only 4 miles away. Dilboy has a parking issue and isn't that convenient to public transit so that will keep some of the crowd away. They haven't had to get too creative to draw more fans because they've been so close to capacity. Interested to see what they would do next year if the new configuration comes into being.
I'm looking ahead to the last Flash home game Sunday 7/22 at 4pm. It is the Project Pink game. Last year there were 5,700+/- attending in the rain. Lots and lots of girls / young women wearing pink. I predict - if it does not rain - this game will be the biggest attendance of the year - over 4,000. The team will be raffling off gift baskets from the players, each one made up individually by the player. [last year they contained things like greeting cards, photos, cleats, tee shirts, lanyards, snacks, etc.]. Also the pink jerseys will be raffled off as well. Sadly, I do not think the semi finals Wednesday will draw as many as the pink game. And the final conflicts with the USWNT vs. Columbia Olympic game. If WNY gets to the final, it will be the third game in six days at home..... So you out-of-town WPSL Elite supporters - pack up the babies and grab the old ladies and everyone come and cheer the players on. I will try and find out if the playoff games will be streamed on www.livesportsvideo.com.
Stoppage time magic works against the Mutiny this time as the Charge tie it at three each. The two dropped points drop the Mutiny out of the playoff hunt, so the playoff teams are set; officially, the only thing left to play for now is finishing order.
1-4, 2-3, with all three playoff games hosted by WNY. 2-3 is Wednesday 7/25 at 5pm 1-4 is Wednesday 7/25 at 8pm Final is Saturday 7/28 at 1pm (!)
Tonight's game: From WNYFlash.com: Final score: WNY Flash 5, FC Indiana 0 Goals by Adriana (4', 38') Van Egmond (10'), Robinson (57'), Frierson (67') The Flash are tied for first going into their next game, Saturday vs Chicago Red Stars (also tied for 1st) at 7pm. That game will be streamed live on www.chicagoredstars.com (Click "Live Webcast" on menu bar).
I discovered what I think is a better way to get to Dilboy Stadium via Route 2. Instead of taking Alewife Brook Parkway directly, take the Lake St. exit towards Arlington. At the end of Lake St., take a left onto Mass Ave, then at the 6th street on the right, take a right onto Bates. Head straight across Broadway, and take a right onto Mystic Valley Parkway. Take a right at the roundabout onto Alewife Brook Parkway, and Dilboy is immediately on your right. It's longer distance-wise, but it seems safer and less aggravating, and it could be shorter time-wise depending on traffic. Official attendance at the BOS-CHE game was 2,026, but actual attendance was greater than the 2,092 BOS-CHI game last week. The stadium was quite crowded. I surmise that part of the reason was because tickets were half-priced. I've noticed that at the Friday night games people tend to arrive late, after the game starts. Chesapeake played well and got a round of applause from the crowd after the game. There was a halftime ceremony for Heather O'Reilly as she goes off to the Olympics. Weather-wise, it was the best game for spectating so far. The sky was hazy and overcast, and the lack of glare from the sun made it easy to watch the game. My road trip to the NE-BOS game in East Longmeadow, MA was slightly difficult traffic-wise. On Route 128 there was an overturned car (fell off the Route 2 overpass), and the Mass Pike was slow between 495 and 84. I discovered that there's a Golden Corral along the way to East Longmeadow! It's just a few minutes after you get off the turnpike. This is pretty exciting news because it's the only Golden Corral in Massachusetts. Apparently, their buffet now contains a cotton candy station. There's also a Wings Over Springfield along the way a bit further on. The East Longmeadow High School stadium is an artificial turf football field surrounded by a track. The stands are metal bleachers. The restrooms are portable toilets. The concessions stand sold things like pizza, popcorn, and hot dogs. It didn't seem as if people tailgated before the game. The game was pretty exciting, though the result was disappointing. I had a feeling that it would be a contentious game, based on the intensity of the previous BOS-NE game. I hope that New England is part of the new league next year. It would make a good rivalry with Boston, and the road trips are convenient. After the game, fans went onto the field itself for the autograph session. There was one poor ballgirl working the goal line area who repeatedly had to run up the sideline to midfield, out the stadium fence, all the way back down to the end of the field to retrieve balls that had gone over the fence (errant shots over the goal), and then all the way up and back down to return to her post. This happened at least 5 or 6 times during the 45 minutes of the half. She did it wearing flip-flops! Tomorrow's BOS-PHI game, the last home game of the season, is a Project Pink game with a pink jersey auction. There will also be an online auction of additional jerseys from Leslie Osborne, Heather O’Reilly, Cat Whitehill, Kyah Simon, and Tameka Butt on July 16-17. The Game Notes are available.
The Breakers are starting Velasco in goal, so anything can happen The Aussies are on the bench (not surprising, after the AWNT game in Japan). Might be a good chance for Schoepfer to get back on track ... she hasn't scored in a while. From the sounds of the Breakers tweets, this game is pretty close to a sell out. They'll have 40 walk-in tickets available at the gate and then SRO tickets.
So.... does anyone know how they're handling the Fever-Fury match? First it was postponed for today, then PHI said it was indefinitely postponed while it just said "cancelled" on the WPSLE schedule page. So is it going to be played or not? I'm starting to think that the Fury could overtake the Stars, but they'd need the 3pts they could potentially get from Philly.
The WPSL Elite schedule is listing it as a 3-0 win for the Fury. Scuttlebutt is that Philly forfeited, which seems likely considering there are no tweets from them about the match.
So does that mean that they may not even play the rest of the season? This all along looked like a league, at least this year, for the BIG FOUR (Breakers, Red Stars, Fury, Flash) with the other teams thrown in as fluff and Indiana in it so that the Haitian National Team can get some practice. So it's no surprise that there may be some forfeits.
I think that if this had happened earlier in the season, they probably would have rescheduled the match. As it is now, there's just no time left in the season. This makes things really interesting for this last week of the season, especially for Chicago. The Stars were, both in form and in the standings, one of the top two teams in the league, if not the top team in the league, until WNY showed them up for the second time. Now, if they don't get full points against the Mutiny or don't at least get a draw at the Fury, both distinct possibilities, they could finish all the way down in fourth. ...I worry b/c I want to see my Athletica girls win something... I don't see how that follows... I would hardly call the Mutiny "fluff", and even the Fever aren't pushovers as they're pretty good at keeping the score down. Indiana would have been getting its "practice" done in the regular WPSL if there wasn't a WPSLE, so I don't see how that's a relevant criticism either... This, I can see, mostly. And I would worry about it more, but now that there sounds like there's going to be a new unified top-level league in '13, I'm not so worried about WPSLE missing the mark on professionalism, as it probably won't be around next year. (Although I think seeing it remain as a kind of "testing ground" for WPSL teams thinking of eventually going up to the top-level league would be a cool idea.)
The situation is more complicated than that: - The game was originally scheduled for Sunday the 17th. - It was called after 15 minutes due to ongoing thunderstorms in the area. - It was rescheduled for Monday evening. - This isn't official, but word has it that Philly didn't have enough players available for Monday and so had to forfeit. They've only got one more game, anyway, this coming Sunday at 4 here in Maryland against the Chesapeake Charge. I know for sure that the Charge are expecting to play that game.
Was there any reason why attendance at the WNY-CHE game was high, relative to other games? More on the NE-BOS game: At the game, the Mutiny sold a $2, glossy, program book with lots of ads from sponsors. There was also a silicone wristband giveaway from a sponsor. Team merchandise being sold included nice logo t-shirts for $12. The design was attractive and $12 was an extremely reasonable price, which is why I bought one. The BOS-PHI final home game was another well-attended game, and the stands were full. As the season went on, it seemed that you had to arrive earlier and earlier before games to get a good (shaded) parking spot. PHI's goal keeper is pretty good. The Breakers hadn't started 2013 season ticket sales at the game, but today they put out a Youtube video saying that it will be happening soon. The Project Pink jersey auctions raised (if my math is correct) $5,025 for the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer charity. It looks as if Sunday's WNY-BOS game will be a pivotal match, rankings-wise. Reported attendance figures: - Jul 7, 1,031 NE-BOS. "in front of 1,031 fans" - Jul 11, "about 200" CHE-NE. "Thanks to everyone who came out and supported us tonight! We had a great group of about 200 cheering for us." - Jul 14, 2,541 BOS-PHI. "2,541, making it 7 sellouts in 7 home games this season. Total home attendance this season: 15,577"