Oh New England. You had to go and snap the streak. I guess it was bound to happen at some point but for some reason I did not expect it this past weekend. Code: RB New York 25186 Vancouver 20113 New England 9111 Seattle 36304 [B]Total 90714[/B] [B][COLOR="Red"]Average 22679[/COLOR][/B] Of course this upcoming week has a full slate as we enter the home stretch. Including a Seattle match that announced 55k sold as of this past Saturday. They along with Colorado, Portland, Philadelphia, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Kansas City will wrap up their home season. Columbus of course did so two weekends ago.
Of course the numbers have remained just absolutely stellar, in the traditional ranking this season would have put up a 1.25 through the end of the week. However in the new style it is a '1'. Yup that's right first in everything except 20k+ percent, but very close to the 2007 numbers. Current Season: Code: Current Average Median <10k >20k AvgPts MedPts <10kPts >20kPts AAAQ AAAQRnk Date 1996 17352 15096 22.8% 26.2% 7 40 56 4 108 5 9/14 1997 14382 12524 25.5% 14.8% 78 83 65 77 303 13 9/19 1998 14156 11500 27.9% 15.1% 83 100 73 75 332 15 9/17 1999 14409 13067 32.4% 15.1% 77 74 89 75 315 14 9/26 2000 13455 12399 35.8% 11.2% 100 85 100 100 385 16 9/2 2001 14650 13141 26.5% 16.3% 71 73 69 68 280 11 8/29 2002 15412 13719 18.5% 16.2% 53 63 42 68 226 8 9/12 2003 14677 13439 24.3% 17.9% 71 68 61 57 257 10 10/11 2004 15445 13122 26.4% 25.0% 53 73 68 12 206 7 10/2 2005 15000 12449 28.5% 17.3% 63 84 76 61 284 12 10/5 2006 15138 13399 20.7% 16.8% 60 68 49 64 242 9 9/30 2007 16505 15008 8.8% 26.9% 27 41 9 0 78 2 10/11 2008 16391 15035 11.3% 25.1% 30 41 18 11 100 3 10/12 2009 15841 14516 15.8% 20.1% 43 50 33 43 169 6 10/10 2010 16494 15027 7.6% 22.0% 28 41 5 31 105 4 10/12 2011 17647 17493 6.0% 26.7% 0 0 0 1 1 1 10/8 Historical End of Season: Code: EOS Average Median <10k >20k AvgPts MedPts <10kPts >20kPts AAAQ AAAQRnk Date 1996 17410 15093 21.9% 26.3% 0 7 54 20 81 4 9/22 1997 14606 12733 25.0% 16.3% 77 75 65 78 295 12 9/28 1998 14312 11871 26.6% 16.1% 85 100 71 79 335 14 9/27 1999 14282 12973 32.3% 15.1% 86 68 92 85 331 13 10/10 2000 13756 12690 34.4% 12.5% 100 76 100 100 376 15 9/9 2001 14961 13431 26.6% 17.7% 67 55 71 70 263 10 9/9 2002 15821 14108 17.1% 18.6% 43 36 36 65 179 6 9/22 2003 14900 13719 23.3% 18.0% 69 47 59 68 242 9 10/26 2004 15549 13223 24.7% 25.3% 51 61 64 26 202 8 10/17 2005 15112 12619 27.1% 17.7% 63 79 73 70 284 11 10/16 2006 15426 14113 19.3% 18.2% 54 36 44 67 201 7 10/15 2007 16767 15353 8.2% 29.7% 18 0 3 0 20 1 10/21 2008 16460 15188 11.0% 24.8% 26 5 13 28 72 3 10/26 2009 16037 14686 14.7% 20.9% 38 19 27 51 135 5 10/25 2010 16675 15332 7.5% 22.5% 20 1 0 42 63 2 10/16
Finally the miscellany, Philadelphia in road match 31 topped 500k away attendance. Tied for 5th fastest overall, and best of the recent expansion teams. Not much changed in the comparitive numbers since we had so few games. Comparison to Last Season and All-Time: Code: ----Team---- Current Last Diff Alltime Diff Chicago 14143 15814 -10.6% 15636 -9.5% Chivas USA 14373 14575 -1.4% 16053 -10.5% Colorado 14749 13329 10.7% 13907 6.1% Columbus 12185 14642 -16.8% 15465 -21.2% DC United 15127 14279 5.9% 17343 -12.8% FC Dallas 13026 10815 20.4% 12154 7.2% Houston 16924 17310 -2.2% 17245 -1.9% Kansas City 17678 10287 71.8% 10909 62.0% Los Angeles 23106 21437 7.8% 21973 5.2% New England 13030 12608 3.3% 15787 -17.5% Philadelphia 18201 19252 -5.5% 19252 -5.5% Portland 18733 New 0.0% New 0.0% Real Salt Lake 17420 17095 1.9% 16686 4.4% Red Bull NY 19356 18441 5.0% 16971 14.1% San Jose 11928 9659 23.5% 12902 -7.5% Seattle 36893 36173 2.0% 33535 10.0% Toronto FC 20183 20455 -1.3% 20263 -0.4% Vancouver 20582 New 0.0% New 0.0% Overall 17647 16675 5.8% 15502 13.8% Current Point to Seasons End and Prediction: Code: Year Current End Diff % Diff 1996 17352 17410 58 0.3% 1997 14382 14606 224 1.6% 1998 14156 14312 156 1.1% 1999 14409 14282 -127 -0.9% 2000 13455 13756 301 2.2% 2001 14650 14961 311 2.1% 2002 15412 15821 409 2.7% 2003 14677 14900 223 1.5% 2004 15445 15549 104 0.7% 2005 15000 15112 112 0.7% 2006 15138 15426 288 1.9% 2007 16505 16767 262 1.6% 2008 16391 16460 69 0.4% 2009 15841 16037 196 1.2% 2010 16494 16675 181 1.1% 2011 17647 17784 137 0.8% The final 21 matches only need an average of 14214 to top the 1996 average.
Here's another average to keep an eye on: 22,774. If the remaining 21 matches have that number as an average, MLS would average 18K in the 2011 season. Sounds HIGHLY unlikely, but hey, Seattle already has over 55K sold for this weekend right? If there's some last-game-of-the-season bump in attendance for the rest of the month, who knows.
Keller's last regular season game, and it was sold with a three-game package (ManU and RBNY being the others), where the seating was opened up.
Third match of the 3 game pack sold with the Man United friendly plus Keller's last regular season match.
LA is sold out, with standing room and grass berm tickets available. Of course, HDC sells out at 27,000 no matter what due to CSUDH rules. So 27,000 for LA this week.
So, we have this scheduled for MLS action: Wed Chicago host FC Dallas. Chicago is still breathing for the Playoffs, hopefully it helps att. Vancouver hosts DC. BC place and VAN should post a big number: 20k or more. Fri Colorado hosts RSL in home finale. Rocky Mountain Cup. Should be decent number here. Portland hosts Houston. Guaranteed good number here. Sat SKC hosts NYRB. Home finale. Still a chance to finish #1 in the East. Expect a good #. Philadelphia hosts TFC. East leaders' home finale. Good number here. DC hosts Chicago. Playoffs last gleaming for DC. Should be decent. NE hosts Columbus. If there is a chance for a downer, this is it. FCD hosts Vancouver. No rest for the Hoops. Fun team to watch. Modest # here. Seattle hosts SJ. Keller finales. 57k plus sold already. Sun LA hosts Chivas. Sold out. While there maybe be a low number in NE, and possibly FCD, everything else looks pretty good. And of course Seattle and LA may get near 100k between them. Philly, KC, Portland, and Vancouver should all be 18k+. A good week for sure.
You are quite the optimist. LA = 27,000, while Seattle is at 57,000 with a few thousand more likely. That still hits the mid to upper 80s. Which is certainly nothing to complain about!
Yeah, Sounders *might* get to 60-61k with walkups and the last minute advertising push (I've seen some advertising on TV; showed up on ESPN Monday Night football), but highly unlikely they'll sell out, even with the team being in good form and the last regular season match for Keller. And even if they did sell out, C-link holds 67k, which when you combine with LA's 27k gets you to 94k (certainly closer to 100k than not relatively speaking). As Sounder78 said though, nobody would be complaining with 80k+ attendance for two regular season games!
Are updated total attendance figures posted anywhere? I'm sure I can figure out the numbers myself, but if someone else is already doing the work...
Looking at whats left on the schedule the league will smash the old record. With Montreal coming in next year I think 18k is quite realistic.
When is Houston's stadium slated to open? Obviously that should help quite a bit as well as they've seemed to be stagnating a little bit in the last couple years. Dallas also has made significant improvements to their average this year, hopefully a sign that they've found some good people for their FO. If they can take another step next year, all the better. Seattle and Portland should have increased capacities too. I think we could easily reach 18k.
Saw on twitter a few days ago only 100 tickets were left for the Union game on Saturday... so expect 18500+.... maybe even 19K in philly after standing room.
NYRB also seems to be pushing to sell out their last game against Philly. They are giving away a jersey to anyone who buys a ticket in selected sections to the game. Also, Chris Heck, who was hired by NYRB in June, sent out an email to season ticket holders stating their approach. While there is only one game left this season, it may be a sign of things to come next season. Here's part of his email:
I know a few weeks ago we said the +20k number from 1996 was out of reach at that time but we have had a bunch of +20k games since then. Is it still out of reach?