Is disaster as you predict... total fail F*** MLS I can't wait to see La Liga and Serie A about to begin play soccer on Aug. 31th.
Was it hispanic hija night in Colorado? The only damn sounds I heard the entire games were ear-deafening screeches. I didn't know if I was listening to a soccer game or a Britney "concert".
I don't post about the attendence too often. We were reported as having 15,137 in LA last night. I don't claim to be an expert, but I've been going to the rose bowl for years for all kinds of sporting events. The attendece reports at Galaxy games don't always add up for me. I'll just say this. We had a solid crowd last night with a report of 15,137. I had the opportunity to really look at the crowd last night because after the game there was a Pilar Montenegro(i think that was her name) concert. Prior to the start of the concert and before most people in the other sections had left...... the entire lower bowel section was almost filled to the top. The attendence on the 4th was reported at over 55,000 (@ 3.7 times more people) with fans to the top of the lower bowl section. In other words we could not have fit 3.7 times more people last night. Where would they have been placed. Other people who were there last night might disagree, but its my opinion that something's fishy to me with the attendence. I guess that the guys at AEG are under reporting the attendence for some reason. There is probably some way by which this benefits AEG. ie. they can report bigger losses, pay less rent to the rose bowl, or hide profits from the government, I am not sure. We have seen with major league baseball that it is in the interest of an owner to report that he is not doing well when in reality he is. Team ownership is sort of a black hole that allows these wealthy people to play all kinds of tricks with money and there are really no paper trails to track profits/losses. Just my opinion. Go Galaxy and USMNT!
13,381 is not a bad weekend for August at all. Second weekend in August, historically: 2001: 12,637 average for 6 games 2000: 14,400 average for 5 games 1999: 12,544 average for 6 games 1998: 14,211 average for 6 games 1997: 12,815 average for 4 games 1996: 12,614 average for 6 games August, historically: 2001: 13,541 average for 32 games 2000: 12,574 average for 38 games 1999: 11,923 average for 33 games 1998: 12,807 average for 30 games 1997: 13,661 average for 25 games 1996: 13,525 average for 31 games There are only 22 games in August this time around (because of the All-Star Game, but, I have to believe, also by design because even with a full weekend of games on August 3-4, there would still only be 27, or 29 if the other two teams still existed), which helps to minimize the effect of August on the final numbers.
Median after 76% of games 2002 13,507 2001 13,376 2000 12,546 1999 13,101 1998 11,682 Means after 76% SD's 2002 15,610 8,993 2001 14,850 8,250 2000 13,516 8,213 1999 14,527 9,297 1998 14,421 8,525 # <10,000 after 76% of games 2002 20 19% of games 2001 31 26% of games 2000 53 36% of games 1999 46 32% of games 1998 36 25% of games
dcuinvermont, Thanks for providing the median, mean, and <10,000 numbers each week. One thing we might want to add to the tables, though, is data for the 1996 and 1997 seasons. If you don't already have data for those years in your database and it's too much trouble to add the relevant data at this time, I'll be more than happy to crunch out the stats and add them on to the table.
I have the numbers if you don't, DCU. Let me know. Full-season medians, at least, are in my analysis here, and there will be a big update at the end of the season.
Can I just say that I cannot wait for our stadiums to be all sold out so that you guys need not do these silly threads every week.
Reuben...at the start of the season the Doug Hamilton said they wouldn't be counting freebie tix any more. It's paid attendance now that they report. Last season, Saturday's match would probably have been reported as closer to 20k.
Interesting that the August average for 1996 is comparitively low. Considering that average attendance for the '96 season was 17,406, I would have guessed that Aug '96 would have beaten out other the Augusts by a fair margin.
I was there, seated on the "crowded" side. There was a mess of kids in the pre-game introductions, most of whom seemed to leave immediately afterwards. If there were over 6K there, they were counting the beer venders, the ticket takers, the poncho salemen...
PZ, that would seem about right to me and explain the apparent discrepency in the report. I knew we did not have more than 25,000, but I also knew it was surely more than the reported 15,000. I was guessing 20,000-25,000.
OT: Kenn's website This is off-topic, but I just wanted to add a thumbs-up for your website and your stirring "debate" with the English football writer.
Basically, I just been lazy about it and figured that 5 years was enough to see trends, but now that we're back to 10 teams (though fewer games) I can see how there'd be interest in going back further. Since it takes a bit of playing with text files from the MLS web site (and results in some inconsistencies with numbers, though I'm willing to live with them) I have it for 97 so far. Median after 76% of games 2002 13,507 2001 13,376 2000 12,546 1999 13,101 1998 11,682 1997 13,152 Means after 76% SD's 2002 15,610 8,993 2001 14,850 8,250 2000 13,516 8,213 1999 14,527 9,297 1998 14,421 8,525 1997 14,945 8,244 # <10,000 after 76% of games 2002 20 19% of games 2001 31 26% of games 2000 53 36% of games 1999 46 32% of games 1998 36 25% of games 1997 25 20% of games On a side note, most years the final average has been lower than what it was at this point of the year. last year - 14850 dropping to 14597 1999 14527 dropping to 14282 2000 went up a bit 13516 moving up to 13756. Either way we're likely within plus or minus 200 for the final average (15400 to 15800), unless MLS has some magic in reserve.
Althoughmany of us have read through it before, I recommend everyone interested in the stats of attendance to check out Ken's site linked above. He states a number of points that are important to keep in mind. Of particular importance is the fact that 1 game or 1 week of games never determine the final outcome. Since, we've already come through 3/4s of the season it's pretty clear that attendance this year is better than last (even accounting for the loss of attendance drags Miami and Tampa). I consider this to be a very good sign considering the state of the economy and the unfathomable popularity of car racing.
I thought the MLS average attendance was suppose to increase this year with contraction, but the August attendance doesn't seem to have improved. Anyway this week has many games and we will get a better feel of how August will shape up. With all the baseball strike talk, you would hope that some will stop paying attention to Baseball and look at other sports instead.
BTW, the mean in 1996 after 76% of the games was 17,997. The median was 15,220. 28 crowds (23.0%) were <10,000 at that point. I don't put as much stock in the 1996 numbers because of The Novelty Effect. But there they are. First off, it has, a bit, and second off, we've had one week of August. ::sigh::
Thanks for adding 1997 to the tables, dcuinvermont. It's great to see 2002 beat out 1997 in every category you've listed. Unless it only takes a few minutes to crunch out the 1996 numbers, I'm not sure if it would be worth bothering to add that year to the list. As Kenn's website shows, attendance was so skewed in '96 by the "novelty effect" that we might want to just omit 1996 from the tables.
Median after 76% of games 1996 15,220 Means after 76% SD's 1996 17,997 12,459 # <10,000 after 76% of games 1996 28 23% of games