Sorry thought I would have this up by noon Pacific but then a nap intervened. So July is over from an MLS regular season perspective, and we roll right along into August. What did July 2012 bring us? Only 50 matches that had an average attendance of 18119, you know nothing to spectacular for MLS. Remember in this thread we discuss the: (AAQ = Attendance Analysis Quotient. This figure is an overall attendance assessment, calculated from the weighted values of average attendance, median attendance, <10K percentage and >20K percentage. A lower figure represents a better attendance performance.) This is a slight change from Andy's old formula which used simple ordinal values and provided a full ranking point separation for two numbers that may have been within a percentage. This ordinal system did not allow for fine differences to be seen, and may have painted a somewhat skewed view of the numbers (though to be honest there is not much difference in the two end of season sets). The formula to find the weighted value for each column is: Take the annual value and subtract it from the Max value for it's column. Then take that result and divide it by the (Max-Min) for its column. For example, for the average column 17869 is the max 13756 is the min 4113 is the difference To calculate the derived value for 2010 Subtract 16675 from 17869 to get 1194. Divide 1194 by 4113 then mulitply by 100* to get 29 *Note that this step is new as some people thought whole numbers would be easier to read. MLS Attendance is based on tickets distributed not tickets scanned. Therefore if a team sells or distributes X number of tickets, then X is the attendance for that match. Even if 0 people showed up for whatever reason, X would still be the official attendance. There are a number of reasons actual attendance may be lower or higher than the announced.
Weekly Attendance: Week 21 had 9 matches all but topped two of which topped 18k which is definitely a good week. In the end it was a week that averaged 18072 without any big number inflation. Just one more indication that MLS is really making positive strides all over the place. The upcoming week has just a few points of interest. Red Bull NY is at Houston on a Friday night I imagine a sellout here, so Houston supporters chime in if you know otherwise. This is also the front end of back to back Friday night home and homes for these two teams (An MLS first?) LA at Seattle in game 1 of the 3 game pack where all of the Clink is open, I would expect well over 50k for this one, but not a sellout. DC at home for the first time in a while with a team chasing a playoff spot, a new owner, and new stadium buzz, all of which hopefully equals solid attendance. Rocky Mountain foes Colorado and RSL square off at DSG, again expecting good attendance here as well. Comparison to This Point Last Season and All-Time Averages: The two teams that are really down did not play home games this past week, so it does not appear that much has changed. Toronto must average over 21k for their last 6 home matches to finish over 20k for the season. A tall order to be sure, but still possible. At present attendance rate Portland needs 35 more consecutive matches at 20438 to push their running average over 20k, I don't think they will have a problem meeting that. AAAQ Current Season and Historical End of Season: And once more this season remains firmly entrenched at first overall in both AAQ formats. It also very close to taking 1st in all 4 data points, which at this point is a matter of when not if. Through week 20 MLS has completed 205 matches or 63.5% of the season. Of those matches 141 have topped 15k, the standard deviation is 7829, and the median of team medians is 18168. And the season could still have a >50k number higher than the <10k. Milestones: Just one this past week. Kansas City topped 3 million in attendance in home match 257. Leaving San Jose the lone original side to reach this milestone, although San Jose should get there between match 233 and 236. And while 257 is defintely longer than any other team so far consider this. SKC was second fastest going from 2.5m to 3m, doing so in just 27 matches. Things are definitely looking good in Kansas City these days.
Obviously, San Jose hasn't reached that mark because they "loaned" Houston their team for a few years.
Houston Chronicle reporter Jesus Ortiz tweeted that the game is sold out: 22,039 will be the attendance there.
Only 800 Stub hub tickets left for the Dynamo v. Red Bull match, it should be completely and totally sold out by first kick on Friday.
The Seattle Times beat writer says that current estimates for the Sounder/Galaxy game could/should exceed 55k.
So does "only" selling 55k mean that the Galaxy's streak of away game sell outs (14 in a row this season apparently) is over?
Heh I did not even notice the use of the wrong word. I have 'fixed' the original but that is pretty damn funny. Guess that is what I get for posting this immediately following my nap .
Doubtful. The Sounders have an annoying habit of still considering it a sell out because their normal capacity is still 38,000.
Historic deltas for our four benchmarks between this point in each season to season's end, based on edwardgr 's data uploads.
God knows being an original KC fan I am not knocking anyones attendance, but it is an interesting study in marketing/team spending to see that LA and New York are down attendance wise from last year. Makes me think that the healthy attendance league wide may be attributed to a better overall product on the field/league wide marketing instead of dependent on "Big Name" draws like in the past. That is a great sign for the league!
Of course NY and LA continue to be the best road draws in the league...... So while their own markets may be down, they are still contributing to the big picture in the right direction.
In LA they are down 100 fans per game, which is probably small enough to just be noise. That coupled with the horrific start to the beginning of the season....
As a long time season ticket holder for the Galaxy, our market is a tough one to crack. it seems like we can always count on about 20,000 average attendance. I know heading into this season there was a shake up in the front office staff and it had to do with AEG's desire to be more like Seattle in terms of season tickets sold and sell outs every game. Now it was literally right before the season started so it's perhaps unfair to expect the new people to have made much of a difference to this point, but to me things seem the same as they ever were. Attendance is the same as it ever has been and no matter how good the team is or how much money they spend on players (Keane, Beckham, etc.) they can't seem to significantly increase the season ticket base anymore then they have. It certainly seems like they have been treading water in this area since the initial Beckham euphoria died down. So LA is still a great market but not as great as it could be and as great as the owners want it to be but they don't seem to have much in the way of ideas of how to reach that next level. To me the trend for the Galaxy is to have a lot of early season home games (which I still feel is when interest in the team is at its lowest point locally). The games in the fall and the playoffs over the years tend to almost all be near sell outs. So I think the new ticket guys really need to focus on how to boost attendance right out the gate of a new season. Easier said then done i suppose.
Yeah, it's kind of a non-issue. And LA is still about 2000 fans up on their recession-fueled 2009 attendances, which were their lowest numbers since 2002. Overall the trend since 2009 is a solid increase each year, which this year still has a chance of continuing. As for New York, yeah, a couple of badly attended early games and blunders like the "camp day" have cost them this year. They could still improve, but their current numbers are definitely the worst of the Red Bull Arena/big-name DP era. BUT...that still represents their third-best attendance since 2002, and is about 5000 fans up on their numbers during their last pre-RBA season. NY fans seem to be pretty fickle, but after three years it looks like RBA and the DP signings have had pretty much the same effect as building Livestrong did for KC: bouncing the club out of their previous attendance range and giving them a much higher baseline. There will likely be fluctuations around the "new normal," as we're seeing this year. But so far the DPs and new stadium have reset them at an attendance range that far exceeds their draws over most of the last decade.
It looks like RSL's ticket sales have done just that this season, which is the primary reason why they're up 11% over the historical average. I think it was probably due to mostly steep discounting on some early season, low-demand games that turned them into sellouts, instead of 15k crowds.
If Portland and Houston are sellouts and Seattle is around 55k, that means the other 5 teams would need to average about 13.8k to get about a 21k average or about 15.4k to get about a 22k average. Not exactly the most glamorous games for the non-sellout five (Colorado does host RSL though), but this should definitely be a great week.
Way to toss the turd in the punch bowl. A team draws a record crowd and has an average attendance that's been rising consistently for a few years now, and Mike Woitalla's gotta throw that in. (Though, admittedly, it's the sort of hackery I should expect from someone who doesn't catch that 14,221 > 14,132.)
The Revs have a double header this weekend which should lift their normal 12k at least to 15 or 16kish if not more.