14,610 in Chicago. maybe it would've been better on a Saturday... But as of now, LA is still the only city that cares about the playoffs.
It didn't matter. The acoustics at Soldier seem excellent. Section 8 sounded great all night. Either that, or FSW finally figured out how to mic a crowd.
Yeah, the Fire supporters were just awesome tonight. If only all MLS matches had that kind of atmosphere.
14,610 in Chicago. 16,108 in San Jose. Final average for this year's Pre-MLS Cup games: 13,776. 2002 average: 10,907 2001 average: 11,227 2000 average: 10,274 Assuming that MLS Cup is listed as a 27,000 sellout, the average for this year's playoffs will be 14,978, which will also be the highest since 1999.
i think san jose is the only team whose attendance went up during the "important" games, the playoffs?
"Important" is not as important as many would think when it comes to selling tickets to the playoffs. Going into this year, only one existing MLS team had been able to outdo its regular season average in the playoffs.
You are dividing by significantly fewer games in your average this time, though. It's still a good thing, but how do the total attendences compare? Is it more cost effective to have a higher average or more people? Just askin'...
Obviously. And I don't know. I'm just saying that the last few years, pre-MLS Cup attendances have been dreadful. Given that most MLS teams are still renters, I have to believe that the Fire did better drawing 29,922 to their two playoff games this year than they did drawing 33,722 to three playoff games in 2000. The situation might be different when everyone is in SSS's, but I don't know each team's break-even point, and whether or not the league (as many other leagues do) takes a larger percentage of playoff gate or not.
SJ attendance indicates there were close to 2,000 additional fans at the game. I think its important to note that, in all actuality, there were close to 2,500 additional EARTHQUAKE FANS due to the fact last week's attendance included, by my estimates, roughly 500 or more traveling GALAXY fans.
Congrats to SJ, but anyone find it sad (I do) that SJ used to AVERAGE more than 16k 25 years ago.......and now, there are more people living in area, and more immigrants to draw upon...and yet.. "Those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end....lalalala"...
Nice site Kenn... In reference to Cosmos, they were incomparable....so I don't try....but SJ didn't have any special draws (sure Best came later in 70s, but not 76 or 77 (I think he was still LA)...anyway, today's club has Donovan...so.....let's face it, it was just a better time for soccer then...for whatever reason (at least in Tampa/Mia, one can blame presence of major league baseball now, etc.)
That crowd was absolutely amazing. I was litterally stunned. It was as loud as, or sounded like any European crowd out there. Im just unhappy that they aided in my team losing.
It was also a great time for lava lamps and pet rocks, and did you notice the bottom of the attendance table? The budgets of the top teams were unsustainable once the fad faded for the "casual fan."
Attendacne to the San Jose game would have been better if: 1- Owen Nolan was not making his return to the Shark tank about a mile away, and that the Sharks had their first sellout of the season that night. 2- Stanford and Cal were not playing 15 miles north at the exact same time (there were 2000+ soccer fans at that game) 3- The game against the galaxy was televised so fans could see maybe the best game in MLS history. That being said, 16,000 looked and felt great in San Jose. I guarentee you the 16,000 that attended Saturday and the 14000 that went last Sunday (most of whome were overlapping) will stop by to check out the quakes at least a few times next season. Those were two great games with great atmospheres... the whole place was into those games.
4- if I did not have to attend a family function up in Alameda. I can't believe I actually flew up to the Bay Area for this past weekend and I was not able to make it down to Spartan for this game. The good news is that I will be at HDC for MLS Cup, my first. Whoo hooo.