Golazo!

Only 14k for that game at a brand new stadium in SLC?

This is a team that had 16K + show up to games when they were last in the league and they can't sell out when they finally make the playoffs in a brand new stadium?

What's going on with MLS fans for the playoffs this year? Why would so many people go to regular season games and then not bother to watch their teams in the post season?

beautiful/lucky shot

What's going on with MLS fans for the playoffs this year? Why would so many people go to regular season games and then not bother to watch their teams in the post season?

Posted by: Southeasterner | November 2, 2008 1:30 AM
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This year? Hasn't this been the pattern in most years?

Soft but lucky. I can do that in my sleep which I should be doing right now.

Maybe everyone who says drop the playoffs is right. Have Supporters Shield be for the league champions and US Open Cup be the domestic cup competition. I am ok with a single table too - one home and one away match for each opponent.

One thing unique to the U.S. is the crazy amount of travel required because of the size of the country. I know Gullit mentioned this. It's not like in most European countries where you just jump in the motorcoach each week. The Russian Premier League must also deal with travel (and I think I heard they are weighing a switch to a winter season - freezing!)

Also, by dropping the playoffs you would free up more choice Saturday night timeslots at the end of the season (therefore having to rely less on weeknight kickoffs earlier in the season).

Pretty goal, pretty stadium.

With United out of the playoff picture, I'm rooting for a first time champion (other than NYRB).

Sunrise in Harrison, NJ: http://www.earthcam.com/clients/redbullarena/

Maybe soon we will have our own Greenbelt, MD webcam?

Only 14k for that game at a brand new stadium in SLC?

This is a team that had 16K + show up to games when they were last in the league and they can't sell out when they finally make the playoffs in a brand new stadium?

What's going on with MLS fans for the playoffs this year? Why would so many people go to regular season games and then not bother to watch their teams in the post season?

Posted by: Southeasterner | November 2, 2008 1:30 AM

and RSL did better than the other hosts

NE-chi: 5221
KC-col: 10385
NY-hou: 11578
RSL-chivas: 14719

NE-chi: 5221
KC-col: 10385
NY-hou: 11578
RSL-chivas: 14719

Posted by: emanon1 | November 2, 2008 8:24 AM

Wasn't KC sold out? I think the stadium only holds about 10K.

I agree that RSL did better than the others but I just find it strange that such a strong fan base (I was at Rio Tinto for their last season game) didn't turn out for their first playoff game.

Maybe until MLS gets more interest in the playoffs, playoff tickets should be included for free in season ticket packages?

That probably wouldn't help NE at all but maybe teams like RSL and NY could get closer to a 20k number?

Regardless of market, the first first-round playoff matches almost always have relatively low attendance. In many cases it wasn't decided until last weekend who would be playing, when and where.

In many cases it wasn't decided until last weekend who would be playing, when and where.
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But that is true of postseason action in every other American team sport. Fans of those sports keep abreast of possible postseason matchups as the regular season draws to a close. In fact, working through the possible scenarios is part of the fun, just as it is with us and MLS.

Southeastener, I'm assuming you are new to MLS, because this is the MO every year. The first leg games don't draw well, the second leg and the finals draw much better. End of story. And btw, some teams do include playoff tickets with full season ticket packages.

I think people are making the wrong inference from the crowds. It doesn't mean that fans are more interested in the regular-season. I'm fairly sure that most MLS watchers are only dimly aware of the Supporters' Shield, and many have never heard of it.

Soccer fans in this country treat soccer games as discrete events. Fans come out for a game, not for the league. Here in DC, we have devoted fans of DC United, most of whom don't care very much about the league. It's the inverse of American football, where interest goes up for the playoffs, regardless of whether the home team is even involved.

Factors that most influence attendance are the temperature and other demands on fans' time. The playoffs are hit with a double whammy: Falling temperatures, schools back, work schedule picks up in the Fall, etc.

If fans were as interested in the MLS league competition as the NFL's fans were, it wouldn't matter. The fact is soccer fans here haven't picked up the MLS bug. They may be in to their team, but the league? Not so much...

I don't know about anyone else, but I think we could use two players like Morales and Movsisyan from Salt Lake. It would fix our middle up just fine. Anyone know any others?

All of the above reasons offered for the poor attendence in the first leg are valid, except one major element was not mentioned. Group ticket sales are the biggest driver of MLS attendence and with liitle notice of the play-off dates, the ticket sales people at the respective teams do not have the same amount of lead time to organize the group sales that they have during the regular season. Look back at some of DCU attendence figures for some of those memorable play-off games with Columbus 10 years ago and might find some games with attendence under 15,000. Same issue was at work then that is at work now.

Question: How did DCU do yesterday?

Answer: 3 over after 18

Exploding stadiums probably scare off people, too...

Eto'o had a very similar goal to that in their blowout win vs. AM the other week...

Eto'o had a very similar goal to that in their blowout win vs. AM the other week...

Any goal could be considered lucky. He meant it didn't he?

Gol de taquito = golazo.

I was at the game. The cheap sections were sold out, while the overpriced seats were half full at best. Ticket price is a big deal and the tickets were just absurdly expensive.

The world must be coming to an end" ESPN2 broadcast 2 hours of cricket this afternoon.

"I was at the game. The cheap sections were sold out, while the overpriced seats were half full at best. Ticket price is a big deal and the tickets were just absurdly expensive."

That's what it looked like on TV as well, which makes NO sense. At RFK, the seats that are most prominent on TV are the ones held by the Supporter's Groups, so it always looks like the place is rockin' (which, of course, 99% of the time it usually is). If they really want the midfield seats to be THAT much more expensive, they should at least try to sell those on the non-TV side of the stadium. The ends of the stadium looked quite full, though.

The attendance this weekend was just sad.

That cricket broadcast was just odd. Totally out of nowhere. I almost figured out cricket when I was in Australia several years ago, but now I am just as baffled by it as I was before then.

Re attendance in SLC: how many other markets in the USA have two of the top fifteen college football teams in the BCS? As odd as it may seem to many of us who are rather insular soccer fans, college football matters a great deal to many people, in this case UU and BYU. Neither were at home, but lots of folks watched on television. I'd guess a couple thousand potential attendees went this way.

As a HUGE cricket fan, I was surprised by the re-air on ESPN2 (I watched it live on 360). But it wasn't any old cricket match (some would say it wasn't cricket at all, but that's another story). One match, between England and a Caribbean all-star team, for $20 million dollars. Alan Stanford - the Texan billionaire and Caribbean cricket tycoon - is trying to establish ties with ESPN to expand the global reach of 20/20 cricket. Guessing that the ESPN2 re-air was a time buy.

/cricket nerd

"the Texan billionaire and Caribbean cricket tycoon"

That should be an oxymoron. After listening to the post-match interviews, Ihad to go to the internet to find out why a knighted patron of cricket has an American accent.

The 20/20 format is much more TV friendly, but it seemed to me that the match was still edited. A number of the English singles weren't shown, neither were a few of the extras. How long did the live broadcast on 360 take?

@joffray -- that's how it looked on TV. The empty seats were in the prime sections. On the KC broadcast, the announcer kept saying the Wizards (not the basketball team) are reducing their ticket prices for next year. Seems to me that most teams would benefit from more economical pricing.

How long did the live broadcast on 360 take?

Posted by: I-270Exit1 | November 3, 2008 9:45 AM

In terms of the actual cricket -- probably close to 2 and a half hours. Went from 5 to around 8:30 with all the hype and post-match. For live TV, 20-20 can usually be scheduled in a 3 hour time slot.

Pretty nice torso on that fan with the white shirt and red bandanna. And there was the goal, of course.