Take Me Out to the Playoffs - Week 3, 2009 season

The playoff numbers look like this…

5 year comparison
Conference Semifinals – 1st Leg
	Avg	+/-	Home Teams
2005	12,147	NA	Chicago	NY	Colorado	Los Angeles
2006	9,533	-21.52%	Chicago	NY	Colorado	Chivas USA
2007	14,245	49.42%	Chicago	NY	Dallas	Kansas City
2008	10,476	-26.46%	New England	NY	Salt Lake	Kansas City
2009	19,985	90.77%	New England	Seattle	Salt Lake	Chivas USA

5 year comparison
Conference Semifinals – 2nd Leg
	Avg	+/-	Home Teams
2005	14,400	NA	New England	Dallas	San Jose	DC United
2006	15,938	10.69%	New England	Dallas	Houston	DC United
2007	19,838	24.47%	New England	Chivas USA	Houston	DC United
2008	19,444	-1.99%	Chicago	Columbus	Houston	Chivas USA
2009	21,526	10.71%	Chicago	Columbus	Houston	Los Angeles

Quarterfinals Totals(both legs)
	Avg	+/-	Teams
2005	13,273	NA	CHI, COL, DAL, DCU, LA, NE, RBNY, SJ
2006	12,736	-4.05%	CHI, COL, CHV, DAL, DCU, HOU, NE, RBNY
2007	17,041	33.81%	CHI, CHV, DAL, DCU, HOU, KC, NE, RBNY
2008	14,960	-12.22%	CHI, CHV, CLB, HOU, KC, NE, RBNY, RSL
2009	20,755	38.74%	CHI, CHV, CLB, HOU, LA, NE, RSL, SEA
Semifinals Totals
	Avg	+/-	Teams
2005	15,454	NA	NE v CHI – COL v LA
2006	21,330	38.02%	DCU v NE – HOU v COL
2007	20,645	-3.21%	NE v CHI – HOU v KC
2008	17,348	-15.97%	CLB v CHI – RSL v RBNY
2009	23,548	35.74%	LA v HOU – CHI v RSL
Playoff Totals
	Avg	+/-	Teams
2005	13,709	NA	MLS Cup 2009 Los Angeles v Real Salt Lake Sun, Nov 22, 8:30pm
2006	14,455	5.44%
2007	17,762	22.88%
2008	15,437	-13.09%
2009	21,314	38.07%

Observations

The semifinals began with a near sellout at the HDC. Maybe a bit disappointing, but still a strong 25,000+. Toyota Park however was sold out by midweek. Another great showing for the league’s championship series.

While the league must be disappointed from a marketing standpoint that Chicago failed to join Los Angeles in MLS Cup ’09, they must also be very pleased about the live attendance to the 2009 playoffs. Leading up the the final match, the 2009 playoffs are the highest attended in league history, more than 3,500 per game higher than the previous top mark of 17,762 in 2007.

MLS Quarterfinals – 2nd Leg
RSL Advances 4-2
Columbus	2	Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra
Real Salt Lake	3	RSL – Behind the Shield
Chicago Advances 3-2
Chicago	2	Chicago Fire Confidential
New England	0	Revolution Soccer
Houston Advances 1-0
Houston	1	Soccer y Fútbol – Barnard Fallas
Seattle	0	Seattle Times
Los Angeles Advances 3-2
Los Angeles	1	LA – Official Blog
Chivas USA	0	Chivas USA – MLSNet

MLS Semifinals
Los Angeles	2	LA – Official Blog
Houston	0	Soccer y Fútbol – Barnard Fallas

Chicago	0(4)	Chicago Fire Confidential
Real Salt Lake	0(5)	RSL – Behind the Shield

MLS Cup

Los Angeles v Salt Lake Sun, Nov 22, 8:30 pm ET on ESPN

Unless they change the rules again …

MLS in 2010-2011 CONCACAF Champions League

Columbus – Supporters’ Shield Winner

Seattle – Lamar Hunt US Open Cup Winner

Los Angeles – MLS Cup Finalist

Real Salt Lake – MLS Cup Finalist

MLS in 2010 SuperLiga

Houston

Chicago

Chivas USA

New England

MLS Throw Ins

Preki out of Chivas USA, in at TFC? (He played with Mo Johnston in KC)

Cousin Brucie(for all of you old timer easterners) Arena won MLS Coach of the Year honors for the 2nd time.

Is MLS lurking in the background of the USL/TOA situation?

Defender Omar Gonzalez wins MLS Rookie of the Year, the 2nd year running for a Galaxy defender(Franklin).

Of the 10 players Seattle selected in the expansion draft, 7 remain were on the roster as season’s end.

Union Town

I stated last week that I’ll be adopting the Philadelphia Union as my MLS team. The basis for this is nothing more than it’s the last MLS ‘domain’ that I lived in and that there is no professional soccer(MLS, USL-1, USL-2, TOA?) closer than a six+ hour drive from my home. On that note, here is the latest …

The Philadelphia Union expansion draft will be on Wed, Nov 25.
2008(Seattle) Expansion Draft rules. I have yet to see any changes for 2009 posted by MLS.
John Hackworth joins Peter Nowak on the Union coaching staff.
Here is one of many websites that will be speculating as to who will be protected and selected by the Union.
Click here for a google search on the upcoming expansion draft.
Oh yeah, the official home kit for the Union was introduced. Note: this is not an endorsement of the Philadelphia Union Store, just the best ‘official’ pic I could find.