More soccer news

Message

andrewjackson · #1 Post by **andrewjackson** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 9:03 pm

The MLS conference championship games are this week.

The New England Revolution beat Chicago 1-0 on Thursday in the Eastern Conference championship game to advance to their third straight MLS Cup and fourth in the last six years. They have never won the Cup in franchise history.

Houston hosts Kansas City on Saturday night in the Western Conference final. Houston is attempting to win back to back Cups. No team has done so since DC United won the first two MLS Cups in 1996 and 1997. We are expecting a big crowd here in Houston for the game. Last Friday night 30,088 fans watched Houston beat FC Dallas 4-1 to advance to the Western Final.

Expansion.

Earlier this year MLS announced that San Jose would be returning to the league with an expansion franchise starting play in 2008. They would be the 14th team in the league. Today, ESPN is reporting that Seattle will granted an expansion franchise starting play in 2009 to be the 15th team. It is expected that Philadelphia or St. Louis will be the 16th team added in either 2009 or 2010.

Attendance

MLS came close to breaking the record for average attendance this season. An average of 16,770 tickets were sold for each league game. That was only exceeded by the inaugural season which averaged 17,406. It was 1,200 higher than the average last season. That makes MLS the 10th best attended soccer league in the world by average attendance.

Bixby17 · #2 Post by **Bixby17** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 8:00 am

This is cool.

Thanks for sharing this. Some day I really would like to catch a Dynamo game. And if I do, you are the person I'd like to go with.

Snaxx · #3 Post by **Snaxx** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 8:09 pm

Strangely, New York may be the one franchise that is dragging down the league. Hopefully that will change dramatically when Red Bull Park opens. There have been delays and they are aiming for 2009.

I like the atmosphere at the Dynamo games I've seen on TV. Hopefully my travels will take me to Houston (where I last visited in 1999) sometime in the next couple of years. Maybe I'll find or chance upon a weekend that the Dynamo play on Saturday then the Texans on Sunday.

Snaxx

Snaxx · #4 Post by **Snaxx** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 12:09 pm

Congrats to the Dynamo on last night's win. One more win and you will be fitting a second MLS Cup trophy into your avatar.

andrewjackson · #5 Post by **andrewjackson** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 1:00 pm

Fantastic experience at the Dynamo game last night. 2-0 win and the Dynamo were pretty much in control the whole way.

30,972 in attendance. The official sellout number is around 30,800 but they also sold a couple of hundred standing room tickets. Pretty good considering that we didn't even know we would have this game until midnight last Saturday and the team to sell all those tickets in one week. The Eastern Conference final on Thursday night in New England where, granted it was very cold and windy, only had about 10,000 in attendance.

The crowd was almost all wearing orange and really into the game. The supporters' sections were double rowed with one row standing on the bleacher seats and another row right in front of them on the deck. We stood, sang, and chanted for almost four hours straight. The game was only two hours but we went into the stadium an hour early and stayed until the team left after the trophy ceremony.

Even the regular sections were standing through most of the game and singing along with us on some of the songs.

Here's a YouTube video that shows you a little of what it was like. I'm under the big jersey at this point.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5g_p74fyfM

On to DC next Sunday!

andrewjackson · #6 Post by **andrewjackson** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 1:19 pm

jacorbett70 wrote:Strangely, New York may be the one franchise that is dragging down the league. Hopefully that will change dramatically when Red Bull Park opens. There have been delays and they are aiming for 2009.

I like the atmosphere at the Dynamo games I've seen on TV. Hopefully my travels will take me to Houston (where I last visited in 1999) sometime in the next couple of years. Maybe I'll find or chance upon a weekend that the Dynamo play on Saturday then the Texans on Sunday.

Snaxx

C'mon down! It really is a good time at Robertson Stadium to see the Dynamo.

I'll let Bix sell you on the joys of Reliant.

I think everyone in the league hopes that New York gets things together. The Red Bulls were a fun team to watch early this year but they seemed to lose some steam late in the year. I'm definitely eager to get to a game up there once Red Bull Park opens. It looks like it is going to be really nice.