Now that everybody in the top three men’s leagues has had at least one home game, here’s the first Taking Attendance report of the 2012 season.

MLS	G	Total	Average	Median	High	Low
Montreal	4	162,115	40,529	41,016	60,860	19,223
Seattle	7	270,387	38,627	38,399	39,312	38,301
Los Angeles	6	139,182	23,197	22,696	27,000	18,466
Houston	1	22,039	22,039	22,039	22,039	22,039
Portland	5	102,190	20,438	20,438	20,438	20,438
Toronto	5	95,109	19,022	18,944	20,070	18,364
Sporting KC	5	95,087	19,017	19,777	20,404	15,161
Vancouver	5	93,074	18,615	19,271	21,000	15,382
Salt Lake	6	110,062	18,344	17,924	20,415	16,738
Philadelphia	5	91,563	18,313	18,526	19,074	17,189
New York	5	81,020	16,204	17,114	21,024	11,315
Colorado	4	58,019	14,505	13,949	19,152	10,969
Chicago	5	70,433	14,087	14,159	18,075	10,489
DC United	6	82,506	13,751	13,619	16,314	10,135
Dallas	7	92,179	13,168	11,702	20,906	10,069
Chivas USA	5	64,338	12,868	14,127	14,652	7,723
Columbus	5	63,290	12,658	11,516	18,197	10,479
San Jose	6	71,421	11,904	10,364	21,816	8,734
New England	4	41,575	10,394	11,251	12,925	6,149
MLS TOTAL	96	1,805,589	18,808	18,114	60,860	6,149
NASL	G	Total	Average	Median	High	Low
San Antonio	3	32,801	10,934	10,114	13,151	9,536
Atlanta	4	17,180	4,295	4,460	5,000	3,261
Minnesota	3	12,553	4,184	2,168	8,693	1,692
Fort Lauderdale	3	10,449	3,483	2,916	4,779	2,754
Carolina	3	9,442	3,147	3,041	3,683	2,718
Tampa Bay	4	12,119	3,030	3,148	3,536	3,536
Edmonton	2	2,393	1,197	1,197	1,273	1,120
Puerto Rico	4	4,074	1,019	1,006	1,542	520
NASL TOTAL	26	101,011	3,885	3,085	13,151	520
USL PRO	G	Total	Average	Median	High	Low
Rochester	1	7,959	7,959	7,959	7,959	7,959
Orlando	3	23,042	7,681	7,899	8,421	6,722
Charleston	4	14,979	3,745	3,544	4,729	3,162
Wilmington	3	10,620	3,540	3,682	4,456	2,482
Richmond	3	10,451	3,484	3,169	5,009	2,273
Harrisburg	1	1,223	1,223	1,223	1,223	1,223
Los Angeles	4	4,867	1,217	1,118	2,432	200
Antigua	6	6,400	1,067	900	1,800	800
Dayton	3	2,645	882	853	1,012	780
Pittsburgh	2	1,567	784	784	1,005	562
Charlotte	5	3,507	701	576	964	522
USL PRO TOTAL	35	87,260	2,493	1,223	8,421	200
PDL	G	Total	Average	Median	High	Low
Fresno	2	8,634	4,317	4,317	4,361	4,273
Des Moines	3	10,237	3,412	3,272	3,722	3,243
Carolina	1	2,741	2,741	2,741	2,741	2,741
Ventura County	1	1,547	1,547	1,547	1,547	1,547
Western Mass	1	1,491	1,491	1,491	1,491	1,491
West Texas	2	2,732	1,366	1,366	1,644	1,088
Portland	1	1,257	1,257	1,257	1,257	1,257
Victoria	1	1,172	1,172	1,172	1,172	1,172
Palmetto	1	1,031	1,031	1,031	1,031	1,031
El Paso	1	560	560	560	560	560
Boston	1	546	546	546	546	546
Worcester	1	531	531	531	531	531
Mississippi	1	418	418	418	418	418
CFC Azul	1	397	397	397	397	397
No. Virginia	1	375	375	375	375	375
GPS Portland	1	352	352	352	352	352
Va. Beach	1	314	314	314	314	314
Orlando	2	615	308	308	315	300
Reading	1	267	267	267	267	267
Tampa	2	505	253	253	365	140
West Virginia	1	251	251	251	251	251
Real Colorado	2	350	175	175	200	150
Los Angeles	2	334	167	167	184	150
So.West Virginia	1	155	155	155	155	155
Seacoast United	1	150	150	150	150	150
Westchester	1	140	140	140	140	140
Vancouver	2	274	137	137	154	120
Orange County	2	272	136	136	137	135
Bradenton	2	250	125	125	150	100
Springfield	1	80	80	80	80	80
PDL TOTAL	41	37,978	926	352	4,361	80

A few notes:

• MLS projects out (if everybody holds their current average) to draw more than six million in 2012 and to break their all-time average record. Montreal’s average is going to drop (obviously) once they move back into the renovated Saputo Stadium. Also, for the moment, Montreal leads the league in average attendance, the first time in a while Seattle hasn’t been there.
• San Antonio has taken Montreal’s spot as the NASL attendance leader, despite getting increasingly diminishing crowds after a 13,000+ opener. Atlanta and Carolina are both up nicely in average attendance over the same number of home games as a year ago (as is Minnesota, but that’s more a function of their large Metrodome opener skewing a small sample). But Fort Lauderdale, Tampa Bay, Edmonton and Puerto Rico are down (the latter two because of venue shifts). Tampa Bay, which lost 25% off its 2010 numbers by moving to St. Petersburg, got the supposedly magical “Rowdies” identity back and are now down another 10%. Nostalgia is great, but it doesn’t always sell like you think it will.
• Rochester lead Division II in average for years, and they’re leading Division III for the moment on the strength of a home opening crowd not everyone believed was 7,959. Orlando continues to draw extremely well. There’s been no significant change among the other teams, though Los Angeles had a decent (2,432) home opener and now are back to drawing hundreds.
• The PDL season is fully underway, with Des Moines and Fresno once again up top (all of Fresno’s tickets are free through a sponsorship deal) and the league so far running almost 100% ahead of its normal average (I’m missing six games worth of attendance figures here early). Carolina also drew well for its home opener this weekend (2,741). As you can see, many PDL teams put development ahead of everything else, and their attendance figures reflect that.
• Though it’s too early to do a full chart on it, the WPSL Elite season (featuring the remnants of WPS and a few other ambitious clubs) opened this past weekend, with Chesapeake drawing an estimated 400 to their opener on Thursday and last year’s WPS champions, Western New York, getting 1,304 to theirs. Obviously, it helps to have Alex Morgan. The W-League season is also underway and also too early to chart, but Charlotte drew 559 to its Friday opener, while Tampa (playing in Brandon) drew 90 to its Sunday opener.
• As always, standard disclaimers about announced figures apply. If I had drop counts, you’d get those, too, but I don’t, so these numbers are the ones we have. YMMV.

Major League Soccer starts its 17th season this weekend, tying it with the original North American Soccer League for longevity among top-flight soccer leagues on these shores in the modern area. So, just for fun, here’s a look at where each of the markets that had one or more NASL or MLS teams over the years rank in terms of average announced attendance. The “NASL Years” actually include 18 seasons, as I’ve included the totals from the precursor rival leagues of 1967, the USA and the NPSL, and those numbers go through 1984. The “MLS Years” would be from 1996-2011.

Market	Team(s)	Yrs	G	Total	Average
Minneapolis	Kicks, Strikers	7	99	2,264,316	22,872
Seattle	Sounders	13	186	4,207,207	22,619
New York	Generals, Skyliners, Cosmos, MetroStars/Red Bulls	33	465	9,064,288	19,493
Vancouver	Royal Canadians, Royals, Whitecaps	14	190	3,224,471	16,971
Salt Lake City	Real	7	109	1,833,671	16,823
Tampa	Rowdies, Mutiny	16	235	3,728,610	15,866
Los Angeles	Toros, Wolves, Aztecs, Surf, Galaxy, Chivas USA	31	562	8,873,337	15,789
Columbus	Crew	16	246	3,749,683	15,243
Tulsa	Roughnecks	7	105	1,519,480	14,471
Washington, DC	Darts, Whips, Diplomats, Team America, DC United	29	417	5,885,098	14,113
Portland	Timbers	9	131	1,710,126	13,054
Boston	Rovers, Beacons, Minutemen, Tea Men, Revolution	24	347	4,525,299	13,041
Denver	Dynamos, Caribous, Rapids	19	282	3,658,091	12,972
Houston	Stars, Hurricane, Dynamo	11	161	2,084,706	12,948
SF Bay Area	Gales, Clippers, Earthquakes, Stompers, Clash/Earthquakes	29	418	5,253,896	12,569
Montreal	Olympiques, Manic	6	78	928,361	11,902
Chicago	Spurs, Mustangs, Sting, Fire	27	391	4,618,078	11,811
Toronto	City, Falcons, Metros, Metros-Croatia, Blizzard, FC	22	297	3,275,751	11,029
Kansas City	Spurs, Wiz/Wizards/Sporting	19	282	2,998,244	10,632
Calgary	Boomers	1	16	168,019	10,501
Detroit	Cougars, Express	5	66	666,910	10,105
Dallas	Tornado, Burn/FC	31	424	4,264,688	10,058
Philadelphia	Atoms, Fury, Union	10	137	1,340,620	9,786
Miami/Ft.L	Toros, Gatos, Strikers, Fusion	16	218	2,083,564	9,558
Edmonton	Drillers	4	63	572,425	9,086
Memphis	Rogues	3	46	400,364	8,704
Jacksonville	Tea Men	2	32	266,675	8,334
San Diego	Jaws, Sockers	9	132	1,099,816	8,332
Las Vegas	Quicksilvers	1	13	92,031	7,079
Rochester	Lancers	11	137	838,696	6,122
St. Louis	Stars	11	131	763,524	5,828
Atlanta	Chiefs, Apollos	10	123	647,494	5,264
Cleveland	Stokers	2	22	108,273	4,922
San Antonio	Thunder	2	23	106,052	4,611
Honolulu	Team Hawaii	1	13	59,056	4,543
Baltimore	Bays, Comets	5	52	219,713	4,225
Hartford	Bicentennials	3	36	132,687	3,686
Pittsburgh	Spartans	1	16	49,959	3,122
COMBINED TOTALS		33	6,701	87,283,279	13,025

It’s interesting that Minneapolis takes the top spot, though it’s all NASL and only seven seasons of that. The accomplishments of the Cosmos at the gate are brought down a bit by their precursors, the Generals and Skyliners, and by the MetroStars/Red Bulls. Seattle gets a boost from the current-day Sounders, but the original Sounders averaged 18,322 in 10 NASL seasons, ranking them fourth in the original league’s standings behind Minneapolis, New York and Tampa (who gets hurt in the combined rankings by the Mutiny). MLS is in 16 of the top 20 markets on this list, missing only Minneapolis, Tampa, Tulsa and Calgary.

I wouldn’t read a lot into this because the two eras are so very different and the leagues went about things in very different manners (if you’re curious, the NASL averaged 10,749 over its lifetime, while MLS’ all-time average is 15,744, almost 50% higher). I just thought it was interesting.

The Major Indoor Soccer League’s regular season ended today and here are the final attendance figures for the league:

Team	G	Total	Avg.	Med	Hi	Lo
Baltimore Blast	12	71,538	5,962	5,800	9,644	2,316
Rochester Lancers	12	68,102	5,675	5,570	7,210	3,997
Missouri Comets	12	49,105	4,092	3,892	8,276	2,853
Milwaukee Wave	12	47,463	3,955	3,336	5,964	3,059
Wichita Wings	12	45,707	3,809	3,865	5,200	2,538
Syracuse Silver Knights	12	35,406	2,951	2,901	3,892	2,317
Norfolk SharX	12	19,157	1,596	1,385	3,422	635
MISL TOTAL	84	336,478	4,006	3,700	9,644	635

The MISL averaged 4,007 fans per game (announced) last season and 4,006 this season. That’s consistency. The Baltimore Blast led their league for the eighth consecutive season, but their average announced crowd was down 14 percent from last year. Milwaukee was also down by 13 percent. Missouri was basically flat and the other four teams were in their first year. Rochester was a success right out of the gate, as the Lancers finished second in the East and second in average attendance. The playoffs begin this week.

Former US National Team stars Claudio Reyna and Tony Meola have earned election to the National Soccer Hall of Fame on the Player Ballot, while their former teammate Desmond Armstrong was the Veteran ballot choice and former US Women’s National Team coach Tony DiCiccio is this year’s Builder ballot pick, it was announced today.

Most of us believed Reyna and Meola were locks, and Captain America got a higher vote percentage (96.08%) than anyone in the modern era other than Mia Hamm (97.16% five years ago). Only Eric Wynalda and Michelle Akers have topped 90% since 2004. Marco Etcheverry finished third with 58.82%, just above where he was last year. The only real interesting thing in the rest of the top 10 (which was all they announced), at least to me, was that Jason Kreis got double the support he did a year ago (up to 30.39% from 15.84%). It may be his support will continue to grow, as we’ve seen with some others over time.

One thing appears to be pretty clear at this point, though: service for the US National Team is paramount to a majority of voters. No MLS player who didn’t play for the Nats has been elected (yet, Waldo was the first former MLS-er elected eight years ago).

I have to admit, as someone who likes to celebrate the American soccer player and our own history, if you’re going to set the bar there, there are worse things. I have voted for Etch and would continue to vote for foreign-born MLS players who have a major impact on our domestic league, but I’m not going to complain too loudly if Yanks are all that get in.

You can see the results of Player ballot voting since 2004 here.

One of American soccer’s most storied and celebrated names returns in 2012 as the (new) NASL’s Tampa Bay team recently re-acquired its traditional name and logos after a protracted legal battle. The original Rowdies were my first soccer love, the team of my youth, my pride and joy, the Bay area’s first major professional team and “a kick in the grass” from 1975 until they folded in 1993. The Rowdies’ logo and familiar cartoon character, Ralph, were the creation of artist Scott Ross, who recently took time to answer a few questions about the genesis of these icons, including how the beloved “Rowdie Ralph” was originally known as Reggie.

Q. When did you first get involved with the Rowdies? Did they approach you, how did that work?
A. In early 1975 I read an article in the Tampa Tribune about a new professional soccer team coming in the spring. I sent some slide samples of my illustration work over to their temporary office (a condo in Carrollwood). I had recently graduated from the University of Kansas with a degree in Advertising and Editorial Art and moved to the Tampa Bay area. I was freelancing as an illustrator while working a full-time job at an architectural delineation firm in Clearwater. I was happily surprised when I got a call from a guy working for the team and asked to come over for a meeting. I met Beau Rogers (the general manager) and George Strawbridge (the owner) at that meeting and after they hired me to come up with a logo, Rogers asked if he could be my manager. It was a good day for a 24-year-old struggling artist.

Q. The word mark is probably a good place to start. It’s very unique, even today. What were you trying to accomplish with that, what was the inspiration and what did you go through before you hit on the final design?
A. They already had an ad agency in Atlanta working on their PR stuff and I was given a rough sketch of a logo and asked to “clean it up a little and make it less strange-looking.” I re-worked it but still kept the original idea for the one-color version. Then I came up with the two-color version using the colors of their uniform. Originally the letters were very close together and all the ends of the letters were longer. I think originally someone used the look of the psychedelic Haight-Ashbury Fillmore posters for the lettering but it was highly unreadable. When i did the original character logo I added the border around the lettering so I could add a trim color. I messed with all the letters to make it more readable and more commercial even though it was pretty unique for the time or any time.

Q. Then there’s Rowdie Ralph, who went through some changes over time. Where did he come from? Did you get direction from the team that they wanted this or that?
A. Beau Rogers just turned me loose on it and took the first version I came up with. Since most of the original players were from England and I was a big Elton John fan at the time I wanted the character to be called Reggie, but Beau immediately started calling him Ralph and that’s what stuck. I thought that name was boring as hell, but as long as they kept sending checks I thought Ralph sounded great! Originally they thought they would have yellow and green uniforms and that was why it was that way on everything even though the uniforms debuted as white and stayed that way. Ralph was used as the official Rowdies character logo from the get-go until they ceased to exist (in 1994). It was put on millions of shirts and everything else you can imagine. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t care much for it in short order because in the next couple years I became a better artist and changed the style a bit. In the following years I created an official schedule poster every year and changed the character a lot every year.

Q. So the Ralph we see in 1975 and the various iterations from 1977-on, they’re all the same character?
A. Yeah, it’s all the same guy if I say it is, right?

Q. Did you also do the Wowdies (dance team) logo (which was just one letter off)?
A. Yes I did the Wowdies and Fannies logos. I actually did full color elaborate character versions of those two logos and was asked to haul them out to San Jose because (then-Rowdies PR man) Francisco Marcos thought he could get them on the CBS broadcast that day. I left them in their trailer and no one ever saw them again, so I have no record of those. The artwork I do have is what I managed to salvage from the old days and scan in so I had digital files to share for things like your blog. I’m guessing that I lost at least a third of all the artwork I created over the years for the Rowdies. In those days I painted everything on illustration board with paint and that was that. Since 1992 I’ve only worked digitally so I have perfect originals of everything I’ve done since that time because I only have to send copies to clients. What you see on my website is a drop in the bucket of all the work over the years because I would always have to send off the original painting and never see it again except for printed versions.

Q. You gave life to these things and then let them go and they’re still popular today. Is that just part and parcel of the job?
A. Everything I did was work for hire and I never signed any agreement whatsoever as far as copyright for anything-let me call a lawyer! I was hired to paint posters, special event artwork, t-shirt designs, caricatures for visiting stars (like Pele, Elton John etc.) and lots of other stuff. I was just glad to get the work at that time and they promoted me right along with the team and allowed me to travel with them all over the country. Those first few years were very exciting for me as well as all those wild British soccer players who were having their American adventure.

Q. What was that like, to be hanging out with the team that was such a big deal in the Bay area at that time?
A. The first few years I would party with all the players at functions around Tampa Bay and especially at (nightclub) Boneshaker’s in Hyde Park after every game. I was very friendly with the whole office staff, players, coaches (Coach Eddie Firmani was a really wonderful, friendly guy) and still communicate with some of them. Since Beau Rogers was an owner and my manager, I had access to every part of the stadium, including the owner’s box and the field. Through the Rowdies I was introduced to the league offices and did Kick (magazine) covers, caricatures of the players and posters as well as projects for lots of league sponsors. I sat on the bench lots of times and would fill an empty seat once in awhile on their flights to away games. That first year championship in San Jose was great. To this day I can still hear the explosion of the midfield blast by Arsene Auguste that won the game and the craziness afterward of winning it all in the first year. I don’t even know why I was sitting on the bench during that game, but I do remember Kyle Rote, Jr. sitting beside me as well as Bruce Jenner (He was training for the Olympics that he would win and living around San Jose back then). I got to meet lots of celebrities (Leroy Neiman, Pele, Mick Jagger, Henry Kissinger, and various other people of the day) by traveling with them and partying afterward. It was great because all of the players were pretty young and in America for the first time and all of them were really nice guys off the field.

Q. And now your work has new life. Have you been following the sturm und drang over that?
A. I just read about the new team purchasing the logo lately. So far I’ve only seen a one color version being used. No one has ever contacted me from the new team. I don’t think they are interested in any old stuff really, just capitalizing on the goodwill of the old team in this community.

Many thanks to Scott (whose website full of outstanding work is here) and to Ian Morris, whose excellent Rowdies blog was the source of some of the photos, illustrations and information above.

With a month to go before the 2011-2012 Major Indoor Soccer League champion is crowned, let’s check in on the latest MISL attendance numbers:

Team	G	Total	Avg.	Med	Hi	Lo
Rochester Lancers	10	56,171	5,617	5,570	7,210	3,997
Baltimore Blast	10	53,769	5,377	5,740	8,078	2,316
Missouri Comets	9	37,608	4,179	3,891	8,276	2,853
Milwaukee Wave	12	47,463	3,955	3,336	5,964	3,059
Wichita Wings	11	39,342	3,577	3,500	5,000	2,000
Syracuse Silver Knights	9	25,713	2,857	2,680	3,670	2,317
Norfolk SharX	9	12,854	1,428	1,146	3,422	635
MISL TOTAL	70	272,920	3,899	3,525	8,276	635

Rochester has maintained its league lead over Baltimore, which is noteworthy because the Blast has led its league in average announced attendance for the last seven years. Each team has two home games left (Baltimore hosts Milwaukee tomorrow night in a game that ought to draw a good crowd), but one of Rochester’s is on a Thursday. While it might be hard for the Lancers to actually lead the league, their debut season has been a successful one at the gate (the best expansion team performance in recent years, actually).

Milwaukee is the only team that has completed its home schedule, and the Wave’s average crowd figure is down 13 percent from last year (from 4,531 to 3,955). The Missouri Comets have also done well, playing to 70 percent of capacity at the Independence Events Center. The other three teams (Wichita, Syracuse and Norfolk) are expansion clubs.

Given the number of home games left and how each team has been drawing, the league still projects to finish just under last year’s average of 4,007, but the additions of Rochester and Wichita and the stability of Missouri are reasons for optimism.

Which means someone had to actually write it:

FYI: ” The Job ‘ KILLING ‘: Nazis!!! “ ( Plural ) And ” ‘ they ‘ “ = ” NO JOBS ” FOR  I.E. ” YOU “ I.E. ” youths!!! “ Ever seen that scripted ” … soup Nazi …” clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ3AOmZ2fps&feature=related or the female version: ” … come back in one year … “: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNwbjcuQUv8!!!

Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s get the obvious out of the way up front, shall we? There is not currently, nor has there ever been, a full, traditional system of on-field-merit-based promotion and relegation in any American pro soccer endeavor that I’m aware of^[1].

With that said, the essence of promotion and relegation, the ability to move between levels of a nebulous pyramid, does exist, and has for more than a decade^[2]. But more than half of the clubs who have ever moved up to a higher level have struggled and, in many cases, either moved back down or folded altogether within four years. And you can hold up the successful second division organizations that have recently become successful first division organizations as examples of how it could work as long as you also understand that Seattle, Vancouver, Portland and Montreal had, on average, nearly two years to prepare for their first MLS seasons, and didn’t try to make the move over one off-season.

What follows is a list of teams that have moved up, down or both, between levels of the game in this country, since 1995 (I believe it’s comprehensive, but additions and corrections are, of course, always welcome):
Read the rest of this entry »

Latest crowd figures from the Major Indoor Soccer League, where Rochester has taken over the lead from Baltimore. The Blast has led its league in average attendance in each of the last seven years.

Team	G	Total	Avg.	Med	Hi	Lo
Rochester Lancers	9	48,961	5,440	5,212	6,997	3,997
Baltimore Blast	10	53,769	5,377	5,740	8,078	2,316
Missouri Comets	8	33,340	4,168	3,640	8,276	2,853
Milwaukee Wave	9	33,591	3,732	3,316	5,416	3,059
Wichita Wings	10	34,903	3,490	3,350	5,000	2,000
Syracuse Silver Knights	8	22,569	2,821	2,637	3,670	2,317
Norfolk SharX	8	11,574	1,447	1,082	3,422	635
MISL TOTAL	62	238,707	3,850	3,461	8,276	635

The league is projecting to finish at slightly under last year’s average of 4,007 per game.

For the seventh consecutive year, I’m one of the voters for the National Soccer Hall of Fame, and it’s a responsibility I take very seriously. I’ve made each of my previous six ballots and the rationales behind them public, so there’s no need to change now.

There are 12 newcomers on the 31-player ballot for 2012. Here’s the complete list (*first year): Raul Diaz Arce, Chris Armas, Jose Burciaga Jr.*, Mike Burns, Ronald Cerritos*, Mauricio Cienfuegos, Marco Etcheverry, Lorrie Fair*, Robin Fraser, Chris Henderson, Jason Kreis, Jen Lalor-Nielsen*, Roy Lassiter, Shannon MacMillan, Tony Meola*, Joe-Max Moore, Victor Nogueira, Peter Nowak, John O’Brien, Ronnie O’Brien*, Cindy Parlow, Ante Razov*, David Regis*, Claudio Reyna*, Tiffany Roberts, Thori Staples Bryan*, Carlos Valderrama, Greg Vanney*, Tisha Venturini-Hoch, Peter Vermes and Kerry Zavagnin.*

I voted for seven of those 31 last year, and while I’m not necessarily honor-bound to continue to do so, they’re a good starting point. The seven are Armas, Cienfuegos, Etcheverry, Fraser, Kreis, MacMillan and Noguiera. Meola and Reyna seem pretty obvious to me, which would give me nine. We’re allowed to vote for up to 10, but we don’t have to vote for 10. I’ve gone over most of these people in years past, so let’s take the other 10 newcomers and see if there are one or two deserving folks in that bunch:

• Jose Burciaga Jr.: Turned pro straight out of high school, and wasn’t ready for it. Came back twice from calamitous knee injuries and was an MLS Best XI pick in 2006. Is still only 30 years old and might be the youngest inductee ever if he made it. I don’t believe he will. NO
• Ronald Cerritos: The El Salvadoran international is the all-time leading scorer for MLS’ San Jose Earthquakes. He’s already in the ‘Quakes’ Hall of Fame, and I think that’s where it ends. NO
• Lorrie Fair: Absolutely one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met, and quite a fine player. Not a Hall of Famer, though. NO
• Jen Lalor-Nielsen: Played four years for the USA, including on the 1995 Women’s World Cup team (she didn’t see action in the tournament), several years overseas and three years in WUSA. Obviously a fine player. Not a Hall of Famer. NO
• Ronnie O’Brien: You can say “What if Dema Kovalenko hadn’t broken his leg?” but O’Brien came back from that the next year and was an MLS Best XI player in 2005, when he was just 26. He fell out of favor the next year under Dallas coach Colin Clarke and, despite a career resurgence in San Jose in 2008, just kind of disappeared. He’s still just 33. Good player. Not a Hall of Famer. NO
• Ante Razov: This is an interesting one. Razov was a gifted goal-scorer (76 goals in 151 appearances for the Chicago Fire, 30 more in four seasons for Chivas USA) who I got to see close up and who I quite liked. I don’t believe he was well-liked by many of his teammates or some of the club’s hierarchy, but if I needed a guy to score a goal, Razov in his prime would be a guy you’d like to have available for selection. He actually scored more goals (in fewer games) than Kreis, for whom I voted last year, and is fourth in MLS history (though his goals-per-90 minutes is behind guys like Roy Lassiter). Became a bit of a journeyman toward the end. I’d be surprised if he got 35% of the vote, but we’ll see. NO
• David Regis: I think the less said about David, the better. NON, MON AMI
• Thori Staples Bryan: A great college player who earned 64 caps in a decade spent with the US Nats (and was on the 1995 Women’s World Cup team – starting twice in four tournament appearances and an alternate in Atlanta in 1996). Fast and competitive, she loved the game enough to come back after more than four years away to play in the W-League at 34. Can’t see her making the Hall of Fame, though. NO
• Greg Vanney: An MLS original, he replaced the injured Armas on the 2002 World Cup roster before being injured himself just days later. Very good defender, hard-working, good guy to have on your back line. Don’t see him in the Hall, though. NO
• Kerry Zavagnin: A stalwart for the Kansas City Wizards and occasional player for the National Team, his career says solid pro and contributor to championship teams. But not transcendent. NO

So none of the other first-timers are quite there, it says here. That leaves me with nine guys, if I wish to include the players I’ve previously voted for. The only caveat to that is that I’ve voted annually for Victor Noguiera because of the whole anti-indoor thing the Hall has perpetuated. Now there’s an actual Indoor Soccer Hall of Fame (well, it’s virtual for now, but then again, so is the St. Louis Cardinals’, so there), and Noguiera was in the inaugural class (which I’m proud to say I was a voter for as well). I could leave him off this ballot, but I still think he’s one of the very best indoor players ever and should be in this hall, too. So he gets my vote for another year.

Here, then, is my final ballot for 2012: Chris Armas, Mauricio Cienfuegos, Marco Etcheverry, Robin Fraser, Jason Kreis, Shannon MacMillan, Tony Meola, Victor Noguiera and Claudio Reyna. That’s nine. That’ll have to be it this time around.

Your thoughts are welcome.