The indoor soccer season officially ended Saturday night with the Baltimore Blast’s 8-6 win over the Missouri Comets in the second game of the Major Indoor Soccer League finals. It’s Baltimore’s seventh championship (including one by the original Blast in 1984), second only to San Diego’s 10 among top-flight indoor leagues.

The 2012-2013 season saw the MISL average 4,329 fans per game, up about eight percent from last year, but the number would likely drop a bit had Chicago reported its last three attendance figures. Anyway, here are the numbers we have:

Team	G	Total	Average	Median	High	Low
Rochester	13	82,694	6,361	5,365	10,320	4,191
Baltimore	13	72,083	5,545	6,311	7,060	3,038
Milwaukee	13	65,895	5,069	5,071	8,009	3,733
Missouri	13	55,091	4,238	4,239	5,481	3,026
Syracuse	13	44,221	3,402	3,376	4,567	2,468
Wichita	13	37,318	2,871	2,600	4,500	2,200
Chicago	10	23,659	2,366	2,212	3,488	1,572
MISL TOTAL	88	380,961	4,329	4,051	10,320	1,572

A few notes:

• For the first time since 2003-2004, Baltimore didn’t lead its league in average announced attendance (Monterrey was the last team to out-draw the Blast). Rochester did, thanks in part to a crowd of 10,320 on January 27 (a game that almost didn’t happen), a record for this iteration of the MISL. But the second-year Lancers were a fairly consistent draw throughout the season and raised their average by 12 percent over last year. They appear to be a franchise on solid footing.
• Their upstate New York rivals, however, are a puzzler. While Syracuse’s numbers were 15 percent above last year’s, their team president publicly stated the Silver Knights were “getting about 2,000 a game this year,” the same as last year (when they announced 2,951 per game). They’re going to need to show growth in year three for there to be a year four, it seems.
• Milwaukee made a big jump, boosting their average 28 percent year-over-year to their highest levels since they moved out of the Bradley Center in 2004. The Wave are the longest continuously-playing soccer team in the country, and would play their 30th season in 2013-2014.
• Missouri, in its third season, showed modest growth (<4 percent) but did a great job nearly packing its building on short notice for the first game of the finals (5,279). While they're not going to match the original Comets’ impact on the market, they appear to be a solid franchise. With Wichita just over 200 miles away and rumors of the St. Louis Ambush returning for next season, the league could have begun rebuilding critical mass in the Midwest.
• Speaking of Wichita, I can’t figure them out, can you? They have what appears to be a terrific building for this sport, the original Wings were beloved, yet these Wings can’t draw and saw their average drop 25 percent from last year. Obviously, they’ve not been a very good team (LeBaron Hollimon has to be on the hot seat going into next year), but they’ve only averaged 3,321 per game in two years since they were resurrected. Luckily, their owner owns the building, so they may be doing better financially than other teams that struggle at the gate. (EDIT: Wings owner Wink Hartman announced this morning that the team is for sale, so evidently they’re not doing better financially than other struggling teams. Unless Hartman cuts a new owner a break on the rent, new ownership is going to be even farther behind the 8-ball.)
• Then we have Chicago, about which perhaps the less said, the better. Their announced average of 2,366 per game (for 10 games, we’re missing the last three) is below that of the last Chicago team to play in the Sears Center (the Storm in its final season in the XSL four years ago). But most of their crowds looked like this, or this, or this (or, in the playoffs, this). That doesn’t bode well, especially given their optimism about filling the place. The next few months will be very interesting as we see whether or not the Soul joins the Riot, the Storm, the Sting, the Horizon, the Shoccers and the Vultures on the scrap heap of Chicago indoor soccer franchises.

It’s been just over a month since I wrote about the strange statistical totals coming out of the Major Indoor Soccer League’s teams in Chicago and Syracuse, where their goalkeepers – particularly Chicago’s Jeff Richey – were being credited with record-breaking (and near-historic) numbers of saves.

At that time, a league official told me they would have a talk with the teams to remind them of statistical standards. Based on numbers over the last month, it looks like Syracuse got the message, while Chicago ignored it.

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In contrast to the process of filling out my National Soccer Hall of Fame ballot, my Indoor Soccer Hall of Fame ballot was a breeze. It’s only the second time we’ve made selections – the inaugural class of 12 was inducted two years ago. With so many deserving candidates and so few already in, the first few stabs at this will consist of Level I guys (the absolute best players ever). So I just went through the long ballot and picked the best six players and one coach who I felt were the best who didn’t get in the first class. (We were limited to a total of seven between players, coaches and administrators.) My picks are after the jump.

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Once again I am a voter for the National Soccer Hall of Fame’s annual player election, and, as I’ve always made my ballots and rationales public, there’s no reason to stop now.

But instead of the usual quick comments about each nominee and my final list, I felt this year I should address the question, “What IS a Hall of Famer?” It seems as though there are many different standards and definitions of what constitutes a player worthy of induction. I’ll tell you what I think, and reveal my selections, after the jump.

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Syracuse Silver Knights president Tommy Tanner, who famously said his MISL team would “sell out every game” before it played one, is perplexed about why they haven’t actually sold out every game. Or come close, even.

“We’re still not where we need to be,” said Tanner, who vowed there will be, at least, a third campaign for his bunch. “We got about 2,000 a game last year and we’re getting about 2,000 a game this year. It’s almost exactly the same. And I can’t explain that. I really can’t.”

Well, I can explain it: you seem to think tickets just sell themselves. You seem to have two people charged with selling group tickets, which is great, but you need a lot more people selling all sorts of tickets if you’re going to average more than the 3,424 announced that is ahead of only Wichita and Chicago in the seven-team MISL.

Team	G	Total	Average	Median	High	Low
Rochester Lancers	*11	68,546	6,231	5,365	10,320	4,191
Baltimore Blast	12	65,697	5,475	6,248	7,060	3,038
Milwaukee Wave	11	51,303	4,664	4,934	5,602	3,733
Missouri Comets	11	47,204	4,291	4,518	5,481	3,026
Syracuse Silver Knights	11	37,664	3,424	3,376	4,567	2,617
Wichita Wings	13	37,318	2,871	2,600	4,500	2,200
Chicago Soul	*10	23,659	2,366	2,212	3,488	1,572
MISL TOTAL	79	331,391	4,195	3,919	10,320	1,572
*=Missing one game

What’s really strange is Tanner’s assertion that they were getting “about 2,000 a game last year and… about 2,000 a game this year.” The Silver Knights announced an average of 2,951 per game (sixth out of seven teams) last year and have announced an average of 3,424 this year (an increase of 16 percent). So they appear to be growing.

Unless you’re going to tell me that indoor soccer teams aren’t entirely truthful about their attendance figures. Which, come on.

(All this said…I don’t know who he is, but Syracuse’s play-by-play announcer is really good. REALLY good. Great description of the game, just the right amount of enthusiasm, knows the terminology, keeps up with the action, good voice. I don’t know how he got good, but he’s good.)

Here’s the first look this season at attendance figures from the Major Indoor Soccer League, now in its second season under the United Soccer Leagues’ umbrella.

Team	G	Total	Average	Median	High	Low
Rochester	*9	55,747	6,194	5,365	10,320	4,191
Baltimore	10	52,321	5,232	5,540	6,711	3,038
Milwaukee	9	40,380	4,487	4,307	5,543	3,733
Missouri	8	35,015	4,377	4,548	5,481	3,026
Syracuse	10	34,662	3,466	3,394	4,567	2,617
Wichita	11	30,175	2,743	2,500	4,200	2,200
Chicago	#4	9,671	2,418	2,256	3,488	1,671
MISL TOTAL	61	257,971	4,229	3,967	10,320	1,671

*Missing one game.
#Missing four games.

Right away, you’ll notice that the Baltimore Blast is in danger of not leading its league in average announced attendance for the first time since 2003-2004. With Rochester drawing a league-high 10,320 on Sunday against Missouri (the biggest indoor crowd in more than five years), the Lancers put a bit more space between themselves and the second-place Blast. How much space is up for debate, as Rochester’s January 1 game against Baltimore still doesn’t have an official attendance figure attached to it.

The Blast is down just under three percent in average announced attendance compared to the same number of home games as a year ago, but they and the Wichita Wings (whose Hartman Arena is pictured above) are the only clubs looking at a decline year-over-year. The Wings, who used to pack the Kansas Coliseum back in the original MISL days, struggle to get fans to come to their cozy, modern arena (they’re down 26 percent over the same number of home games as a year ago), but when they do come, they usually come in nice, round numbers. The Wings have announced crowds of 2,600, 2,500, 2,200, 4,200, 2,500, 2,800, 3,000, 3,100, 2,300, 2,475 and 2,500. Believe them at your own risk.

But that’s nothing compared to the latest group to try to make a go of it in Chicago, where the Soul is surprisingly winning games (they’re 8-12 with six games to play, even after Sunday’s loss in Milwaukee), but not surprisingly not drawing fans. Despite their owner’s prediction that they’d have three 4,000+ crowds in January, the Soul has stopped announcing crowd figures and by the looks of things, that’s just as well. The four games they have announced crowds for have averaged 2,418, a league low, and the actual numbers are surely south of that. (Though they’d be doing great if the people who estimate their goalkeeper’s saves estimated their crowds.)

Everybody else is up in average attendance year-over-year. Syracuse is up 17 percent, Missouri is up 19 percent and Milwaukee is up 20 percent and riding what is now the longest winning streak in the indoor game at 14. (In case you’re wondering, the longest winning streak by an indoor team actually playing against full-time professionals is 19 by the 1980-81 New York Arrows. The Wave can beat that on February 24 in Rochester if they keep winning.)

If nothing else, the MISL seems to have stabilized, which is a key to at least getting the indoor game some traction. Rochester looks like a great find as a market. Baltimore and Milwaukee are the only clubs that have been around for more than three seasons, but Missouri seems solid, Syracuse is improving and if they can figure out what’s going wrong in Wichita and reverse that trend, they’d have a good base. With St. Louis rumored (as they have been for years) to be potentially getting a new team, perhaps there’s hope.

The first thing I thought when I saw that Chicago Soul goalkeeper Jeff Richey had recorded a shutout over the Syracuse Silver Knights in a Major Indoor Soccer League game on January 4 was, “Good for Jeff.” Richey is a good guy who has been toiling for various Midwestern indoor teams for a decade now, so recording a shutout – a fairly rare occurrence in the high-scoring world of indoor soccer – was a tremendous accomplishment for him.

When I read Richey had been credited with a league-record 45 saves, my second thought was, “That sounds like a lot. Too many.”

Turns out it was.

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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.

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.

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.