Now that every professional (men’s and women’s) team in MLS, the NASL, USL Pro and the NWSL has had at least one home match, we can take a look at the attendance figures for each team in the various leagues through games of May 5. (As always, corrections are welcome.)

NOTES:

• MLS, which drew six million fans for the first time ever in 2012, is on pace to do slightly below that (if every team holds its average for the rest of the season), but at 17,272 and playing to about 83% capacity, its numbers are healthier than ever overall. There are still trouble spots (Chivas USA, obviously, but to a lesser extent, Colorado, Columbus and Chicago), but the bright spots are very, very bright.
• Starting the MLS season earlier than ever may be something they want to re-think (if it’s mathematically possible, given all the constraints). This year’s March average (17,803) was well off last year’s record 20,783 and below 2011 (19,225) and 2010 (17,992). The season began on March 2 this year, a week earlier than last year and almost two weeks earlier than the year before. I don’t know if there’s a strong correlation (I’d have to delve deeper into it) but those are the numbers. (Incidentally, the April numbers were right about in line with the last few years.)
• Things are looking up in the early going in the Division II North American Soccer League, with strong showings in Minnesota (though not quite as strong as they wanted), the newly-rebranded United FC is 25% ahead of the former Stars’ numbers from a year ago, when they opened at the Metrodome and then moved back outdoors. They’re playing all but one of their Spring Championship matches indoors this time around.
• In fact, every NASL team but Edmonton (where new stands are finally being constructed at Clarke Stadium) and San Antonio is up year-over-year and the league itself is up about 5%. (In the Scorpions’ case, they couldn’t match last year’s numbers no matter what, as their lovely new yard has a much smaller capacity than the high school football stadium the team played in last year.)
• Orlando continues to set the pace in USL Pro (though their MLS chances took a hit late last week). The Lions drew club regular-season records of 9,140 on April 19 and then 9,589 eight days later (and had bad weather kibosh what could have been a couple of other great crowds). While mainstays Charleston, Richmond and Wilmington will be fine, there are troubling signs in Los Angeles (as usual) and Tampa Bay, while Phoenix has lost half its audience (and its club president) in its first month of play.
• Incidentally, the league numbers you will see for USL Pro throughout this season will include the “crossover” games against MLS Reserve League teams. There have been three so far, with Salt Lake drawing a high of 8,263 for their game against Phoenix, Portland getting 1,803 for VSI Tampa Bay and Colorado getting 307 for Harrisburg’s visit. Without the MLS Reserves, the USL Pro average is 2,614 at the moment.
• The latest attempt at women’s pro soccer, the NWSL, is 14 games in and Portland, Washington and Kansas City have drawn healthy (in Portland’s case, super-healthy) crowds. Boston’s off its former league-leading pace, but the big disappointment was Seattle, which drew just 2,618 for its inaugural against Sky Blue FC Saturday night. The Sounders Women (a different club altogether) led the W-League in attendance last year thanks in part to a star-studded roster, but the Reign is finding the going a bit tougher so far. Saturday will be Western New York’s first Saturday home game with Abby Wambach in the lineup, so we’ll see what happens there.
• And, in case you’re wondering, the PDL season began over the weekend, with the Victoria Highlanders drawing 1,804 for their home opener, a 3-0 win over Kitsap. But LA Misioneros reported 100 for their match against Fresno and the awkwardly-named OC Blues Strikers FC (the former Pali Blues) drew 40 for its opener against Ventura County. The W-League season starts this weekend.

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:

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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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.

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.

If you’ve ever thought the Premier Development League business model sounds great – no player salaries or workman’s comp, limited regional travel, short seasons – keep in mind it’s no guarantee of success. A dozen PDL teams – some of them clubs of long standing – are no more, according to the 2013 schedule announced today by United Soccer Leagues.

The biggest loss – at least from an historical perspective – is the Nashville Metros, who had been around in one form or another since 1990. Begun as an indoor team, the Metros moved outdoors, went professional, played at the second division level (briefly as the Tennessee Rhythm) before dropping back to the PDL in 2002. They’d been operating at a subsistence level – drawing 131 fans per game last year – before apparently giving up the ghost this off-season.

Orange County Blue Star, which began as the pro Orange County Zodiac in 1997, is also a casualty after 16 years, while the Brooklyn Knights are out after 15 seasons. The Fraser Valley Mariners (formerly the Abbotsford Rangers and Mariners) and New Orleans Jesters (nee Shell Shockers) both survived ten years but are no more. The Cincinnati Kings, who began as a third-division pro club in 2005 but had played the last five years at the PDL level, are also gone, as are the Ogden Outlaws, who had been around since 2006.

Shorter lifespans included the FC Jax (Jacksonville, Fla.) Destroyers, Fredericksburg Hotspur and Real Maryland Monarchs (which all played two seasons) and the one-and-one Boston Victory and Worcester Hydra.

Four new teams have joined the PDL for 2013, including the awkwardly-named New York Magic – F.A. Euro (that’s one club), Oklahoma City (no nickname yet, hopefully it’s not “City”), Real Boston Rams and Southwest Florida Adrenaline. So the PDL is net minus eight clubs from last year.

There have been several PDL success stories, as the Des Moines Menace, Michigan Bucks, Kansas City Brass, Orlando City U23s, Vermont Voltage and Westchester Flames have all been around for 15 years or more. But of the 210 PDL clubs in the modern era (since 1996), 147 are no longer with us and 94 (45%) have lasted three years or fewer. It’s not easy to do this, even with small budgets.

So it appears we’ll have 106 men’s outdoor clubs in 2013, down five from 2012, but still the second highest total of the century. With at least a couple of NASL and USL Pro teams joining the fray in 2014, and expansion still a near-term possibility in MLS, we could soon get close to the modern era record of 112 clubs set back in 1998.

Final Canadian Football League attendance numbers for 2012:

H/T to Twelve Men On the Field.

After hearing the clamoring for years from a vocal minority that changes needed to be made to the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, the United States Soccer Federation announced a sweeping set of changes to the country’s oldest soccer tournament yesterday.

Among the changes for the 99th competition: the biggest field in the tournament’s history (64 clubs), with all US-based professional sides (from MLS, the NASL and USL Pro) in the tournament proper for the first time; an increased representation by amateur sides; and an increased chance of lower-division sides hosting matches, something traditionalists feel is critical to enhance the charm of the tournament and increase the chance for upsets. Instead of a straight bidding situation to host Cup matches (which has been the case for years), a random draw will take place through the quarterfinals whenever two teams are matched up who both apply to host and who both have stadiums that meet USSF criteria. It’s not a pure 50/50 shot for all matches throughout the tournament, but as long as a lower-division side is interested in hosting and has a decent stadium, they’ve now got a better chance of bringing an MLS team to town.

Today, USSF tells us the lower-division teams are stoked to have a better chance to host MLS teams in the Cup. So I figured I’d look to see how they’ve done, historically, when an MLS team comes to town.
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This morning I filed the paperwork to officially leave the Republican party. To add “which has been my home for the last 28 years” would be inaccurate; while I’ve been a registered Republican since turning 18, I’ve gradually slid toward the center over time and have voted my conscience rather than just my party much more often than not¹. And while I still consider myself conservative on many issues², the GOP simply doesn’t represent me anymore.

Especially in this state, the Republican Party is the party of hate, of intolerance, of not only making sure you win, but that the other guy gets crushed, and if the less fortunate suffer because of it, well, that’s too bad. It’s the party of euphemisms like “job creators³,” of FOX News and of deliberately slowing down the political process that’s designed to help America so they can make sure everyone else knows how pissed off they are.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party is the party of comic ineptitude, an inability to get anything done or (most of the time) come up with credible candidates for high national offices, of bleeding hearts⁴, of entitlements and of Keith Olbermann⁵. I can’t go there, either.

So until and unless there’s a viable third party, or until one of the other two starts worrying more about actually doing its job than keeping its job, I’ll be one of a growing number of people considering themselves independent.

I won’t be voting in Arizona’s primary (whenever that is), but it’s a small price to pay.

See ya, GOP. This is one breakup where I can honestly say, “It’s not me. It’s you.”

1 – While I was a Regan Republican from the time I could first vote, I also voted for Clinton and Obama. And, yes, Bush II. Sue me.
2 – I believe in capital punishment, your right to own a handgun and “I want there to be just enough government so that when I turn on the faucet, water comes out,” to steal a line. But I also don’t think you need an AK-47, I think you should be able to marry whoever you like and while I don’t personally smoke marijuana, I’d rather you did that than abuse alcohol. So smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.
3 – Just like liberals like the term “rain forest” instead of “jungle” because white people aren’t going to donate money to save a “jungle,” the GOP has taken to using “job creator” to mean “rich people.”
4 – My dad – like many immigrants – is a bleeding heart liberal (and he’d be the first to tell you that). I accept and respect that a lot more than I used to, even though I can’t go as far to my left as he can.
5 – Whose talent I respect immensely (we once shared an agent), but whose politics and righteous indignation are just too much for me.

Might be the last one for a while, but here’s the latest list of attendance figures for the prominent leagues (if a team’s not listed, either they haven’t had a home game yet or I have no figures for them).

All the leagues are up and running now, so here’s a look at where the crowds are going in the prominent soccer leagues in the US and Canada as of yesterday’s games: