Imagine a bad breakup with someone you shouldn’t have hooked up with in the first place, someone who seemed perfect for you but who belittled you to your friends, was a slob, didn’t pay their half of the rent and utilities and criticized your sexual performance. Now imagine having to have that person spend one weekend a month at your house for the next two years. That’s what’s happening to WPS right now.

Rather than deal with protracted litigation over WPS’ revoking of Dan Borislow‘s magicJack franchise last October (which a Florida circuit court judge said last week had been done improperly), WPS and Borislow have reached a compromise: magicJack will play exhibition games against WPS teams for the next two years, but won’t “really” be a part of the league. This shows you how desperate the other WPS owners were to be rid of this guy – they’re currently playing under another USSF waiver because they have just five teams instead of the mandated eight. MagicJack would at least give them six, but Borislow has alienated his fellow owners and even his own players to the point where the league’s new CEO said she feared the owners might prefer to fold rather than let him back in.

So the team once described as “the Barcelona of women’s soccer” (Distaff Barça, by the way, finished third in the league and lost in the playoff semifinal) is kindasorta back, for seven or eight friendlies (at least a couple in Boca Raton) in each of the next two years. Which means two more seasons of drama for a league that needs drama less than it needs investors.

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).

THE MLS	G	Total	Avg.
Seattle Sounders FC	7	253,864	36,266
Los Angeles Galaxy	6	136,938	22,823
Vancouver Whitecaps FC	7	140,923	20,132
Toronto FC	8	157,020	19,628
Portland Timbers	6	111,762	18,627
Philadelphia Union	6	108,596	18,099
Houston Dynamo	7	122,414	17,488
New York Red Bulls	6	104,036	17,339
Chivas USA	5	85,592	17,118
DC United	6	98,063	16,344
Real Salt Lake	5	81,360	16,272
Colorado Rapids	6	83,007	13,835
FC Dallas	7	96,099	13,728
Chicago Fire	5	66,439	13,288
New England Revolution	7	87,146	12,449
Columbus Crew	6	60,427	10,071
San Jose Earthquakes	6	59,132	9,855
TMLS TOTAL	106	1,852,818	17,479
NASL	G	Total	Avg.
Montreal Impact	2	23,967	11,984
Ft. Lauderdale Strikers	3	15,599	5,200
FC Tampa Bay	6	18,538	3,090
Atlanta Silverbacks	5	15,128	3,026
Puerto Rico Islanders	2	5,374	2,687
FC Edmonton	2	4,891	2,446
Carolina RailHawks	6	13,038	2,173
NSC Minnesota Stars	5	7,115	1,423
NASL TOTAL	31	103,650	3,344
USL-PRO	G	Total	Avg.
Orlando City	4	25,605	6,401
Rochester Rhinos	4	17,185	4,296
Charleston Battery	5	17,666	3,533
Wilmington Hammerheads	4	13,919	3,480
Antigua Barracuda FC	3	9,200	3,067
Richmond Kickers	6	11,468	1,911
FC New York	2	3,041	1,521
Harrisburg City Islanders	3	3,738	1,246
Charlotte Eagles	4	3,831	958
Pittsburgh Riverhounds	5	4,779	956
Dayton Dutch Lions	4	2,719	680
Los Angeles Blues	2	1,319	660
River Plate Puerto Rico	2	442	221
Puerto Rico United	2	210	105
USL PRO TOTALS	50	115,122	2,302
WPS	G	Total	Avg.
Boston Breakers	3	13,075	4,358
Atlanta Beat	4	16,582	4,146
Western New York Flash	4	13,316	3,329
Philadelphia Independence	2	5,335	2,668
Sky Blue FC	3	7,769	2,590
magicJack	4	4,048	1,012
WPS TOTAL	20	60,125	3,006
PDL	G	Total	Avg.
Fresno Fuego	2	11,965	5,983
Des Moines Menace	2	6,464	3,232
Carolina Dynamo	2	4,998	2,499
West Texas United Sockers	3	5,756	1,919
Ventura County Fusion	4	4,662	1,166
Portland Timbers U23	3	3,285	1,095
Victoria Highlanders	1	1,027	1,027
FC Jax Destroyers	2	1,967	984
Laredo Heat	3	2,822	941
Michigan Bucks	2	1,804	902
Mississippi Brilla	2	1,447	724
Real Maryland Monarchs	1	721	721
Chivas El Paso Patriots	3	1,970	657
St. Louis Lions	2	1,212	606
RGV Grandes FC	3	1,800	600
Jersey Express	2	1,125	563
BYU Cougars	2	1,080	540
Nashville Metros	2	1,050	525
Cincinnati Kings	1	506	506
Kitsap Pumas	3	1,375	458
WSA Winnipeg	2	850	425
New Hampshire Phantoms	2	800	400
River City Rovers	2	725	363
Long Island Rough Riders	3	1,079	360
MPS Portland Phoenix	2	717	359
Ocean City Nor’easters	1	357	357
Virginia Beach Piranhas	2	688	344
Central Florida Kraze	3	995	332
Reading United AC	2	655	328
Indiana Invaders	2	625	313
Los Angeles Legends	3	900	300
Ogden Outlaws	2	552	276
Vermont Voltage	2	550	275
Tacoma Tide	2	522	261
North Sound SeaWolves	1	250	250
Fredericksburg Hotspur	3	664	221
Real Colorado Foxes	2	420	210
Toronto Lynx	2	400	200
Akron Summit Assault	2	393	197
IMG Bradenton Academics	2	375	188
Springfield Demize	2	372	186
Vancouver Whitecaps Residency	2	327	164
West Virginia Chaos	3	423	141
Chicago Fire	2	259	130
Abbotsford Mariners	1	118	118
Southern California Seahorses	1	117	117
Orange County Blue Star	3	303	101
Bermuda Hogges	2	200	100
LA Blues 23	2	190	95
New Jersey Rangers	2	143	72
Fort Lauderdale Schulz Academy	4	255	64
Westchester Flames	2	120	60
Washington Crossfire	2	118	59
PDL TOTAL	115	72,498	630
W-LEAGUE	G	Total	Avg.
Vancouver Whitecaps FC	2	2,470	1,235
Atlanta Silverbacks	1	612	612
Long Island Rough Riders	1	496	496
Charlotte Lady Eagles	1	470	470
Virginia Beach Piranhas	2	747	374
Fredericksburg Impact	1	346	346
Victoria Highlanders	3	895	298
LA Strikers	2	575	288
Colorado Rush	1	235	235
Rochester Ravens	1	200	200
Colorado Force	1	128	128
Pali Blues	3	337	112
London Gryphons	1	107	107
New Jersey Rangers	1	89	89
Toronto Lady Lynx	2	150	75
W-LEAGUE TOTAL	23	7,857	342

Thanks to those of you who pointed out some typos and transpositions in last week’s tables. Here’s the latest offering, through games of yesterday:

THE MLS	G	Total	Avg.	Median	High	Low
Seattle	4	145,147	36,287	36,255	36,433	36,204
Los Angeles	3	75,717	25,239	24,998	27,000	23,719
DC United	3	62,806	20,935	18,132	26,622	18,052
Vancouver	5	104,315	20,863	20,809	22,592	19,396
Toronto	5	97,965	19,593	20,086	22,453	16,313
Portland	3	55,881	18,627	18,627	18,627	18,627
Salt Lake	2	36,020	18,010	18,010	20,507	15,513
Philadelphia	4	71,046	17,762	18,435	19,027	15,149
New York	4	69,590	17,398	17,472	20,982	13,664
Houston	4	67,185	16,796	17,281	20,577	12,047
Dallas	4	65,295	16,324	16,203	21,867	11,022
Chivas USA	4	58,592	14,648	13,722	18,122	13,027
Chicago	3	42,833	14,278	12,473	18,203	12,157
Colorado	4	52,970	13,243	12,987	17,139	9,857
Columbus	4	43,848	10,962	10,802	14,549	7,695
San Jose	4	40,254	10,064	10,401	10,525	8,928
New England	4	39,412	9,853	9,692	12,914	7,114
Kansas City	0	0	0	0	0	0
MLS TOTAL	64	1,128,876	17,639	18,127	36,433	7,114
NASL	G	Total	Avg.	Median	High	Low
Montreal	1	12,060	12,060	12,060	12,060	12,060
Ft. Lauderdale	2	10,844	5,422	5,422	6,402	4,442
Tampa Bay	3	10,095	3,365	3,021	4,161	2,913
Atlanta	3	9,931	3,310	3,227	3,543	3,161
Puerto Rico	2	5,374	2,687	2,687	2,692	2,682
Edmonton	1	2,631	2,631	2,631	2,631	2,631
Carolina	3	4,416	1,472	1,219	2,016	1,181
Minnesota	1	1,431	1,431	1,431	1,431	1,431
NASL TOTAL	16	56,782	3,549	2,967	12,060	1,181
USL-Pro	G	Total	Avg.	Median	High	Low
Orlando	2	15,212	7,606	7,606	7,933	7,279
Antigua	*1	6,000	6,000	6,000	6,000	6,000
Charleston	2	8,162	4,081	4,081	4,083	4,079
Wilmington	2	4,908	2,454	2,454	2,984	1,924
New York	1	2,011	2,011	2,011	2,011	2,011
Richmond	4	6,917	1,729	1,742	2,049	1,385
Pittsburgh	1	1,004	1,004	1,004	1,004	1,004
Charlotte	3	2,868	956	938	1,076	854
Dayton	3	2,269	756	625	1,044	600
Los Angeles	1	696	696	696	696	696
River Plate PR	3	570	190	128	315	127
Puerto Rico Utd	*2	210	105	105	105	105
Sevilla FC PR	#0	0	0	0	0	0
Harrisburg	0	0	0	0	0	0
Rochester	0	0	0	0	0	0
USL PRO TOTALS	25	50,827	2,033	1,076	7,933	105
*Missing two games
#Missing one game
WPS	G	Total	Avg.	Median	High	Low
Atlanta	3	10,457	3,486	3,380	4,002	3,075
Boston	2	6,947	3,474	3,474	4,158	2,789
Sky Blue FC	1	2,910	2,910	2,910	2,910	2,910
Western NY	1	2,164	2,164	2,164	2,164	2,164
magicJack	2	2,232	1,116	1,116	1,224	1,008
Philadelphia	0	0	0	0	0	0
WPS TOTAL	9	24,710	2,746	2,910	4,158	1,008

NOTES:

• Now every team in the NASL has had at least one home game. The real surprise is Ft. Lauderdale, where, if they can keep up the type of boost their rebranding has apparently played a part in, they might be the flagship franchise. The others are about what you’d expect. Montreal is going to lead the league. I don’t know why people are crowing about Atlanta drawing at least 3k to their first three games – that’s better than Atlanta got before their hiatus, but it’s still below the historical average for Division II (3,434 from 1994-2010). And the Silverbacks are being outdrawn by the WPS team that plays 27 miles away. Edmonton drew 2,631 to their home league opener at 3,500-seat Foote Field, but their 5-0 defeat won’t help them sell tickets going forward. And Tampa Bay’s average attendance is off 41 percent from a year ago when they were playing on the other side of the Bay. Which is odd, because I was assured they’d be huge in St. Petersburg and sell out every game.
• Speaking of the NASL, now that every team has had a home game, we can look at something I’m trying out: projecting the league attendance based on the number of remaining home games for each club and their projected totals. Basically, it asks the question, “if every team in the league keeps its current average for the remainder of its home games, what would the league attendance be?” As different teams have different numbers of games left at any given point in the season, it’s a way to look at where we are and how outlier teams like Montreal can impact the sample. The NASL projects out to a total of 397,474, an average of 3,312. Which would be the lowest for a DII league since 2002. I’ll keep an eye on this as the season goes along and project for the other leagues once everybody has a home game.
• Despite what you might have heard somewhere, D3 numbers aren’t particularly harder to come by this year than in previous years. The only missing games are from the Caribbean teams, which comes as no surprise to anyone who understands that, infrastructurally, those teams are going to be behind the times. Charleston continues to draw well (4,079 this weekend), showing there are places where the level of play is less important than just having an established team. FC New York, which many (including me) doubted would ever play a game, announced 2,011 (could have been a deliberately made-up number) for its home opener. Wilmington drew 2,984 for its second home game. And Los Angeles drew 696 for its home debut. Obviously, that’s a tough market.
• WPS had a rough weekend, with the new Western New York Flash drawing just 2,164 for its home inaugural in Rochester. It’s time for us now to admit that Marta, as great as she is, does not resonate. She does not sell tickets. It’s not happening. And magicJack drew just 1,008 (The Sun-Sentinel’s Jeff Rusnak said the actual crowd was about half that, right after he was denied the opportunity to interview players and coaches). More on magicJack later, but that’s not a good sign. At all.
• MLS passed the one million mark in attendance for the season as of the Columbus game Saturday (which drew just 11,298 to Crew Stadium – Massive Club, right?) and is averaging 17,639. Final numbers for April show an average of 16,858 – down quite a bit from March’s 19,225. Still, the league is going to draw over four million when all is said and done.
• Dallas announced a season-high 21,867 for its rain-interrupted match against the Galaxy last night. It’s the Hoops’ second announced crowd over 20k for the season, and in neither case did they have anything like 20k in the building.
• And here’s an interesting note from the PDL, which began its season with two games this past weekend (not enough to do a chart on): the Fresno Fuego, which has been near the top of the PDL attendance standings in recent years, will charge no admission price for its tickets this season. A sponsor is picking up the cost, meaning the club is getting something out of the deal. You used to see this done on an occasional basis throughout a minor-league baseball season, but I’ve never heard of a team doing it for an entire season (though it’s only eight games). The Fuego announced a crowd of 7,853 for a 0-0 draw against LA Blues 23. Overall, I’m not a fan of this strategy, because sponsors come and go. People who care about your team should care enough to pay to watch it play. I think they’re conditioning their market to pay nothing for their tickets. We’ll see how it plays out.

Here’s the first full rundown of attendance figures for the various levels for 2011. Not every team has had a home game yet, so there are some zeros and there are a few games for which attendance figures aren’t available (yet).

THE MLS	G	Total	Average	Median	High	Low
Seattle	3	108,870	36,290	36,223	36,443	36,204
Los Angeles	3	75,717	25,239	24,998	27,000	23,719
DC United	3	62,806	20,935	18,132	26,622	18,052
Vancouver	5	104,315	20,863	20,809	22,592	19,396
Toronto	5	97,965	19,593	20,086	22,453	16,313
Portland	2	37,254	18,627	18,627	18,627	18,627
Salt Lake	2	36,020	18,010	18,010	20,507	15,513
Philadelphia	3	52,767	17,589	18,591	19,027	15,149
New York	3	48,954	16,318	14,308	20,982	13,664
Houston	3	46,608	15,536	15,176	19,385	12,047
Chivas USA	3	44,534	14,845	13,385	18,122	13,027
Dallas	3	43,428	14,476	12,261	20,145	11,022
Chicago	3	42,833	14,278	12,473	18,203	12,157
Colorado	3	41,181	13,727	14,185	17,139	9,857
Columbus	3	32,550	10,850	10,306	14,549	7,695
San Jose	4	40,254	10,064	10,401	10,525	8,928
New England	4	39,412	9,853	9,692	12,914	7,114
Kansas City	0	0	0	0	0	0
MLS TOTAL	55	955,468	17,372	18,052	36,443	7,114
NASL	G	Total	Average	Median	High	Low
Montreal	1	12,060	12,060	12,060	12,060	12,060
Ft. Lauderdale	2	10,844	5,422	5,422	6,402	4,442
Tampa Bay	2	7,074	3,537	3,537	4,161	2,913
Atlanta	3	9,931	3,310	3,227	3,543	3,161
Carolina	3	4,416	1,472	1,219	2,016	1,181
FC Edmonton	0	0	0	0	0	0
Minnesota	0	0	0	0	0	0
Puerto Rico	0	0	0	0	0	0
NASL TOTAL	11	44,325	4,030	3,227	12,060	1,181
USL-Pro	G	Total	Average	Median	High	Low
Orlando	2	15,212	7,606	7,606	7,933	7,279
Antigua	#1	6,000	6,000	6,000	6,000	6,000
Charleston	1	4,083	4,083	4,083	4,083	4,083
Wilmington	1	1,924	1,924	1,924	1,924	1,924
Richmond	4	6,917	1,729	1,742	2,049	1,385
Pittsburgh	1	1,004	1,004	1,004	1,004	1,004
Charlotte	2	1,930	965	965	1,076	854
Dayton	2	1,669	835	835	1,044	625
Sevilla PR	&1	315	315	315	315	315
River Plate PR	1	128	128	128	128	128
Puerto Rico United	2	210	105	105	105	105
Harrisburg	0	0	0	0	0	0
Los Angeles	0	0	0	0	0	0
New York	0	0	0	0	0	0
Rochester	0	0	0	0	0	0
USL PRO TOTALS	18	39,392	2,188	1,231	7,933	105
#Missing two games
&Missing one game
WPS	G	Total	Average	Median	High	Low
Boston	1	4,158	4,158	4,158	4,158	4,158
Atlanta	*2	7,382	3,691	3,691	4,002	3,380
Sky Blue FC	1	2,910	2,910	2,910	2,910	2,910
magicJack	1	1,224	1,224	1,224	1,224	1,224
Philadelphia	0	0	0	0	0	0
Western NY	0	0	0	0	0	0
WPS TOTAL	5	15,674	3,135	3,380	4,158	1,224
*Missing one game

NOTES:

• MLS has four teams averaging more than 20,000 a game and Toronto is just under that. It seems likely Toronto will finish above 20k (they historically do) but it seems unlikely that DC United will, so four is probably about what can be expected.
• WPS’ Atlanta Beat, playing on the same weekend as their NASL counterparts, outdrew the Silverbacks each of the first two weeks. Yesterday’s figure for the Beat is unavailable, but probably didn’t beat the ‘Backs’ announced 3,227.
• Montreal set a new NASL record with an announced crowd of 12,060 (tix distributed, I’m guessing) for its home opener against Tampa Bay. It was the earliest home opener in the Impact’s 19-year history. They’ll absolutely lead the league in attendance. The three teams that have yet to have home matches aren’t likely to help much (Edmonton, Minnesota and Puerto Rico).
• Until someone changes it, Antigua Barracuda FC’s home opener crowd will be listed as 6,000. for consistency’s sake, I go with what’s on the USL website unless there’s compelling evidence to the contrary. The local newspaper said “about 3,500,” and someone who I know who was there said “about 4,500.” The Sticky Wicket Stadium (great name) supposedly seats 5,000 in the main stand. BFC hasn’t announced an attendance figure for its last two games yet.
• The former Washington Freedom, who moved to Boca Raton and are now called “magicJack,” drew an all-time WPS/WUSA low of 1,224 for their home opener. Supposedly there were only 500 available seats in the “grandstand” at Florida Atlantic University because they took the rest of the bleachers across campus to the FAU spring football game.
• Western New York has their home opener in Rochester this Sunday. And magicJack will be back at it again, hosting Philadelphia. I’m not optimistic.
• The PDL season starts this weekend, with Fresno hosting the new LA Blues 23 on Friday in the first match. The W-League doesn’t start until May 14.
  

Just so people don’t keep commenting in the post from two weeks ago, here are this weekend’s soccer scores and crowds for reflection and dissection:

MLS
Friday
Seattle 1, COLORADO 0 (14,185)
Saturday
Chivas USA 2, SAN JOSE 1 (10,525)
Columbus 1, TORONTO 1 (20,145)
Dallas 2, VANCOUVER 1 (21,000)
NEW ENGLAND 3, Kansas City 2 (11,414)
Houston 1, CHICAGO 1 (12,473)
LOS ANGELES 3, Portland 0 (23,719)

NASL
Saturday
Tampa Bay 0, MONTREAL 0 (12,060)
Fort Lauderdale 2, ATLANTA 1 (3,227)

USL-Pro
Thursday
Sevilla Puerto Rico 1, ANTIGUA 0
Friday
Puerto Rico United 2, ORLANDO 2 (7,279)

Saturday
RICHMOND 2, Charleston 1 (1,833)
New York 0, CHARLOTTE 0 (1,076)
PITTSBURGH 1, Harrisburg 0 (1,004)
Rochester 3, DAYTON 2 (625)
Los Angeles 1, RIVER PLATE PUERTO RICO 1 (128)
ANTIGUA 3, Sevilla Puerto Rico 2

WPS
Saturday
MAGICJACK 1, Boston 0 (1,224)

Sunday
Western New York 2, ATLANTA 2

I’m sorry, there’s just no way to spin it anymore. With the apparent folding of the Washington Freedom and FC Gold Pride (the latter only the league champions, with The World’s Best Player^TM), Women’s Professional Soccer is down to just six teams, none west of Chicago.

They can say they’ll play with six teams in 2011, and they very well might. But they’re dead women walking and I don’t see a reprieve coming.

When it comes to Washington – a WUSA original that kept playing through the interim years and into WPS – my man Beau Dure asks, “Why now?” I ask, “Why not now?” Why does anything happen when it happens? If John Hendricks has had enough, he’s had enough. If someone decides that their money is only going to be lit on fire long-term, why should they waste any more time after reaching that conclusion? So that other people can have a hobby?

Fake Sigi makes a good point in that if they’re going to require you to put the entire year’s operating expenses in escrow (which Beau refers to as “one escrow payment” – well, yeah, Beau, but it’s a pretty frigging big one) you might very well say, “Well, you know what? I don’t have it on me right now. You can’t get blood from a turnip, goodbye.”

This goes back to the exact same thing I said about WUSA ten years ago: there is a market for this product. Unfortunately, it’s either not as big a market as some would like or expect or it’s too expensive to reach that market in a meaningful way.

WUSA went big: big stars, big salaries, big budgets. “Look at us, we’re big!” they shouted. WPS learned from that: smaller salaries, smaller budgets, fewer big names. “Please look @us,” they tweeted.

Neither strategy worked. Not because of sexism or anything like that, but because the market decided it isn’t interested in ponying up enough in ticket dollars, television eyeballs and merchandise sales – in short, investing in caring – to make a professional women’s soccer league viable at this point in time. Maybe at any point in time, but definitely not at this one.

Should there be professional women’s soccer? I think there should be as much or as little of anything as the free market decides. Should .260-hitting shortstops make $5 million a year? Hell, I don’t know. That’s the going rate; who am I to decide? But it seems as if we’ve tried it and it ain’t happening.

The regular season is over, and the second year of Women’s Professional Soccer saw a 23% drop in overall average league attendance. Only the Boston Breakers were able to improve on their average from year one, going from 4,183 per game to a league-leading 4,490. The league average went from 4,684 to 3,588, a drop of more than a thousand per game.

TEAM	G	Total	Avg.	Median	2009	Change
Boston	12	53,878	4,490	4,560	4,183	+7.3%
Chicago	12	48,296	4,025	3,955	4,673	-13.9%
Washington	12	45,904	3,825	3,645	4,817	-20.6%
Atlanta	12	44,284	3,690	3,291	0	N/A
Sky Blue FC	11	36,521	3,320	3,412	3,375	-1.6%
FC Gold Pride	13	40,117	3,086	3,153	3,139	-1.7%
Saint Louis	4	12,109	3,027	3,204	3,793	-20.2%
Philadelphia	13	38,190	2,938	2,585	0	N/A
WPS TOTAL	89	319,299	3,588	3,356	4,684	-23.4%

Losing Los Angeles obviously didn’t help, but The Stadium That Will Change Women’s Soccer^TM in Atlanta couldn’t overcome a bad team. Saint Louis folded while their numbers were down 20% in a small sample, while Washington also saw a 21% drop and Chicago fell 14%. Sky Blue FC and FC Gold Pride (with far and away the league’s best team and the world’s best player) were only down slightly.

Other tidbits:

• League-wide, attendance was basically stable from month-to-month, peaking in May for the second straight year.
• For the second year in a row, we saw a dropoff from the first half of the schedule to the second half, but it was much smaller in 2010. In 2009, the difference between the first 35 games and the last 35 games was about 1,300 per game. This year, the difference between the first 45 games and the last 44 (there were only 89 games because of the St. Louis affair) was just over 300 per game.
• World Cup Bump^TM? Nope. not here. WPS games prior to the World Cup averaged 4,010. During the World Cup, 3,219. Aftewards, 3,412.
• In two years, the league has drawn an announced 647,177 to 159 regular-season games, for an average of 4,070. In its first two years, WUSA averaged 7,536 (obviously while burning through a lot more money). WUSA’s drop from year one to year two was only 14%, but they weren’t battling the worst recession in memory.
• Philadelphia’s going to host the first playoff game, this Sunday. That should be a treat. The Independence had only drawn over 3,000 once since their opener before getting 4,011 for their home finale two weeks ago. The winner of the Philadelphia-Washington game goes to Boston, where they draw well, but it’s on a Thursday night and at a smaller facility. FC Gold Pride will host the final and they will have had a few weeks to sell it. If they can’t, that doesn’t bode well. Last year’s playoffs (with a 7,218 crowd for the final in LA) averaged 5,500. They’re going to struggle to get there this year, it looks like.
• Though they’re gone, the LA Sol still holds the title of best overall attendance for the two years at 6,298 for their only season. Washington is next at 4,699 with Philadelphia’s 2,938 bringing up the rear. In fact, Philly’s average is lower than any WUSA team averaged over its three-year run.

EDIT: I missed this, but Commissioner Tonya Antonucci is stepping down (Steve Goff broke the story), meaning there aren’t many folks left who started this rebirth of the pro women’s game. And while apparently a western New York team (the W-League’s Buffalo Flash entry) may join the league next year, unless someone convinces the investors there’s a future for this, I’m not sure WPS survives. Hope Solo may be right when she says she’s done playing in (this) league, but it might or might not be her choice.

We’re going to focus on the leagues that are still playing this time around (if you are keen on them, the final numbers for the W-League and PDL are here) and give you a little extra data that I keep but don’t normally put into these posts because, quite frankly, it screws up the formatting.

MLS	G	Total	Average	Median	High	Low
Seattle	12	434,087	36,174	36,183	36,386	35,924
Toronto	12	248,252	20,688	20,860	22,108	18,394
Los Angeles	10	202,983	20,298	20,228	27,000	15,453
Philadelphia	10	200,294	20,029	17,875	34,870	16,128
New York	11	196,108	17,828	17,900	25,000	11,462
Salt Lake	12	203,425	16,952	17,313	19,970	12,659
Houston	12	202,741	16,895	15,558	24,750	13,231
Chicago	10	160,438	16,044	14,357	21,868	11,312
Columbus	12	172,611	14,384	14,350	18,139	10,197
DC United	12	171,257	14,271	13,307	20,664	10,038
Chivas USA	10	140,930	14,093	14,006	18,653	12,517
Colorado	11	140,243	12,749	11,641	18,363	9,882
New England	12	144,841	12,070	12,262	20,155	5,990
Dallas	11	118,922	10,811	10,323	15,993	8,016
Kansas City	11	111,202	10,109	10,385	10,385	8,155
San Jose	10	96,376	9,638	9,963	10,799	8,033
MLS TOTAL	178	2,944,710	16,543	14,434	36,386	5,990
WPS	G	Total	Average	Median	High	Low
Boston	12	53,878	4,490	4,560	6,108	3,052
Chicago	12	48,296	4,025	3,955	6,089	2,173
Washington	11	42,359	3,851	3,744	8,261	2,118
Atlanta	12	44,284	3,690	3,291	7,248	2,267
Sky Blue FC	10	32,711	3,271	3,387	4,440	2,491
Saint Louis	4	12,109	3,027	3,204	3,356	2,346
FC Gold Pride	12	36,114	3,010	3,078	3,757	2,431
Philadelphia	13	38,190	2,938	2,585	6,028	2,053
WPS TOTAL	86	307,941	3,581	3,334	8,261	2,053
USSFD2	G	Total	Average	Median	High	Low
Montreal	13	160,310	12,332	12,355	13,034	10,864
Portland	15	160,899	10,727	9,017	15,418	5,808
Rochester	13	81,974	6,306	6,978	9,157	1,447
Vancouver	13	66,514	5,116	5,177	5,387	4,815
Tampa Bay	12	48,944	4,079	3,884	8,082	1,825
Austin	14	50,107	3,579	3,620	6,051	2,143
St. Louis	12	32,841	2,737	2,358	5,695	2,037
Puerto Rico	12	27,428	2,286	2,110	5,077	1,069
Carolina	12	25,900	2,158	2,198	2,821	1,426
Minnesota	13	18,067	1,390	1,429	2,310	627
Miami	11	14,151	1,286	1,148	1,855	1,004
Baltimore	12	12,509	1,042	989	2,348	507
USSF2 TOTAL	152	699,644	4,603	3,104	15,418	507
USL-2	G	Total	Average	Median	High	Low
Charleston	10	36,412	3,641	3,469	4,735	2,787
Richmond	10	20,440	2,044	1,910	3,044	1,279
Harrisburg	10	16,659	1,666	1,618	2,389	1,373
Pittsburgh	10	9,409	941	887	1,657	651
Charlotte	10	9,107	911	880	1,262	590
Maryland	7	4,259	608	560	1,100	206
USL-2 TOTAL	57	96,286	1,689	1,385	4,735	206

Notes:

• The Portland Timbers are only the third D2 franchise to average over 10k for a season (Montreal and Rochester are the others) thanks to a late surge that saw them pack PGE Park three times in the last month. Those guys should be in TMLS!
• In WPS, everybody but Sky Blue FC, FC Gold Pride and the Washington Freedom have finished their home schedules, so don’t expect a big bump on the last weekend. FCGP simply can’t draw (I’ve said it before, having Marta in the East Bay is like Pavarotti at a dinner theater in Jupiter, Florida) so an 11:30 am start for the WPS final in a couple of weeks should be fun.
• Stadium renderings usually aren’t indicative of how a stadium finally turns out, but these first looks at the proposed new Earthquakes stadium are pretty nice. They’d better get it sorted, because continuing to play at Buck Shaw is just a feeding tube at this point.
• I’m missing three game attendances for Real Maryland in USL-2, but only my OCD-like sense of completeness compels me to hope I’ll get them. There may not be anybody there to ask before too long.
• Finally, there are 12 teams in USSFD2. Montreal is off to TMLS in 2011, with Portland and Vancouver moving up next year. That’ll leave Rochester as the flagship franchise again, but it’s the bottom of the attendance ladder that’s really troubling. St. Louis has supposedly found a new investor, but Carolina and Minnesota are still looking and Baltimore is broke. Miami can re-brand as the Strikers all they want, they still have Traffic running them. And Puerto Rico has reportedly jumped ship from What’s Left of USL to the NASL. I can’t for the life of me see how the NASL gets USSF sanctioning. Or, at this point, how anybody does.

Women’s Professional Soccer‘s second season is building to a….conclusion, and its sophomore year has been an interesting one. On the field, FC Gold Pride (with The World’s Best Player^TM) has already clinched the regular-season championship and will host the final on September 26, Marta’s 15 goals lead the league, two expansion teams joined the fold and one of them opened a fabulous new stadium.

But after 20 weeks and 77 games, league attendance is down about 23 percent from 2009, with every team that returned from 2009 showing average attendance decreases ranging from 4% to 32%. This table ranks the teams by the difference in average from last year to this year.

TEAM	G	Total	Average	09 Avg	Diff
Boston Breakers	12	53,878	4,490	4,665	-3.8%
Sky Blue FC	9	29,299	3,255	3,451	-5.7%
Chicago Red Stars	10	42,056	4,206	4,628	-9.1%
FC Gold Pride	11	33,667	3,061	3,667	-16.5%
Saint Louis Athletica	4	12,109	3,027	4,055	-25.4%
Washington Freedom	10	39,216	3,922	5,747	-31.8%
Atlanta Beat	9	32,976	3,664	0	0.0%
Phil.Independence	12	34,179	2,848	0	0.0%
WPS TOTAL	77	277,380	3,602	4,684	-23.1%

(WPS teams played 10 home games in 2009. Because of the longer schedule and the demise of Saint Louis early in the season, they’ll play 12 or 13 this year. The ’09 Average column is based either on the same number of home games as a year ago or 10 home games, whichever is less.)

WPS’ small number of teams (and, therefore, games in a given week) results in a small sample size, so weekly trends might not be that meaningful. But given that my man Rob Penner broached the issue, here’s how each week of the first two WPS seasons has gone from an average attendance standpoint:

(That spike in week 9 last year came from a doubleheader at RFK Stadium that saw a league-record crowd of 16,089.)

As Penner says, though, the trend at the end of last season was upward and they’re trending upward as 2010 approaches the playoffs. A drop of over 1,000 per game overall (based on a lot of factors – the loss of Los Angeles, two new organizations, bad economy, you name it) is not an encouraging sign, but I’ve heard WPS will announce a new expansion team very soon (maybe a return to LA?) and they’ve still got to be losing less money than WUSA did.

EDIT: Oh, yeah, the WPS expansion team might be the W-League’s Buffalo Flash moving up.

Here are the latest attendance figures from the various soccer leagues around these parts, through yesterday’s games:

MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER	G	Total	Average
Seattle Sounders FC	11	397,701	36,155
Toronto FC	11	227,205	20,655
Philadelphia Union	9	183,112	20,346
Los Angeles Galaxy	9	182,871	20,319
New York Red Bulls	10	174,249	17,425
Houston Dynamo	11	187,668	17,061
Real Salt Lake	11	184,310	16,755
Chicago Fire	9	139,370	15,486
DC United	11	159,182	14,471
Chivas USA	9	128,413	14,268
Columbus Crew	11	155,903	14,173
Colorado Rapids	9	118,420	13,158
New England Revolution	10	118,139	11,814
FC Dallas	10	108,889	10,889
Kansas City Wizards	11	111,202	10,109
San Jose Earthquakes	10	96,376	9,638
MLS TOTAL	162	2,673,010	16,500
WOMEN’S PROFESSIONAL SOCCER	G	Total	Average
Boston Breakers	12	53,878	4,490
Chicago Red Stars	10	42,056	4,206
Washington Freedom	10	39,216	3,922
Atlanta Beat	9	32,976	3,664
Sky Blue FC	9	29,299	3,255
FC Gold Pride	11	33,667	3,061
Saint Louis Athletica	4	12,109	3,027
Philadelphia Independence	12	34,179	2,848
WPS TOTAL	77	277,380	3,602
USSF DIVISION II SOCCER LEAGUE	G	Total	Average
Montreal Impact	12	147,276	12,273
Portland Timbers	12	115,078	9,590
Rochester Rhinos	13	81,974	6,306
Vancouver Whitecaps	11	55,938	5,085
FC Tampa Bay Rowdies	10	43,730	4,373
Austin Aztex	13	46,363	3,566
AC St. Louis	11	30,438	2,767
Puerto Rico Islanders	12	27,428	2,286
Carolina RailHawks	10	21,738	2,174
Minnesota NSC Stars	13	18,067	1,390
Miami FC Blues	11	14,151	1,286
Palace Baltimore	12	12,489	1,041
USSF2 TOTAL	140	614,670	4,391
UNITED SOCCER LEAGUES DIVISION II	G	Total	Average
Charleston Battery	10	36,412	3,641
Richmond Kickers	10	20,440	2,044
Harrisburg City Islanders	10	17,109	1,711
Pittsburgh Riverhounds	10	9,409	941
Charlotte Eagles	10	9,107	911
Real Maryland Monarchs	7	4,259	608
USL-2 TOTAL	57	96,736	1,697
UNITED SOCCER LEAGUES W-LEAGUE	G	Total	Average
Vancouver Whitecaps FC Women	5	7,565	1,513
New Jersey Wildcats	3	2,085	695
Atlanta Silverbacks	2	1,360	680
Seattle Sounders	5	3,098	620
Colorado Force	4	2,114	529
Charlotte Lady Eagles	4	2,053	513
Long Island Rough Riders	5	2,258	452
Hampton Roads Piranhas	5	2,037	407
Hudson Valley Quickstrike Lady Blues	3	1,097	366
Santa Clarita Blue Heat	3	1,083	361
Rochester Ravens	6	2,101	350
Ottawa Fury	6	1,985	331
Quebec City Amiral	6	1,933	322
Pali Blues	5	1,494	299
Northern Virginia Majestics	4	1,113	278
Laval Comets	6	1,594	266
North Jersey Valkyries	4	1,030	258
Colorado Rush	5	1,185	237
Buffalo Flash	5	1,149	230
Hamilton Avalanche	5	875	175
London Gryphons	3	482	161
Toronto Lady Lynx	5	800	160
Kalamazoo Outrage	5	755	151
New York Magic	4	492	123
Chicago Red Eleven	6	666	111
Tampa Bay Hellenic	3	323	108
NJ Rangers	5	472	94
Washington Freedom Futures	6	455	76
Cleveland Internationals	4	268	67
W-LEAGUE TOTAL	132	43,922	333
UNITED SOCCER LEAGUES PDL	G	Total	Average
Des Moines Menace	8	28,413	3,552
West Texas United Sockers	8	20,011	2,501
Fresno Fuego	5	12,214	2,443
Carolina Dynamo	3	5,027	1,676
Victoria Highlanders FC	8	11,973	1,497
Dayton Dutch Lions	8	10,195	1,274
Forest City London	8	9,971	1,246
El Paso Patriots	7	7,485	1,069
New Orleans Jesters	4	4,029	1,007
Laredo Heat	8	7,908	989
Ventura County Fusion	8	6,987	873
BYU Cougars	8	6,862	858
Kitsap Pumas	4	3,301	825
Thunder Bay Chill	8	6,348	794
Los Angeles Legends	5	3,579	716
Cincinnati Kings	7	4,790	684
Mississippi Brilla	7	4,695	671
Western Mass Pioneers	8	5,352	669
Portland Timbers U23′s	8	4,925	616
Vermont Voltage	8	4,765	596
Michigan Bucks	7	4,064	581
Ogden Outlaws	3	1,636	545
Baton Rouge Capitals	1	540	540
Indiana Invaders	6	2,927	488
Hampton Roads Piranhas	7	3,085	441
Toronto Lynx	6	2,560	427
Long Island Rough Riders	7	2,964	423
Ottawa Fury	8	3,034	379
Ironbound Express	8	3,022	378
Central Florida Kraze	7	2,330	333
Ocean City Nor’easters	6	1,936	323
Rochester Thunder	5	1,609	322
St. Louis Lions	8	2,298	287
Reading United	8	2,222	278
Yakima Reds	4	1,020	255
Bermuda Hogges	6	1,524	254
Southern California Seahorses	7	1,634	233
Nashville Metros	7	1,506	215
Tacoma Tide	2	402	201
Rio Grande Valley Bravos	3	590	197
Springfield Demize	8	1,540	193
Albany BWP Highlanders	8	1,478	185
Dallas Fort Worth Tornados	4	716	179
MPS Portland Phoenix	7	1,226	175
Kalamazoo Outrage	8	1,320	165
Washington Crossfire	5	790	158
West Virginia Chaos	8	1,257	157
Atlanta Blackhawks	5	727	145
Hollywood United Hitmen	6	867	145
Abbotsford Mariners	8	1,155	144
Spokane Spiders	4	555	139
IMG Bradenton Academics	6	795	133
Kansas City Brass	6	783	131
Lancaster Rattlers	5	645	129
Vancouver Whitecaps Residency	8	1,029	129
Houston Leones	5	560	112
Brooklyn Knights	8	875	109
New Hampshire Phantoms	7	740	106
Ft. Lauderdale Schultz Academy	4	410	103
New Jersey Rangers FC	6	606	101
Central Jersey Spartans	6	600	100
Orange County Blue Star	8	740	93
Real Colorado Foxes	6	480	80
Westchester Flames	8	640	80
Cleveland Internationals	6	366	61
Chicago Fire	6	318	53
Northern Virginia Royals	0	0	0
PDL TOTAL	420	230,951	550

Quick notes:

• MLS has four teams averaging over 20,000 per game. The three holdovers from last year have been joined by Philadelphia, but that’s artificial based on a couple of games held at Lincoln Financial Field. The Union’s PPL Park isn’t large enough for them to average 20k for an entire season.
• On the flip side, USSF D2 has five teams averaging under 2,300 per game, three of them under 1,400. I can’t see how Baltimore, Minnesota and St. Louis return and I’m not optimistic about Puerto Rico.
• MLS’ average for 45 games played after the World Cup (16,169) is slightly below its average for 93 games prior to the World Cup (16,472). In fact, that’s a trend seen at all levels. Every single league has a lower average attendance in games played since the World Cup than it did in games played before. Things in MLS usually pick back up in the fall, so that effect will be mitigated somewhat, and the second division schedule extends deeper into the fall than ever. We’ll see what the final numbers say, but what we have tends to give credence to the notion that the World Cup Bump isn’t as strong as some would like to think it is.
• Charleston averaged 3,534 per game in 2009 in the USL First Division. Despite dropping down to USL-2 this year, the Battery averaged 3,641 (they’ll also host the championship game against Richmond this Saturday).
• The Chicago Red Stars had their biggest crowd of the season Sunday (6,089 to see Marta and FC Gold Pride clinch the regular-season title and berth in the championship game). It was their second-largest crowd ever, trailing only the 7,959 for last year’s home finale against….Marta and the LA Sol.