The big soccer game on American soil over the weekend involved the Women's National Team, which packed more than 20,000 people into FC Dallas Stadium as part of a 2-1 victory over New Zealand. That is a big number for a friendly game against a non-big name opponent, especially given the fairly cold temperatures in the Dallas area.

Time for some quick hitters from around the soccer business world. We'll start in Colorado, where the Rapids have taken a unique step to promote season tickets and reward their best customers. The team's 2013 jerseys will include the names of its 2012 season ticket holders woven into the shirts.

Amazingly enough, Footiebusiness is about to start its 4th year of covering the business of American soccer. It has been a great ride and one that I hope to continue to enjoy and improve. When I started the site, I had no idea how long it would last, whether there was any interest in the business aspects of American soccer or whether anyone would read what I wrote.

Ever Winter, Major League Soccer releases its schedule for the upcoming season. In addition to setting out the slate of games, the initial release sets out the national television schedule, establishes breaks for FIFA dates and gives fans an opportunity to plan their Summer of soccer. We thought it would be worthwhile to talk to Brad Pursel, Major League Soccer's Vice President of Club Services about the process of putting together the league schedule.

Most of the United States was focused on the "other football" this weekend, but there were still some soccer business stories coming out over the last few days. We'll start with FOX's broadcast of the Manchester United/Chelsea match over the weekend. Once again, the network offered an EPL match over network television via a live broadcast.

When I started this site back in 2009, I had expected the site to devote a significant amount of ink to the transfer market and the finances involved in buying and selling players. Over time the focus has shifted to marketing, promotions, broadcast and other business issues facing soccer in the United States.

We've admittedly given short shrift to the fate of the WPS, which announced that it was suspending operations for 2012. Over the years, we had expressed cautious optimism about the league both on this site and elsewhere. The three year old league has definitely had some ups and downs in the last couple of years.

Any number of products try and connect with soccer fans through official partnerships, event activation and commercial spots. Typically, soccer related marketing is part of a much larger general interest campaign. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Sports energy drink Golazo bucks that trend by focusing on the game of soccer.

As we discussed when commenting on the new MLS Spring destination in Arizona, preseason is a great opportunity to sell the sport and the league in a less formal setting. MLS seems to be making use of this opportunity and allowing fans to connect to players and teams in the off season. Over the weekend, the New York Times took a look at the league's relationship with the City of Tucson, where a number of MLS franchises are spending a portion of the preseason.

Preseason is heating up around the league, so we thought it would be worth checking to see if local papers are taking notice. We'll start in Salt Lake City, where the always excellent Michael Lewis offers up this detailed piece on the roster makeover for RSL. The piece includes interviews and a look at some of the team's injury problems for the coming year.

During a session with the media at the 2011 All Star Game in, Don Garber responded to a question from the Philadelphia media about the possibility of an All Star Game in the City of Brotherly Love. The Commissioner suggested that Philly would soon host the event and now it is official that the 2012 version of the event will go forward at PPL Park.

Over the last year or so, we have discussed MLS' efforts to measure the value of its television exposure through various local and national broadcasts. Through the website criticalmention.com, MLS tries to alert media to the "value" of its presence on various television programs. Since a few weeks have passed since we last checked in on this metric, we thought providing a snapshot of this metric of MLS media exposure.

Lots of business stories from the weekend. We'll start with the broadcast of the Arsenal/Manchester United match televised, live on Fox. The Sunday telecast was part of a large block of sports programming on the new FIFA partner that included the NFC Championship game from San Francisco. Rob Stone anchored the pregame and halftime festivities, but the network relied upon its English crew for the play by play.

Guest Post: I have Been to the Mountaintop: Rethinking Success for MLS

On the road tonight, so here is an encore of the most popular guest post in Footiebusiness history. The original generated a significant amount of comments. Back live on Monday.

Once again, we are fortunate to have a guest post from Dave Laidig.

The draft is over, training camps are opening up and the season is less than two months away. It has been a while since we looked at promotional efforts around the league, so we thought the early preseason presented a good opportunity to look at ticket sales efforts as teams gear up for the start of the 2012 campaign.