Think Seattle is killing it in attendance this season?
Next season could be better, as one report says the club might open up the north-end bleachers (often referred to as the Hawk's Nest, where that Xbox banner is) for games next year.
That would add 2,200 seats to the capacity, making it 34,600.

One of the folks who commented on the Expansion's Effect on MLS Attendance post pointed out that the Sounders have been seen by over 20% of the people attending a game this year. Another person thought that David Beckham's Flying Circus had probably beaten that mark. (This is in fact true.)
However it turns out that neither of these sides hold the record for the largest percentage of tickets sold to see a given team in a season.

I apologize for the slight delay; as I write this, I am in Texas, taking care of some various site business. But I'd be remiss if I didn't post a little something on Wednesday's US Open Cup...

(Oh, and a share of the $100,000 first prize, I guess.)

Congrats to the Seattle Sounders, who won a wild US Open Cup final, 2-1 over DC United last night. Seattle could still conceivably become the first US side to win the treble (MLS Cup, Supporters Shield, US Open Cup), but they're six points back in the race for the league's best regular-season record with six to play, so the third leg might have to wait.

Did you notice there were three games this weekend?
No? Don't worry, neither did anyone else. Average attendance this weekend was barely over 10,000.
Though there were 11 goals and four red-cards so it sounds like there was some entertainment.
In the end, all the games did have playoff ramifications (Colorado did itself good), so be sure you see the scores and you memorize them.

After week 25 the numbers look like this...

5 year comparison WK 25 175 GP YTD Avg +/- GP Avg +/- Avg +/- GP 2005 15,302 6 14,878 14,912 162 2006 12,373 -19.15% 8 15,115 1.59% 14,997 0.

Today and tomorrow "the 11th Elite Club Coaches Forum at UEFA's House of European Football" gathering held in Nyon. This annual meeting discuss the latest football trends and main issues from the Football managers perspective and below a list of Managers confirmed their attendance of this meeting: Arsène Wenger (France/Arsenal FC): The Professor one of the most [.

To follow up last week's post about the teams who had been seen by the largest percentage of fans, I ran the numbers to determine which teams had been seen by the smallest percentage of fans.
There have been 35 teams that were seen by less than 15% of the fans attending games that season. The only year no team fell below this threshold was 2002.

With the impending addition of franchises in Philly, Vancouver and Portland, I thought it would be interesting to see how much of a "sophomore slump" expansion franchises experienced in regards to attendance.
Here are the numbers for the recent expansion teams, as well as Houston who moved from San Jose in 2006.

It's been quite a week for Apple Valley High School boys soccer coach Chuck Scanlon. All in one week Scanlon tied the record for most wins by a soccer coach (500) and broke that record with two more wins.

On Tuesday Scanlon tied the record for wins for a high school soccer coach in Minnesota which was formerly held by retired Minnehaha Academy coach Guido Kauls.

After week 26 the numbers look like this...

5 year comparison WK 26 183 GP YTD Avg +/- GP Avg +/- Avg +/- GP 2005 13,173 9 14,968 14,823 171 2006 15,419 17.05% 7 15,310 2.29% 15,014 1.

Yesterday Ben Knight tried to move the soft cap debate forward (we'll call it a salary cap debate at this point) and for some reason looks in my direction to provide rational discourse. And Dan Loney. Yeah. Did you read the part in his last column where Loney talked about using nerve gas on the promotion/relegation supporters?

Today and tomorrow "the 11th Elite Club Coaches Forum at UEFA's House of European Football" gathering held in Nyon. This annual meeting discuss the latest football trends and main issues from the Football managers perspective and below a list of Managers confirmed their attendance of this meeting: Arsène Wenger (France/Arsenal FC): The Professor one of the most [.

It's been quite a week for Apple Valley High School boys soccer coach Chuck Scanlon. All in one week Scanlon tied the record for most wins by a soccer coach (500) and broke that record with two more wins.

On Tuesday Scanlon tied the record for wins in Minnesota which was formerly held by retired Minnehaha Academy coach Guido Kauls.

A long, thoughtful piece by Andrew Guest (I think, it's oddly credited to Tom Dunmore at the top) on why the University of Portland women's side leads the nation in attendance and has become something of a cultural touchstone. I suspect I'll be back with comments later.

Arsenal 2-0 WBA

Strictly speaking, this is no match review. I couldn't listen to the game, I didn't hunt around for a stream in a haystack and I've not got time to watch the re-run on Arsenal.com. So seeing as, at the time of writing, all I've done is flitted in and out of Twitter, I've not got a lot of insight into the game itself.

The Minnesota Thunder ended their 2009 season on Sunday with a loss to the Charleston Battery. The team ended up in 8th place in the standings, one spot out of the playoffs. Their final record was 7-13-10.

IMS checked in with a number of players at the end of Sunday's game and asked them to give their assessment of the season and what they planned on doing in the offseason as well as where they stand contractually.

Arsenal have done it again in the League Cup.
It wasn't the 6-0 that they had at this point last season, but a couple great late goals, both involving Ramsey and substitute Carlos Vela, have Arsenal through to the next round. The 56,000 supporters in attendance and the rest of us watching on Arsenal TV Online (ATVO) enjoyed it tremendously.

Over the last week and a half I missed out on quite a bit of stuff so I felt tonight would be a good way to recap some things and give you all my opinion on each. We've had plenty of new players get signed this past week, including one Designated Player...which in Major League Soccer is always a big deal.

After week 27 the numbers look like this...

5 year comparison WK 27 190 GP YTD Avg +/- GP Avg +/- Avg +/- GP 2005 18,227 6 15,033 14,938 177 2006 18,083 -0.79% 6 15,463 2.86% 15,116 1.

The return of Deep Cuts means scouring the internet for unique and off-the-beaten-path stories, opinions, and news. It's not always easy to track down worthwhile links that go beyond what you might...

There's a promotion on the MLSnet front page that is tough for me to resist - you see, I love "Spot the difference" games.
Unfortunately, actually playing the game probably puts you on the AXE BODY SPRAY!!! mailing list, and I think I'd rather be on the list they were using in "Munich."
Fortunately, we can play Spot the Difference here on BigSoccer!

by GIANFRANCO PANIZO

The U-20 World Cup in Egypt officially kicked off on Thursday with the hosts convincingly defeating Trinidad and Tobago.

A first half 1-1 draw turned into a route as Egypt midfielder Hassan Hussam Arafat Abdalla's brace led the way to a 4-1 victory over the Soca Warriors in front of the 80,000-plus in attendance.

Firstly of course, this game will be remembered as a time when Ipswich paid tribute to the great Sir Bobby Robson and renamed the north stand of Portman Road in his honour. Lady Elsie Robson and her sons, Andrew and Paul were in attendance for the ceremony. Also, both teams wore special, commemorative kits for [.

If I recall correctly the average attendance in the Indonesian League back in 2007 was about 11,000. For the season just completed it was always going to be a lot less given that clubs like PSMS, Persitara, Persija and Persija couldn't use their own stadiums for what ever reason.
In addition clubs like Arema, Deltras and PSIS had less than impressive campaigns.

Last week I posted a question on the BathCity forum: "how many points do we expect to get from the two upcoming bank-holiday weekend matches against Dorchester and WorcesterCity?" Twelve of the thirteen respondents predicted the full six points. As I rode with my friend Mark on the way to yesterday's match, though, City had already managed to drop two points away to Dorchester.

After County's 2-2 draw with Yeovil on Saturday Baker went over to the County fans to receive a card after the death of his older brother Micheal.

I have taken the best bits out of it to see the full article click here (Read Full) I just had to share this story with you, if you do click the read full link then makesure you read the comments written by worldwide fans.

I say (nearly) because there's one game (Austin at Miami, September 5) with no reported attendance. If you know about Miami, there's a possibility there was no actual attendance, but until I get a number, the chart below gives you a fairly good picture of how things went in USL's top division this year:

Team G Total Avg.

The Minnesota Thunder ended their 2009 season on Sunday with a loss to the Charleston Battery. The team ended up in 8th place in the standings, one spot out of the playoffs. Their final record was 7-13-10.

IMS checked in with a number of players at the end of Sunday's game and asked them to give their assessment of the season and what they planned on doing in the offseason as well as where they stand contractually.

Guingamp could only manage a 1-1 draw at home to struggling SC Bastia on Friday night.

Victor Zvunka opted for Mustapha Allaoui to partner Sebastien Grax upfront and Francois Bellugou came in for the suspended Moustapha Diallo.

It was Bastia who took the lead in the 27th minute, Nassa Niangbo was brought down in the box and former EAG striker Pierre-Yves Andre stepped up to put the ball past Stephane Trevisan (0-1, 27 mins).

Aldershot 4 - 1 Cheltenham Town
League 2 Saturday 26th September
Bugger
Cheltenham Town: S Brown; K Haynes (B Hayles 46), M Townsend, D Diallo, L Ridley; J Low, A Gallinagh (M Pook 35), D Bird (c), J Richards; E Hammond, J Alsop (M Watkins 46).
Subs: B Richardson, S Cox, T Lewis, D Hutton.

After week 28 the numbers look like this...

5 year comparison WK 28 198 GP YTD Avg +/- GP Avg +/- Avg +/- GP 2005 17,148 9 15,949 15,001 186 2006 19,097 11.37% 6 16,225 1.73% 15,244 1.