Back after a hiatus, I present you the latest attendance figures from the Major Indoor Soccer League. As you may or may not know, United Soccer Leagues took over the MISL this season and brought it under their umbrella along with its nascent I-League. The result is a seven-team league that's averaging right about what the old one was through the same number of games a year ago.

Often, when push comes to shove in radicalising a group of football supporters, it will take one, symbolic moment to push those that might otherwise have merely got on with the job of watching their team to realise that the time for action is now.

For those that follow the ailing Blue Square Premier club Kettering Town, that moment may have come at any of three or four different occasions over the last month or so, but the tipping point for many may have cone with twin five-goal defeats at the hands of Luton Town over Christmas and the New Year (results which plunged the club back into the thick of the relegation places at the bottom of the table), it with the release of an official club statement which sought, unsurprisingly enough, to place the blame for the club's woes at the foot of everybody but those with the overall responsibility for managing its finances.

Images: wps.com, AFP PHOTO / JOHANNES EISELE.

The future of the Women's Professional Soccer league (WPS) has been thrown into doubt yet again after the termination of the majicJacks franchise. The WPS, which comprised six teams prior to the 'Jacks expulsion, was already operating under a one year waiver of the US Soccer rule that a league must have a minimum of eight teams to be recognised.

We all know that MLS is expanding to a 19th member next year and that they are actively looking for a 20th member but is MLS still viable in its 16th year of existence? As a side note the NASL lasted 17 years and next year the Mayan Calendar ends so it looks like MLS will also only last 17 years. The easiest way to tell if the MLS is healthy is to look at finances but since MLS is not a public entity there is not really any way to get that information, so that leaves us with looking at attendance.

- Maxi Rodriguez

A broken thermometer near the grandstand reads 78°, but the truth of the matter is that games were always played nearer the century mark, our very own Qatari World Cup matches on a windswept field in Central California. The team, the Bakersfield Brigade, is long gone, victim to a downturn in local fortunes as much as misplaced presumptions about the local fan base.

The average attendance figures from across Europe for the previous season popped up in a few places this week and, to no Chelsea supporter's surprise, the club remain firmly in the middle.

Sold out

Chelsea rose three places to 28th on the continent with an average attendance of 41,435.

Women's Professional Soccer has announced appointment of Jennifer Pogorelec O'Sullivan as the League's new Chief Executive Officer. O'Sullivan formerly served as the Vice President of Labor and Legal Affairs for the Arena Football League. She is a law school graduate and sports industry veteran.

There's an interesting article over on the Business Insider which explains a bit about salaries and it's correlation on attendance figures in MLS. Really it's quite worth the read if you're interested in that sort of thing.

That said, the most interesting part I got out of it was that the Timbers are currently tied with Chivas USA and the San Jose Earthquakes for lowest salary amongst all its players.

Tuesday evening saw the start of another Carling cup campaign for many Premier League sides, but yet again the relevance of the competition is being called into question.

For the likes of Arsenal and Manchester United this competition has helped clubs to develop their talented youth players over the past decade, but for teams who are battling against relegation come the end of the season it could just prove a hindrance in their fight for survival!

No midweek games were played in Major League Soccer last week, all eight games were played on the weekend with an average attendance of 18,975 up from 15,937 the previous week. The average was helped in a big way by the Seattle Sounders home game against Chivas USA which drew 36,364. The New York Red Bulls, despite their troubles on the field had a season high 25,177 in attendance for their game against the Chicago Fire.

Kyle Beckerman: "Is it Reds boy day?"TORONTO FC (16th) VS. REAL SALT LAKE (5th)
　
BMO FIELD - SATURDAY 7PM ET
TV: GOLTV RADIO: FAN 590
　
THE KICKABOUT:
- Can TFC continue its unbeaten streak against an opponent far superior than the last four clubs they faced?

The biggest hits we have had for a story in the recent past was a table of average attendances for the past season in the top 30 European clubs. Barcelona came top, followed by Borussia Dortmund and then Manchester United.

The story raises a broader issue. Why are we so interested in attendances?

And by hold the line I mean "keep raising prices." Neil deMause of Field of Schemes writing in Slate on the dip in demand for sporting event tickets in America:

Where we look to be headed, then, is a two-tiered system. A handful of top teams and events will be able to charge whatever they want, while most everyone else is forced to give away tickets.

If you have basic Time Warner Cable, last night you got a chance to see 3 Mexican First Division games, 1 Friendly from the Herbalife Ultra Challenge between Chivas of Mexico and Barcelona of Spain, and 1 CONCACAF Champions League match between a Mexican club and Honduras club. And, this was all from 8p.

Including the midweek games played on July 20th Major League Soccer had an average weekly attendance of 15,669, down from 16,865 the previous week. The Los Angeles topped the attendance charts this week with 24,709 for their game against the Columbus Crew. Toronto FC had 21,087 for their midweek game against FC Dallas.

Mike Woitalla of Soccer America reports on the rising attendance figures in Major League Soccer.
MLS crowds before the All-Star break were up from last season's average at the midseason point. For MLS attendance rankings ...
* At the All-Star break, MLS's attendance average of 17,417 is more than a 6 percent increase from its 2010 midseason mark.

photo courtesy of Jarred Donalson
KC's 6th home game of the season is in the books, time to take another look at how the 2011 season stacks up with the rest throughout the team history. For the 5th home game (and to get links to previous weeks), click here. While the result last night was great, I was a little disappointed that the game was not a sell out.

No midweek games were played in Major League Soccer last week, all seven games were played on the Weekend with an average attendance of 16,865 up slightly from the previous week of 16,642. The average was helped in a big way by the Seattle Sounders home game against the Colorado Rapids which drew 36,424.

Time for some attendance numbers for you attendance geeks out there. The Sports Business Daily released current attendance figures to date in comparison to this time last season. As expected the league has enjoyed a 6.3% raise in folks at the gate with only five clubs seeing negative percentages (The Union are one of those teams in the negative and its largely due to them playing their first two games at the Linc in Philly).

Including the midweek game on June 29, MLS had 9 games this past week with an average attendance of 21,115 up from 19,322 the previous week. San Jose was the big winner this week drawing over 41,000 for its game against the Red Bulls, which was smartly moved to Stanford Stadium. The Galaxy registered their third sell out of the season at the Home Depot Center for its Fourth of July game against the Sounders.

Upon hearing the news that a gaggle of French females from the Les Bleus Women's World Cup team posed in the buff for a magazine spread, one word should come to mind:

Bild.

And you would, of course, be correct. Three of the French ladies posed nude for the German beacon of couth though without anything really showing in order to "bring awareness to their sport".

Hello July (well, almost). Hard to believe it but another month is down in Major League Soccer and the league heads into possibly one of the busier months with friendlies taking place, USOC games going on, CCL play-in games happening and of course the all-crazy transfer market opening up.

MLS moves into one of it's important weekends of the season, the July 4th holiday weekend.

Including the midweek games on June 22, MLS had 12 games this past week with an average attendance of 19,322, up 15,944 the previous week. The increase was helped by Seattle who had two home dates, including a midweek affair with the New York Red Bulls that drew 46,065 a season high. Philadelphia had two home dates this week as well with attendance for both games over 18,100.

Including the midweek game on June 15th MLS had 10 games this past week with an average attendance of 15944, down from 18427 the previous week. Leading the way were Toronto FC with 21839 followed by the Vancouver Whitecaps with 20168. Better than league average attendance was also recorded in Portland (18627), Kansas City (18467), and Colorado (18277).

Including the midweek game on June 8th MLS had 11 home games this past week with an average attendance of 18427, up from 14765 the previous week. Leading the way were the Seattle Sounders with 36502 followed by New York with 21201. The debut of LIVESTRONG Sporting Park was a great success, at least off the field with an over capacity crowd of 19925.

Including the midweek game on June 1st MLS had 10 home games this past week with an average attendance of 14765, down from 18274 the week before. Leading the way were the New York Red Bulls with 20393 followed by LA with 20036. At the bottom of the attendance table was San Jose with just 9270 for its win over Houston.

MIKE JACOBS COLUMN, Evansville Courier Press, June 4, 2011
Those who watched Barcelona defeat Manchester United in the UEFA Champions League final last weekend were able to witness the potential of a soccer revolution here in the United States.
According to figures compiled by Nielsen Media Research, as reported by Soccer America, the telecasts of the game delivered a 2.

With the three midweek games last Wednesday MLS had 12 home games the past week with an average attendance of 18274. The Sounders drew over 36000 for a midweek clash against FC Dallas while the Red Bulls managed over 18000 for its midweek game against Colorado. When was the last tine the Red Bulls had 18000 for a midweek game?

There were eight home games on the docket in Major League Soccer this weekend. Of the eight games, five had attendance numbers above the league average of 17264. Chivas USA had its first sell out of the season thanks to the Galaxy and the Dynamo had it's largest attendance of the season for their game against New York.

There were nine home games this weekend in Major League Soccer. Six games had attendance figures below the current league average of 17,066 per game. The good, look no further than Seattle which broke its own single game attendance record with 36,593 on hand for the much hyped game with the Timbers.

After only four weeks of action the attendance figures for the WPS are looking very bleak.
Jenna Pel of AllWhiteKit.com is reporting that league wide average attendance this past week was only 1,987.
The former Washington Freedom franchise now known as magicJack is not helping those numbers at all.

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.

I received a couple of questions on my Twitter feed about the attendance figures for the CONCACAF Champions League, so I decided to compile a table of the attendance for all the matches. I used separate columns for the preliminary stage, the group matches, and the knockout stage. I did not compile the attendance per team; that will come later.

Mike Woitalla of Soccer America keeps us posted on the strong MLS attendance figures after week 2.
Cold weather was a factor as Week 2's attendance average was nearly 4,000 lower than the opening week's 21,046 average, but another huge crowd cheered on the Sounders, Real Salt Lake set a record, and Philadelphia had a sellout for its opener.

I've written about match day attendance and leagues' financial health before, so I thought it was interesting to see these figures from the latest report on the Bundesliga's financial situation. Here's the trend in spectators since the inception of the league in 1963.
While the league's annual attendance ranged between 5 and 7 million per season for almost three decades throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, we have seen a rapid and sustained increased since Germany's unification in 1989/90 from about 5 million then to almost 13 million during these last two years.