SI.com's newest writer and WVH fave Tobias Lopez wrote an interesting little piece yesterday on some comparisons between the old NASL and Major League Soccer. Normally I'm right on board with Lopez but on this not so much. For the most part Lopez is saying the league right now is following a little too closely in the footsteps of its predecessor.

The question "What's going on in DC?" has become a recurring one among the fan circles of Major League Soccer. It's a question that seems to be important to any fan of the game in this country. Whether it be rabidly passionate supporters from the DC, Maryland and Virginia area or just general MLS enthusiasts .

MLS Daily (http://www.mls-daily.com/) keeps a running tab of MLS attendance figures, and through this past weekend's games MLS attendance is up 7.03% over this time last season. Considering the economy and the attendance issues that MLB (http://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2010/8/24/1647739/mlb-attendance-drops-cubs-vs) is having, Don Garber must be ecstatic with the numbers.

Before we jump into the game videos you need to head over to Miami Soccer Fan and read the Ultras game day review along with an after game interview with Miami FC's captain Jarryd "The Hammer" Goldberg. Check it out HERE
Kenn.com/the_blog has put up a Pro Soccer Attendance Figures chart. It's still a little early in the Soccer season to put this up and see how teams are really doing at the gates, but it's pretty cool anyway!

Paul Kennedy of Soccer America writes of the attendance rise in Major League Soccer.
With two months left in the 2010 Major League Soccer season, average attendance is 16,350 fans a game, up 2 percent over last year's average -- and even higher in pure terms.
MLS is on course to finish with its fourth highest average attendance in the league's 15-year history.

With interest in Major League Soccer's attendance figures running at an all-time high, MLS Daily will now begin providing an attendance forecast each week. In our analysis, we will offer up our best guess of what the crowds at each game might look like and will also provide the attendance numbers from each team's same-numbered home fixture from a year ago.

Major League Soccer will be back from its group stage break this weekend, but the other outdoor leagues have continued their seasons unabated (with drops in attendance, more on that later). Here's a look at each league's attendance figures through games of June 20. These are unofficial and incomplete (because many lower-level teams can't be buggered, apparently) numbers based on boxscores, so take them for what they're worth.

While MLS attendance figures have always been slavishly tracked and overanalyzed on BigEvil, it seems like they're everywhere this season. And no wonder, when you see what happened to the traffic of the MLS Daily blog once it started publishing comprehensive, easily viewable attendance stats.
So now you've got:

-the eminently reasonable Tom Dunmore coming out to laugh and point fingers at the New York team for suffering a precipitous drop in attendance for the second game in its shiny new stadium;
-Michael Lewis interviewing New York players about what's gone wrong in the stands;
-Duane Rollins ruminating on the empty seats at BMO stadium on the weekend; and
-Jason Davis leading the charge to curbstomp Dallas (and lord did that turn into a gang-kill).

By Chris Wright

According to a report in this morning's Guardian, the Football Association (FA) are considering scrapping FA Cup replays in a bid to free up room in the crowded domestic fixture list for a two-week winter break.

The proposal is just one of the options the FA are looking into, in a bid to revitalise the 139-year-old competition which is struggling with dwindling attendance figures as club's priorities shift elsewhere.

Thanks to a decent final month, the Major Indoor Soccer League's final attendance figures rallied a bit from the last time we checked in on them. Still, the final average of 3,761 was the lowest since...last year, when the XSL did 3,435. But before that you have to go back almost 20 years, to the NPSL of 1991-92, to find a league averaging under 4,000 announced per game.

The Montreal Impact have issued a press advisory For Friday Morning at 10 a.m. The advisory states that the Impact press conference will included "a major announcement concerning the future of professional soccer in Montreal."

While no one reporting in the media is still absolutely certain, most reporters with connections to the team are saying that the Montreal Impact will be announced as the 19th Major League Soccer team and most likely would join the league in 2012.

News is filtering through today that the English Football Association (FA) are to consider scrapping FA Cup replays, with the view of freeing up space in the already-congested domestic fixture list for a much-vaunted winter break.

The proposal is just one of the possible options that the FA are mulling over, as they try to rejuvenate the image of the 139-year-old competition that is currently struggling with dwindling interest and declining attendance figures as clubs and supporters alike begin to shift their priorities to more financially rewarding undertakings, i.

Here's a different look at #TrophiesNotFriendlies. It takes a different look at things than I do, but agreeing with me has never been what determines if we promote to the frontpage.

There has been a lot of talk about whether the Sounders are placing enough value on competitive games as compared to friendlies, especially when it comes to which games are included with season ticket packages.

Attendance figures for college soccer in the men's game is sky-rocketing this year, and continues to highlight the growth of soccer in the United States.
Andrew Keh of the New York Times writes of the eye-catching figures that are popping up across the country for men's games.

The Opening Match of the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup will set a new European attendance record for women's football as 50,000 tickets have already been sold for the clash between host Germany and Canada on June 26 at Berlin's Olympiastadion (above).
The previous record was set on April 22, 2009, when 44,825 fans watched the international friendly between Germany and Brazil at the Frankfurt World Cup Arena.

By the looks of things, not a lot of folks. Now that the Philadelphia KiXX have become the last Major Indoor Soccer League team to open its home schedule (they couldn't get 10 dates at their new home at Temple University, so they're only playing 8 home games this year), here's a look at the attendance figures for each of the five teams in what's left of top-flight indoor soccer:

Team G Total Average Median High Low Baltimore Blast 5 32,801 6,560 6,511 9,614 4,208 Philadelphia KiXX 1 4,584 4,584 4,584 4,584 4,584 Milwaukee Wave 4 12,706 3,177 3,298 3,857 2,254 Monterrey LaRaZa 5 13,754 2,751 2,678 4,150 1,572 Rockford Rampage 5 5,793 1,159 846 1,900 690 MISL TOTAL 20 69,638 3,482 3,104 9,614 690

As they have for years, Baltimore sets the pace in indoor attendance.

Some quick notes for the last workday of the week:

• The Uniwatch blog has graciously run a column I wrote about the late, barely-lamented Senior Professional Baseball Association, which completed its one and only full season twenty years ago this weekend. Many thanks to Paul Lukas for that.

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- QPR REPORT Available on TWITTER!
- For comprehensive and latest QPR news-related pieces and discussion, visit the football-only, somewhat-different QPR Report Messageboard. All QPR Perspectives genuinely welcomed! Or comment on any of the articles posted below
- Best of Luck to Former QPR Chairman Bill Power (BP): A True QPR Mensch
- Waiting for the Club's Apology for Tuesday's "Balagan"!

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- QPR REPORT Available on TWITTER!
- Visit the QPR and football-only QPR Report Messageboard (and quasi-blog)
- QPR's Early-1970s winger and Captain, Mike Ferguson, Reflects
- Flavio Briatore's Continued Share Ownership
- Club/(Selected) Fan Reps Meet on Monday
- Competition Still Open: Photoshop Neil Warnock
- QPR Attendance Figures Season by Season- Lee Camp Highly Ranked Captains Nottingham Forest
- QPR Club-Fan Reps Meeting Scheduled.

One of the advantages of Premier League clubs being more desperate for points at this stage of the season is that it means that we get to see more open matches. It also creates more end-to-end action.

This past weekend was a perfect example of this. I had the chance to watch Spurs against Blackburn, Birmingham against Everton, Hull City versus Arsenal and Sunderland against Manchester City.

If you missed the inaugural edition of this new series of retrospective posts, check it out here.

Here's edition number two:

Fifteen years ago this week

*The Galaxy played their first-ever game April 13, 1996 at the Rose Bowl.

Back then I was working for the LA Times in Ventura County and was still a fan rather than sitting in the press box.

A report in Rupert Murdoch's S*n today about SPL attendances this season.And, surprise, it doesn't make for a particular cheery read:Figures calculated by the SPL up to the top-six split showed Hearts are one of just THREE teams whose average attendance has gone up this season.Kilmarnock and Falkirk have shown marginal improvements, but for other sides the attendance figures make grim

Edtior's note: Please welcome Mr. Bill to the TSF blogging family with his first feature article...

Opening the season against a brand new team? Check. Live music and a great new tailgating atmosphere? Check. Perfect weather for an evening outdoors? Check. Everything was in place for a great turnout at WakeMed last Saturday night.

Nigel De Jong's recent comments in the press have exposed him as a true Manchester City player by emulating the delusion of their fans.

The combative midfielder has been in good form for the bitters this season, but appears to have had one or two knocks on the head judging by his latest words.

While MLS attendance figures have always been slavishly tracked and overanalyzed on BigEvil, it seems like they're everywhere this season. And no wonder, when you see what happened to the traffic of the MLS Daily blog once it started publishing comprehensive, easily viewable attendance stats.
So now you've got:

-the eminently reasonable Tom Dunmore coming out to laugh and point fingers at the New York team for suffering a precipitous drop in attendance for the second game in its shiny new stadium;
-Michael Lewis interviewing New York players about what's gone wrong in the stands;
-Duane Rollins ruminating on the empty seats at BMO stadium on the weekend; and
-Jason Davis leading the charge to curbstomp Dallas (and lord did that turn into a gang-kill).

News today that crowds at the Coca-Cola Football League have broken the 17M mark for the first time in 50 years. And of course with Newcastle's average home attendance of 43,384 the Tyneside club did more than their fair share in these great attendance figures. It turns out a total of 17.1M supporters attended the 1,656 league [.

I've not given the VLeague half the coverage I had intended to...sorry, I've not given them 2% of what I had hoped. I blame laziness. Plus too many Ngyuens and Phams. And wierd club names. Anyway these attendance figures make interesting reading. Source Viet Football
Hai Phong 24,167Da Nang 16,857Dong Thap 16,167Binh Duong 15,000
Thanh Hoa 10,500Ninh Binh 10,500HAGL 9,833Khanh Hoa 9,714
SLNA 8,857Nam Dinh 8,417DT Long An 6,643Ha Noi T&T 5,143
Hoa Phat 3,500Navibank Sai Gon 3,167
Average attendance is 10,604 compared for example with Indonesia where 11,158 watched each game I last time I checked.

at·tend·ance (ə ten′dəns)

noun

1. the act of attending
2. the persons or number of persons attending
3. the degree of regularity in attending

a

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.

The worst kept secret since David Beckham staying in Milan is finally official: Thierry Henry is now a member of Red Bull New York. The problem is, Red Bull New York doesn't really need him.

For the first time in years (the 2008 playoffs were a fluke) have played consistent, quality soccer.

There are a lot of questions surrounding the England camp, the most important obviously being who's in the team. Capello's next move will be very interesting, in terms of just how much rebuilding he does. Well Capello's next move is scheduled for August 11th, at Wembley Stadium against Hungary in the form of an international friendly.

Stand up if you hate 2D fans Italian second tier outfit Triestina have come up with a novel way to deal with their disappointing attendance figures. Struggling to fill their 32,454-seat Stadio Nereo Rocco, the club took the decision to close one of their stands for the entire season. But rather than face the embarrassment [.

The standard of Major League Soccer continues to grow - be it in adding more franchises, in attendance figures, and as an on the field product.
As MLS continues it's rise, Andrew Keh of the New York Times writes about the idea of bringing in big names as Designated Players to continue the exposure of the league.

Yesterday's attendance of just over 24,000 for the Scottish Cup Quarter Final between Rangers and Dundee United (currently 1st and 3rd in the SPL) got me thinking about attendances in this stage of the cup.

I researched the last 30 seasons, including this one, back to 1980/81, the figures brought up a few things that surprised me:

• only twice in the last 30 seasons have BOTH Old Firm teams been drawn at home
• only six times in the last 20 seasons has one Old Firm team NOT been drawn at home
• this season's attendances for the four games was better than last season's
• last season's attendance (one Old Firm team drawn at home) was the worst equivalent since 1981/82

It's no surprise that the mid-80s has the best attendance figures, this was back in the days when the Old Firm weren't guaranteed to win everything and teams thought they had a realistic shot at both the Scottish Cup and League.

Football is nothing without fans
EFW covered the incredible rise of Seattle Sounders last season with interviews and their attendance figures are indeed impressive. When we did so, we were also inundated by Portland Timbers fans who left us in no doubt as to the intensity of the football rivalry, showing us that the Americans at least get that bit.

Today sees the destiny of the SLeague decided with three teams going into tonight's games thinking they can still clinch the title after four years of SAFFC domination.
Etoile will be undoubted favourites. They have a one point lead over second place Tampines and a three point lead over third place Home United.