By Alan Duffy

In a heartening new development from across the pond, it has emerged that the fast-growing MLS has now taken the game to new heights in the US. New reports now put soccer as the third-best attended sport in America, ahead of stalwarts such as the NBA and NHL.

Major League Soccer has surpassed the NBA and NHL in attendance and is now the third-most attended professional sport in America on a per-game basis.

Apologies for the shortage of posts over the last couple of days, but the 9th day of no power/no heat in the Hartford area is making things a bit challenging. Unfortunately, that has meant a total inability to watch the MLS Cup Playoffs. Nevertheless, here are a couple of quick thoughts from the last weekend of games.

Yeah, my power's been out. Curse you, October blizzard.

Remember when I said attendance was good this year? I was wrong. It was great. Record shattering, in fact. Enough to surpass the NBA and NHL, in fact. Seriously. After sixteen years, we have beaten not only our own record set in 1996, but those of other leagues against whom we're compared.

Just a quick note:

The University of South Florida is actually in Central Florida. A Canadian team once won back-to-back American League championships. Duke basketball has played in the NCAA's West Region five times and its Midwest Region four times. Neither the New York Giants nor New York Jets play in New York, and the Dallas Cowboys play in Arlington.

Mike Modano is known for being a talented former NHL star. But since he retired, he's turned weird. Need evidence? Check out Mike Modano as the LMFAO guy picture below.

This Mike Modano picture has him in a tiny speedo and a big afro. Honestly, it's disgusting. I could hardly look at the picture long enough to write this entry.

The NHL suspended Brendan Smith eight games for a hit in a preseason game between the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks. You can watch the Brendan Smith hit video below. The eight game suspension includes three preseason games and five regular season games.

Why did Brendan Smith get suspended?

Lots of smaller business stories worth noting from the last couple of days. We'll start with an announcement from MLS and Neulion to increase the league's mobil device reach. According to the press release, the league and Neulion announced the launch of MLS MatchDay Live on Panasonic Viera Connect TVs and Roku devices across North America.

First the NHL, than NFL, than NBA and now La Liga? After negotiations failed Friday, Spanish players representing all 42 teams in the top two divisions of La Liga are... Read more »

MLS is on the rise at the turnstyle, too...
2011 has been a banner year at gate across Major League Soccer. The league is averaging more than 17,300 fans per game in 2011. This is the first time since the league's inagural season that average attendance has crested the 17k figure. Perhaps even more impressive, the median attendance in 2011 is at an all time high, easily surpassing the previous high (1996) of approximately 16,100.

I'm not entirely sure if this comes from the same guy who did the NFL soccer jerseys but these are pretty sweet as well. My favorites are Toronto, Dallas and Buffalo.

What do you all think?

International Sports world-cup: Brazil Stadiums Near Complete for FIFA World Cup 2014 - Forbes (blog) - http://news.google.com/news... 9 hours ago from News MLB NBA NFL NHL... - Comment - Like The Guardian Brazil Stadiums Near Complete for FIFA World Cup 2014 Forbes (blog) Brazil is on track to upgrade and build-out its 12 stadiums scheduled to receive FIFA national soccer teams during the 2014 World Cup, the country's Sports Minister said on Thursday.

Before departing Pachuca for Queretaro, the U.S. U-17s got in a light training session at the CF Pachuca training grounds ... We could have stayed there for quite a while. The YNT Blog has seen some stadiums in it's time - NFL, NHL, etc - but we haven't seen anything quite like this. The locker room that the first team uses comes complete with the hot and cold tubs right there, personalized showers and personal televisions above every locker.

El titulo podrá sonar pretencioso, la foto y vídeo del año hasta el momento, pero es que la historia solo se puede vivir por internet y esta web debe honrar eso.
Vancouver perdio la final de la NHL:
Los Canucks de Vancouver fueron derrotados en la noche del 16 de Junio en su pista por los Bruins de Boston 0-4 en el séptimo y último juego de los "play-off" de la Liga Profesional de Hockey sobre hielo (NHL por sus siglas en inglés).

El titulo podrá sonar pretencioso, la foto y vídeo del año hasta el momento, pero es que la historia solo se puede vivir por internet y esta web debe honrar eso.
Vancouver perdio la final de la NHL:
Los Canucks de Vancouver fueron derrotados en la noche del 16 de Junio en su pista por los Bruins de Boston 0-4 en el séptimo y último juego de los "play-off" de la Liga Profesional de Hockey sobre hielo (NHL por sus siglas en inglés).

A good all in brawl on the field among the players is an essential part of the SLeague experience. In fact given the lack of atmosphere at most games a free for all is about all there is that can get players' adrenalin pumping.

It was felt that once striker Noh Alam Shah had gone to play overseas things would quiet down in this regard but, fortunately, there have been others ready to step up to the plate.

European Goalkeeping Trends by the numbers - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

101 goalkeepers made over ten starts in Europe's four major leagues during season 2010-12. Another fifty-six made at least one start in either the English Premiership, La Liga, the Bundesliga or Serie A. So after thirty eight games (thirty-four in Germany), which goalkeeper is best?

Writing an article like this is comes with a bit of a disclaimer... Mainly because four out of five of these things I have on good authority that MLS is already to seeking to improve upon. Naturally, we all have our own lists of things MLS can do better so feel free to list them in the comments section below.

Found a link to this on Yahoo sports. He's been doing the Boston Bruins hockey games for the last few years, and he hasn't changed a bit. From what I've read online, he is still the same love/hate announcer with his own unique brand of catchphrases. This is classic Jack:
The man loves his history references.

I've already examined the NFL and NHL, so now it's time for professional basketball.
What if the NBA had implemented a system of promotion and relegation? There was no obvious point to start like with the NFL and NHL, so I settled on the 1967-68 season. That's when the league was expanded to 12 team, the same starting number I used for the NHL, and it also means that all three of these posts started right around the same time.

By Puck This article was initially going to be a Puck's Friday Happy Hour piece, but my editor thought it warranted a different day, as it was "important given the current labor situation surrounding other sports", and useful given that MLS is one of only two leagues remotely stable in this country as I write.

Last week, I looked at what would've happened if the NFL had promotion and relegation. Today, I look at the NHL using the same rules.
Like the NFL, there's a clear point in which implementing it would've made sense. That's the 1967-68 expansion which saw the size of the league double, from the long-standing six teams to twelve.

Bargains USA world-cup: FIFA to decide on 2014 World Cup slots next week - Reuters Canada - http://news.google.com/news... 3 hours ago from News MLB NBA NFL NHL... - Comment - Like Eurosport.com AU FIFA to decide on 2014 World Cup slots next week Reuters Canada BERNE (Reuters) - FIFA will make one of its most politically sensitive decisions next week when soccer's governing body decides how many places each continent will get at the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil.

International Sports world-cup: Financial report, decisions on competition hosts and 2014 FIFA World Cup ... - Fifa.com - http://news.google.com/news... 1 hour ago from News MLB NBA NFL NHL... - Comment - Like Financial report, decisions on competition hosts and 2014 FIFA World Cup ... Fifa.com The agenda features the presentation of the FIFA Financial Report for 2010 and of the financial results for the 2007-2010 cycle, as well as the decision on the slots per confederation for the 2014 FIFA World Cup?

There is nothing official yet, but Coach Winter mentioned that the Dutch trialists below have been signed following the Turkish training camp. Bouchiba is the veteran player, but the other two are on the young side of 25.
The other news of late was the selection of TSN as the MLS Canadian broadcaster.

Bargains USA world-cup: Al Jazeera Sport nets FIFA World Cup TV rights - Rapid tv news - http://news.google.com/news... 28 minutes ago from News MLB NBA NFL NHL... - Comment - Like France24 Al Jazeera Sport nets FIFA World Cup TV rights Rapid tv news The next three FIFA World Cup tournaments will be televised by Al Jazeera Sports across the Middle East and North Africa after football's world governing .

Bargains USA world-cup: Al Jazeera World Cup rights extended to 2018, 2022 - AFP - http://news.google.com/news... 1 hour ago from News MLB NBA NFL NHL... - Comment - Like The National Al Jazeera World Cup rights extended to 2018, 2022 AFP "FIFA is pleased to announce the extension of its broadcast rights agreement with Al Jazeera Sport for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia and the 2022 FIFA .

Sidney Crosby, the best hockey player on earth, will be sidelined for the next week due to a concussion. The injury happened on Wednesday during the Pittsburgh Penguins 8-1 destruction of the Tampa Bay Lightning. These will be the first games the 23-year-old will miss during the 2010-11 NHL season.