Landon Donovan sighting

And so was the footy played in the first half of the NE/ Crew game last night.

Unfortunately the Crew began to lose form in the second half and slowly reverted to type, at which the Rev's got off the typical last five minutes game winner.
- - - - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - -
Maybe LD has started to read what REAL fans think of him?!!!!

 

I think the MLS should look at games that mean something the players play hard and makes for some of the best games of the season. I really hope the league try a single table next year and the top 6 or 8 make the playoffs, I would rather only have four teams but beggers cant be chosers.

 

I assume that the MLS is franchised, so there is no relegation and promotion? If that is the case then the big leauge format cannot work as once the bottom 14 teams are out of contention no-one will give a damn where they finish.

We had a similar problem with Cricket in the UK and so created 2 divisions of 10 teams with the top 2 promoted and the 3rd playing the bottom for relegation. While artifical, it provided enough competition throughout the season to keep the players interested, and because the standard of Cricket was not greatly different between the 2 division England selectors were able to choose from both divisions.

The Scottish Premier Leauge (SPL) has an interesting approach where each team plays each other twice and then the division is split into 2 where the top teams play each other again and likewise the bottom teams. You cannot move higher than the midpoint if you finished in the bottom half, but it makes the final games of the season more exciting as the best teams re-play to decide the title.

Ultimatly though, being champions, relegation and promotion keeps interest at the end of a season, I hope for a fairly plain April this season!

 

I admit I never followed MLS at all until this year. Now I occasionally check the website and see what's happening around the league and watch a few matches on TV.

I didn't know the playoff system either and I find it weird, kinda funny, that over half the league makes it into the playoffs. I know there aren't many teams in the league, but it seems odd when 8 teams make the playoffs and only 4 are done after regular season.

 

Rummy... it isnt funny when your team is one of those 4 for two years in a row.
tho it IS funny when the team (LA) that won it ALL the prev season is..

Actually, it wouldnt help anything for it to go single table...there is ALREADY a trophy for the team that wins the 'Season' according to single table. Unfortunately it is not regarded highly enough.

MLS sched and award system is and must be a balancing act to make the product attractive.
Only a casual onlooker would suggest making it tougher to go on, post-season... that is for down the road when there's a solid fan base.

 

The main thing that I've noticed the past weeks is, attendance, very very good!

In the past there has been no correspondence between the importance of the game and the attendance. Attendance patterns have been based on promotion and advertising. Thus playoff games have had dismal attendance as there is no time to promote the games. But.... this year in the heat of the playoff races attendance has been very strong league wide.

Bottom line the fans are beginning to show up for the games that matter. If this trend continues into the playoffs I'll be convinced the product is finally selling its self. Enough people in the markets follow the team close enough to know when the games that matter are. This is very encouraging to me!

 

To emphasize my point these are all the attendances of the last three weeks :

date home away att
10/15 DC Chi 18,562
10/15 Chivas RSL 19,872
10/14 LA FCD 27,000
10/14 Hou Col 17,191
10/14 NY KC 19,780
10/14 NE Crew 19,166
10/7 Col NY 14,615
10/7 RSL Hou 22,515
10/7 FCD LA 20,500
10/7 Chi Crew 20,054
10/7 KC Chivas 15,878
10/7 DC NE 21,022
9/30 NY Chi 15,835
9/30 NE Col 17,093
9/30 Crew FCD 13,505
9/30 Hou DC 20,029
9/30 KC RSL 15,038
9/30 LA Chivas 27,000

 

Yeah I notice some great attendance in the last two weeks, even New York is getting 18,000 fans to showing up.

 

Those numbers are ticket sold, not butts in seats..

Big difference, but actually still encouraging... there have been some excellent performances this season.

example:
9/30 Crew FCD 13,505
9000 of those were ST presold.. actual about 7000 showed up.
BUT The Buckeyes were playing at the same time.. AND it was freaking RAINING like cats'n'dogs. AND the Crew has typically sucked at home, until the last months.

 

no better time to go than the playoffs, perhaps Dallas will be able to make a run this year

 

My sister's in town.. she lives in western part of Ft Worth and she's really ticked at how far she'd have to drive to go to a Dallas game... says she probably wont go more than once or twice a season, at best.. and this year only went to one so far, plus a HS tournament.

I REALLY think Hunt should have found a way to put it in Arlington.

 

Everything's relative, dont'cha know. Her in-laws are in San Antone, and our brother, as well... she makes the trip at least twice a year.

Her tick is that the drive is about 1.5 hours for her.. while to see the Cowboys it's a lot shorter and at their old venue it was, as well. I think she's really sort of ticked she didnt go more often when they were closer.
And she knows I can drive the 55 miles to see the Crew in 55 minutes... heh!