North American Pro Soccer 2017

[Kevin W.]

https://www.massivereport.com/2017/10/31/16578996/exclusive-e-mail-hoax-on-precourt-sports-venture-reveals-information-on-relocation-columbus-crew-sc

[henchmeister]

2 hours ago, Red Wolf said:

I'd consider it a disappointment if they didn't. 

I have a sad feeling they will censor all anti-Precourt themed banners and tifo. Would love to see it happen, but I'm just trying to temper my expectations. I'm probably going to be yelling obscenities at his non-present coward self from the Nordecke though

 

Also, Dave Greeley is an idiot and it makes me happy

[DG_ThenNowForever]

The intensity of this game is something else. I hope the Crew make it to the next round, because I want to see a Toronto/Columbus ECF.

[Sport]

18 hours ago, henchmeister said:

I have a sad feeling they will censor all anti-Precourt themed banners and tifo. Would love to see it happen, but I'm just trying to temper my expectations. I'm probably going to be yelling obscenities at his non-present coward self from the Nordecke though

 

Also, Dave Greeley is an idiot and it makes me happy

 

Crew reddit is saying there was a banner with his head on a snake's body that was confiscated, but you could hear ":censored: you precourt", "precourt sucks" and "Save the crew" chants. He actually had the stones to show up and face the music so I'll give him credit for that. 

 

and the team put themselves in a really good position to host another home game so we'll see what happens there. 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Taylor Twellman spoke a bit about Precourt last night. He's decidedly unmoved by the protests; his general thought was Crew fans had 20 years to show up but went to Ohio State football games instead.

 

Judging by attendance at earlier games, and even last night -- it wasn't a sellout -- he's not wrong.

 

Would a new stadium fix everything? Dunno.

[Sport]

It's a very unfair assessment and Precourt is an a$$hole. Nobody's ever put any earnest work into promoting the Crew. I lived in Columbus for most of the Crew's existence and I can't recall seeing a billboard and TV ads were rare. The Hunts didn't market the team and Precourt deliberately didn't market the team because he didn't want people to come. Precourt also signed a purposefully bad TV deal when other, better deals were on the table, blacked out home games on MLS Live to people in Columbus (not weird in the MLS), but also unnecessarily blacked out the road games (very weird in the MLS). What sense does that make unless you don't want people to be engaged with your team? Not even Bill Wirtz was blacking out road games. Nobody in Columbus can watch this team. 

 

Fast forward to last night: the city had short notice, on the night of trick or treating, to go watch a team that most people are resigned to leaving. I think it's remarkable anybody went at all. 

 

Columbus is a large enough city that people could go to both OSU games and Blue Jackets and the Crew. He never tried to get people to come to Crew games. Either he's a complete moron or he's been sabotaging his own market to justify a move. If it is the latter he wouldn't be doing anything differently than what he's done. 

[MJWalker45]

I still can't believe that was NYCFC's first ever playoff goal.

[Gothamite]

1 hour ago, MJWalker45 said:

I still can't believe that was NYCFC's first ever playoff goal.

 

Well, it’s only been three games.  And two of them were against the Toronto, who took the Final to a shootout last year. 

 

What’s really frustrating is that we’ve given up eleven goals in those three matches. 

[henchmeister]

1 hour ago, McCarthy said:

It's a very unfair assessment and Precourt is an a$$hole. Nobody's ever put any earnest work into promoting the Crew. I lived in Columbus for most of the Crew's existence and I can't recall seeing a billboard and TV ads were rare. The Hunts didn't market the team and Precourt deliberately didn't market the team because he didn't want people to come. Precourt also signed a purposefully bad TV deal when other, better deals were on the table, blacked out home games on MLS Live to people in Columbus (not weird in the MLS), but also unnecessarily blacked out the road games (very weird in the MLS). What sense does that make unless you don't want people to be engaged with your team? Not even Bill Wirtz was blacking out road games. Nobody in Columbus can watch this team. 

 

Fast forward to last night: the city had short notice, on the night of trick or treating, to go watch a team that most people are resigned to leaving. I think it's remarkable anybody went at all. 

 

Columbus is a large enough city that people could go to both OSU games and Blue Jackets and the Crew. He never tried to get people to come to Crew games. Either he's a complete moron or he's been sabotaging his own market to justify a move. If it is the latter he wouldn't be doing anything differently than what he's done. 

 

In addition, he's allegedly repeatedly squeezed out sponsors for the team. Barbasol apparently could have had a deal to become a league wide sponsor, but couldn't get anywhere in negotiations with Precourt and Heartland Bank backed away when they were informed price of sponsorship doubled (I understand wanting more money from sponsors, but doubling the price is excessive, especially for a local bank). He hasn't tried to engage with the community at any level (personal, business, fans) at all, and hasn't made any efforts to involve himself. No offices, condos or apartments in Columbus, hasn't personally joined any business leader groups, hasn't tried to make any connections with government leaders; everything is run out of his San Francisco office. His appearance at last night's game was an anomaly for his tenure.

 

As for last night, man that was fun. Team crushed it and probably could have had 7 if they had some composure in front of goal. Plenty of sloppy giveaways though, can't have that continue. Nordecke was full of energy, it was bedlam in there. One of the best games I've attended there easily.

 

In addition: we had 14k in the building last night, but had a rocking atmosphere. Houston and RBNY had "15k" and "18k" respectively and from the looks of it, crickets could be heard around the grounds. Looks like we need to move them to Albuquerque and Scranton, I hear new markets do well in MLS!

[PrimalCookie]

On 11/1/2017 at 11:20 AM, MJWalker45 said:

I still can't believe that was NYCFC's first ever playoff goal.

Still better then their expansion mates have done.

[tBBP]

So I saw this in my feed earlier today...

 

 

I so hope I'm outta here by the time they start digging on this*.

[Gothamite]

That’s a bit disingenuous, though. Cincy has a stadium plan in place, it’s just on the Kentucky side of the river.  So they’re holding out for a site on the north bank, but if they don’t get one the Plan B is ready to go. 

[dfwabel]

The Ford family joins Detroit's MLS bid, scrapping the stadium plan and will tout Ford Field.  

 

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2017/11/02/detroit-bid-mls-soccer-franchise-ford-field/107274674/

[tBBP]

54 minutes ago, Gothamite said:

That’s a bit disingenuous, though. Cincy has a stadium plan in place, it’s just on the Kentucky side of the river.  So they’re holding out for a site on the north bank, but if they don’t get one the Plan B is ready to go. 

You see my point. It's all nutty to me. This mayor of ours has shown some serious fervor for pushing projects to get done in this town (some of which were sorely needed--like the many street repavings going on), and I can even get on board with the vision of the $5B transit plan she's proposing (because Lord knows this town needs it). But this here MLS bid--while also trying land Amazon HQ2--in addition to the transit plan--is a bit much all at once. And bear in mind the stadium plan is still predicated on a private/public funding split, which is why the council vote is even needed in the first place (& probably why they've been ramping up public outreach here lately). There's just way too much going on here right now and not near-enough space to fit it all in--I still believe this place is going to choke on its own growth in the next five years or so if they don't do something about it quick. 

 

Going back to Cincy's bid...I chased some things down concerning that. As we know the Newport site is build-ready, but still option B to their primary target in Over-the-Rhine I believe it is (which would require some buying up of some of the properties there). I also didnt realize their stadium proposal was going head-up with the Western Hills Viaduct public works plan (which, oh my goodness--that roadway is decrepit). And so here we  ourselves with an all-too-familiar scenario: spend on sorely-needed public infrastructure (sound familiar?) or shiny new sports arena? (Apparently Cincy's also looking at rebuilding US Bank Arena as well as doing some kind of revamp to the Fort Washington Way--have fun with that one when it happens, Cincinnatians. ?) On the other side of the water, it seems as if FCC is also trying to tie the Newport site bid in tandem with [the Cincy area's] own bid for Amazon HQ2 (or rather, the other way around), to be built together over there. I also saw something about potential HQ2 salaries--Amazon states HQ2 jobs would pay six figures annually--helping to pay for the complex??? (I think that came from the PX column of Cincinnati.com but I lost the link to it and I haven't yet gotten to chase that one down.)

 

I'm nowhere near an expert on these types of matters, or near as knowledgable as y'all are, but I sure hope Cincinnati wins their bid over Nashville's--they've already established the following and laid the groundwork for the "culture", if you will. Plus...[emo-trip alert] "Cincinnati deserves it." (That said, if y'all do win that bid, PLEASE do something about that badge, because...that one y'all got now just ain't gettin' it. ) 

[Corvus]

That was dire by the Whitecaps in this playoff round. I'm so disappointed in the lack of belief in his team shown by Carl Robinson. To not even try to score in the first leg when Seattle was without Dempsey was atrocious. 

 

And why bring in a new starting goal keeper right before the playoffs? Marinovic wasn't bad, but Ousted didn't need replacing. 

[4_tattoos]

Can't help but notice that FS1 has the 0-0 Aggregate score displayed on the scorebug in the Portland/Houston game. Am I the only one that thinks it's pointless to display a 0-0 aggregate score in a 2nd leg game?

[DG_ThenNowForever]

58 minutes ago, 4_tattoos said:

Can't help but notice that FS1 has the 0-0 Aggregate score displayed on the scorebug in the Portland/Houston game. Am I the only one that thinks it's pointless to display a 0-0 aggregate score in a 2nd leg game?

 

No? Why wouldn't that matter?

 

I caught the end of the Toronto/NYRB bloodbath. That was an angry soccer game -- check out this fight(ish) in the tunnel at halftime:

 

It's Columbus/Toronto in the Eastern final, with both Altidore and Giovinco missing the game in Columbus, which seems really bad for Toronto. Columbus could easily build up a big lead at home again and then all bets are off in Toronto.

 

Houston is up on Portland at the half. A Houston/Seattle final would be disappointing from a rivalry standpoint, but would be the easiest road for Seattle.

 

I'm hoping for the MLS Cup rematch, but it all of a sudden feels like that's less likely than it was before today.

 

EDIT: And Houston scores to put it out of reach with 13 minutes to go plus stoppage. Crazy things happen, but this seems done.

 

[Red Wolf]

On 10/27/2017 at 10:01 AM, Red Wolf said:

If the new tradition continues, the Houston Dynamo are going to be your MLS Cup champs. The last two teams to beat SKC in the knockout round (Seattle and Portland) the last two years won it all. 

Houston just advanced against Portland, because I told you! I told you all! We may all be rooting for Columbus to pull a Major League (unless our team's still in it), but it's gonna be Houston. The Dynamo are your new MLS Cup Champions and you just have to get used to it. 

[Seadragon76]

Toronto vs. Columbus is easily the best story line of the two Conference Finals. The best team in the league's history vs. a red hot team that's playing under the knowledge that their time in Columbus could end after next season if their nincompoop of an owner has his way.

 

Seattle vs. Houston is the better team match up. That's not to say that the break won't be beneficial for both teams.

[MJWalker45]

13 hours ago, Seadragon76 said:

Toronto vs. Columbus is easily the best story line of the two Conference Finals. The best team in the league's history vs. a red hot team that's playing under the knowledge that their time in Columbus could end after next season if their nincompoop of an owner has his way.

 

Seattle vs. Houston is the better team match up. That's not to say that the break won't be beneficial for both teams.

As beat up as Seattle is, and the fact that this USMNT team will be mostly kids, this break is better for them than for Houston. Columbus trying to pull a "hold my beer" moment at the end didn't help my blood pressure any.