Dilbert

As much as Id love to see Quebec City back in the NHL, I think in order to keep the divisional and conference alignment set the best options would be Houston, Kansas City and Salt Lake. A move to the East to Quebec would mean either Columbus or Detroit would have to move back to the west, which I know neither want to do, or they could do the Covid divisional alignment with an 8 team Canadian division, and an East, Central, and West divisions and scrap the conferences.

FC Cincinnati was given a gift by the soccer gods last Saturday during their bye as all the teams around them in the standings either lost or draw. Tonight they capitalized on that gift beating Montreal 3-0 and are now 7-0-0 at The Tickle to start the MLS season. With New England off tonight that now puts them atop the East and Supporters Shield standings as they head into Hell is Real on Saturday.

Bettman: Im still committed to the Phoenix market. Have we tried moving the team to the arena in Glendale? Stooge: I think we burned that bridge already sir.

Florida State and Miami are salty that UCF somehow has a better deal than them

This is a going to be a separate club from Loyal. The Loyal will remain in the USL Championship

Im not a fan. Ive never been a fan of black in the Reds uniforms and logos since it was added in 1999. Im a red and white purist. While I like Cincy as a script, having it and the numbers be black on black is a visibility nightmare. The C on the hat screams Portland Trail Blazers. Nothing of this uniform screams Cincinnati. The only bit they do have that even remotely represents the city is Juncta Juvant, and the Buckeye is more for Ohio overall than Cincinnati, and they are hiding in the collar. That being said, while I dont think these are good, they are miles better than Baltimores leak.

Heard the news during the NYCFC-Cincinnati Open Cup game. Stadium looks great, but then again, anything is an upgrade or Yankee and Citi.

Tallahassee and or Gainesville would be best options. Or they can do a reverse Florida-Georgia and split games between Athens and Gainesville. Orlando could be an option too. Or the NFL can do a test of a full season or two in London.

Message from San Diego Loyal regarding San Diego MLS bid

Jaguars playing two straight weeks in London seems interesting. CBS announced Bengals at Chiefs on New Years Eve 4:25pm. I wouldve pinned that one for a primetime game.

Last night was a fun night of US Open Cup matches. Both the defending champs, Orlando, and the runners up, Sacramento were both eliminated. Pittsburgh cupset New England. Chicago beat St Louis, Minnesota knocks out Philadelphia on penalties. LAFC (although it was mostly their LAFC2 side) took it to penalties with Monterey Bay, barely sneaking by. Those boys will be tired as LAFC2 have a game tonight in MLS Next Pro. More Open Cup action tonight as we whittle down to 16.

At this point Loyal arent involved but could be if both ownership groups get together. Comparing with Nashville, Cincinnati, St Louis and Charlotte. Nashville and Cincinnati had USL clubs. The ownership were involved with their MLS bids and were moved to MLS. St Louis had a USL club. Separate ownership secured an MLS franchise. The USL owners folded their club as to not compete against the MLS club. Charlotte had a USL club. A separate ownership was granted an MLS club. The USL club dropped down from USL Championship to USL League One and now competes against the MLS and MLS Next Pro in the Charlotte market.

What a wild weekend hours for MLS. San Jose gave LAFC their first loss of the year in a game played at Levis Stadium. League doormat, Sporting Kansas City, somehow managed to find the back of the net twice, to upset the Western Conference leading Seattle Sounders at Seattle to get their first win of the season. Then this morning Chicago Fire and New York Red Bulls both parted ways with their coaches.

The Reds will reveal their City Connect on May 13, 513 Day (513 is the Cincinnati area code) They will debut the uniforms on May 19 vs the Yankees.

Another element for the Reds City Connect has leaked according to C. Trent Rosecrans.

San Diego is getting closer to joining MLS https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/soccer/story/2023-05-06/major-league-soccer-mls-san-diego-expansion-franchise-snapdragon-stadium-sycuan-mansour-group

FC Cincinnati remain perfect at home with a 2-1 win over DC United. Guido Gonzales Jr showed flashbacks of when he officiated an FCC game in 2017 in which he was handing out yellow cards like Oprah. My other gripe about tonight is we missed seeing Acostas goal from the corner flag because Apple TV was showing an unimportant replay.

I mean there is this pretty cool venue in Houston that some call the Eighth Wonder of the World they could use. Its just sitting collecting dust..... and mold..... and vermin

The saga of the Oakland Roots venue continues. The Roots home opener had to be postponed and subsequent home games at Laney College were moved to Cal State East Bay in Hayward, due to Laney College laying new turf at their stadium. The Roots play on their own turf which sits on top of the Laney College field and track. When Laney College laid new turf it caused the Roots turf to not sit properly on the new turf. Now the club has announced that the entire home slate has been moved to Cal State East Bay as they have found that their turf and Laneys turf are incompatible and thus not meet USSF standards. The Roots have recently submitted a bid to build a temporary stadium in the Malibu lot at the Oakland Coliseum complex, to serve them for the next decade.

Since MLS has now distanced themselves from USL, Id say they'd go straight to NWSL.

Unless City Football Group buys Gotham, then they will probably stay put in New Jersey. City already operates womens teams in Manchester and Melbourne, so once the stadium at Willets Point is ready, then they could focus on starting up a womens team in New York.

and then they move to Hagerstown next season.

Im not sure if Cincy is a hockey town. Its more of a "Hey the arena has a dollar beer night" or "its Nickelodeon night, lets take the kids to meet the Ninja Turtles". While there are fans of hockey at the Cyclones games, I think its become more of promotional crowd. I still hear people wanting the NBA and the Royals back more than anything. Hockey here is generally at the bottom of the sports totem pole with the Bengals, FC Cincinnati, UC/XU/high school football all above hockey.

Cincinnati wouldnt have had a chance over Columbus, nor would they now. At the time Columbus was awarded, Cincinnati was going through a stadium/arena rebirth. The citizens of Cincinnati and Hamilton County got screwed over on the funding and building of Paycor Stadium and Great American Ball Park at that time. At the same time Heritage Bank Center (then Riverfront Coliseum) was purchased and renovated, its first since opening in 1975. While the renovations helped for what the arena hosted at that time, it wouldnt have been adequate for the NHL. Today, the arena needs to be replaced as it has barely been touched since that renovation. However, after taxpayers were screwed over on the ballpark and stadium, a new arena would have to be privately financed and have no taxpayer money go toward it. The city and county arent going to let it happen again. Its the reason why TQL was privately financed. The problem here is the arena owner doesnt want to entirely pay for it, and no one wants to step up to privately finance it. So while nothing gets done, we now miss out on big concerts, NCAA tournaments, political national conventions, and other events as they all go to Columbus, Cleveland, Indy, and Louisville instead because they all have newer arenas. Cincinnati had its chance to get into the NHL with the Stingers in the WHA merger, but the NHL only wanted the Canadian clubs and Hartford.