Dilbert

12 hours ago, Needschat said:

 

 

Training camp is being held in Albany once again. I don't understand why people always believe if a team is called New York, it's always downstate in the City. If the team were named Long Island, then Hofstra would be the home stadium. 

 

The Long Island Lizards changed their name to New York Lizards while playing at Hofstra

2 hours ago, infrared41 said:

The Browns are starting their fifth QB of the season - the immortal Jeff Driskel

 

This is also the first time in the history of the Battle of Ohio that the starting quarterback has played for the other team

The new Pioneer League Oakland B's wanted to play a game in June at the Coliseum. The Oakland A's said no

8 hours ago, 4_tattoos said:

So the touring model continues? What was the purpose of "placing teams in home markets" if each team only gets one home game? Technically the Cannons may have a second home game if you want to count the game in Connecticut. C'mon Rabil! If the league wasn't truly ready to shift to home cities why put up the charade?

 

 

I think this was their plan, at least for this season before setting out for a full time home sites in the coming seasons. A lot of people also assumed New York was gonna be at Shuart Stadium in Hempstead and California at PayPal Park in San Jose, but it looks like they settled on Albany and San Diego instead. They also had Philly in Chester instead of Villanova, and Boston at Foxborough instead of at Harvard.

10 hours ago, monkeypower said:

 

An update to this, the Cavalry game has been moved to Victoria because of the frost concerns with the grass field. McMahon Stadium in Calgary (home of the CFL's Stampeders) doesn't have CONCACAF approved turf and Commonwealth Stadium up in Edmonton is already booked, so Victoria was deemed the best option.

 

I don't really follow the team but I have seen a little online that the fanbase is understandably not happy about it. I guess Cavalry never acknowledged any potential chance of the game being moved until the move was announced (then disabled replies on social media) and had been using the potential for priority pre-sale tickets to CONCACAF games as part of the season ticket renewal blast.

 

As for Hamilton, their turf is FIFA approved and the climate is typically warmer than Calgary so I guess they don't have the same concerns.

 

Sidenote probably more suited for the logos section: The name Cavalry FC bothers me. It's too close to Calgary to not be Calgary and it gets spelt wrong as the place where Jesus was crucified, like you in the post I quoted.

Cavalry arent the only ones. Vancouver Whitecaps will also play their game in Victoria because BC Place is booked.

Congrats Detroit. Long time coming.

Florida State will not be joining the European Super League

2 hours ago, Digby said:

 

It's a Very MLS thing that there's no set formula for cross-conference matchups and they're arbitrarily set every year. I saw a Reddit comment that Chicago has still never played Austin, and hasn't played someone else (LAFC maybe?) since 2019.

Cincinnati has yet to host Austin or Dallas, and will host St Louis for the first time in 2024. Cincinnati has yet to play at Portland, Kansas City, or LA Galaxy. We will play at Dallas and San Jose for the second time (both previous meetings in 2019). We also havent played the Galaxy since 2019. Meanwhile we play Colorado and Minnesota for the fourth time (fifth against Minnesota if you include Open Cup in 2018 prior FCC joining MLS), LAFC for the third time.

Good to see US Soccer sticking to their guns. Allowing MLS to not follow the guidelines of all eligible teams participating in the tournament would break division sanctioning guidelines, would also show advantage to the defunct NASL in their ongoing lawsuit with USSF

USL Championships Rio Grande Valley FC Toros have ceased operations after 8 years. Their home, H-E-B Park will become home to UTRGVs new football program.

USL League One 2025 expansion club for Sherman Texas reveals their identity, Texoma FC

MLS is making some changes for next year:

-If an injured player remains on the ground for 15+ secs, they will have to remain off the field for 2 minutes. My hope is this will cut back on a lot of the diving and theatrics of trying to get a foul called. No need to roll halfway down the pitch like Columbus did in MLS Cup.

-Substitutes must exit the field within 10 seconds.  This should cut back on game delay, and stoppage time added.

-Referees will make in-stadium announcements for VAR decisions. Finally!

-Stadium clocks run past 90’.  My thought is they didnt have the stoppage time running to keep the players from giving up, or waste time until the final whistle.

-MLS is pulling out of the US Open Cup and having their MLS Next Pro sides take their place. While this doesnt affect CF Montreal, one has to wonder what DC United will do as they still dont have a Next Pro Club. While this may suck for MLS fans, this will be a big plus for the USL. It will also clear up the heavy schedule congestion, at least for 2024 anyway.

2 hours ago, Burmy said:

This just in...MLS is pulling their first teams from the 2024 US Open Cup.  In their place will play their respective MLS Next Pro sides.

 

This is the end of an era...but the beginning of a new one.  Now it's looking like time for the next Brooklyn Italians or Rochester Rhinos to rise up and claim that Cup.

This should probably go in the 2024 thread.

While I understand why Edmonton and Washington became "Football Team" for their name transitions, it is unnecessary for OKC to do this. Just play one final season as the Dodgers and then announce the new name.

USL League One is now jumping on the in season tournament bandwagon.

Sporting Club Jacksonville, aka Sporting JAX has announced their name and logo for their new USL Championship and USL Super League squads. Both teams are supposed to start in 2025

The Eastern Conference was such a dominant conference this year. As much as it pains me to see Columbus lift the cup this year, after seeing how Nancy led Montreal last year Im honestly not surprised.

Daddy Garber issued his state of the league address

Highlights:

-MLS "overdelivered" on Apple's expectations.

-Leagues Cup was ""a smashing success on every measure... this is a tournament that will continue to grow".. said format might accommodate Liga MX travel next year, but that no indication that it includes playing games in Mexico.

 -Threw out the possibility of changing the calendar and getting creative to accommodate the crowded schedules.

-No 4th DP is being added, but roster rule changes will be announced next week.

-MLS is talking with US Soccer on how to change US Open Cup to give it "support".

-Despite a lot of negative feedback, Don Garber says he loves the new playoff format - "We love the format. Attendance was up, ratings were up."

-"We've got to look at it all, including our roster rules. Goal is what the league wants to look like in 2027, after the World Cup"

-MLS Schedule will drop December 20th.

-"We can't afford" to shut the league down for summer international tournaments (Copa America next year). But says they'll break for the World Cup.

-"How can we reconfigure the schedule?" and suggests perhaps a apertura/clausura format like Liga MX.

Thoughts?

On 12/5/2023 at 8:25 PM, mcj882000 said:

Now I'm not a resident, but looking at a map, Desert Ridge is actually farther away from the metro than Tempe, Mesa or even Glendale are. 

Granted it's at least somewhat close to Scottsdale, where all of the Coyotes' "real" fans allegedly live (though still not as close as Tempe or Mesa are, lol), but suffice to say I'm also skeptical that, even if it gets built, that they'll actually fill the place regularly & turn a profit for once.

Might as well go further north and go to Salt Lake City at this point.

They took the Minnesota Wild, and made it baseball. Honestly, great work. While it is another Blue/Red team, much to the dismay of the guy who always complains of red and blue teams, the yellow more than makes up for it to make it pop, while the teal isnt overpowering.

I mean if California and Stanford can be in the Atlantic Coast Conference then why not? I thought Chicago State was on the brink of collapse awhile back.

2 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

After the BS penalty call when the guy literally tripped over his own feet, I thought the game was over. Columbus would have lost this game if it was played a month ago, but the team just doesn't want the season to end. Columbus has relied on defense for most of the playoffs, but a high scoring game has to be better for them than in most years though. Acosta should have taken himself out when all he could do was occupy space. That's not the only thing that hurt FCC, but that's the point in the game where you need to get into areas by running your tail. 

Chapman made some questionable calls on both sides. I thought he was constantly late to the whistle throughout the game as well. PRO has really got to reign it in for all officials for next season. We could not connect on passes, and we could not pick the ball from Columbus all night.  Acosta was selfish for staying on, but Pat should have known better to take him out, even when Acosta said no. That, combined with  key back line guys out (Miazga shooting himself in the foot for the playoffs, Hagglund out for injury), and tired legs, especially in the last minutes of overtime (Acosta and Barreal) killed us.

Bout to have a Tank level meltdown. The Cincy sports curse is way to real.  Onto next season for FCC. Columbus will host LAFC for the cup.

Its like they want an affiliation with Vegas so they add Knights to the name, but they are also technically part of the San Jose Sharks territory so they use teal as a color.

The new Lake Tahoe team for next season in the ECHL has revealed its name and logo, the Tahoe Knight Monsters