North American Pro Soccer 2018

[Dilbert]

FC Cincinnati will release its MLS branding just before Thanksgiving according to the team President.

[Red Wolf]

This the first time I've watched a game at FC Dallas in a while, and it's weird to see so many people there. Did that change recently? I remember always watching FCD games where it looked like the only people there were the players' parents.

[4_tattoos]

So DC United is in the playoffs. I'll be gawdamd they really did it. Well done fellas!

[DG_ThenNowForever]

27 minutes ago, Red Wolf said:

This the first time I've watched a game at FC Dallas in a while, and it's weird to see so many people there. Did that change recently? I remember always watching FCD games where it looked like the only people there were the players' parents.

 

Who was the opponent?

 

FC Dallas routinely has good to really good teams, but you're right, they draw nothing at all. Much like this Houston Dynamo game I'm watching. I don't know what it'll take to get people to show up to MLS matches in all of these MLS 2.0 SSS, but they've got to do better. The stadiums look terrible on TV.

 

EDIT: Also, congrats to DC. It would be fun to see DCU vs. Seattle in the MLS Cup as a matchup of team who took the first half of the season off.

[Red Wolf]

5 minutes ago, DG_Now said:

 

Who was the opponent?

 

FC Dallas routinely has good to really good teams, but you're right, they draw nothing at all. Much like this Houston Dynamo game I'm watching. I don't know what it'll take to get people to show up to MLS matches in all of these MLS 2.0 SSS, but they've got to do better. The stadiums look terrible on TV.

 

EDIT: Also, congrats to DC. It would be fun to see DCU vs. Seattle in the MLS Cup as a matchup of team who took the first half of the season off.

They're playing SKC right now. This is a game that could very well determine the coveted top two seeds for the West, so maybe they were able to galvanize the fanbase for this game. I've also always assumed that the weather plays a part in some of those terribly attended games, and with Fall finally happening maybe that helped convince people to spend a couple hours outside.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Turning it on in the 85th minute of a 2-0 losing effort seems like a bad time to see the full Dallas crowd.

 

Whoops. Maybe everyone's realizing in MLS it's better to be the lower seed.

[Red Wolf]

Sorry to get your hopes up. Now it looks like a regular FC Dallas game. But at least my team won, so I'm happy.

 

I'm curious as to what happened in Houston to their attendance. Back when they were playing at the previous Houston Cougars stadium it always seemed like they had decent support and even early on at the new stadium. I guess it could be as simple as them not being very good, but they had a really thin crowd for the US Open Cup Final as well. It's not even one of those situations where they built the stadium out in some far-flung suburb either, they're in downtown Houston.

[waltere]

I wonder if the Astros being actually damn good now as opposed to the pile of flaming dog crap they were between c.2008-14 might be a factor?

[Jer15]

2 hours ago, DG_Now said:

 

Who was the opponent?

 

FC Dallas routinely has good to really good teams, but you're right, they draw nothing at all. Much like this Houston Dynamo game I'm watching. I don't know what it'll take to get people to show up to MLS matches in all of these MLS 2.0 SSS, but they've got to do better. The stadiums look terrible on TV.

Didn't the Soccer Hall Of Fame open this weekend, and it's attached to the Stadium in Dallas? 

 

I wouldn't be surprised if there's something to that. 

[GDAWG]

The Soccer Hall of Fame is attached to the stadium there in Frisco and it did open this week.

[Still MIGHTY]

LAFC sets the MLS expansion team points record.

 

Mondo cool.

[Sykotyk]

FCD has actually done pretty well with attendance after the first so many years at PHP/Toyota Stadium having abysmal crowds due to location. But, now that area is growing so much, those people don't want to drive anywhere else for sporting events. They have minor league sports, MLS, arenas, etc in the northern suburbs now and I think people are realizing it's fun to not sit in traffic for hours to head down to DFW.

 

As for Houston, they were championship contenders at their old stadium, and I"m sure the combination of sucking, new location more difficult for some to get to, and probably higher prices just made it a tougher sell.

 

Curious what the college games at BBVA get. If I were Houston, if there's no playoff games, put some big name Houston area high school playoff games there. Might get more people to at least KNOW that there is a soccer stadium there and maybe pound it into their brain that it's a sporting option in town.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Nicely done Minnesota:

 

[4_tattoos]

36 minutes ago, Sykotyk said:

Curious what the college games at BBVA get. If I were Houston, if there's no playoff games, put some big name Houston area high school playoff games there. Might get more people to at least KNOW that there is a soccer stadium there and maybe pound it into their brain that it's a sporting option in town.

It's also the home stadium for Texas Southern University (FCS)

[Camden Crazy]

11 hours ago, DG_Now said:

Nicely done Minnesota:

 

 

I’m so glad MLS stadiums have advanced past the “generic cookie cutter with slightly different canopies” phase.  That place looks dope.

[WJMorris3]

On 10/13/2018 at 11:54 AM, Mac the Knife said:

 

 

 

Random but sequential thoughts...

(1)  Columbus is trading an ***hole owner for an incompetent one.  Given Haslam's history?  I'm not sure it's a step up.

(2)  This deal takes one of the four planned expansion sites off the table, guaranteed.  But that's a good thing where face-saving is concerned for MLS, because ultimately they only found two markets willing to bend over far enough and take it up the pipe from them to begin with.

(3)  Actually Buc, per the MLS' limited liability company agreement, they're a "Class A/E" Member.  The original teams are Class A Members.  People who doubled down and bought a second ownership interest stake when the league was on death's door bought a "Class E" membership, thus the "A/E."  Every other team has had a separate class of membership (I think they're through "J" now), but they all have equal ownership stakes and essentially equal rights despite the designation.

You sure about that? Philly is a Class A/E member.

[Sport]

Speaking of stadiums, FC CIncinnati released renderings of their stadium in  and it's still the big orange blob, which is somewhat disappointing given the neighborhood it's going in. It looks awesome and I will see many a game there, but orange blob worked better for the Newport and Oakley locations. In OTR it's gonna stick out and dominate the visuals in that area. I was hoping they'd try harder to match the surrounding buildings with brick and tuck it into the neighborhood better. 

 

 

 

https://www.fccincinnati.com/stadium

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I'm anti-community character when it comes to development. If people could have built built orange blobs when those brick buildings were made, they would have.

 

Go nuts FC Cincinnati. Be your best self.

[Mac the Knife]

1 hour ago, willmorris said:

You sure about that? Philly is a Class A/E member.

Where MLS' organizational/operational structure is concerned, I'm not 100% sure of anything.  Of that I'll readily admit.  

 

Theirs has historically proven by far the hardest nut to crack in terms of figuring out how things actually work for me.  Not that I've killed myself trying, but compared to the "big four" leagues these guys operate like the NSA.

[Digby]

I agree that the newer crop of stadia look nicer than the fairgrounds quality of the earlier ones, but I'm tired of the spaceship skin and LED lights look, I must say. I guess it's cheaper than a nice brick or stonework facade. Far as I'm concerned, the Timbers' park is the closest American soccer has to a cathedral; hope the modifications don't ruin the historic vibe too much.