North American Pro Soccer 2020

[Brian in Boston]

22 hours ago, GDAWG said:

It would be quite a shock if NYCFC doesn't get a new stadium built while he's on the roster.  

I'd be shocked if any contract between City Football Group and Messi doesn't include language that stipulates a soccer-specific stadium for New York City FC has to be completed before Messi ever suits up for the Major League Soccer club. I simply don't see Messi's people signing off on their client playing the home half of his MLS schedule in a baseball stadium. Frankly, Messi playing out the last two years of his contract with NYCFC is likely the cudgel - pardon... incentive - that City Football Group is hoping to use in order to finally get a soccer-specific facility built for their MLS side. As such, they'd likely be only too happy to accede to the inclusion of such a clause in Messi's contract.

 

[sportsfan7]

1 hour ago, 4_tattoos said:

So what's the latest with MLB contracting some minor league teams? As that still supposed to happen? At one point somebody mentioned the possibly of one of the Yankees' minor league clubs within the city being axed and having a soccer stadium built on the land the minor league park currently sits. Realistically how fast could that happen?

Contraction is still a go, but neither of the NYC team (Brooklyn Cyclones, Mets affiliate, or Staten Island Yankees, Yankees affiliate) are on the chopping block. Plus, the way you described it, the stadium would be in Staten Island, which is uh... not great

[SFGiants58]

1 hour ago, Brian in Boston said:

Frankly, Messi playing out the last two years of his contract with NYCFC is likely the cudgel - pardon... incentive - that City Football Group is hoping to use in order to finally get a soccer-specific facility built for their MLS side. As such, they'd likely be only too happy to accede to the inclusion of such a clause in Messi's contract.

Great, we’re getting another vaporware project on MLS’ part. But hey, Soccer-Specific Stadium printer go brrr.

[GDAWG]

So how the CPL been doing in their Prince Edward Island bubble?

[Seadragon76]

4 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

So how the CPL been doing in their Prince Edward Island bubble?

 

Very good. They're just about done with the first phase of competition with the final games of that round being held this weekend.

 

Only team has been knocked out in FC Edmonton, who has been crappy this season.

[Brian in Boston]

2 hours ago, 4_tattoos said:

At one point somebody mentioned the possibly of one of the Yankees' minor league clubs within the city being axed and having a soccer stadium built on the land the minor league park currently sits. Realistically how fast could that happen?

The Staten Island Yankees are the only MiLB affiliate of the big league Yanks that currently operates within the City of New York. While said New York-Penn League franchise was on the initial list of 42 teams to be eliminated as part of Major League Baseball's reorganization of affiliated minor league ball, there has been subsequent talk that the club could survive as part of the sketchily-described, independent "Dream League" concept that MLB officials have floated. Further, Yankees president Randy Levine is on record as indicating that he'd like to figure out a way to save the Staten Island Yankees as an affiliated team.

However, let's say that the Staten Island Yankees ballclub does go the way of the dodo. I don't believe for a minute that the city-owned site of the Richmond County Ballpark at St. George would make for an optimal locale for a soccer-specific stadium for New York City FC. For starters, while a combination of automobiles, buses, ferries and trains may prove adequate for transporting a capacity crowd of 7,171 fans to a Short Season A baseball game on Staten Island, one can presume that Citi Football Group and Major League Soccer officials envision a home stadium for NYCFC with the ability to accommodate crowds of between 25,000 and 26,000 supporters. 

[Digby]

Staten Island FC! Could you even imagine. Getting dangerously close to the dreaded New Jersey at that point. Might get the old Italian guys in the seats, though.

 

If we're kicking out one of the single-A teams, Brooklyn Cyclones would be the one. What a location for a 25k-seater, right there at Coney Island. Though the MCU Park site probably isn't big enough to fit anything larger than what they've got.

 

If NYCFC gets its own stadium, that Bronx site near Yankee Stadium feels like an inevitability, doesn't it?

[Dilbert]

2 hours ago, Digby said:

Staten Island FC! Could you even imagine. Getting dangerously close to the dreaded New Jersey at that point. Might get the old Italian guys in the seats, though.

 

If we're kicking out one of the single-A teams, Brooklyn Cyclones would be the one. What a location for a 25k-seater, right there at Coney Island. Though the MCU Park site probably isn't big enough to fit anything larger than what they've got.

 

If NYCFC gets its own stadium, that Bronx site near Yankee Stadium feels like an inevitability, doesn't it?

The Brooklyn Cyclones were one of the teams not only scheduled to survive but be promoted to Double A,

 

If anything NYCFC should look at near Yankee Stadium, Citi Field, or Nassau Coliseum

[GDAWG]

5 hours ago, Seadragon76 said:

 

Very good. They're just about done with the first phase of competition with the final games of that round being held this weekend.

 

Only team has been knocked out in FC Edmonton, who has been crappy this season.

 

How is Atletico Ottawa?  Has the delay due to COVID helped them?  I say this because when they were first announced to play in Spring 2020, I thought "that's way too quick and they are going to rush things.  It won't work."

[Seadragon76]

53 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

 

How is Atletico Ottawa?  Has the delay due to COVID helped them?  I say this because when they were first announced to play in Spring 2020, I thought "that's way too quick and they are going to rush things.  It won't work."

 

Ottawa is a point out of qualifying for group play with a game against Halifax left. That game is on Sunday with the winner will more then likely moving on the group play stage.

 

I don't know if the delay helped them, but they do have a signature victory over defending champion Forge FC.

[Digby]

3 hours ago, Dilbert said:

The Brooklyn Cyclones were one of the teams not only scheduled to survive but be promoted to Double A,

 

If anything NYCFC should look at near Yankee Stadium, Citi Field, or Nassau Coliseum

I say this as an MLS skeptic, a hater of New York sports teams, and someone who thinks the civil rights violations of the CFG regime are indefensible: I’ll take an MLS team as a tenant over a minor league baseball team tenant in Brooklyn every single time. 
 

And NYCFC have been looking extensively near Yankee Stadium for years. Try to keep up.

[Dilbert]

4 hours ago, Digby said:

And NYCFC have been looking extensively near Yankee Stadium for years. Try to keep up.

I have kept up. Yes they have been looking around Yankee Stadium for years but a Bronx stadium isnt dead yet.They are looking at underutilized parking lots around Yankee Stadium as of February this year. Where have you been?

[Digby]

That’s what I’m saying though; anything near Nassau or Citi Field never got off the ground, those ships have sailed—  if anything happens, it’s gonna be the Yankee Stadium zone that’s been leaked extensively most recently. (Though, again, Coney Island alternate timeline is where it’s at.)

[SFGiants58]

I’ve got a solution!

 

 

Two teams in one stadium shouldn’t be a problem.

[JayMac]

4 minutes ago, SFGiants58 said:

I’ve got a solution!

 

 

Two teams in one stadium shouldn’t be a problem.

Two New York teams playing in New Jersey. What is this...the NFL?? 

[Digby]

Messi in New Jersey! Love it. He may have flashbacks to that 2016 Copa though.

 

BTW -- anyone else feel pretty icky about this whole scheme, orchestrating a transfer 3 years out like this? Is this a clever advantage or an unfair one? Is there anything to say CFG couldn't front-load his salary in the MCFC years, then when he's in MLS pay him below the designated player threshold?

[SFGiants58]

25 minutes ago, JayMac said:

Two New York teams playing in New Jersey. What is this...the NFL?? 

Hey, one less headache. City group deserves a SSS out in the middle of nowhere, like what Red Bull has.

 

I don’t think any NFL owners come close to City group, sadly.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

41 minutes ago, Digby said:

Messi in New Jersey! Love it. He may have flashbacks to that 2016 Copa though.

 

BTW -- anyone else feel pretty icky about this whole scheme, orchestrating a transfer 3 years out like this? Is this a clever advantage or an unfair one? Is there anything to say CFG couldn't front-load his salary in the MCFC years, then when he's in MLS pay him below the designated player threshold?

 

It's the MLS. If a team isn't putting together weird payment deals to skirt the rules that really only to apply to teams not in LA, New York or the PNW, it wouldn't feel right. 

[SFGiants58]

57 minutes ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

 

It's the MLS. If a team isn't putting together weird payment deals to skirt the rules that really only to apply to teams not in LA, New York or the PNW, it wouldn't feel right. 

That’s why I’m hoping for contraction at the end of the expansion boom. 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

11 minutes ago, SFGiants58 said:

That’s why I’m hoping for contraction at the end of the expansion boom. 

 

Which teams would you contract?