North American Pro Soccer 2021

[-kj]

Nah, screw Precourt.

 

Also, counting the number of teams in California and deciding it's too many because it's a single state is silly given the distances and populations in the state.

[MJWalker45]

8 hours ago, rainmaker17 said:

The Austin FC hatred is childish.  People who live here have nothing to do with the whole Precourt/Columbus debacle. It was poorly handled and I get the frustration.  But the "Most hated team in the MLS" nonsense makes fringe fans like myself wonder if worth getting into in the first place.  Seems like a pretentious and easily butt hurt crowd. 

I'm a Columbus Crew fan living in San Antonio, so my disdain for that team, actually it's owner and his sycophants that tried to sneak out of town with the approval of a league is earned. The fact he tried to "Major League" the team out of town by not even doing the bare minimum of upkeep, closing gates on gameday and intentionally weakening team outreach to the community makes me doubt that guy is the one to do great things in Austin. He also basically had a city "jump the expansion queue" because Austin wasn't even involved in the bidding process. So that screwed over San Antonio FC, who were looking to move up to MLS. Even more frustrating is that MLS was looking at the possibility of San Antonio joining in 2004-2005, but when the new mayor came in he tried to steal the Saints after they were forced to relocate after Katrina. Fortunately that failed, because a city shouldn't lose it's team because of a natural distaster. If Precourt treats Austin the way he didn't treat Columbus, you'll have a great team. But don't expect the other fans in the league to treat that guy with anything other than hatred. In time, people will start to like the team once they get established and the next owner/team does something that's arrogant and against the idea of being for the fans. But for now, enjoy being the bad guy without even having to play a game. It could be worse, you could be MK Dons. 

 

https://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2018/11/13/18085660/save-the-crew-columbus-anthony-precourt

[Sport]

9 hours ago, rainmaker17 said:

The Austin FC hatred is childish.  People who live here have nothing to do with the whole Precourt/Columbus debacle. It was poorly handled and I get the frustration.  But the "Most hated team in the MLS" nonsense makes fringe fans like myself wonder if worth getting into in the first place.  Seems like a pretentious and easily butt hurt crowd. 

 

It's obviously not the Austin fans fault that the way you got a team was because of the biggest sports weasel in a long long time, but sorry people are going to hate your team as long as it's associated with that fat-faced trust fund baby because he is inextricably linked. Unless you happened to be one of the Austin trolls who found it incumbent on themselves to trash Columbus on social media during that whole saga then you're merely collateral damage and I wouldn't take Austin FC hate personally.

[Brian in Boston]

8 hours ago, -kj said:

Also, counting the number of teams in California and deciding it's too many because it's a single state is silly given the distances and populations in the state.

Agreed. A road trip from Gillette Stadium to Audi Field is 430 miles. The driving distance from the proposed Railyards Stadium site in Sacramento to the soon-to-be demolished SDCCU Stadium in San Diego is 503 miles. Few, if any, people grumble about the presence of five MLS clubs being located within the Boston to DC corridor. Yet, mention the possibility of Sacramento and San Diego landing MLS expansion franchises on top of the State of California's three existing clubs in the league and the "wailing and gnashing of teeth" begins. It's ridiculous. Given California's population of 39.5 million people, I'm fairly certain that five MLS sides could manage to operate successfully without cannibalizing support from one another.   

[AnPheitseog]

46 minutes ago, Brian in Boston said:

Agreed. A road trip from Gillette Stadium to Audi Field is 430 miles. The driving distance from the proposed Railyards Stadium site in Sacramento to the soon-to-be demolished SDCCU Stadium in San Diego is 503 miles. Few, if any, people grumble about the presence of five MLS clubs being located within the Boston to DC corridor. Yet, mention the possibility of Sacramento and San Diego landing MLS expansion franchises on top of the State of California's three existing clubs in the league and the "wailing and gnashing of teeth" begins. It's ridiculous. Given California's population of 39.5 million people, I'm fairly certain that five MLS sides could manage to operate successfully without cannibalizing support from one another.   

Perhaps I might be stretching, but I feel like California could support an entire 20 team league.

[MJWalker45]

6 minutes ago, DiePerske said:

Perhaps I might be stretching, but I feel like California could support an entire 20 team league.

Maybe an 8 team division, but not a whole league. Texas could probably support an 8 team league as well, but after San Antonio, El Paso, Waco and Fort Worth you start running out of larger metro areas. I think Sacramento, San Diego, Orange County and Santa Clara would be good areas for soccer. Not sure about San Francisco though, has anyone else tried since the Deltas closed down? 

[FiddySicks]

7 hours ago, DiePerske said:

Perhaps I might be stretching, but I feel like California could support an entire 20 team league.

This would probably lead to putting teams in, like, Barstow, or something. 

[Dilbert]

San Jose has struck a 10 year deal with PayPal for naming rights to Earthquakes Stadium, now renamed PayPal Park

[sportsfan7]

8 hours ago, DiePerske said:

Perhaps I might be stretching, but I feel like California could support an entire 20 team league.

Just for :censored:s and giggles

 

North

Redding

Sacramento

Sonoma

Stockton

Modesto

Bay Area

San Francisco

Oakland

San Jose

Santa Clara

Monterey

South

Fresno

Bakersfield

Inland Empire

San Diego

San Diego County

Metro

Los Angeles

Los Angeles

LA County

Long Beach

Orange County

[FiddySicks]

Three LA teams, two in LA County (Long Beach), one that straddles both of those lines, and what, Irvine? Helluva “metro” division going on there. My head hurts. 

 

 

[sportsfan7]

16 minutes ago, FiddySicks said:

Three LA teams, two in LA County (Long Beach), one that straddles both of those lines, and what, Irvine? Helluva “metro” division going on there. My head hurts. 

 

 

Yeah, once I had 15 or 16 teams picked things started to get really dicey, as opposed to merely pretty dicey.

[schlim]

22 hours ago, rainmaker17 said:

The Austin FC hatred is childish.  People who live here have nothing to do with the whole Precourt/Columbus debacle. It was poorly handled and I get the frustration.  But the "Most hated team in the MLS" nonsense makes fringe fans like myself wonder if worth getting into in the first place.  Seems like a pretentious and easily butt hurt crowd. 

Sounds like it fits into the spectrum of Texas sports and Texas perfectly. The Dallas Cowboys are America's Team, but everybody outside Texas hates them. Astros fans rallied around their cheating champions and probably still deny anything improper happened. Disrepected Texas Longhorns get unsportsmanlike penalties called against other teams who throw a 'horns down'.

 

Step up to the plate Austin, you're in the big leagues now! The greatest graffiti I ever saw was in Brooklyn that said, "Austin hipsters go home". So succient and on point.

[rainmaker17]

Oh, I've lived here 30+ years and I wish the hipsters would stay there.  I don't give a sh#t about "horns down", don't like any Houston teams and loved all the Astro bashing, like the Cowboys but have always hated the "America's Team" crap (and I'm not alone). Not even an Austin FC fan, just think it's ridiculous how pretentious and "euro" MLS fans seem to be. 

[DEAD!]

15 hours ago, Brian in Boston said:

Agreed. A road trip from Gillette Stadium to Audi Field is 430 miles. The driving distance from the proposed Railyards Stadium site in Sacramento to the soon-to-be demolished SDCCU Stadium in San Diego is 503 miles. Few, if any, people grumble about the presence of five MLS clubs being located within the Boston to DC corridor. Yet, mention the possibility of Sacramento and San Diego landing MLS expansion franchises on top of the State of California's three existing clubs in the league and the "wailing and gnashing of teeth" begins. It's ridiculous. Given California's population of 39.5 million people, I'm fairly certain that five MLS sides could manage to operate successfully without cannibalizing support from one another.   

 

Given that California has a greater population than Canada ... they should have had eight NHL teams by now....

[schlim]

9 minutes ago, DEAD! said:

 

Given that California has a greater population than Canada ... they should have had eight NHL teams by now....

Or seven teams, because like Quebec City,  Sacramento isn't going to get an MLS team anytime soon.

[DEAD!]

13 minutes ago, schlim said:

Or seven teams, because like Quebec City,  Sacramento isn't going to get an MLS team anytime soon.

Let me clarify.. California should have eight NHL teams by now.

[MJWalker45]

11 hours ago, FiddySicks said:

This would probably lead to putting teams in, like, Barstow, or something. 

You don't want a team in Barstow, trust me. There's a reason people only stop for gas and McDonalds there.

[DEAD!]

1 hour ago, MJWalker45 said:

You don't want a team in Barstow, trust me. There's a reason people only stop for gas and McDonalds there.

I only stopped there once for a Carl's Jr... but that was 26 years ago. 

[MJWalker45]

28 minutes ago, DEAD! said:

I only stopped there once for a Carl's Jr... but that was 26 years ago. 

That's probably the best part about Barstow too. Hahahahaha!!! I was at Fort Irwin for two years and I'd rather deal with the coyotes and wild donkeys than some of the people out there. At least it's not a surprise if a coyote uses your truck for their business. 

[MrOrange]

So appearently there is some sort of MLS wide retro collection merchandise being released today/tomorrow according to a few tweets by Twellmann and Co.