North American Pro Soccer 2022

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

2 hours ago, tigers said:

There's a track in Astoria it's two minutes walk.

Two minutes? More like a half an hour. I mean, it's a doable walk; I've done it. But walking from the N train in Astoria to Randalls Island is far from convenient. It cannot be the way that thousands of fans get to a stadium for an NYCFC match.

 

 

2 hours ago, tigers said:

Plenty of parking, a train line goes [past] it, build a station.

 

I have no idea what you're on about here. There is no subway line that goes through Randalls Island.  

 

Even if NYCFC had not taken the approach that driving to a game is secondary to the ability to arrive by subway, you cannot have 20,000 fans driving onto Randalls Island.

 

 

2 hours ago, tigers said:

It's not hard to plan instead of chopping things down.

Planning is a little bit harder than looking at a map and saying "This would be a nice place", especially considering the absolute necessity of subway access to a stadium. Still, ruling out Randalls Island (which, again, has no subways) is easy.

 

The best place for a new stadium that currently exists is Willets Point, where the chop shops formerly ruled. But in the realm of fantasy, the best place would be over a covered Sunnyside Yards. This is an area with superb subway access, as well as a plethora of pubs and restaurants to serve as pre-match and post-match destinations. This cosmopolitan area would be a great place for our own version of Seattle's "March to the Match".

 

 

2 hours ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

Maybe incredibly dumb ideas, but could NYCFC partner with Fordham or Hofstra to renovate on-campus stadiums?

 

While Fordham's location near a subway is acceptable, my understanding is that the university has no interest in patnering with the team.

 

And Hofstra is located well outside of the City, so it fails on that basis alone. (We don't even need to touch upon the fact that the atmosphere is terrible, as the latter-day Cosmos found by playing there, and having to suffer with a field that has unremovable logos of the college (even in the centre circle, which is probably not allowed by MLS) and also unremovable lacrosse lines.)

 

If Fordham or Columbia were open to totally rebuilding their small stadiums to MLS standards, that would be a fine starting point for a conversation. But they are not open to that.  NYCFC is on its own on this one.

 

[Digby]

12 hours ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

Maybe incredibly dumb ideas, but could NYCFC partner with Fordham or Hofstra to renovate on-campus stadiums?

 

Can't imagine where Fordham has the room for a 25k seat pro stadium... Hofstra might but they're, heaven forbid, outside the five boroughs. By that point they may as well build at Nassau, but that would be admitting a humiliating defeat by the Islanders.

[GDAWG]

So NYCFC didn't even consider MetLife Stadium as a host?

[MJWalker45]

2 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

So NYCFC didn't even consider MetLife Stadium as a host?

Probably cost too much. One NYCFC reporter said opening Yankee Stadium is $1 million/game during the regular season. I'd bet playing on field turf and most probably with the gridiron stripes still on it was looked on as a bad look. I'm still trying to figure out why they are training in California instead of Florida when they knew they'd be in CCL this year? If they had a home stadium that was available they'd have to fly back home, play then fly back to LA 3 days later to play their MLS opener. 

[BrySmalls]

4 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

So NYCFC didn't even consider MetLife Stadium as a host?

That would have been hilarious if they played there for a few matches. Obviously, it's not Giants Stadium, but I get a kick out of the idea of NYCFC playing where the MetroStars Red Bull New York flailed as a franchise.

[Digby]

1 hour ago, GDAWG said:

So NYCFC didn't even consider MetLife Stadium as a host?

 

It's a Tuesday night in February against a team from Costa Rica, how is a crowd of 6000 going to look inside Metlife? 

[DEAD!]

5 hours ago, Digby said:

 

It's a Tuesday night in February against a team from Costa Rica, how is a crowd of 6000 going to look inside Metlife? 

Look... at least they will get to see a winning football team play there...

[Dilbert]

Apparently St Louis City is going to be playing some preseason games this year as they are scheduled to meet FC Cincinnati in Clearwater Florida on February 11

[MJWalker45]

14 hours ago, Dilbert said:

Apparently St Louis City is going to be playing some preseason games this year as they are scheduled to meet FC Cincinnati in Clearwater Florida on February 11

Are they signing players already? I figured it might be the U23 team and maybe some trialists? 

 

[gosioux76]

15 hours ago, Dilbert said:

Apparently St Louis City is going to be playing some preseason games this year as they are scheduled to meet FC Cincinnati in Clearwater Florida on February 11

 

They have announced they'll be one of 21 teams in the new MLS Next Pro league, which begins its season in March. 

[MJWalker45]

https://www.espn.com/soccer/mexico-mex/story/4572242/mexico-institutes-five-year-ban-for-anti-gay-chant

We'll see if they actually enforce this. 

[AstroCree]

On 1/12/2022 at 12:10 PM, Seadragon76 said:

Is there really anywhere in NYC proper that the team can build a soccer specific stadium?

If there is, the biggest problem would be the lack of transportation.

An example is in College Point. There's a big lot where an airport used to be. Its been abandoned for decades and no one seems to know what to do with it. However, trains don't go through that area at all so that might pose a problem.

 

Willets Point really is the only realistic option. If that falls through again, this team is playing without a real home for a long long time. 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

This is really exciting:

 

It took 25 years to get to this point, but I think everyone said it would take that long when MLS launched.

 

MLS will never be a top 5 league, but is it already top 10? 15?

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Cool ESPN.com piece on DeAndre Yedlin and his return to MLS (Miami, and sadly not Seattle): https://www.espn.com/soccer/united-states-usa/story/4578970/why-deandre-yedlinusmnt-staris-happy-about-mls-return-after-seven-years-in-europe

[Rockstar Matt]

On 1/25/2022 at 11:58 AM, DG_ThenNowForever said:

It took 25 years to get to this point, but I think everyone said it would take that long when MLS launched.

 

MLS will never be a top 5 league, but is it already top 10? 15?

 

Definitely already top 15. IMO, it's a top 10 league too, but like 9th or 10th. It's definitely growing and climbing. It could be near the top 5 in another 25 years, you never know. It's amazing how quickly the league went from a place that would exclusively sign older near retirement European/South American stars to what it is now, a league rich with young talent where countries (including the US and Canada) send their best young players to develop further. 

 

Even just from a American and Canadian standpoint, think of all the young players the MLS has discovered, developed and sent to Europe's top leagues. Insane. to consider where it was even 10 years ago to now. 

 

EDIT: Add Matt Turner too, considering Arsenal just made a summer-transfer move for him. The USMNT's top two keepers both came from the MLS, were developed here and now both have signed with two of England's most prestigious clubs.

[Digby]

31 minutes ago, Rockstar Matt said:

 

EDIT: Add Matt Turner too, considering Arsenal just made a summer-transfer move for him. The USMNT's top two keepers both came from the MLS, were developed here and now both have signed with two of England's most prestigious clubs.

it would be nice to not have a Carabao Cup specialist though. *cries in Keylor Navas*

[Rockstar Matt]

5 minutes ago, Digby said:

it would be nice to not have a Carabao Cup specialist though. *cries in Keylor Navas*

 

If Turner is even that lucky. He's a really good keeper, but unless he is amazing in the summer training for Arsenal, I doubt he'll see much playing time, if at all, at Arsenal for a long while. Still though, he'll be training with and against far better players than he would see at New England or the MLS. That has to count for something

[sky1324]

I'm going to be honest, I don't like MLS teams selling their players. I understand the money they get is helpful, but I'd rather they keep their star players to improve themselves. I guess the selling of Riley McGree before he even played a game for CLTFC rubbed me the wrong way.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I am totally in favor of MLS selling young American players. It's good to get money, it's good to get Americans in European leagues, and it's really good for MLS to be on more even footing with other leagues. We're becoming a part of the global soccer community and it's awesome.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

39 minutes ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

I am totally in favor of MLS selling young American players. It's good to get money, it's good to get Americans in European leagues, and it's really good for MLS to be on more even footing with other leagues. We're becoming a part of the global soccer community and it's awesome.

 

Selling players is both good and bad for MLS. 

 

The fees are great; and the presence of ex-MLS players (particularly American players) in European leagues enhances MLS's standing.

At the same time, the promotion of the perception that MLS is a league that a quality player surely must want to leave is destructive to the prestige of the league.  I think we want MLS to be good enough that American players don't necessarily believe that they have to go to non-big-four European leagues for the challenge; and we also want it to be a destination that some players from around the world look to go to for the challenge, in a way that's not true of, let's say, the Scottish league. 

 

So the selling of players is always going to be a balancing act for MLS.