Rumor: 2011 Offseason Near News and Rumor Thread

AMEN! Right now, it looks like they relocated a piece of a NJ landfill and turned it into a soccer pitch at RFK. I know it's still winter, but they must begin some prep work, now, to really get it ready for the beginning of the season.

If they don't start work on it in another week or two, then it will be too late for any improvements to really take hold and grow in the spring. (At least where the footing won't be completely treacherous.)

As a renter, would DC have the legal option of saying "fix it or we'll hire somebody and take the cost out of our payments"? If they're going to pay rent, they should demand quality field conditions.

Agreed. This is bush league. It's happened every year and nothing has changed at all. I wish they'd just re-sod the field, but we need that money for the Davies transfer at the end of the season.

My point was that no turf looks good in February esp. when it's untended.

not true - we passed a huge turf farm just over the river in MD a few weeks back that was lush as could be - passed it a few days later and it was covered in snow and ice, but it probably looks lush again this week

We remarked that they should roll it up and drive it to RFK, and that was before I saw that disgusting picture of its current condition....

A turf farm is in the business of selling turf. Their turf is tended. The turf at RFK is not.

details!

yeah, I wish someone would get out there with a seed spreader and some hay or something at the very least (those sprinklers ain't gonna do squat).

Don't we have interns? Doesn't AU or Howard or some nearby college have an Agriculture department?

How about the Maryland Agricultural College est. 1856?

I think you should call the DCU office and propose that. I bet it goes over really well.

Does the MLS give out an award for grounds crew/field?

No way I would encourage them to possibly use burly dudes as interns instead of the tiny hot girls they usually get instead

Besides, it really should be the Sports Commission (whatever they are calling themselves this year) interns who do it, not United's now that I give it the tiniest amount of thought

It's actually all just down to a miscommunication. You see, the guy that the city has hired to maintain the stadium is an Englishman. He met with United's FO and said, "the field appears to be in bad shape, what do you want to do" and they replied, "Sod it." The poor guy thought, "well, if *they* don't care about it, then why should I?"

Again - try calling the FO and proposing that, and see how well it goes over.

Nobody does as good a job as someone with a vested interest in the result.

I think you should give them a call. So far as the work being hard, it'll be a good wakeup call.

you know me well enough to know I don't believe in hard work

Perhaps I'll just bring the extra bag of Scott's TurfBuilder in the barn over to RFK and hope they take a hint

Really, I have faith (probably misplaced) that there is a plan for some serious field maintenance between now and March 15th

Being up close to the field yesterday, it certainly looks worse than it is.

I was told by a front office staffer that the lines will be cleaned up before the first match (highly skeptical of this as someone correctly pointed out - you could see lines for the entire season last year).

I guess we'll see what happens.

Well then, get the players out there working on it!

I don't even know how that was possible

It made sense that the pitch would be in sorry shape last year -- there was an extended time period where there was multiple feet of snow upon it. But this has been a mild winter. We pay rent; the District doesn't maintain the facilities we're renting.

There's a name for that: Slum Lord

I'm waiting for the "Come on down to RFK and help Ben Olsen seed the pitch!" announcement before getting involved.

I would easily change those ungodly graphics to MPF (MetroPlayoffFailure, for you young ones because RedBull causes cancer!) graphics so that everyone can get a laugh! Where do I sign up!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't they tear up and re-sod the field when Chang bought out MacFarlane?

And when they re-sodded the field, I thought I remembered hearing it was bermuda over-seeded with rye (bermuda "dies" in about October and "blooms" when it gets warm, rye blooms through the winter).

If that were indeed the case, you'd think the grass would grow out enough and be cut so that all the paint had disappeared.

Screw it, lets just turn Ludwig Field into a 20k seater and convince UMD to allow alcohol sales during United games. They're already allowing beer/wine sales in their suites at Byrd.