http://misl.uslsoccer.com/home/691680.html While this article praises United Air Lines, it was very much in the airline's interest to make sure the Comets got to Rochester in time. Imagine the terrible publicity the airline would have received if a game at which first responders in the Rochester area, including victims of the tragic December 24 shooting, were being honored had to be canceled because United didn't get the Comets there?
That is one heck of a story. Glad it worked out for everyone's sake (except for the fact that the Comets player got zero rest during the travel).
Terrible publicity because of a indoor soccer team not getting to play? Now that's funny. United still sucks though.
Under most circumstances I would agree, but this could have been a nightmare for United when the Lancers were honoring first responders in response to the tragic December 24 shooting in which two were killed and two were injured, and they were expecting and got a crowd of over 10,000. This was an important event for the community and I'm glad that it went ahead.
Boneheaded scheduling by the league, though. A day game after a night game in a different city? This wouldn't have bothered me so much if the Lancers had also played Saturday night, but they had a full day's rest. Even without the travel hassles, they could've at least scheduled the game for 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon instead of 1:00, to give the Comets the opportunity for a full night's sleep. Rochester had a very unfair advantage here.
Every indoor team (past and present) has a travel nightmare to share (or try to bury)... The Wave once had a van full of players collide with (I believe) the other van filled with players... Harrisburg had the infamous burning bus... and the Chicago Power willfully violated NPSL policy ("thou shalt take the first flight out if traveling same day") by taking "the next flight out while traveling same day" and as the snow fell, sat on an O'Hare runway (in an airplane) for 14 hours, screwing the Hershey Impact out of a 7,000+ spectator gate...
During the 90's in the NPSL, all teams had to play 3 games in 3 days TWICE each season. I know several times the STL Ambush had to play at home on a Friday, travel to the East coast for a game SAT night, and then back in STL Sunday night.....or in STL on FRI and SAT...and then fly to MIL on SUN for a NOON kickoff. Most of the time, the Ambush won 2-of-3 those weekends. I don't recall Coach Doran or the players ever complaining, at least in public.
I do agree with you the scheduling by the league was just bad . But why did they wate so long to get a flight they could have left Baltimore right after the game . United Airlines is at fault for this entire mess and they took care of it to get them to the game on time .
I don't agree. The schedule was out months ago and the team had all of that time to plan the trip. The schedule is what it is, a best-case compromise based on arena availability, open dates for the teams and travel concerns in that order of priority. The Comets could have taken a motor coach to Rochester right after the game, unwound/slept on the bus, gotten in by 4:30 and caught a few more hours of sleep at the hotel. To the Team's credit, to the best of my knowledge, no one from the Comets has complained.
Many times (though not always) the Wave was flying in after a Saturday night game, too. Seemed like we always played Saturday night in Kansas City.
they already had the Bus thats what made no sense to me . they had the bus pick them up at BWI and take them to the hotel and to the arena so why not take the bus and go to NY right after the game . If the plane would have left on time they would have been fine . If they would have missed this game United would have had a lot of bad press over this mess
Card- there was no bus involved at any point over the weekend. They never had one, they never planned for one. This is one of those unforeseen incidents you don't exactly plan for, but deal with when it comes up. Given the choice, I'm sure everyone would rather sleep in a hotel bed than on a bus, and the airline schedule allowed for that in this case...at least when the travel was booked.
Economides said on the podcast this week that they plan on putting in a new scheduling rule in the offseason that says teams will need to have X number of hours between games.
Good point. Back in '89, the Dallas Sidekicks were scheduled to play the Comets on a Sunday afternoon at Kemper Arena, but couldn't get out of Dallas that morning because of an ice storm, so the game had to be postponed, and the league was not pleased. After that, the league insisted that teams arrive in their destination city the night before their scheduled game.
Is it possible they didn't line up a bus because they were concerned that it would be harder to book a flight if there was a big snowstorm and they had a bus than it would be to rent a bus if the airport had problems? Honestly, like Lewis said, why the heck didn't they fly out immediately after the game and just sleep in.
Do you guys travel at all. Do you think there are 20+ seats on a flight that leaves at 11:00 o'clock at night from Balt to Roch? These players after treatment, shower and change aren't even ready to leave most arenas on a Friday or Saturday night until 10 at the earliest. All these teams stay the night in the city they play in, unless its a Sunday afternoon game.
and that would be early. And depending on if they win or lose cuz when they lose as the coach tends to keep the team in their chairs with the door closed quite a while. And cleaning up showering and getting dressed and leaving are not really an option at that moment. Getting all those guys out of the building is a pretty big task. And if you have a player that knows fans in the city they are visiting it takes even longer. Andre from the Wings was talking to kids/families who he had trained while he was here in Chicago and hung with them for at least a half hour. The Wave always hang out and talk the fans who came down to Chicago before they go into the locker room. There are a lot of factors in getting the whole team out of the building.
That is why the misl gives you game dates so u can book this stuff way in advance they had 3 months to book a flight for this game ..
Did you not read the article? They were on a plane ready to fly and the flight got cancelled. This was out of the teams control and had nothing to do with booking the flight. They were on the plane.
You might be the biggest dumbass on this forum. The Comets booked this particular flight along with all the other flights for every game at the beginning of the season. Just like they have for all 3 seasons. According to the tweets from the players the same situation happened this morning flying to Milwaukee. But according to your Neanderthal logic they must have showed up at the airport at 10 am in KC and said "Who's Flying to Milwaukee, you got room for 20 professional soccer players?" My friend was on the team the last 2 years, and part of this season until he got hurt. I'm a season ticket holder, I follow this team, I'm friends with some of the guys on the team and play at the place the team trains at against the guy who owns the team. Everybody that goes on this forum from Kansas City thinks your an idiot. And a big reason why new people don't visit & post more often. By the way nice post on Facebook saying if the Comets win tonight they clinch a playoff spot. You might want to double check your simple math as the Wave fan so accurately pointed out.
Even though the Comets didn't win tonight, I was at least pleased with the effort in yet another back-to-back situation. Even if last Sunday's game in Rochester had been a night game, the Comets still might not have won, but at least it could've been a more competitive game like they played tonight in Milwaukee. That's all we can ask for.
Card- I don't understand why you keep going back to the bus. There was never any bus. I don't know why you think any team would prefer to drive six hours overnight over a two hour flight in the morning. This was a fluke, something to tell stories to your kids about. Most of the time if there's a problem there is a quick and easy solution. For example, another plane problem happened to the team on Saturday, but it was resolved immediately and the team got to Milwaukee in plenty of time. Once again, no bus was necessary after the game on Friday.