I say move the game. If I am Steve Malik, I decided this morning to move the game from Cary and I am on the phone making arrangements. Chicago would not be acceptable, even though the Courage have not lost on the road this year, and there would be a good number of fans there, Weatherwise, I think the MD soccerplex is risky - they had frequent lightning probs even w/o hurricanes. Yurcak unacceptable. I do not like the field at BOS (wouldn't that be ironic). Rochester has political-stadium management issues- and the field is turf - and no fans would show up. KC (also ironic) I don't think Swopes is set up for national TV. I want to stay in the Eastern Time zone to minimize the travel impacts, so I don't want RioT or the Sub Hub Center. I might get talked into HOU, but I don't like the field there, either. Maybe the Philadelphia Union or Red Bulls could host. Ideas?
I mentioned this in the N&I thread, but I'd love to see Atlanta host the game. Not necessary ATLUTD, but that would certainly be the best option for visibility's sake. They do have a nice, NWSL-sized stadium at Kennesaw State, after all.
I've been arguing for ATL for a while. Kennesaw State has a football game Saturday evening, so it'd be a quick turnaround, but there are other venues in ATL. The SoccerPlex and Audi Field are not options. We're going to get hit here, too. Gotta go south and/or west -- Knoxville? Nashville? Chattanooga? All the way to Birmingham?
Move the game somewhere right in between Chicago and Raleigh and both groups of fans can go. Cincinnati?
They need to make this decision now because they sure as heck not going to be playing in North Carolina. I saw the hurricane on CNN and it looks pretty dangerous. I don't think you can play soccer while in that storm. If one tried to delay it, it might take several days until the field is usable depending on how much damage happened. Also if that semi-final gets delayed, wouldn't the only semi-final have to be delayed as well since they are supposed to be going on at the same time? I don't mean to sound bias but since one of them has to be on the west coast anyways for the championship, why not have it over here at stub hub?
Sorry not sorry to burst your bubble, but they're originally scheduled for the same time on different days - @POR Saturday, @NC Sunday.
ah good to know thanks. for some reason, I misread the schedule and figured there was some reason they were playing them at the same time.
I asked a couple of my friends who don't have a horse in the race this year which final they preferred, and they both agreed that North Carolina/Seattle has the potential to be the least boring/predictable match. Their reasoning was that all the Seattle/Chicago games were boring, Portland/Chicago would be a guarantee for the Thorns to get another title, and North Carolina/Portland would just be a repeat of last year (something no one wants).
I don't necessarily believe a Portland/Chicago would be guarantee for Portland. This time Red Stars have all their players available and are peaking as a team. The loss last weekk to Utah was without Dibernardo, Ertz, Short, Colaprico had an injury, plus there was nothing in it for Chicago. For the playoffs, these players will be ready.
Red Stars owner on local Chicago radio: https://wbbm780.radio.com/articles/hurricane-looming-chicago-soccer-teams-match-nc-question
Why are people so eager to strip N.C. of its home advantage? Hardly seems fair. Atlanta, y'all. Or some place a bunch of enterprising N.C. fans can get to on the interstate without too much fuss.
If they can find a decent place to play that can hold the fans they'll have, the closer to home the better. But, given the weather, that may be a big if. I see that we can expect a decision by tomorrow.
How is Atlanta any home field advantage for the Courage? It's around 6 hours away from the Raleigh area. How many fans are really going to make that trip? And the only Courage player that played for the Beat is injured... So that doesn't seem like much advantage.
Of all the "neutral" cities you could go to that are also outside the area of Florence's impact, I would expect that Atlanta (or maybe Nashville) would be the most likely to adopt an NC team as "theirs", if only due to a dose of "Southern Pride". Atlanta is also a good option since ATLUTD and NCC play a very similar style of soccer.
No decision yet? What are they waiting on? Starting today and going into next week RDU will be packed with people trying to get out, shut down, and/or just impossible to get in or out. Don't blame the Red stars if they can't get into RDU in time for the game or rescheduled game. Toyota Park is available this Saturday. Make some kind of agreement between the teams to share revenue, whatever, and I doubt it will be that much of an advantage for the Red stars in this game to play at TP.
Unless they had been considering bumping the game forward to this midweek, I honestly wasn't expecting a decision until this afternoon. If it gets to CoB and no word, though, then I'll be worried.
And, about half an hour after I say that, we get word that the announcement is coming this afternoon: Thanks to all for your patience. We plan to have an update related to our Home Playoff Game this afternoon. https://t.co/vwSPzLo1c5— Curt Johnson (@curtjohnson17) September 12, 2018
Portland has had Chicago's number since the league began. This isn't a one season thing like last year when Chicago beat NC 3 times only for NC to win the playoff match. It's 6 seasons with only a single win for Chicago in that matchup.
You're right. Why even play since we know what's going to happen already. Rory should just call NC and hand the game over since for sure the CRS can't beat any of the teams above them and just give it to NC because a Courage vs. Portland or Seattle game would be much more exciting than a game with Ertz and Kerr in it and because Red Stars wouldn't have a chance against Portland for sure. He needs to do this now before the weather announcement today to save everyone time and money.
Chicago may only have one* win again Portland, but it's not like they have a ton of losses either. Or at least, with the exception of 2017 when Chicago lost all three* meetings against Portland, Portland's advantage has never been more than one win in a season. I'm pretty sure the most common result in this series has been a draw, and this series had never been played in the postseason before. *Not counting preseason, of course. If you include those games, that's 1 win and 1 loss each at the Thorns Spring Invitationals.
Not to mention that Chicago, while a nice option, should be maybe a fourth- or fifth-choice (or at least should have been at the beginning of talks). Even if NC can't play at home, you don't give the lower seed home field unless you really do exhaust all reasonable neutral field options.
Again, I'm disturbed by the idea that Chicago should be among the first couple of options. Atlanta isn't perfect, but it's certainly better. That said, the storm seems to be tracking a little farther south today, so maybe Nashville is better.
Yeah, I was thinking with the latest tracks that Nashville might be rising above Atlanta in terms of desirability. And that's probably why they deciding they wouldn't fully solidify plans until this afternoon. Hurricane prediction is a tricky business; not to mention you're now (if the plan is to move the game) gonna be coordinating four different organizations - the traveling "home" team, the away team, the TV crew, and the new hosts - instead of three (or two-and-half, if you consider the "home" organization didn't originally have to worry about travel). That said, with the storm tracking south, that also makes keeping the game in NC and just delaying it until Monday or Tuesday also look like a more viable option than it previously looked, too.