I like that option, honestly. Other options, I guess, would be to move to a neutral location like Atlanta. Or to postpone the game a day or two.
They should play in Chicago on Saturday. The game needs to be where fans are. I don't see anything on the Toyota Park schedule for Saturday, but the Fire play there on Sunday so that probably wouldn't work -- unless they want to do another double header.
This would basically mean switching the home advantage in Chicago's favour, though: could NC accept that? I don't think so: if they can't play home, they would want a neutral field at least. They conquered the right to play at home throughout the whole league: playing on a neutral location could probably be ok for them, if for emergency reasons, playing away would not.
They could play in LA since the Championship match is going to be in Portland regardless. Yes, I'm weaving an opportunity to watch an NWSL game in California.
UNC hasn't canceled or postponed their Saturday college football game, yet - and that's a much bigger deal. (To be fair, they'll have to at some point). Barring any structural damage to the stadium, it should be possible to play on Sunday. The main impediments being whether the Chicago Red Stars can actually get here for the game or not. I think postponement to Monday is more likely than a relocation at this present moment. Later this afternoon as more information becomes available, who knows. I will say that everyone around here (I'm in Durham) seems to be losing their damn minds right now.
They could as TP is available Saturday, but I doubt NC would want to. How about Orlando? Well south of the Hurricane.
I would rather try Atlanta than Orlando. Atlanta is probably one of the easiest cities to fly to, (Delta has even capped the prices for flights coming from cities in the hurricane's path to prevent price gouging,) it's far enough inland that the worst it should get is a little rain, and I'm betting you'd get far better attendance there than in Orlando (who barely turn out for their own team, much less a neutral game) - especially if they can convince ATLUTD to do even a smidgen of cross-promotion.
Not only that, they are putting in a new field this week for reasons unknown. I was at the Virginia Tech-UNC football game a couple years ago during the remnants of Matthew. The complaints from UNC and their fans afterward were hilarious after Tech won 34-3. ECU is closed but the football team is still set to travel to Blacksburg this weekend.
If they're putting a new field down at Kenan, it's not for reasons unknown. This weekend is the first home game of the season, and currently the football program doesn't have a practice facility (for the same reasons that UNC women's soccer is playing on their practice field and men's soccer is playing home games in Greensboro, at Duke, and at WakeMed). Last year they put in a turf field to handle football, football practice, and lacrosse usage of Kenan during construction of the new practice facility and replacement of Fetzer and Henry Stadiums. Construction was supposed to be done before the start of this school year. Last year, they'd put in a temporary grass field over the turf for football games. I'm guessing they left the turf down (pure speculation) for the preseason and daily practices, and are now finally putting the grass field back in for this weekend's scheduled game. Fetzer replacement: https://www.ramsclub.com/campaign/facilities/soccer-lacrosse-stadium.html New football facility (replaces old football fields and Field Hockey's Henry Stadium (Field Hockey has moved to a renovated rec sports Ehringhaus Field): https://www.ramsclub.com/campaign/facilities/football-practice-complex.html
Told that the Red Stars have offered Toyota Park as an alternate venue this weekend, but at this time there is no plan to move the game to Chicago. Multiple venues and options may be explored if the game needs to be moved.— John D. Halloran (@JohnDHalloran) September 11, 2018
UNC has canceled the UCF football game for Saturday at noon. and NC State has canceled their 3:30 game against WVU.
Yes, her name is Sam Kerr. Seriously, do not mean to make light of the serious situation nor offend anyone and wishing everyone in that area the best possible outcome and safety. While it would be great to have them play at Toyota, a fairer solution would be to postpone until necessary or a neutral venue.
While fairness to the Courage definitely is a factor, I think the financial health of the NWSL probably is, and should be, the main consideration. That means having the game where there will be significant attendance and where the costs will be reasonable. That may seem harsh, if the game can't go on in the Courage's home area but could be played at Toyota Park, but I think that's a reality the NWSL may have to deal with. As a matter of interest, Chicago's goal differential per home game this year has been +0.58 and per away game +0.25. North Carolina's for home games is +1.42 and away is +1.58.
In other news, OptaJack has released its NWSL XI for 2018: 11 - Announcing the #OptaNWSLXI for the 2018 @NWSL regular season. Achievement. pic.twitter.com/96jDak74Gr— OptaJack⚽️ (@OptaJack) September 11, 2018 Literally more than half the squad is NC. X-D Just one non-playoff-bound player has made the squad, with the DC's Bledsoe in goal.
Perhaps keeping the time slot on ESPN2 has importance in reaching new and satisfying existing fan support (...putting future butts in the seats).
if NWSL and teams decide to play (which I doubt), can players decline based on concerns around safety?
Are you all aware most of the discussion about the semifinals, including the hurricane, has been moved here?
In line with my previous post: more stats! This time direct from the NWSL site: http://www.nwslsoccer.com/news/#league-leaders-4 I always personally like looking at the foul stats ever since previous argument about the distinction between being "physical", being "rough", or being "dirty". For example: Gunny, Horan, and Zerboni are in the top five on both lists, and since I haven't watched much of them, I'm not sure exactly where they fall on the simply-physical-vs-actualy-playing-rough spectrum. But you also have cases like Stanton+Colaprico, both in the top seven in fouls committed but much lower in fouls suffered, to contrast with cases like Comeau+Huerta+Daly who are all top seven in fouls suffered but only one of them (Daly) appears in fouls committed. Also, I found it HIGHLY amusing that the only two red cards handed out this year were to Lloyd and Marta - the only two FIFA PotY winners in the league. X-D
Not sure if this was posted yet: The Orlando Pride and head coach Tom Sermanni have mutually agreed to part ways, the club announced on Friday. Sounds like a firing to me, but OK.