2010 Des Moines Menace

I'm not sure where anyone would get the idea that the Red Army was somehow excluding anyone or not interested in making others feel welcome. My son and I were instantly welcome from the very first game we attended and we have made some good friends. It's sad if others assume they wouldn't have the same experience.

Maybe that $30 discount will cover part of the gas money and other expenses for an away match. Nothing beats a Red Army road trip!

 

Anyone seen a schedule yet?

 

Just heard the schedule was announced. Looks like a long trip to Canada to Winnipeg and TB, but 11 home games.

Des Moines Menace 2011 Schedule
Saturday, May 14 St. Louis Valley Stadium 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, May 19 at Springfield Cooper Complex #1 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 21 St. Louis Valley Stadium 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, May 25 at Kansas City Overland Park 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday, June 1 at Kansas City Overland Park 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 4 Exhibition TBA Valley Stadium 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, June 7 at Winnipeg WSA Complex 7:00 p.m.
Wednesday. June 8 at Winnipeg WSA Complex 7:00 p.m.
Friday, June 10 at Thunder Bay Chapples Complex 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 11 at Thunder Bay Chapples Complex 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 18 Kansas City Valley Stadium 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 25 Exhibition TBA Valley Stadium 7:30 p.m.

Friday, July 1 Winnipeg Valley Stadium 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 2 Winnipeg Valley Stadium 7:30 p.m.
Friday, July 8 Thunder Bay Valley Stadium 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 9 Thunder Bay Valley Stadium 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 16 Exhibition TBA Valley Stadium 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 24 Kansas City Valley Stadium 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, July 24 at St. Louis Tony Galvin Complex 5:00 p.m.

 

Also heard the start in Springfield on May 18th is tentative and may be 6pm instead.

 

The interesting part of that from my perspective is that the Brass have moved to Overland Park again form Jewell...

 

This schedule is on crack. I'll post more when I have time but let's start off with the Open Cup. Since when do we play the same team for both of our home game qualifiers?

And I hate these Canadian teams f'n up our schedule. One was one too many and now we have two. Terrible. We aren't even playing a single game vs Colorado.

 

I was told the pairings for all games are handed down by the league and the Open Cup is actually set this way. Apparently the setup is out of the FO's hands besides trying to get all the games scheduled on particular days.

Good catch on the July 24 issue. It looks like it's at home on the 23rd and away the 24th.

 

Now that the schedule is out, shouldn't we create a 2011 thread?

As for the MISL, couldn't we get away with using the Bucs' Arena? The Mavs/Comets share their arena in Independence. Would we really need more than 3,500?

 

They used to do MMA there and they do Roller Derby. I have not gone to either, but it is standard concrete under the ice. That said, I think both are well after the season ends so the ice is gone.
To put indoor soccer in Bucs during hockey season, they would need to get one of those black rubber ice cover things that multipurpose arenas have. If you ever went to Energy games when the Chops were still here, you may remember seeing that under the basketball floor as it was exposed in several areas.
Then they lay turf over that (which would work for box lacrosse too).
The tricky part for soccer is changing the end boards. They would have to take the boards out on the ends and replace them with indoor soccer goals. The north end would not be much of a problem, but the south end is a traffic area - in fact it is the only place to get from the east to the west side of the arena without going through the stands on the north side. The locker rooms and main player access doors are also located on the north side of the playing area. Adding a soccer goal would make those doors unusable and unstable.
As it stands right now, Bucs is probably not suitable for indoor soccer because of the logistics of adding the soccer goals. It could work for box lacrosse though... But the usage is high at Bucs during hockey season anyway with the Bucs, Capitals, youth, adult, etc. that it would be hard to have games, let alone practice time.

 

As of right now, Bucs is pretty much scheduled from 6:00 am - 11:00 pm. The adult leagues are generally the last people in there; I know the league I am in goes until 11 on Wednesdays. I am not sure about the others.
Summer indoor soccer could exist (but why?) since the logistics of dealing with the ice and hockey set up would be out of the equation. But the question was about a potential MISL team playing there - which would be in the middle of hockey season.

 

Bucs does not work for indoor soccer/box lax except for a 45~ day period when there is no ice, from early july to mid august.

they have hosted indoor soccer at bucs before, when seth played during one of the games... it was pretty legit actually, had the ice out, artificial turf on floor + the goals were just extended out of the dasher boards, they were only a foot out.

bucs is pretty useless for anything other than hockey. there's a reason they don't do many concerts, only do roller derby in that 45 day period (and it sucks btw, just as good at skate north/west then at bucs). the only thing that were good there were the MMA fights, because they covered ice easily with the black mats and required very little work to setup. I know the guys that did that, 3 man crew each worked about 10 hours so 30 man hours to take down the glass, put out mats, chairs etc then the MMA people helped setup the ring. its a 70 year old barn convereted for hockey - not a multi-million dollar venue designed to be multi-purposeful for things outside of hockey like concerts, fights, indoor soccer, basketball, monster truck races etc

 

That's why I said NLL style box might work there. They put down the same black mats and then put turf on top of that. The box goals sit on top of the turf. All of the boards and glass stay in place. Hell, the surface would still be warmer than the Soccer House in December/January.*
But for the most part, as a somebody that spends at least one night a week on the ice at Bucs, I wholeheartedly agree that that is as close to a single purpose facility as you can get these days. Which is fine since it's a pretty damn good hockey barn.
*But it is still a hell of a time playing box there. We finished our second season last month and the turnout was even better than last year. I'm impressed with our growth.

 

The Red Army code isn't working for the tickets anymore.

 

I put a message in to get it fixed. Will update you as soon as I hear back.

Also, I've been told we are going to be given a lanyard to get in the gate this year to avoid issues of having to wait at the gate to hand over our tickets.

 

That's why I LOVED the STH card from 2 years ago. Soooo simple. It just made my ticket scrapbook look a little smaller, but the tradeoff was still worth it.

 

It is going to be a hard plastic credit card style card on a lanyard. It's $50 for all Menace home games (pre-season, Open Cup, regular season and (hopefully) post season). I have a mock up from the card and a sign up sheet from the Menace if you are still having ticketing issues. The Menace is extending the ticket deal to Red Army members and paid members of American Outlaws Des Moines Chapter (desmoines.theamericanoutlaws.com). I have the mock ups from the AO DSM event Saturday, but I'm in TN for the US game til Wednesday.

You can email me at TanyaHKeith (at) gmail (dot) com if you have any questions about American Outlaws or the passes. Talk to SnakeIz about the rest of the Red Army stuff!

 

Interesting to hear Webb played for KC, although he is from there. I thought he was working on a professional deal somewhere?

I double checked the Red Army discount and it appears to be working fine now. I used "REDARMY" and was able to get my discount. Looking forward to that lanyard!

 

He was at SKC's open tryouts a few weeks ago.

 

Was just about to post that the discount is back up on the website, same deal as we announced back in Dec.