6-8 pm in the Heineken Lounge at the stadium. All Crew fans are invited to attend, mingle with other fans and hear from the various groups such as Crew Union, HSH and Buckeye Brigade regarding plans for the upcoming season. Oh, I hear there's a huge announcement planned. (Follow up from last season... Yellow Nation Army has folded and I don't remember if La Turbina would be there or not.)
Crew Union La Turbina HSH Buckeye Brigade Murderer's Row ...if I missed you, apologies. I think that's it for the Nordecke. As mentioned, Yellow Nation Army gave it up after last season. I heard one of their main people has moved away, hence why they quit. I don't believe LTA is part of the new combined ticketing group, as they seem to always want to do their own thing...and that's totally their own prerogative. There's also Einheit who moved to the southwest corner (you may recall the "Capitol Side" banner) for a bit last year before seeming to disappear from there. I thought I heard they were forced by the FO (support for the move was given) to move back to the Nordecke, but now I hear whispers that they're back to the southwest corner. As far as the ticketing goes, all Crew Union season tickets are now through the FO. This allows everyone to get every email regarding team news and member-only events. CSU will still sell tickets online, distributed at tailgates. As a result, the CSU membership package is now a stand-alone package. It includes a scarf to commemorate ten years of CSU (when it was about 25 of us at Tommy Keegan's), a discount card for food/drinks at 4th Street Bar and a couple other items as well.
I'll try and recap here in an hour or two. Ask any questions and I'll try and tell you what GB and Lambo said.
One thing that I thought was lacking last year was the lack of a digital presence. Crew Union used to do weekly emails about watch parties, tailgates, etc. Hopefully this site forces a change there. Did they mention why the lack of tifo last year was a thing? I know we had the banners and flags, but we used to do the full-section flags at kickoff.
The flag stuff is all down to Morgan pretty much. And from what I understand, he's not affiliated with any one group. He does all that stuff on his own. Money and time wise, it just wasn't worth it last year for him, more or less. As far as the nordecke site goes, it won't change shit IMO. All the groups mentioned how they like to just drink and party, fair enough. The leader of one of the groups in particular, was unbelievably under-prepared, for the second year in a row. It doesn't inspire confidence. I won't name names.
Let's just say, GB might be bringing something back from Brazil. Where there is smoke, there is potentially fire. Not officially. Barbasol is out, period. New sponsor is lined up, but shit needs to be finalized. Sponsor logo won't be on jersey to start season (maybe for players on field, but not fans buying them). If you buy a blank jersey, you can take it to the Crew Shop once they start selling sponsored jerseys, and they'll add it for free. Or you can just wait. Will be able to buy at first game it sounds like, though sans sponsor. No mention of official unveiling. Stadium servey and whatnot was brought up. That shit is well into the future, so no news.
OK, so the main bits from what I recall. If I don't mention something, ask about it, I might have forgot. - Sauro is out, and contract will be restructured to help with cap hit. He didn't have to do it, but he did anyway. He's gonna need two surgeries. Chances of him playing soccer again are 50/50 Super bummed about that. To me, it sounds like he's done, but let's hope he can come back. I love Sauro, kills me. - Central midfield is pretty congested at the moment, but couple guys might be going on loan to make way (GB asked not to mention one case in particular, the player involved surprised me a bit). - He mentioned Martinez is ideally a #10, though can play wide right as well. - Raitala will be super steady according to GB (i.e. not erratic and lazy on defense as Francis is how I translated that in my head). - Formations might change throughout the year, but the overall tactics of possession and attack will be the same. - Sounds like Pittsburgh will be our USL affiliate again this year, though it wasn't specifically said. It was alluded to however. - For the meat eaters, BBQ sounds like it will be a thing this year, as well as a couple extra concession stands to ease line congestion. - OTA TV deal is the same as last year, ditto with radio. - Yellow home kits (for two years), black checkerboard kit again this year will be road kit (last year for the black kit). That's all I can think off of the top of my head. EDIT: Oh, and Lambo said they are working on parking and exiting. He mentioned something about working with the State of Ohio to help, but it was kinda vague, and really there is only so much you can do with the existing roads, exits, etc, so we'll see.
Maybe there's an injured TFC guy we can trade for? (Hockey reference.) BBQ, huh? Naturally, Ray Ray's comes to mind. Let's see. I certainly can live with the TV deal. I'm sure Charter Spectrum customers will miss their bonus coverage, but whatever. I hate how it seems the league made major strides toward primary/alternate kits, only to go back to home/road. Make your minds up already. Blacks in hot weather will be terrible.
I was kidding about the roof as it's a running joke but appreciate the answer. Would seem odd if they say they have a jersey sponser that is all but done but not in time for opener. Would be nice to have a radio partner that could be streamed. I'm sure that's not high on the priority list and for good reason.
I know it was a joke, but anything regarding the stadium or a new stadium is a joke pretty much. Nevertheless, it was brought up. There was a deadline for getting them mass produced, and the team missed the deadline, thus the delay. These things take time. For example, the new yellow kits were actually designed two years ago, which is the norm according to Lambo. Audio can be steamed via the Crew's site or their YouTube channel.
...after last season. You also mentioned parking/exiting. The easy solution for parking would be to have employees in the drive lanes directing people where to park...in other words, someone beyond the employee collecting money. For exiting, more proof that pushing people out the exits 30 minutes after the game isn't a viable answer. The FO needs some sort of postgame entertainment to slow the rush into the parking lots. They apparently don't want to find a sponsor for autograph alley. They don't want to have kids take PKs after matches. They can't get live bands/DJs for after games. That's what you call "in a pickle."
You complained???? Noooooooooo I don't believe it. How would you like them to fix that? Build more roads to places that don't exist? Maybe they can put a road and a walking bridge over the rail road tracks? I have never been to a pro sporting event in any city that was perfect unless you are playing in the sticks.
I'm betting the primary difference is postgame activities. At most any other game/venue, there's stuff either there or nearby in the neighborhood. Nationwide/Huntington Park has a whole district. At Fenway Park, there's a bar that closes during whatever inning (7th?) but then immediately reopens after the game and stays open for quite a bit. At OSU football, the band plays for maybe a half-hour after the game and then there's tailgates or whatever else. At Crew games, you get shooed out into the parking lots approximately 30 minutes after the game ends. When they had autographs or postgame kicks, people would linger around for 45-60 minutes, if not more. It may have been bad then, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it is now. They absolutely need to invest in some sort of reason for the fans to slowly meander back to their cars. Ideally, the tailgate starts between 4-5. Kickoff at 7:30. Match ends approx 9:30. Last call at the bar around 10:10 Postgame fun ends around 10:15-10:30 Stadium fully cleared around 11. By having 90 minutes after the games for fans to exit the stadium, the FO would be doing miracles to improve egress. Part of the issue is that the "New Crew" FO has been hearing feedback from long-term staffers and fans and simply refusing to do what's been working for years. (Look at these new "promotions" as another example. We get the first 15 minutes for discount food. Yippie.)
Well, CBus 20, I think if they'd pay the Police for an extra hour, they'd do a hell of a lot better job than the Mapfre traffic guys. And, like Krypto said, how about something, oh I don't know, maybe an effing beer to drink post match while traffic does exit instead of the tent having last call in the 75th effing minute. I'd rather sit with friends at that damned stadium tent than in 30 minutes of traffic out.
Could they do more to limit local traffic after games? I never pay for parking because I can get home faster if I walk back to my car anywhere within a mile of the stadium (and I save parking $$).