If that money is used to help improve the team, is another perfectly valid reason to console yourself. Plus you should be watching the game, not staring at the grass.
That's not what I said, is it, though? I said that faint lines are perfectly acceptable. I am a football fan myself and have no problem with stadium sharing. What's unacceptable, though is playing on a field completely covered in markings for another sport. I didn't say that's what the Galaxy will be doing - I just made a general point. At bottom: acceptable. At top: unacceptable. Now, I'm sure the Gals will have it looking like the bottom one, so we're all good. Again, I was making a general point about football lines, because some of the people laughing off football lines entirely seem to forget how crappy things used to be in MLS. I spent years watching games in Giants Stadium that looked much worse than the above.
There's always trade-offs. (You're replying to a post which explicitly states that faint yard markings are perfectly acceptable, so let's keep that in mind.) The question is whether they're a good deal. If playing with end zones (say) directly brings you a massively higher quality of team, maybe think about it. If it just makes things a bit more profitable for the owners, and fans get no immediate benefit they weren't getting otherwise, think twice. The Gals have a good record, so I'm not too worried about them, but let's not kid ourselves that profitable situations for owners automatically result in better teams on the field. That often takes fan pressure to happen, and sometimes never happens at all.
The Chargers' regular season schedule is out. Not too bad. Three weekends with both teams playing (pending the MLS playoffs). All three times the Chargers play the day after the Galaxy. Home Games: Saturday, August 12 Galaxy v. NY City Sunday, August 13 Preseason: Seahawks @ Chargers Sunday, August 20 Preseason: Saints @ Chargers Sunday, August 27 Galaxy v. San Jose Sunday, September 27 Galaxy v. Toronto Saturday, September 2 Galaxy v. Colorado Saturday, September 16 Galaxy v. Toronto Sunday, September 17 Dolphins @ Chargers Sunday, September 24 Chiefs @ Chargers Saturday, September 30 Galaxy v. Salt Lake Sunday, October 1 Eagles @ Chargers Sunday, October 15 Galaxy v. Minnesota Sunday, October 22 Broncos @ Chargers Sunday, November 19 Bills @ Chargers Sunday, December 3 Browns @ Chargers Sunday, December 10 Redskins @ Chargers Sunday, December 31 Raiders @ Chargers
I'm sure they'll take your opinions under advisement. Life is not always easy, and unless you want to play on plastic under a dome, things can't always be easily controlled. Plans change due to weather. The Wizards played a playoff game with big red "Chiefs" endzones. It sucks, but it was pretty much unavoidable. The plan was to fill in the paint after the playoff game, before the Chiefs game the following day. The reality is that a storm was rolling into the area and was going to make the original plan improbable if not impossible, so the paint job was moved up. It's real life. The soccer game - if you managed to watch it instead of looking at the paint dry - was quite riveting and excellent. It was also played on grass in the elements.
This is quite the relief. It seems acceptable to me if there is always a decent chunk of time between the end of a Chargers game and the beginning of a Galaxy game.
The NFL survived just fine playing on obvious baseball fields (infield dirt and all). I think MLS can survive some football lines.
The only possible issue that will happen this year will depend on if (can't believe I'm saying that) the Galaxy make the playoffs and at what seed, etc. But even then, they should be able to play the Galaxy home matches on Saturdays and still be ahead of any Charger home game.
If I remember the Seahawk game correctly, that one was unavoidable. It was a playoff game where the Sounders and Seahawks played a day apart. If the Sounders make the playoffs this season, it will likely happen again as the Seahawks have home games on both legs of the first round and the first leg of the second round.
1.) Can we drop this "OMG you should watch soccer, not soccer fields" stuff? I spent quite a long time watching MetroStars soccer on godawful fields at Giants. That's why I hate that sh*t. And when it's as bad as I'm talking about, yes, it messes with the viewer experience. 2.) I, too, have experienced this thing called life - although unlike you, I have never had a less-than-ideal experience with it. It's been a bed of roses! I win the lottery every time I play. Anyway, one of the things I've noticed in life is that people who don't own sports teams, but pay to watch them, are quite entitled to complain about actions taken, or not taken, by people who do own sports teams. For example, when those actions negatively impact the viewer experience while providing no obvious direct improvement to the team. 3.) Furthermore, I have observed that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Team owners are not your buddy, and they happily and profitably ignore the Good Little People who don't complain. I generally hate to bitch and moan in my personal life, but, as a fanbase, being known to "freak out" on a dime has its benefits. Keeps the owners honest. I know that BigSoccer's local chapter of the Pretend Owners Society is stuck in the 90s, when there was virtually zero daylight between the interests of owners and the interests of fans - I remember those days too. But in 2017, MLS is a viable business concern and the owners need no apologists. Fans are free to complain about anything... anything that sucks for fans. To be very clear, I'm not saying that if some unavoidable scheduling mess brings about a single game with endzones we should take a stand at Masada. I'm simply pointing out that it behooves us to complain about anything we don't like and leave the owner-apologism to the owners. Visible endzones SUCK for a soccer viewer. Yeah, these are great examples of well-served fanbases. Keep 'em coming. {{{STANDARD DISCLAIMER: As stated multiple times, I am not taking about faint yard markings. I'm talking about full-dress bullshit.}}} Yeah, I also think MLS is going to survive. And that's exactly my point. In the early days, we had to worry about the survival of the league, which generally led us to adopt a posture of identification with the interests of owners...as was perfectly reasonable at the time. Today, the owners are doing just fine and the league isn't going anywhere, which means it's time to start thinking like complaining-ass, pressure-exerting fans - and not like the Pretend Owners Society.
Ultimately this is an abstract argument, because I bet they're smart enough - and the tech has come far enough - to avoid anything garish. But the Pretend Owners Society gets on my nerves.
What's more a bush League? Playing a soccer game with NFL makings on the field, Or Being unable to play an NBA game because the ice under the court from the NHL rink was sweating and making the court unplayable? The NBA is so amateur hour.
Fair enough - you didn't even quote me! I was just in back-and-forth mode from the previous two pages.
You know what you were doing though. You were bringing up another major league team example thus trying to justify MLS playing with football lines. I just don't get that argument. No one is saying other leagues have never been inconvenienced by other sports. So these examples do nothing. We aren't calling MLS bush league for having some games with football lines. We are simply stating it sucks and it does affect the viewer. Anybody that thinks football lines, painted endzones and painted logos helps MLS, the fans or the players is literally insane. Anybody that thinks it doesn't negatively impact the league, the fans and players in some way is not far behind the insane person above.
Is there an impact on perception? Maybe. Probably. Do I personally care? No. The only time it bothers me is when they have the full 3 yard while out of bound NFL lines. And that only bothers me because it takes me a half to adjust to the fact that the touch lines are about ten yards outside those prominent lines. My argument is that it is what it is. We don't need to get our panties bunched up about it. Yes, it sucks. No, I don't like it. But my bitching about it won't help change it so let the natural progression of things take their course. Eventually it will become a thing of the past. But seriously. Slick court or lines on field. Which is worse