Well done. Well done. Souza was quite a pleasant surprise. Teresa gets the 1st brace in club history, like a jefa. Fittingly Masar is 1st Dash scorer ever. The Breakers stream has the goofiest replay "music"... sounded like a few punches were thrown. WTF.
We turned on the stream in hopes of seeing Henninger or Noyola. Nice showing by Noyola, doubling her season total from last year in just a few minutes. She hasn't seemed to fit in, in the last two teams she was on, but now I think she's found a team that will appreciate her talents.
Nice goals by the ladies from what I saw on the highlight reel. Anyone know what the attendance of the game was in Boston's new venue, Harvard Stadium?
Spent a bunch of time in that stadium. Horrible venue and horrible field in comparison to where most of the teams play. 2000+ is a good showing there.
A significant improvement over Dilboy in Somerville, though. What other options would you suggest in the Boston Metro Area? My other option was the pitch at Boston University, but there really aren't many other true choices. Fenway would be WAY too expensive. And empty.
There are none. The old Breakers did great at BU and personally, I think it is the best choice in town for the Breakers. However it is turf and shared with lacrosse, so you see those lines. When that season ends in 3 weeks it can be covered or groomed to remove it and just be soccer specific pitch. BC is a total dump. One sided stands that will not hold any capacity at all. Zero concessions and locker rooms are in mobile trailers. The school should be embarrassed. Some small universities have soccer specific fields but no capacity and no ammeneties. Looking at all the football signage during the breakers games gives me a headache at Harvard. Great sports town with a good soccer following. I am always shocked so many people make the commute to Gillette for the Revolution and that is not a soccer specific stadium either. Craft has a zillion dollars and I believe his family has some soccer interests in Europe. Build a small, high end soccer specific stadium in Boston to accomodate the Revs and Breakers. He will get a great return. My 2 cents.......
Agreed, BC is an effing joke. I'm a Northeastern student and we've got jack shit. Need a hockey rink? BU or Harvard are the options, 'cause I doubt we'll get fans to go to Gillette. I'm a die-hard fan of women's soccer and it gives me some pause. I would never be able to make mid-week games and it would take up a full weekend day for me (especially when you add in tailgating). Too much. I'd love to see a Revs/Breakers partnership; actually asked HAO about that at the Meet the Team event and she said they really don't do anything with the Revs. Unfortunate. On the plus side, ages better than Dilboy with room for growth.
There is already a thread about possible stadiums for the Breakers. Let's not clutter up the Dash forum discussing them.
Check....... Might be nice to continue that thought. Lets talk about how lucky the Dash Ladies are to be playing in a venue like BBVA Compass. Admittedely, I have been in many soccer specific stadiums around the US both college and professional. This is the best. I understand ownership is making modifications to the stadium and practice facilities to accommodate the women. This folks..... is how you run a team in the NWSL.
I've only been to the Home Depot StubHub Center. But BBVA Compass looks much nicer. It seems such a fortuitous chance that the lower bowl is the perfect size for a NWSL team. I can't think any other SSS off the top of my head that has such a beneficial seating setup.
Well, not "off the top of your head," this is the same for Providence Park in Portland, which also used its "lower bowl" through most of the 2013 season. Given the apparent cooperation between the two teams' ownerships, that probably was something the Dash looked at in using the lower bowl. Very smart, in any event -- it shows an attention to fan atmosphere that will be critical in the long run. Much better a compact crowd than a diluted crowd.
??? I simply used quotes because I was quoting from your post. Is there a difference between the two stadium configurations that you have in mind? I'm not sure what you're referring to.
As I understand it, lower bowl is a term to describe the first level of seats, not including suits/press boxes and upper decks. Houston has a small lower bowl that holds 7,000, then suits, then an upper deck. So I was trying to distinguish Houston's small lower level from the large upper deck which is unlike any other SSS in the US I can think of. Portland, however, doesn't really have a bowl and is only a single rise (besides the boxes/suits behind the former home plate)... I had thought that was why you were using quotes.
Actually, if you're in Providence Park, it does have a lower bowl. I'm not sure it's exactly like Houston, but there's a pretty clear demarcation on the West and North sides of the Park, where there is an upper bowl area (for which tickets are sold basically only when the lower bowl is completely sold out). On the East and South sides, the lower bowl is completed but there is not an upper "bowl." I think in both parks, the effect is to create a compact densely occupied fan area that is a bowl around the field, which is a great effect and provides a great fan experience. That's what matters, right, and is what is great in Houston?
I assume you're talking about the differentiation as shown in this picture: Where green is your "lower bowl" and white is the "upper." But it's not really two levels, the entry points for your upper and lower sections are the same vomitories. They are just closing the top section of the one level. Well, part of it is that, but part of it is also the reduced costs by not having to open and staff the upper deck.
It took me a while to figure out what I was looking at in the preceding picture, but finally figured out that the roof covering over the west and north ends is cut out to show the seating. You're right that the same entries serve the lower bowl and the upper bowl. Separating the two bowls is a walkway that circles the stadium. My season tickets are in the first row down on the west side of the field, just below the walkway. The walkway (and overhead roof, which covers some but not all of the lower bowl) is a psychological barrier that creates the feeling of a lower bowl, especially combined with the visual across to the south and east, where the seating is all "lower bowl." I don't know what Houston is like but again, I bet the effect is the similar. This bowl effect is especially true taking light effects into account -- at least from where I sit. The light effects make the upper bowl seem inconsequential for Thorns games. I guess you'd have to be there, sitting in my seat, to get a sense for what I mean.
Oh, I know what you mean about the feel of it. I'm just saying Portland doesn't really have a separate upper and lower level, like at Houston. As you said it's a psychological barrier between the two, not a physical elevation barrier.
Here's a pic of it from when it was still under construction that I feel shows the distinction I was referring to the best: You see how the boxes/suits (in orange) separate the lower portion from the upper?
Thanks, got it. It's an interesting difference from Providence Park. Maybe some day I'll be able to attend a game there to see what it's like. I'm not sure which park I like better. And, I'm not sure it makes a big difference. I think the key is the feeling that the fans are close to the field and that the field is surrounded by densely packed fanatic fans rather than by fans interspersed with empty seats. It looks to me like both parks achieve that effect. I hope other teams aspire to something similar.