OTOH his contention that the Austin Toxic Waste Stadium includes zero public funds ignores the value of the land they are handing over, and millions of dollars in improvements. But hes happy to call City of Columbus commit.ents to surrounding infrastructure - NOT the stadium or the land - as public money being spent on the stadium itself. In fact, most of the money ($45million or so) is going to the body governing the adjoining development. Now Austin can claim that their slight of hand deal where Fratboi borrows the money to build a stadium ( from Chase Bank) and then " gives" the stadium to the city and pays rent while Austin makes the loan payments and the team thereby avoids paying any taxes means, in essence " o public funds" but it's nothing short of a lie The deal will cost Austin plenty. This guys numbers are whack.
----------------- Thanks for the update. Now go back to the past and sign a few Polish players and see if the good olde days return
Nothing is going to change as long as these three (Hauptman, Rodriquez and Paunovic) assholes are still involved with the team. The cancer and the rot of this team must be cut out.
And you need 3. I live in Columbus. There is zero chance that stadium does not start soon. They are building a permanent (not just gameday) store on the stadium site (writ large), construction of which is suppossed to start this month. Downtown Commission meeting is apparently 9/24, and we should get stadium porn/designs for that. If not, then that is a red flag & 10/10 start likely does not happen. I forgot the link, but Sac says the are OK to go on the stadium as soon as they are in. https://www.sacbee.com/sports/mls/article234750677.html While I think 4 is the most likely outcome (again, not counting Miami's temp stadium, which I am not certain is valid), I think at least 4 is still a near certainty unless Sac does not happen. Hell, Sac could start before Columbus.
C'mon... you don't expect me to read the entire sentence, do you? Seriously, was the second part of that sentence added after the initial release?
I feel very confident Sacramento will not be under construction in the 2019 calendar. I have never seen any stadium start that fast after being awarded a team. I am impressed that there are 3.5 months to go and only 2 under construction and you are still confident. That is impressive and applaudable. We both thought Nashville was a foregone conclusion to start and look where they are. In all reality I gave you Austin a little quick as they are still just doing site prep, but unless something insane happens they will be under construction shortly. Hopefully they don't find some ancient burial ground or dinosaur bones.
------------- Well Hauptman is out now, so 1 down. Is is possible Paunovic could do better with better players? New owner spending a bit more? Or he is simply not the right coach. Did he ever or does the team play a style he created, or the problem is a lack of style? Don't know enough about Rodriguez. Was he simply following Haupmans plans and once again, could he do better or differently under a new owner? Just curious because you really don't hear much out my way about the Fire or for that matter, see the Fire much on TV. Side question, can Soldier be "downsized" decently or creatively ? Side question #2. Do the Red Stars stay at Bridgeview?
1. SF isn't the worst event for smaller crowds because the lower bowl is fairly small and the way the sideline upper decks are stacked, you don't notice the emptiness of them much, though the end line 200 and 300 level seats are kind of glaring when they're empty. 2. Red Stars are still there. Sadly they don't really have better options.
The players weren't the problem, we actually have a decent roster and it would have been a great roster only if NRod did his job and went out and got 2-3 defenders and a keeper. He KNEW that we needed defenders and a keeper and yet he didn't do anything about it. Rodriguez guided three teams into the ground. 1. 1999 Metrostars 7-0-25 32 goals 64 goals against (-32 GD) Wooden Spoon and the worst PPG (0.47) in league history. 2. 2005 Chivas USA 9-6-19 29 goals 61 goals against (-32 GD) 3. 2016 Chicago Fire 7-10-17 42 goals 58 goals against (-16 GD) Wooden Spoon Yes, I pretty sure they'll just have the 100 and 200 sections opened, if there is more demand than the 300 level along the sidelines. I think the capacity for 100 and 200 levels is in the 22k range, you add the 300 level it's around 25k. Yes the Red Stars are staying.
The Fire already spend more than 2/3 of the league on their players. Katai, Gaitan, Schweinsteiger, Nikolic, Frankowski, McCarty, Sapong aren't exactly average to below average talents....
He got Ousted who has at least been serviceable the last few years. Prior to the May window closing he got a starting keeper from the German Second Division, Marcelo (who was starting in Liga NOS for the 5th place team in 17/18), and Calvo (who has been decent to good in MLS, though he has been a mainstay on bad Minnesota defenses). He did go out and get a defensive players even with a restriction on international slots (Kronholm and Calvo don't count as internationals). Now, the history of Liga NOS players in MLS was a red flag for me from the get-go with Marcelo (and he basically hasn't played since the end of April) and Calvo is better at the international level than club level. Despite that they are the 6th best defense in the East and have a +1 GD. Problem has been individual things, like that 17 game stretch where Nikolic couldn't score (3 goals in 2 games) and lost his starting spot. Or like Katai is way down on goals this year (4 vs 12). They are actually better this year in goals for and much better in goals against versus last year (they are down .35 GA vs last year). However, their offense has either been really good or non-existent. 19 games this year they have 1 or fewer goals with a 2-10-7 record. The defense has only given up 3 or more goals 5 times For reference, NYRB have given up 3+ six times and have conceded 1 more goal in 1 less game but have only 14 games they scored 1 or fewer. So that has left NYRB sitting 7 points clear of Chicago with a game in hand despite having basically the same offensive and defensive numbers.
This thread needs porn, but alas I suck at embedding media. Miami: Cincy: (from August) https://www.westendstadium.com/construction-updates
Columbus groundbreaking: Oct. 10. Our Community. Our Family. Our Dream.𝘼𝙡𝙡 are welcome.— The Crew (@ColumbusCrew) September 17, 2019
That was a waste of my time. "Wow, there's some different colored dirt here, some pipes have disappeared, and I know nothing about construction. Anyone know what any of this means? Some Jamaican guy that might've played soccer for Jamaica stopped by and was pretty excited. Thanks, and we'll check back in next week. Hope you survive the storm!"
This is off topic a little but (not anymore than your post), I am going to say it anyway. I find it funny that Austin went silent about their 30k deposits pretty much after that one day. Atlanta talked about their amazing deposit numbers constantly (and they should have). It really makes me even more suspicious of the numbers Austin released. I was skeptical of them all along, but seems them and MLS should be shouting this from the rooftops continually if it was accurate. Maybe I am missing it and they are still talking about those numbers all the time. I just haven't seen it. If they were going to make it up, I just don't understand why they went with such an outlandish number as 30k (or whatever) in 3 hours (or whatever).
AFC received both a lot of mockery and requests for clarification of what they were claiming. At one end of the scale they may have simply been saying they had a couple of thousand deposit requests for full season seats so at 17 games per request added up to 35K seats. Or maybe it's better than that since each deposit was good for up to 8 seats, they had 3750 or more deposits. Or maybe they received requests for 35K seats via deposits most specifying fewer than 8 seats per deposit and they had 10-15K individual deposits accounting for requests for 35K full season seats. If they expand the stadium or announce pretty aggressive prices, then they likely achieved good sales. The fact they are still selling and have stopped talking about it suggests a more modest achievement.
If you looked (and it seems you didn't), they did pour the concrete for the foundations and are starting to put stuff in the ground. Is it a ton? No. But considering they just started and seem to be dodging hurricanes every week, I thought it was significant progress. One can only lead the horse to water.