Where would you "rel" them to? Back to college? They only have the one lower league where all the players are unpaid interns. Owners could probably make more $$, sadly.
When you consider it, Alabama probably could beat either the 49ers or Raiders right now. College football players are CTE crash dummies who "volunteer" their time to destroy their bodies and brains so that some fat alumnus can sit with his other mouth breathing buddies and yell, "Roll Tide" or some other stupid slogan while demanding that the football coach get paid more than the dean of the Med School or Engineering School. Only in America. Remember, Saban is the highest paid state employee in Alabama.
In addition to affecting DCU, this has got to greatly reduce the chances of national team games being played at Audi Field. The USSF is going to demand temporary sod be put down if the normal field is torn up(not that temp sod is great), and you know DCU's front office is too cheap to do that.
Sadly, that's the norm. At the close of 2017, in 39 of the 50 United States, the highest-paid state employee was either a university head football (26) or basketball (13) coach. The average salary amongst said coaches was $3,678,075.00 for the year. University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban pulled down the highest annual salary amongst said coaches at $11,132,000.00 on the year. University of Rhode Island basketball coach Dan Hurley was, by comparison, a bargain at $300,000.00 for the year. Amongst those highest-paid state employees who were not part of the collegiate coaching ranks, the average salary in 2017 was $577,307.00 for the year. At the top end of the scale, the UMass Medical School Chancellor and Senior Vice-President for Health Sciences was paid $1,043,223.00 for a year's work. At the bottom of the list, the Chief Medical Examiner for the State of Maine's Office of the Attorney General earned $230,656.00 in compensation.
Please someone explain this iditioic decision to me. Why is DC United allowing some POS league to play at Audi Field and tear it up, or was that the decision DC Sports Council. Is it all about money, because now we finally get our own stadium and now less then a year later they are allowing a footbal team to tear it up.
They were always going to hold other events here. It's one of the reasons to have your own stadium. One of the main concerns with stadia is that they encourage unsustainable business models in the surrounding area, where you have a 10,000 square foot restauraunt full on game day that sits virtually idle 330 days a year. It's in everyone's best interest to keep the stadium busy. And the busier it is, the more nice things we can have. Those events were never going to be conducive to having a nice field. At least these games take place from February to April, when our team also stinks. It's the other events we might have during the season that worry me. My main concern is they will try to cheap out on the grounds crew.
Thanks GumbyG. I didn't realize the XFL season is Feb - April. I'm sure it will only last for a year so that means we'll have to deal with a messed up pitch once or twice. Perhaps the team will try to make the local XFL team finish with a flurry of games on the road? ;-)
Link. As surprised as I would be to see the XFL last more than two seasons, there are things they could do to make it more attractive than NFL football. But it's more likely they'll inexplicably surround the field with foreign objects and give extra points for touchdown celebrations based on the number of back flips involved.
I think that playing football in this stadium is an unfortunate reality for the DCU ownership that as fans we will have to accept. And while I view it as detrimental for the product on the field, the thing which still hangs in the balance for me is what they do to improve the experience, the further I get from my seats. When I am sitting down watching the game, its amazing, flat out, can't be touched. We have nice seats at CapOne, they don't hold a candle. My uncle's seats at CapOne & Nats Park are close to the best you can get and I've sat in them multiple times, its not as good and not really a close competition either. However, the further I get from my seats, the poorer the experience is. It took a few weeks, but we sorted out parking. Unfortunately, almost every week, the road closures were different which jacked up how we got to/from out parking. That needs to get nailed down. Food and bathroom access needs to get nailed down too. Its patently absurd that it would take half an hour or more to get through a concession line at any time during a game where the clock runs for more than 80% of the duration of the game as opposed to basketball, hockey or football where the clock runs for only 35-40% of the game's run time. I'd like to see some of the events return to the STM calendar. It was disappointing to see the team do away with the locker room sale with not so much as a word. The proceeds did go to DC Scores after all.
The whole neighborhood (and I mean about 30 square blocks) is a construction zone. Don't expect any real improvements for two more years.
And to think, I took flack here, and other forums, on why we should have built the place with 4 locker rooms ...
Put a double wide and two porta-johns under the easement. Problem solved! In the Caribbean, they call that home-field advantage.
I don't really have a problem with that. Some people might, but I don't. I can still remember an away game at a college in SE PA whose visiting locker room was about the size of a professors office, was easily close to 100 degrees in early September, had 8 lockers, a urinal, a regular toilet, 2 sinks and 4 shower heads ... only 2 worked. I am sure that playing in the CONCACAF backwaters is just like that, plus the supporters throwing bags of piss at the visitors.
People watched the first XFL. Could've done better of course but the American appetite for football is always big. They stick to the summer months they might can grow over the course of a few years.
The XFL is a lame-brained idea. It's been done once and failed. I doubt if there's going to be much of a market at all for a pro football league that incorporates big-time wrestling-style cheesiness. "He Hate Me." Cheerleaders dolled up to look like strippers - um, hold that thought. Hey, hasn't that been tried before in The Replacements? We all know how that worked out for Keneau Reeves. I don't blame Levien for agreeing take Vince McMahan's money. I'll be half surprised if the XFL ever plays a single game. You'd have to be a moron of Trumpian dimension to invest in the XFL as a team owner.
I remember "vaguely" the WFL and various American football leagues that have come and gone since then. Every 10-15 years, just long enough for a new generation of investors to forget what happened to previous investors.
It's been endless since the early 70's. The World Football League, the U.S. Football League, the Canadian Football League's disastrous attempt to expand into the U.S. market, NFL Europe, the Arena Football League (with all its franchise failures and reinventions), the original XFL and now the re-invented XFL. You'd really think that they would have run out of fabulously rich dumb guys who are willing to throw away entire fortunes on professional football league start ups by now. But, nooooooo . . .