NASL 2016 Spring Schedule

That Rayo vs Carolina game looks good.

 

Still a baseball stadium.

If America's Greatest Soccer Brand EverTM needs a subway stop nearby for attendance boosting, perhaps it's time we finally put to bed the idea there is something special about the latest iteration of the Cosmos.

 

I wish Coney island was the answer but I think not. Their attendance there last year was disappointing. Maybe a season long commitment to playing there picks things up but how much? I think it's only about 7K seats and at least 1K are in the corner behind the foul screen which no one at last years playoff game sat behind and justifiably so; it's a baseball stadium. At best I think you average 5K: which is where they are in Hofstra, so what's to gain by playing more than the odd game in Coney Island?

Kenn I rarely disagree with you but being near the subway is a huge benefit to anything in NYC; more so now than previously as real estate prices push the population density further away from Manhattan into other boroughs. NYC is expecting to add a million to the population by 2035. Houses in my middle class neighborhood [in Brooklyn] range from 1.1M to 1.8M; a nearby neighborhood ranges from 2M to 5M+; all those numbers are sickening but I think you see why so many folks are gentrifying parts of Brooklyn, it's what they can afford.

I can not see any increase in attendance until the new stadium is built. I would think the ideal stadium is in Brooklyn/Queens along a subway line, but they don't or can't make it financially reasonable to do so [you can see why]. That's tough for me, but it may be best for them if their focus is on Long Island; and based upon the composition of their academy Long Island is a big part of their focus so I don't begrudge them for staying at Hofstra with 5k/game.

 

If they are going to rent from a college, it's too bad that they couldn't have done so within the City. Imagine them at Columbia's Baker Field, at the northern tip of Manhattan right on the subway, or even at St. John's, in Queens a short bus ride away from the subway. I can only assume that the cost of either of these options was far in excess of the cost of renting from Hofstra.

While there are several buses that go from the LIRR station in Hempstead to Hofstra (which is closer to that station than St. John's is to the Union Tpke. subway station), being outside the City probably puts a damper on everything this team can hope to do. There seems to be very little way to entice new people from the City to pick up on this team, the way NYCFC have been able to do. (I would like to note that, unlike many other NYCFC fans, I root for the Cosmos, and want them to succeed.)

 

While those places are nice neither has the advantage that MCU provides, which is the ability to sell beer and take it to your seat. That's a pretty big deal, currently the Cosmos have a beer park in one corner of Hofstra but its not the same. Also Hofstra controls what can and can't be sold to fans so when Skinny Pizza became a sponsor of the Cosmos they weren't allowed to sell any of it to the fans! I'm not sure MCU would provide the same problems and while it currently seats less it would provide a better experience for fans as you could do things before and after the game in Coney Island as opposed to the barren wasteland that is the Hofstra campus.

 

The liquor laws in the USA, I cannot understand. When I goto Manhattan to visit my family they have restaurants and bars that sell all you can drink packages, you can serve alcohol until 4 am, and its sold by anyone who has a cash register and a commercial fridge. Yet somehow, I see this across the american NASL teams, Sports stadiums have complex liquor laws: Can't sell at Kezar without a town meeting, Can sell at Yukon, but can't sell at Hofstra. Seriously, every time I hear about issues/problems selling alcohol at sporting events in the states its from the NASL and I just cannot fathom how this happens. <-sorry for the rant

I've been to Coney Island, I wouldn't make it a choice location to goto even with a pro soccer team there.

 

Because all the sites you've mentioned are either on school grounds or public parks and you can't serve liquor normally on either. This could all be rectified by each team building its own ground, as a side effect it would also help with the whole "we're D1 in everything but name only" foolishness. I'm not holding my breath on that but I'd love to see it.

 

NASL bias aside DanGerman, why would they have to own the stadium? Event licensing doesn't exist in USA? I do not get why schools and parks are somehow magically dry. Here schools and parks don't have licenses either but if there were to be an event or series of events, especially a sporting event, then they're would be a license sold. No BS about liquor or beer, or wants and desires of the groups involved. Of course, other limitations inline with the actual liquor law will be taken into effect but I just don't get why a laundry list of BS has to be brought up to sell beer at a pro soccer game in the USA.

 

Because here in the United States we have a thing against drinking in areas that normally house and educate under the legal drinking age children and young adults. I don't agree with it personally but that's just the way it is. My statement about NASL teams having their own stadium is what it is. You can't tear down a wall to open up the kitchen in an apartment you rent but can sure as hell do it when you own the damn house, see what I'm trying to get here. The NASL teams NEED to move into stadiums then they control the revenue streams and the issue won't be "can we sell beer" but "how much do we charge for beer and how many different beers should we offer".

P.S I really like the NASL as a matter of fact I hope it thrives but I simply disagree with the current way they're going about it.

 

Depending on the school they may have rules which ban the sell of alcohol, or the city or state might have a ban on it. If they are unwilling to budge from that position the teams don't have much of a choice. Most cities will give them an exception because it isn't a sanctioned school event, but schools tend to be a bit more principled about not selling alcohol on campus and less willing to budge from their rules. If you become a tenant you have to obey their rules.

 

Bingo! and if you owned the place then you make the rules. Simple as that.

 

The universities & colleges here all have pubs on campus. I'm positive drinking takes place on american campuses as well. Is the rule a school rule? Or is it liquor law? Sorry for all these questions I just have a hard time understanding how a lot more freedom of sale of liquor occurs in the US on the whole, but there remains these caveats for schools/parks.

Who does this liquor ban on schools benefit in USA presently?

 

It depends on the state, city, and school. There is no universal law or rule governing every stadium. While there is drinking that goes on at college campuses the students have to go off campus to get it. You also have to consider that it isn't legal to drink until the age of 21 here, so for the majority of students you spend more time at college while it is illegal for them to drink than they spend while it is legal.

Over in the UK by the time you go to college you are legally allowed to drink so there is no issue with alcohol on campus. It would be similar to a high school selling alcohol.

 

Not legally. Students can and do sneak in beers and alcohol onto the campus but the school itself never sells it.

 

I understand the legal age is 21 in most states, I don't think that has much (or should at least) sway in the actual legal sale of alcohol. Hofstra as an example, it appears you can purchase beer but they cannot drink in the stands. This leads me to believe that either the school is being a #@$& and doesn't want alcohol in the stands for some reason or that there is some actual legislation that allows for the sale of alcohol in the most obscure convoluted way possible.

Who does this benefit? Here alcohol is strictly controlled and regulated by the government, but as long as they can see a profit somewhere, that doesn't jeopardize their monopoly, they'll do it.

 

I truly wish this country did things that way but that's not the case unfortunately. In the case of Hofstra the team had to negotiate with the school for the beer after the first season, and even then its not exactly ideal.

 

At the college level it is rarely an actual law that prevents it, but a rule the college has. So yes it is just the school being assholes about it. It doesn't benefit anyone, it is merely about principle of the matter.

 

While I certainly think that customers should be able to buy a beer at a college stadium, I find it hard to believe that the inability to buy beer at the stadium is doing more harm to the Cosmos than the remote location is. (Renting at Coney Island would solve both of these problems, of course.)

I fear that, even if the Cosmos are successful in building their own stadium at Belmont Park, the question of remoteness will still be there. That park would be located just over the City line. While Belmont Park has its own LIRR station, the service there is minimal. The walk from the nearest regular LIRR station, in Queens Village, is about a mile. Those fans who did go to the stadium would be able to buy beers; but it would still be difficult to entice New Yorkers to check the team out.

Anyway, I am specifically interested in why the Cosmos, if they were willing to rent from a college, weren't able to rent from a college within the City. Earlier I speculated that the cost of renting at Columbia or at St. John's was a lot higher than the cost of renting at Hofstra. Is this the case?

In reading a little more I am reminded that the Red Bulls II USL team, which had announced that it was going to play its games at Columbia (but not at Baker Field, at a separate soccer field that has stands only on one side), moved out of there and back to Red Bull Arena after only one game. Is there some difficulty with Columbia's administration in particular? Is there some reluctance on that university's part to rent to pro teams?

St. John's has rented its facilities to pro teams in the past. In baseball, it rented to the Queens Kings of the Class A New York-Penn League, the team which later became the Brooklyn Cyclones. And the USL team called FC New York (the one that used the Queens flag in its crest) played its home games at the university's soccer stadium for two seasons. If that team was able to secure the use of the St. John's soccer stadium, then I have to guess that the cost isn't beyond the Cosmos' means. The stadium seats only 5000; but that would do for the Cosmos.

 

Well, I learned something new! In NY State its totally different.

 

So does IUPUI, where the Indy Eleven play.