Not that I want to take away from the fascinating and substantive Kei Kamara debate over in the roster thread. Still, it IS pre-season now. The team is in training. Hell, we even have a skeleton 2023 preseason "schedule": https://www.columbuscrew.com/news/columbus-crew-announces-2023-preseason-schedule No hints yet as to you we're playing in pre-season. Whether any of those games will be televised/streamed. But, we should get some of these details soon, and as we normally have a pre-season thread, let's house that conversation/information here
For that stretch where we're be training in Ft. Lauderdale, Feb. 6-18... Houston's preseason schedule says this: Feb. 11 - vs. TBD in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Feb. 15 - vs. TBD in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Miami's says (the Florida Blue Training Center is in Ft. Lauderdale): Feb. 11 - vs. TBD at Florida Blue Training Center Feb. 15 - vs. TBD, closed-door scrimmage at Florida Blue Training Center Feb. 18 - vs. TBD at Florida Blue Training Center Seems a lock we'll play those two teams, plus another MLS club. Twelve MLS clubs are taking part in this tournament in CA: https://coachellavalleyinvitational.com/ RSL, Chicago and a bunch of ESL clubs are taking part in the Tucson desert Showcase: https://www.fctucson.com/news/2023/01/11/2023-fc-tucson-desert-showcase/ KC is basing Phoenix and scheduling various games, but not taking part in a tournament. Guess we'll have to wait and see who we end up playing in addition to Miami and Houston.
E.V.I.L. always wins when good men stand by and do nothing. Or something. E.V.I.L. would have won had Crew fans stood by and did nothing.
Steady growth and improvement 📈#Crew96 | @OhioHealth pic.twitter.com/4kKc3S0enc— The Crew (@ColumbusCrew) January 21, 2023 This is better content in one video than anything we got under Porter.. from what I’ve heard, he was a big reason the social accounts for the Crew have been weak.
Yeah, just us, Montreal, and Seattle are in that category, with Dallas only showing one game. Columbus and Montreal I can sort of understand, due to the head coaching situation. Seattle and Dallas are real oddities, though. Anyway, again, it seems a lock we’ll be playing Miami, Houston and some other MLS club in Ft. Lauderdale. Maybe another scrimmage or two tossed in there at some point? I always enjoyed those pre-season tournaments in Charleston and Tucson. I hope the club gets back to doing that sort of thing in the near future, and announces it far enough ahead of time for fans to consider traveling to attend. I mean, we’re not exactly talking pre-season baseball, but still, it’s in the dead of winter in Ohio. You’d think some fans would be interested in hanging out and watching the team taking part in a pre-season tourney in a warmer location for a week or ten days.
Speaking of baseball spring training, I've a;ways thought MLS spring training should be set up along those lines. Have teams go to either Florida or Arizona and play a well-publicized preseason schedule. There's enough fans that tourism boards would probably provide assistance in order to bring in more tourism $$$, either as a run-up to MLB ST or in areas like Tucson and Orlando that have lost baseball spring training.
Is there a chance that Columbus and Montreal have games scheduled, but not announced to the public? Regarding a schedule, I agree. I've long-wanted something formal. I think it was the 98 or 99 preseason when they did have a tournament in Orlando. Find a warm-weather location that can host as many teams that want to join in, have a mid-December draw based on that season's standings, then see what happens. 29 teams would only be 4-5 games. Obviously, not all the stars would play due to coach's option, but maybe throw some prize money to the winning team to make it worthwhile. The venue at Disney world be perfect, but would they want it, considering they don't have MLS? If every one of the 29 teams took part: 13 games over the first Friday-Sunday. 8 games over a Tuesday-Thurs stretch or the following weekend. 2 games the next Saturday and 2 the next Sunday 2 midweek (similar to the World Cup) Finals and potential third place game the following weekend That's what, 3-5 weeks depending on midweek games? Or do it where you have 2-3 games per day, knockout fashion, but every day of the week. You win, you advance and play another game a few days later. It'd be sort of similar to the World Cup knockout round, but with more teams. Point being, you could run a preseason tournament with every MLS team over the course of about a month. Obviously, not every team would take part, but it'd definitely be fun for the fans and maybe help drum up hype for the upcoming season.
They had little preseason tournament at Disney. We went one year. Was Pipa's 1st or 2nd year I believe. All of these places had had tournaments in past: Disney/Orlando Charleston Miami/Ft. Lauderdale Tampa Tucson Phoenix LA Would be great if they really built on those foundations and made them something that sticks year over year and as many above had said, fans could plan travel to. The league should really push support for it...but they won't because it makes too much sense to help grow the league/game.
Doesn't even need to be a tournament. Could just be an organized schedule of friendlies like baseball preseason.
I wonder if it's just not thought of as being economically important for MLS. These tournaments aren't normally set-up by MLS, or held in MLS-managed facilities, so MLS doesn't pocket the revenue from the events. I really don't know. In any event, I think what it would do is generate excitement and marketing content about MLS and the up-coming season during what otherwise is usually a long, boring off-season. Anyway, I hope the league moves in this direction overtime. Time will tell.
Sometimes the Columbus Crew is annoying and stupid. Other times I watch a video of preseason training and fall in love with the team again for no apparent reason.
There's a huge difference between a relatively basic preseason video giving away nothing and being totally transparent on a Friday in September when it's the day before a game vs the team right above you. The opponents are gonna find that stuff out.
Sort of my point. There likely isn't a ton of money (if any) in it for the league so they have no incentive to push it more. But the motivation should be that it will generate more exposure and interest in their league for a longer period of time. But that would require the league giving a damn about anything more than expansion fees, TV deals and the signing of old dudes from Europe.