I'll go out on a large limb and say this thread wouldn't be near as depressing if it weren't for Greg And***** and Jim F*cking Smith. We'd still be talking about a stage, but hey maybe our team would actually be decent and no one would think we're going to be moved because we suck so bad.
Repped and applauding. Folks, get this through your heads. So long as CCS exists, MLS exists and Crew have a lease agreement, THE COLUMBUS CREW ARE NOT LEAVING COLUMBUS!!! I repeat.... THE COLUMBUS CREW ARE NOT, I SAY AGAIN *NOT* LEAVING COLUMBUS!!!!! I know where the negativity come from. It's seemed to seeped in with native Ohioan. We so often here how Columbus or Cleveland or Akron or wherever is so behind the times and rusting from people who could give a damn about this state that we believe it. Because we love our sports teams so much, we start believing that they, like us, are somehow doomed. My answer to anyone whoever tells me this is to shout "BULLSHIT!" and extend two middle fingers. I know that I'm no insider, but it seems to me some of the BS of BS is simply people who enjoy spreading negativity or bringing worst case scenarios just to torment the rest of us. I say "BULLSHIT" to you as well, you know who you are, and I don't care if i get red carded for saying it. Do I like the idea of a stage? No. Do I think its the end of the Crew? No. Do I think the front office could do better? Yes. Do i think they're pissing on the backs of Union, HSH and Turbina? Hell No. I may be an eternal optimist and I may like soccer enough to keep coming no matter what happens. But the doomsday crap around here never ceases to amaze me. To my Union brothers and the rest of the supporters i hope to be shoulder-to-shoulder with March 29, the Northend may be gone, but its our job to turn the Supporters Corner into that cauldron we want it to do. I'll see you there. To those doomdayers who seem to like spreading misery, do us all a favor. SHUT THE HELL UP!
My brother and his wife went to a Rascal Flatts show awhile back and really enjoyed themselves. Granted neither are sound engineers and probably a few beers deep but they really like the stadium and setup. He actually mentioned something to me about seeing a game there sometime and that deserves one of these if you ever met my brother. Tip of the hat to Cleazer for mentioning the naming rights in the whole stage issue. Wag of the finger to all you ready to gas up the U-Haul trucks. Take a deep breath and have some dip.
I would like to go on record, however, that I have not been associated with said group for quite a while. And I think if we just wait a few months and a few heartbreaking losses early in the season this discussion will read its ugly head again. It seems to every year when there is dissension in the ranks. And while I categorized them as the "vocal core" I should have specified the alleged most vocal on Big Soccer. (Which may or may not be true)
The building of the stage is obviously the first move in a nefarious plot to move Columbus Crew to La Plata, Argentina so that Guille can cure his homesickness.
So, has the weekly mall or church shooting happened out there yet, or are you not done collecting ammo?
No, I was down at Hurlburt Field all week and saw the sun for the first time in weeks. Still kinda dazed.
herbie field, nice. yeah, i had forgotten what a foreign concept sunshine is back in OH until i was back there for thanksgiving. if i had a dollar for every overcast/rainy day ive seen since being out here, i might be able to go get some starbucks... maybe thats what the crew should do... build a training facility complete with this.
Word on the street is that expansion will happen to Philadelphia and that the Columbus Crew will have a lame duck season in 2008 if they have any season at all. Evidently an announcement is imminent that Columbus has been sold to an ownership group that will relocate it to St Louis. St Louis will begin play in 2009 (but maybe 2008) & Philadelphia in 2009 or 2010. With that, the league will be at 16 teams. Apparently the current Crew Stadium renovation resulting in the replacement of the north stand with a permanent stage is a move on the Hunts part to be able to generate revenue from concerts after the Crew is gone. Apparently the naming rights to the stadium have been sold to Kroger.
Just as a point of order, I don't know many ownership groups who would "imminently" announce a sale of a franchise that would be relocating prior to the season. Might hurt ticket sales a bit. Combined with the fact that the stage has been in planning/discussion for years, I find this story somewhere between bull and shit. As I've shouted from the rooftops before, MLS can't and won't move Columbus, because as soon as a team with a stadium less than 10 years old (barely 5, actually) moves, every municipality the league is working with to build stadiums elsewhere will stop returning Don Garber's phone calls. No city, township, state, county, whatever, is going to pitch funding into a stadium that could be vacant in the immediate future. Moving Columbus kills MLS's business model, and their stadium funding model. Period.
I'd say that several factors played into Columbus getting a team: 1) Season ticket sales -- Didn't someone recently post how Columbus sold the most (or one of the most) season tickets for the 1996 season than any other city? 2) Ohio Stadium renovation -- No renovation = No fast track to CCS 3) Small market -- In 1995, how much else was going on here that summer? A few concerts at Polaris, and what else? 4) Others
It's my understanding that the Rascal Flatts shows were held in conjunction with the Fair. They do a lot of the promotion, and doesn't a R.F. concert ticket also include Fair admission?? It's essentially just another one of their concerts, just held in an outdoor venue rather than in their indoor whatever it's called (Celeste??) Center. And the CFO walks away with a pile of cash for renting the stadium.
I could be wrong, but I believe pjward was just reviewing the ridiculous path the thread had went to. Too bad he forget to mention the FO's plan to build a training center in Newark so as to make it impossible to sign new players, the plan to sell Guille to Germinsa for a bag of magic beans and a painting(so'san we can add some culture to this cultureless city; although us cowtowners have to first figure out what a "painting" is so of course we'll have something else to complain about), and the city of Columbus' future plans to try and get indoor plumbing and some of them electric light thingys they've been hearing good things about.
I love posts that begin with: "the word on the street". It's a guarantee that what immediately follows is a complete fabrication. Does he mean he actually left home and heard people talking about this someplace? Anyplace? Read it in newspaper? Heard it on the radio? No indeed; by "on the street" he means "I read some other turds on BigSoccer discussing it" He doesn't want to actually SAY "I read it on BigSoccer in a post by some ignorant mope who was talking out his ass" so he employs this "the word on the street" garbage to make it sound like there might be a legitimate source. Somebody read my speculation, repeated it someplace and some other imbeciles decided it was factual instead of pure, of the top of my head guesswork. If nothing else, I find it interesting that the guy specifically says "Philadelphia" , the team I used as an example. It's interesting because right now the stadium project looks pretty much dead in the water. Maybe they'll be able to get it going, maybe they won't, but to say that an MLS announcement of a move to Philly is "imminent" is simply absurd. I wish I could say that I was flattered that some bunch of low-wattage BigSoccer shut-ins took my little screed as gospel, but it would be like boasting that I was able to cinvince a 2 year old to believe in the Easter Bunny. It's just too easy. If you can link to something someplace, even the painfullly imbecilic mewlings of Ives Galarcep, please do so. But don't come around here with some half-baked pile of warm dog shit and claim it's "the word on the street" Because it will indicate that the REAL "word on the street" is that you're mentally retarded.
Well, for that matter, that birdie is getting on my nerves. These people just need to say "I've been talking with..." Is Philadelphia close to being the new Cleveland in this regard?
PJ, where exactly did you get this? Some weird hybrid of the DC boards and a dart board of nightmare scenarios? Good grief