News: Breaking: DC and NY Swap Home Dates

fwiw, the same storm did hit DC, just not as directly/fiercely as it hit NY/NJ.

 

Sweet, bonus coverage for the league!

 

This thread is a joke. Half of Manhattan is pitch black. People can't get to work. There are some with no running water. There are others who are literally now homeless. Emergency vehicles can't get where they need to go. Yet this somehow is a league conspiracy? Get a life.

 

Uh, while the problems we got from Sandy were miniscule compared to coastal NJ, saying the storm didn't hit DC is a bit much. At least, it sure seems that way as I prepare to write an enormous check to cover the damage to my roof.

 

Yeah, and it was earned in a severely unbalanced schedule.

The two teams did not play the same schedule. They didn't even play the same teams the same number of times.

So continue to get worked up over this. I will continue to watch and laugh at your little crocodile tears.

 

Sorry, i overlooked. I actually think that would be fair, and that thought crossed my mind before the league made the decision.

 

Trust me ... DC fans will get over about date and venue changes. That's expected with such an extreme weather event. What we won't get over is reversing the competition rules in our opponent's favor.

 

Yeah you guys are still pissed about how the league handled Adu entering the league, right?

 

So you're saying we knew that a storm that didn't form until October 22, 2012, was coming "more than two weeks ago"? And that this storm, that we didn't even know existed, would hit the NY and NJ areas? And that MLS would have a contingency plan in place more than two weeks ago in prepration for a storm that didn't exist for a series they didn't even know would happen until Saturday?

You've said some stupid stuff in the DC United forum. But the idiocy of your comment here takes the cake.

Well done.

 

I couldn't possibly give any less of a damn what the ESPN NFL crew thinks. No, wait. . . I 'care' just enough what they think to figure it's probably a good idea to do the opposite. Sometimes you accede to circumstance. This isn't the NFL, where if reality collides with preference, you just wave a wand and change reality (probably by paying the power company tens of millions of dollars to import workers to work three shifts to get the power back so that you can play).

Look, there's no way MLS is going to cancel a playoff game once they've said it would be played, and there's no way, if any other alternative is available, that they're going to make RBNY rent another facility. That's just fiscal reality.

And for what it's worth, the studies I've seen suggest that if anything it's a slight advantage to host first. (Of course, that's in the European context, which includes an away goals rule that might throw the analysis somewhat, but still). Certainly, as we've seen with scaryice's analysis in home-and-home series, the outcomes tend to bear only very, very slight resemblance to seeding advantages. There's a reason why Payne and Olsen didn't kick up any fuss about the dates being switched . . . which is that it probably doesn't hurt them.

Now, I understand a certain level of beef about OT. DC played the last game like a playoff game (as did Chicago) to get a better seed. I don't see much in the way of a fair-minded reason why the second seed should have to play an OT on the road, if it happens to get there. I'm not going to go apoplectic about it, but I would hope that if the series is tied after 180, then the series OT is played in DC the next day as zensum suggested or at least isn't played, and we go straight to penalties--supposedly there's no great HFA to PKs, except that whichever team happens to take first tends to win about 60% of them. Maybe instead of OT, you just let DCU take first PK.

 

This isn't about the hurricane. DC and NY usually share their weather events ... heat waves, blizzards etc ... this time DC area got mostly spared. Trust me there is plenty of solidarity regarding the tragedy. Also DC fans come from all over the region including NYC.

This thread is about soccer which also matters to some ... not as much as the safety and wellbeing of the hurricane victims ... but it still matters.

 

I sure am. My sense at the time was that that wasn't so much to make DC happy as it was to make Freddy Adu's mom happy; but it was Mickey-Mouse either way. I had hoped the league was past that.

 

I get your point, but honestly we already knew by last week on Monday that something big was going to go down.

Was it impossible for RB to set up a contingency venue? Did they even try?

 

If it's about soccer then fine, but for some to say this is a conspiracy is ridiculous. Clearly you play for home field advantage. But I've seen DC fans complaining about how they had to play their home game on a Wednesday night while NY got a Saturday. Now it's switched and there are new complaints. This is an extraordinary event. I first saw the playoff schedule in August, so it's been set for a while. There just isn't a lot of room to change things here. Also it's possible DC gets two home games if RBA can't get power back by Wednesday. In that case am I supposed to whine about it forever? Or suggest my own conspiracy? I would be annoyed but I'd get over it. There are bigger things in life to worry about, especially in this circumstance.

 

When I heard the news this afternoon, I felt bad for DC fans.

Now, after reading through this thread, I will be cheering hard for NY. I'd be glad to see DC and their fans eliminated.

 

Damn right. To hell with the people that have suffered the loss of their homes and lives at the hands of a freak natural disaster...we have (maybe) 20,000 D.C. United fans that are upset at being inconvenienced!

 

I do think MLS had enough time that they should have had a contingency plan in place.
I do feel really bad for DC fans who made travel plans.
I do think the fact that NY was involved swayed MLS. Not that I think they deliberately favor NY, but I do think they were loathe to miss any opportunity to promote the Red Bulls.
I will curse the unfairness of it all if Henry scores the series winner in OT.
But...
We have 90 minutes at home to prove we are the better team (and I think we will) and the circumstances are unusual enough I can't get all that worked up about it. The NFL made a team play a home game in London. The NBA has a lottery for top draft picks. MLB decides homefield in the WS based on an exhibition game. The USOC lets teams buy home field. DC benefited greatly when the away leg of the Interamerican cup was played in Miami. Schedules aren't balanced. Conferences aren't balanced. A fifth seed could be crowned champion. PKs are a totally unfair way to decide a winner. And so on.

I want my soccer competition to be as fair as possible, but sometimes decisions get made for non-competitive reasons (i.e. money). I accept that.

 

And switching dates will fix this how,'exactly?

 

Sweet Jesus, you love being the victim, don't you?

 

Maybe not whine, but if that happens I'd be pretty upset at my FO for not being able to find a suitable venue somewhere in the tri state area for the game. By next wednesday it would have been almost 3 weeks since we first heard of the hurricane.

It just seems very narrow minded for your FO to only consider 2 options ... RBA or RFK.

 

...by actually giving RBA time to get its infrastructure up and running?

 

Where in my post did I mention DC fans?

My post was about DC players and coaches, some of who get paid less than many on these boards and their careers and contracts depend on how far they get in the playoffs. I'm still not sure how screwing these players fixes any of the problems on the Jersey Shore and lower Manhattan.

The only thing screwing these players does is bail out the NY FO for not being able or willing to consider other options for playing their home game.

 

I find this post to be highly entertaining. Please, do continue on...

 

The false dichotomies and mental gymnastics going on in the thread to defend this decision are hilarious.

If the situation is half as dire as it is being stated in here, the appropriate decision would have been to postpone the match, not eliminate the purpose of the regular season.