It's a good problem to have. All fans are up in arms. People on twitter. 5 years ago it would've been accepted. Now that everyone is throwing a fit , it just shows me how MLS has arrived
People have been complaining for years, I hardly think it shows that the MLS has arrived, I think it shows that the MLS doesn't have answers.
Right. Despite the fact that the NFL was formed more than half a century before MLS was, and despite the fact that it rakes in $5 billion dollars annually on its TV contracts alone, it still has a team that shares its stadium with an MLB team. How many MLS teams share a stadium with a football team? New England, Seattle, Vancouver, Portland, Houston... anyone else? That's not bad for a league that isn't even 20 years old yet. It's good that you're frustrated, but I find it difficult to believe that a fan would refuse to watch their team play just because there were football lines on the field. It sure wouldn't stop me.
Only because the Giants won't let the A's move to San Jose because of territorial rights. If Walter Haas has not given San Jose to the Giants a few decades ago, you couldn't make that point about the NFL. I'm not saying MLS hasn't come very far, but it sucks that even in Portland and Houston we still have to deal with that crap...
And even in Oakland, you won't see the baseball diamond during NFL's marquee time of the year, the playoffs. These things in isolation are not that bad. But together (playoff schedule, football lines, tv format, referee quality) they really do hurt the league. We need to stop making excuses. Allow your league to grow up and hold it accountable. Don't be all sentimental about how much your little Jimmy has grown up. Right now, he is a teenager and needs to get off his rear end to get himself into college.
Lets relax here guy. You hardly ever see the baseball diamond during Raiders games. You're honestly more distracted by a bit of dirt than 100 lines, thick sidelines, logos, numbers, and names?
Accept that MLS still have growing pains, just 10 years ago there´s was serious doubts about the leagues future..
The progress that has been made off the field has been tremendous. Before I was a fan, most of the league played on those lines more often than not. Now, this has been one of the first times the lines have been seen all season.
I saw a game from Mexico that had washed out football lines this weekend, it's sucks and it's shouldn't happen, but it did, get over it.
Think of it this way: today a football team will be playing on a field with soccer lines all over it. If you missed last night's game you missed a good one. Your loss.
Its not as common as it used to be..is it annoying when it happens, absolutely. I don't demand new stadiums or technologies, I just hope the situation goes into the leagues lessons learned box and they schedule/plan accordingly in the future
I used to be someone who ridiculed people who whined about this. But I have to admit: Last night, it really bugged the hell out of me. I get pumped to watch MLS playoff games. I'm a huge NHL fan, and I follow the Columbus Blue Jackets. I watch all their games. And last night, I found myself just trying to get through their game because I wanted to watch MLS matches where I had no rooting interest whatsoever. I was stoked. Somehow, I guess through just not paying close enough attention, I had completely forgotten about football lines. So when I tuned in and saw them, I was instantly annoyed. And even though I've been through it before, having the football lines on the soccer field really threw off my viewing. Whether it affects the players on the field or not, having all those lines that don't matter leads to just overstimulation of the brain/eyes, and it becomes difficult to keep your bearings of where everything is on the field. Combine that with the crappy passing that comes with playing on turf in the first place, and what should have been two great spectacles became eyesores. I understand why it happens. I'm not sure there's anything practical that can be done about it. I'm just saying I don't think it's nuts for people to tune in to huge matches and see a field that doesn't look the way it's supposed to. That's all.
Honestly it's not the lines that bother me, it's the thick sidelines, the numbers, and the logo/team names. Get rid of those (and maybe make sure that the soccer lines are easily visible) and I could give a damn about the lines right now.
Also, the playoff thing was all MLS. They started with the playoffs and have stressed how important they are since the beginning. I think people have come around to the playoffs, I really do. I think people, for the most part, are past the whole single table, no playoff argument. We understand MLS has to have them. But if the playoffs are so important to the league, then show the fans it is important by how you display the product and treat the playoff schedule. I think that is partly the issue. If they can't get the logistics and presentation down, then people will look at the NYRB home game (where they sold out the stadium and received the SS), the SS race between several teams, and think that was a pretty decent way to end the season.