So in short, yes, we can expect football lines for at least the latter part of the season if not the whole season?
yes, it's ugly but in the big scheme of things, it's just grass. (or fake grass). i don't give a rat's ass what color it is as long as people are playing soccer on top of it. besides, having the grid lines there help out a lot on close offside calls.
Which matters one way or the other because......???? Were you considering flying out from DC to a game in SLC, but have changed your mind because of the lines?
It matters because as I said before, it makes the league look amatuerish. And before you throw it in my face, yes, I realize baseball infields do the same.
I agree 100%. Football lines look like complete crap on the pitch. The sooner we get SSSes up, the better.
Tell that to the Metros fans that had to watch their team play on carpet. Not Field Turf, but actual carpet, back in 97 or 98. It was a disgrace to the sport.
Ah hockey... I remember the old days when we had a pro hockey league in this country... Canadians played too
one has broken ground, the other has not chosen a site, hired an architect, or announced a plan for funding. Neither has anything to do with the other. While it's possible that RSL could have a stadium up by '07, it's nowhere near a sure thing. Heck, DC is a lot farther along than RSL at this point, and I think it's unlikely that DC United will hit their goal of a stadium for '07.
Do baseball infields make the NFL look amateurish? ---- And to Sanguine. It takes a lot longer to get anything built in Washington, DC than in Salt Lake City.
Except that RSL has two cities very motivated in putting a deal together... basically Murray has the site and "how it would happen" all worked out. The problem is that Checketts would rather have the team in downtown Salt Lake City - the mayor is also very motivated to do this, but he has to deal with the realities of limited land availability. If Checketts wanted to sign a deal - he could very quickly do that with Murray and have a great location (just not his 1st pick). I prefer Murray because it is very convenient to the valley (fans)... but I can't blame Checketts for wanting to put the stadium downtown. Note - Murray is 10-12 minutes from downtown (so it's not that far out). It is dead center in the Salt Lake Valley (with the valley spanning about 22 miles North to South - downtown is on the North end of the valley). Supposedly, per the RSL FO that I spoke to, they were planning on having the site picked by either Dec 1 or Jan 1 (I really don't remember which it was)... so we'll see, I guess, if it happens or not.
That's their problem. MLS fans should be able to be grumpy about this issue irrespective of what people in Mexico feel (or what fans of NFL teams with baseball infields feel).
No, but a.) baseball infields do not make football much harder to follow and b.) football is the most popular sport in the country. It is not fighting for mainstream acceptance. The fact is that gridiron lines reinforce the widely-held notion that MLS is a third-rate league and that soccer is merely a niche sport. Obviously, the lines are a tiny problem in the grand scheme of things, but it's pretty silly to think that they don't turn off people who aren't already hardcore MLS supporters.
As someone who goes to metros games, it is a much more enjoyable experience to go to a game in the beginning of the year than the end due to the football lines on the field. The football lines really make the game seem amateurish and it makes watching the game very annoying.
is there something wrong with soccer being a niche sport? it always has been in this country and probably always will be. even back in the NASL days it was a niche sport. There is nothing inherently wrong with being a niche sport. it just is. Lacrosse has accepted it will never be as popular as the NFL. When are soccer fans going to accept it? I;m not saying it;s not worth being a soccer fan. far from it. I am as die hard as it gets. However I am not going to forget reality. Soccer is boring to most americans. Even if it doesn't have football lines it will still be boring to them. end of story.
Well, sure, people who post on the Bigsoccer MLS boards will watch MLS whether there are football lines or not, and people who don't like soccer won't watch it even if there aren't football lines. But it would be foolish to conclude from this that presentation is unimportant. Attendance plummetted when the Burn moved to Dragon Stadium in Southlake, and it wasn't all because of the location.
Agreed. Isn't that part of the point of SSS that the presentation of the game and atmosphere is a lot better? Lets not forget that. Football lines aren't the biggest deal, and calling it 'mutated rugby' or 'grid ball' is just stupid, but it's something that's not exactly trivial either.
I think the more important thing to worry about is will there be a good fan base and a nice crow for the home opener?? More important pressing question lie here than lines on a field
That sound you're hearing is the sound of Dallas and Chicago fans' laughing their asses off, mostly because both sets of fans heard that song and dance. Maybe the third time is the charm. Anyway, it's not the ideal soccer field, but it is what it is. If you don't want football lines on your soccer field, don't rent a football stadium for your soccer team's games. It's like what a certain blues man once sang, "If you don't want a woman who drinks, don't go around, picking up women in bars." MLS is renting a football stadium for the Stormin' Mormons' home games, and some of you people are shocked that there might be football lines there, and that they might even be permanent? As an aside, I'm wondering if there was the same level of carrying-on on the 1950's equivalent of BigNFL.com, with people saying that the NFL would NEVER become anything more than a niche league. After all, a vast majority of teams were playing their home games at baseball stadiums (not multi-purpose stadiums, mind you, but actual baseball stadiums) in those days, and that looked so amateurish.
That's a nice picture. And the point is well taken. Who cares, as long as the product on the field is good!