Has anyone else noticed that the Crew bold-faced lied about the 18th game of the season ticket package? Nordecke season tickets last year were $488 - this year they are $516, a difference of $28. the CCL game (I'm assuming League's Cup), game #18, is listed as costing $28 in the invoice breakdown in your account manager. Or something, depending on your section. Here's the thing, though. They sent out an email last year, dated 08/09/2022 - here's the text of the email: All emphasis THEIRS, not mine. Smells like false advertising to me, everyone.
Well if they just increase the tickets to the "paid" games then the 18th game could then theoretically be "free" - could that be their take. But your point is valid and the lie won't even be noticed by most.
I bet that's what happened. The cost of the season ticket package went up $28, per usual price increases of everything. The season package could have gone up an additional $28-30 to cover the cost of the additional ticket, but they didn't. What I found peculiar is that the one game is included in full-season packages, but the other game is included in partial plans. Maybe the FO wasn't planning on having both games in Columbus. I'm not sure it's a lie, however. We all can expect a yearly "cost of doing business" increase to season tickets. They're certainly not the same price they were 10-15 years ago.
Wait until Bill Bush finds out. Then it will be on the front page of the Dispatch. Good thing that doesn't matter much anymore.
https://www.columbuscrew.com/news/columbus-crew-adds-slate-of-preseason-matches Looks like all preseason games will be behind closed doors. It also mentioned that we had a friendly against an NPSL team on the 27th.
Given the lack of a score announcement from that game, I'm guessing these are all top secret and no results will be released. The more I think about it, this is why an American-style preseason would likely never work in MLS. The closed-door friendly is so sacrosanct to some soccer coaches, to point of some - like Nancy, apparently - only being willing to play meaningful games (or big $$$ friendlies) in public. Closest parallel I know of in American sports is women's college basketball.
When teams do these things behind closed doors it's generally because they don't want to let their early season opponents see what they're working on. If there's some competitive advantage, however small, to be gained by not letting everyone watch preseason games, I'm fine with it.
Self-reply: And now we know. They're pulling their operations out of Columbus. We hardly knew ye, Starry. From now on, you'll just be a drink served at Crew games.
I'm sure I missed the announcement, but I also don't remember seeing anything here, but oh well. If anyone else missed the announcement, Decision Day will kick off at 6pm. Now that the league controls all broadcasts, it'll be interesting to see if that's a typical 6:07 or 6:18 or whatever. https://www.columbuscrew.com/tickets/partials/ Along that note, with the unified pregame shows, let's see what happens to the exact kickoff time.
I'm gonna guess "typical", as that's what happened with college football when they started to have specific time slots and everyone was on tv every week (for you youngun's there was a time when your team was only allowed to be on TV twice in a season).
At least currently it appears KO will be at 7:30. MLS started adding the KO time to the schedule last year if you clicked in to a match. https://www.mlssoccer.com/competitions/mls-regular-season/2023/matches/phivsclb-02-25-2023/ For the above they show the 7:30 time just like last year, but the KO is also 7:30 in small font under the matchup. Last season that would have said 7:38 etc. Edit: It appears national matches will still have different KO time. https://www.mlssoccer.com/competitions/mls-regular-season/2023/matches/nshvsnyc-02-25-2023/ Edit 2: Never mind they are all over the place again. Depending on match. https://www.mlssoccer.com/competitions/mls-regular-season/2023/matches/miavsmtl-02-25-2023/
But technically, aren't the bowl games not put on by the NCAA, but rather the organization that uses to be the Bowl Alliance? It's why the NCAA doesn't recognize a champion in 1A, now known as FBS football.
For MLS games in 2023 and beyond, this would make sense: Games kick off at 7:33. The pregame show can do the "we'll send you out to your games after this brief break" at 7:26. At 7:30, we get the first glimpses of the stadium, announcer introductions and lineups. Kick at 7:33. FS1 games would probably start at :07/:37 after due to them wanting to get in a short pregame show into that 2-hr broadcast window even if they do a 30-min pregame show. ... although, one thing I noticed was that Neil and Jordan's pregame shows would begin almost identical to the game broadcast. Using editing, I'm sure a producer could take the beginning of the 30-min pregame show and splice it into the game broadcast. (In other words, if you're running a full pregame show, you don't really need a mini-pregame from 7:30-7:37. If fans want to watch pregame, they can tune in at 7pm. If you tune in at 7:08, you can FF through commercials and still get to kickoff on time.) 2023 and beyond: FS1 pregame 7pm: **Show Columbus getting off team bus** Voiceover: "We're here in sunny Miami where Wilifred Nancy's Columbus Crew is ready to take on Phil Neville's Inter Miami** FS1 kickoff at 7:30 sharp. The first few minutes of that pregame could be spliced into the game broadcast for the archives.
The Crewpybaras are in camp with no schedule announced. Is MLSNP going to be announcing games week-by-week?
Well, Next Pro does start later than the senior league, at least they did last year when they kicked off in late March. But, yeah, the league doesn't exactly give you a lot of advanced warning about thsi stuff. Add to that, MLS kicks off in 9 days and we don't have the 2023 roster rules yet. Same as it ever was.
What struck me as odd is that they reported to camp not knowing when Opening Day is. I've NEVER seen that.
There are twitter rumors that Rochester doesn't know if it will play this season A rundown of @rnyfcofficial (a thread):11/30 - half of the team was released. Since then, more players have been traded or signed elsewhere1/3 - the coach has left1/6 - last of any social media posts, no contact from Owners @david_dworkin @wendydworkin or @vardy7 since— RhinosArchive (@RhinosArchive) February 16, 2023
There has to be a point at which MLSNP asks the Rhinos (or whatever they're called now) "Are you in or not? We have a schedule to release.".
This is MLS, so the team knowing can't be assumed. Also, the bigwigs might know, but the coaches and players might not necessarily have been told.