I love the Crew. I am a devoted fan. But if the Crew spent a season, or two, or three, playing all their home games in Saskatchewan even I would start to lose interest. There will never be a better time for the three Canadiastan teams to fly away home. The CPL needs those cities desperately, but not only do they not play in the CPL, they don't even play in Canadia. How can they ask fans up there to take their supposedly first division league seriously when the only 3 cities in the country that matter play in another country's league and now play their home games in Florida? It's not even funny any more, it's just sad. Well OK, it's also a little funny
MLS wants those markets. Particularly Toronto. And Vancouver is the Cascadian step-child. Plus, I am not sure those teams are particularly keen on playing in the Canadian league. Road trips to Saskatchewan or Alberta vs LA and Miami? Hmmm. Plus less exposure and a lower level. But if I had my druthers, those teams would indeed fly home and those slots would go to US cities (Phoenix, Detroit, Cleveland, Indy, Vegas, etc).
That middle paragraph makes an excellent argument against promotion/relegation, FWIW. I'd absolutely love to see Cleveland, but that ship sailed a long time ago. A stadium closer to Akron would have been a total joke and yes, one was considered at one point. Does Detroit even want a team? Indianapolis and Phoenix would definitely be on my "yes" list.
Teams currently in the top division are never going to be real high on pro/rel, since only the latter applies to them.
BREAKING: #Crew96 will play Real Esteli in Nicaragua on THU April 8 at 8:00pm EST.The second leg in Columbus will be THU April 15 at 8:00pm EST. #SCCL2021— Orri Benatar (@obenatar512) February 18, 2021
Well, we know that's never going to happen. What's so dumb about this is that we are effing light years away from this being close to conceivable, even if it were a common goal. We'd need multiple pro franchises in nearly every major market - and, obviously, support for those teams - operating at different tiers of the pro soccer hierarchy. We'd need continuity between one tier and the next, both in quality of play and of facilities. As much as I love the sport, soccer will never be that big in the States, as much as anything because the sports landscape is already so full of pro and college sports league competition. Whatever. Personally, I'm fine with how things are evolving: MLS sets up shop in the country's biggest markets (2M+, more or less); USL Championship (assuming most MLS-run franchises eventually shut down) gravitates to cities just below this, plus a handful of bigger markets MLS hasn't managed to acquire. And so on. The description isn't perfectly accurate, admittedly. We know MLS has the deep pockets to sustain itself through the end of the pandemic. I just hope USL can maintain a structure that, IMHO, looked pretty promising. I'd love to see lower division pro soccer in the States really blossom.
Div 2 & 3 soccer have really taken off over last few years. Some teams are heavily investing - Love what Louisville has done. Eventually that investment will pay off. I can totally see in next 10 years multiple D2 teams winning USOC. when that starts happening frequently, we might see a paradigm shift and pressure to open up the system. At very least we might see multiple tournaments that include those lower level teams. That will really help those teams build their brands and fanbases.
It's not that unusual for a lower level team to make the USOC quarter, even semifinals. Depends on how seriously the big boys take it.
Fox Sports holds the rights to any and every soccer game played under the auspices of CONCACAF until 2023. No one need look elsewhere. The only question is whether and where they will broadcast it. And I doubt if that has been decided.
It happens other places too, at times. RW Essen is in the German Cup quarter final, along with two second division teams this year. One of those three will be in the semis due to pairings.
Massive Report with some info on pre-season: https://www.massivereport.com/2021/...ews-2021-preseason-set-to-begin-on-feb-24-mls Very similar to last year: Camp in California Pre-season tournament in Arizona
Pre-season "schedule" (sort of): https://www.dispatch.com/story/spor...edule-dates-ahead-2021-mls-season/4545334001/ Massive Report seems to have been off in saying that we'd take part in that pre-season tournament in Arizona.
On DeWine's presser today, Randy Ludlow from the Dispatch asked about sports team capacities. DeWine said they will have an answer coming, but they're hoping to start at around 30% capacity and "will go from there". Could vary up or down depending on specific stadium configuration. The various virus "variants" could also influence that plan.
FWIW, I posted such in the caronavirus thread. Due to who said it, I could see it going off on a tangent. It got posted twice. Oh well.
That's 4x the capacity they were running towards the end of last semester. I'm pretty sure there's more than 6,000 STH.
That would actually be a good turnout for CCL match. Be interesting to see what attendance looks like. Also interesting to see how they will handle in relation to season tickets holders. With limited tickets to future league games to they allow people to swap one of their regular season tickets for that game?
Schedule still a few weeks away. MLS scheduling update: Schedule maker meeting regularly with competition group and broadcast group in efforts to finalize list. Complicated by pandemic issues, particularly Canadian “home” matches. Announcement seems a few weeks away. Season slated to start April 17.— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) February 24, 2021
I'd have thought the Canadian teams would have already picked a home away from home to play their matches until freedom of movement across the border is restored.
Vancouver will be playing in Salt Lake. I'm pretty sure it's official. It's also likely that TFC will be in Tampa, but that's not finalized. Club de Foot de Imbecile will skip the season entirely and no one will notice.