Pipsqueaks and Shantymen kinda fit in well with the general, Northwoods, self-deprecating mascots. We all know the classic Watersmeet Nimrods.
Man you guys make me want to go to a Railcats game or something. Shame I left Louisville without seeing the USL match. Then again saw it on tv 0-0 after 100+ minutes. Any other Soccer teams worth visiting in the Midwest? Been meaning to get to an Indy 11 match since they started. But I also don’t want to drive to Indianapolis. Detroit City? Seems fun.
Detroit is worth attending. Their fans can be snobby about MLS, but I appreciate their investment in their own team. I’m happy that Indy Eleven is getting a new stadium too. For me this shows the growth of soccer in the US, when 2nd division teams are worth the investment. https://www.uslchampionship.com/news_article/show/1230623 USL seems to have nicely plugged the geographic gaps in MLS’ map, but Cleveland looks like a glaring hole. Would love to see a Cleveland Force outdoor team someday.
The beer hall looked cool, but I went to the first game back in 2021 and it was limited capacity and some stuff was closed.
Best stadium I have been to in a long time. The location is awesome, just three stops from my friend's house.
there's just nothing going on around the stadium I like the MSP area though -- brother lives up there
I hope at some point, Minnesota, St.Louis and a future Detroit team end up in the same conference with us and Columbus. I want more midwestern teams to hate.
Let’s get a team in Milwaukee, Indianapolis, and a second Chicago team and throw Kansas City and Cincy in there, too. Actually, ******** KC, stick those dopes in the west and we have a nice little division of 8 teams that are nice and close. Our lack of nearby rivals sucks.
For the longest time, I never knew that the "Midwest" wasn't a concrete set of states the way New England is. Some folks includes states like Wyoming and Montana all the way down to Oklahoma and Kansas. In my mind it's Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio. Some will probably argue with me about Missouri and Kentucky, but those feel more southern to me.I wouldn't put Sporting KC in with us for that reason. Anyway, I completely forgot to include FC Cincinnati in my grouping of Midwestern hate rivals. They just make no impression on my soccer consciousness at all. As far as expansion teams in the region, it'd be great to have Milwaukee and Indianapolis in the league, but how many more markets is MLS going to expand to? 32? 34? I'd have to think that places like Detroit, Phoenix and San Diego (Maybe Tampa Bay redux?) will be a higher priority over Milwaukee or Indianapolis. Best bet for those markets is to blow the socks off the USLC for Indy Eleven and Forward Madison needs to get themselves elevated from League One to the Championship.
I've heard MLS could get up to 40 teams at some point, and with how much they love those expansion fees I wouldn't be surprised. But that's a long ways off and Milwaukee and Indianapolis are long shots even in a league that size. My vote is to kick the canadian teams out to make room for more US cities but that ain't happening, either. It'd just be nice to have some teams closer by to cheer against and those rivalries could raise the profile of the Fire in the city if they become as passionate as our rivalries with teams from those cities in other sports. Cincy has been on my enemy list since they bounced us from the Open Cup when they were still in the lower division. Plus, their acronym is FCC and I'm not a fan of the Feds. To me, while places like Nebraska, Kansas, etc are in the 'geographic' midwest, I've just accepted that we consider rust belt states east of the coast the midwest even though it makes no sense when looking at a map of today's U.S. To bring it back the general interest Chicago topic - what would be great is if there were more teams in cities that were a quick drive/Amtrak trip away to go to, watch the Fire kick ass, hang out for a few days and head home. I just went up to St. Paul via Amtrak and it's sooooo much better than flying even with the additional time- looking forward to St. Louis next year and hopefully in a 40 team league a few more near-ish cities get teams.
Yes to train trips for soccer games and nearer rivals to Chicago. Is Pittsburgh too far? I’ve never been to Highmark Stadium, but it looks nice on TV.
I just drove to Pittsburgh and it’s not too bad. 8 hours but the east end of the drive is nice. As always, close to home is Gary Skyway.
Pittsburgh sucks as a city (public transit? Lololol) but it’d definitely would be a nice MLS city distance-wise. I grew up a Steelers fan (long story) and was disappointed the first time I visited Pittsburgh at how dumb the damn place was. I was there in the middle of May and there were dudes downtown on a Monday wearing Steeler jerseys with their business attire- like no shit sport coat, slacks, and a throwback Terry Bradshaw and stuff. I went back last year for the Bears Monday night game and had fun, but like, getting back to the hotel after the game from the stadium without a car was a nightmare- all of the Ubers were hour long waits just to end up canceling, and there was like one train that didn’t really go anywhere running. Primanti Bros owns though - hell, if the Fire ever draw an Open Cup game there I’d probably make an effort to get to it.
Speaking of trains, we just embarked on our Amtrak trip to SLC and Yellowstone. Our "roomette" is TINY, maybe 3x7 feet. Comfy, though. Waiting to pull down the "bunk bed" tonight. Sadly, we go through Illinois, Iowa and Eastern Nebraska during the day, with Colorado over night. This train should leave at 9:00, some could sleep through the boring parts. The trip back leaves Spokane at 1:00 am, so we will miss the thin part of Idaho, but go through Montana and North Dakota during the day.
“Luckily” it’s Amtrak so you should be delayed roughly twelve hours and have a beautiful view. Amtrak must be run by Mods…
My parents love taking the train to SLC to see my brother and to Seattle to see my other brother and to LA to see my other brother.
I do too, but public transit must suck with all those hills and disparate neighborhoods. You can find neat stuff in them, though.
I saw there was some mumbles about minor league baseball and I want to point out that a mandatory visit should be made by one and all to see Bosse Field in Evansville, Indiana. The Evansville Otters play there in the Frontier League but there are only 2 older stadiums in the United States in Wrigley and Fenway Park. Also since it's the Frontier League you can get tix for $6, $10 or $12 and get a beer AND a hot dog for like $7. If you've seen "A League of Their Own" you've seen the inside of Bosse Field. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosse_Field Pittsburgh is my hometown and she's a dirty ol' gal but **** you to anyone who doesn't like it. Lol. Unfortunately there's a lot of dumb Trump humpers in the area these days but it's important to remember that once there were electric streetcars running all over the place and the Detroit big 3 conspired to end that little bit of magic like they did in so many cities in the 1960's-1970's. I still remember the trollies. It is true without a car you are hard pressed to get anywhere in Pittsburgh and because of the hills and hollers it's very easy to take a wrong turn and end up going up over a hill or off in the completely wrong direction with no place to turn around. A grid just does NOT work in that terrain. So mostly aside from right downtown, walking anywhere is going to take some effort and most likely there's no sidewalk either. Good luck with that. Highmark stadium is right on the river and it's not huge but it's got a hell of a view. One of the old goalkeepers from my first club team Beadling S.C. was the Technical director for the Riverhounds for a long time Gene Klein. He's retired now but still an awesome dude. Primanti's is AWESOME of course and now there are several locations including one on East Carson Street on the Southside. Pittsburgh also has some great Neopolitan pizza joints worth exploring and I put it up against a New York pie any day especially over near where that stupid temple shooting was in Shadyside/Squirrel Hill.