I think if they came out and said you would be charged but you have the option of opting out by a certain date once the venue is announced (with an associated credit to your account), that would at least cut down on some of the criticism. Would that make the Nordecke happy, no. But it would be a reasonable position by the club. That said, I have no problem with the Crew playing a match (even a regular season one) in Cleveland. Granted, I am biased, as I live in the Cleveland area (15 min from Browns stadium, and about 35 min from a potential Browns dome in Brook Park). I think it would be good for expanding the Crew's fan base (and obviously a money maker for the Haslams). I would love to see more awareness of the Crew in NE Ohio. Also, since I drive 2 hrs and 15 min to pretty much every home match and back, I don't think the drive is all that big of a deal. Then again, within the last 2+ years I have driven to away matches at SKC, Atlanta, Philly, RBNY, Nashville, FCKY, Minnesota, Montreal, and Miami, so driving probably bothers me less than a lot of others.
With leagues cup and a friendly, couldn’t we still have 18 home games and make the Cleveland game an extra not included match? As a STM, a Miami home game in Cleveland means I can either sell my ticket to some NEO dupe or I can enjoy a day in The Land. My choice. 1 game is livable. From a sporting perspective, I think it’s stupid to give up home field advantage. Whether it’s turf, or a narrow field, or no Nordecke, or clueless fans, it’s just not great for a team trying to win trophies. I doubt Josh Glessing has much of a clue about the sporting side of this club. That could be the problem.
We love ya, we love ya, we love ya And where you go we'll follow, we'll follow, we'll follow (unless its a home game not in Columbus) Cuz we support the Columbus, Columbus, Columbus And that's the way we like it, we like it, we like it. Bolded part is mine.
The Terms and Conditions from The Crew language does not limit it to one home match, it says "..home matches..", and it does not limit the locations of these home matches to only being in Cleveland.....
The more I think about this situation, the more I think this is people doing their best to grow the team/brand (something I love), but doing so with an NFL-type strategy (something I don't love). Doing something like has been done many times in the NFL over the years. Obviously you have NFL games being hosted in Europe or Mexico or even Brazil in the future, but you've also had teams like the Packers and Bills play in Milwaukee and Toronto numerous times. There are some NFL fans who get annoyed by this, but by and large it's not a big deal. There are so many fans that they fill stadiums wherever they play. If I were a betting man, I would say a competitive Crew game will not be played in Cleveland. The FO is already getting a tiny taste of what the backlash would be which is something they do not want to deal with. On top of that, it would only draw a reasonable sized crowd if a Leo Messi type player was playing. Anything else, it would be an absolute waste. I think it's good for us to let the FO know that would be unacceptable, but I really don't see this actually happening aside from a very slim chance of us playing Miami up there.
Well that was a mistake that I think they rectified. Again, we could be wearing green (I won't say the v-word) and playing our home matches in Austin's second downtown. Also, two MLS Cups. A very nice new stadium, great atmosphere at the matches. Again, as mentioned above, it would only make sense to move a match to Cleveland for a Messi type game, or a friendly versus a top Euro club. A regular season non-Messi match in Cleveland would most likely draw less than the normal 20k sellout at Lower.com Field. But obviously, they do plan or want to play some matches in Cleveland in the future. Especially once the Brook Park dome is built (assuming it gets built, which I hope it does as current Browns Stadium is nothing special). I just think there is some overreaction here. Though, I do agree charging for the tickets without an out (other than reselling the tickets) was not very smart.
How possible is it that they include the ticket, aka force the sale, knowing that a small portion of STMs would opt-in? If they include it in season tickets, they automatically have sold that many thousand tickets already and are well in the road to "Good seats going fast!"? It would have been classier to make it an opt-in, but from a pure business standpoint, you want to include the ticket.
It would be very easy for them to say, "We are interested in a friendly against a top European club or a Mexican giant" and I think it would be well received. The fact they haven't is the main problem. They're either planning for it to be a competitive match or they're terrible at PR.
We knew this a month ago. Don't understand why people are just now finding out. I don't like the idea of it in that situation because homefield means a lot but understand the thinking. If they want to play against Messi or another superstar down the road in a bigger stadium to bring in more $$$ to make the club profitable and have it to sign more top players and try to make us a contender more often than not I'm ok with it. Making a 2.5 hour drive once a year is not that bad. Lots of STM do it for every home game. I understand it may not be possible for everyone to go up. I may not be able to every year because of other life situations. If the are part of the STM package they can be sold if needed.
If Philly moved a real game to Pittsburgh, if Orlando moved a real game to Jacksonville, if Nashville moved a real game to Memphis, if Vancouver moved a real game to Edmonton, if Toronto moved a real game to Ottawa, and on and on and on, and the ToS said “we can move a game to a completely different city that is hours away, at the last minute, and you’re not entitled to a refund, get fukt” fans across the league would absolutely 100% lose their shit. Especially if there is zero precedent. This shit is ridiculous.
This is what I was getting at with the lack of terms in the T&C. Your ticket is a license that the team can take away from you if you don't suck it up, but there could be legal challenges that could survive long enough to make a mess of it for the Haslams. It would make a good test case. And if they accomplished moving that CCC game to Cleveland, I would have been pissed. It's so galaxy brained to ruin a chance to win the CCC and go to the CWC. It's a crappy FIFA tournament, but it is so cool for us who don't get to face Madrid or Flamengo.
Again, the Terms and Conditions does not say one match per year, it says "matches", and it also does not limit these "home" matches to only being in Cleveland, it says including, but not limited to Cleveland.....
Josh Glessing: Piece of Shit Josh Glessing, chief of strategy and development at Haslam Sports Group told television network News 5 that the Crew were looking into playing in Cleveland because this would be an opportunity "to put Lionel Messi, one of the most famous, if not the most famous people in the world - arguably the greatest soccer player in history - on the biggest stage possible." "Stage" my ass. Does he honestly think everybody doesn't know exactly why he'd want to move the game?
Yeah, just be honest. MLS still relies on butt in seats much more than the other American sports leagues, and this would lead to more butts in seats most likely. Just be real.
How quickly can City Hall get their asses in gear for a Haslam Law where, if just "one game in a regular season, playoff or competition with a championship" gets moved to another venue, say over five miles away, it'd be illegal? (Ohio Stadium and HCS are 4.9 miles from LDC driving. The way I see it, this would allow Crew 2 the ability to play at both places.)
I will be upset if the first time the Crew play against Messi it's in Cleveland and not here in Columbus first. Like him or not...this is a huge boon for Columbus...not Cleveland (sorry my NEO fam).
I think it comes down to how many ********s I give about the possibility about a Crew game in Cleveland. I do not give many ********s either way. I understand why many of you give lots of ********s. No ********s and lots of love to all.
Yeah, but if the Steelers play in Hamburg, the team gives a discount on season tickets. Therein lies the problem.
If the Miami game is moved up their next year, I don't think there is going to be any issue with any season ticket holder selling their tickets. They will likely make a significant profit in that sale to compensate them for their time needed to list the tickets. It may well be a problem for some, but a pretty small one at that. It isn't like we are going to play New England up in Cleveland or some other random MLS team.
You are right and that does give them the option of more. But we all know this is for a Messi or Messi type situation. Maybe a Freindly and reg. season. Sure they could host 2 games against Messi (CCC) and put both up. Not limited to Cleveland is so when (if) the new stadium is is built in Brook Park they don't have to rewrite the t&c.