In Today's Star Telegram there is an interview with GE. Sports Sec. pg 2D Some of the topics covered are... What went wrong with this season CC coaching status Areas needing addressed JK9's future Frisco opening
When is the stadium expected to be ready? "We're looking in the month of May 2005. Whether that's May 1 or May 15 is yet to be determined." Rain of Noah's Arc proportion !
May 15th?? Wow, that would be 6 weeks into the season before the home opener. I was expecting around 3-4 weeks......and the rain just keeps on falling.
More Greg Elliot answering tough questions on www.3rddegree.net He answers some of the challenges that Viking threw down in his end of the season online rant. Good stuff.....nice to see the GM take the time to respond. I give him credit for that.
Come on fella. Its not the end of the world. LA and Columbus dealt with same thing. We will play the same number of home games.
I'm just thinking how the last thing we need, as a team desperate for a turn around, is to start the season on a 6 game road trip. We had a good road record early this season, so maybe there isn't much to worry about, but I'd hate to start the season 1-3-2 or something like that.
On the other hand, if they went 2-2-2 (1.33 points/game) I think everyone could live with that knowing that 16 of the last 26 games would be at home. Given the weak finish at the end of the 2004 season a back loaded schedule could be very helpful. BTW, if the Burn had averaged 1.33 pts per match they would have ended up with 40 and cruised into the playoffs.
I undertand what you're saying. But we had the 9th worst record at home in the league this season. Course - we weren't that much better on the road either - 7th worst. Either way I am not too worried about it. I think any disadvantages in the beginning will be made up for at the end. Like terp said. I wish I could get into 3rd Degree's site.
Alright then, maybe I'm just pissed because I have that much longer to wait until the next home game!!!
To the guys worried about a 6 game road trip to start the season....would you prefer a normal schedule and play your first 2 home games in the Cotton Bowl?
That might be nice . . . but I think 16 home games in the new stadium would be better. But I think this is a moot point, because two games in the cotton bowl= the same lame duck attendance we had this year, not to mention cash straight out the window in rental fees. If it costs HSG 100 grand (rental fees plus lower attendance-theoretically) to play two matches at the cotton bowl and avoid a road swing to start the season, there's no way they'd go for it. If I spent 10 million plus overages on a stadium, I could wait a couple months to get it started.
And Columbus was just fine in 1999. So its a 50/50 proposition at best. I think it comes more down to the quality of the team than anything else - and last years LA team wasn't that good. And yeah - they still made the playoffs.
The CB scenario just wont happen. No way FC Dallas throws away revenue by having 2 or 3 games at the CB. They would play the first 15 away and the second 15 at home before that would happen.
only because we sucked so bad. If we were half as good as we were in 2002 they would have had the long off season.
Well Burn faithful, more sad and bad news for Dallas. The Burn's best franchise player for all 9 years of the club's existence will no longer be wearing the red and black. Rumor has it "coach" Clarke and his staff met with the players for post-season evaluations, including designation of the players that will and will not be protected in the expansion draft. Coach Clarke, needing some scapegoats for his own obvious inability to actually coach a consistently winning team decided to blame many of the players for their losing season. Interesting thought...a coach putting ALL the blame on his players. I suggest to you that is an important bit of insight that will ultimately result in Clarke's mid-year departure next season as the coach. He had over a year to put his mark on the team as the head coach, with additional time before that as the assistant. While he did manage to win 4 more games this year, he still went "worst to worst." Sorry to say, FC will not be a legitimate contender for the MLS title until they get a qualified coach.
This rumor has been running around for a few weeks now. There were meetings between staff and players. No one has stated for the record what was talked about in those meetings. If Kreis is exposed, which I think he will be, that doesn't mean he won't be back. Take it as you will, but both Clarke and Elliott have not closed the door on Kreis. When asked they still say that Kreis may be back. The problem is that no one at FCD is looking for Kreis to start next year. Kreis wants to start and has stated he will go elsewhere if given a chance to start.
That's all very nice, but "the Burn's best franchise player" scored his final goal of the 2004 season on July 28, against Columbus, three days before the All-Star Game. He scored nothing in the 12 league matches that followed, save for two assists in the final game of the season. The 2004 Dallas Burn stunk in large part because they couldn't score goals, and Jason Kreis was a large part of that. Poor service from the midfield was a problem, but that service was good enough for Eddie Johnson to tally 12 goals this season, including six goals in that final 12-game stretch where Kreis was MIA from the scorer's sheet. Anyone who reads my posts here knows that I don't think very much of the Colin Clarke era thus far, but I would think even less of Clarke if he didn't look at Kreis' performance in 2004 and view him as expendable. It's not scapegoating, it's reality.