Dammit, Eddie Gaven didn't have his career cut short so we can play in some namby-pamby made up bullshit competition. Without the USOC, we would not have had Hell is Real when we did. But it looks like we are playing in both, per the Leagues' Cup announcement on Dec 16th. This league has gotten so full of itself, it has ceased to try to participate in the ecosphere that it occupies. It has seriously tried to overvalue itself because of Messi, and the minute he is gone, there will be a great sucking vacuum sound. His name recognition is unparalleled by anyone not playing in a sand league. And they will have priced their tickets so high that they will find their stadiums emptying. Hang on, so we are now Scott's Miracle-Gro Field? Sub-MachineGun Field.
Bridgeview was fine. It wasn't necessary to move them because their attendance didn't improve significantly and they were then playing in a cavern. So it looks more like it is a "nobody likes this team" problem more than a location problem.
Dave Greeley was the problem there. If someone was motivated enough, they could probably find criticism of the announcement of Dave's hiring by Tony Queso. (Remember, he was never a Crew FO employee, but a direct employee of PSV.) Here's the beginning of that mess: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/h...-sports-ventures.1991506/page-5#post-28347908 https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/m...yed-this-entire-season.2001748/#post-29721398
That makes sense and I like it. One thing I dislike about the new International League (AAA baseball) is that the Clippers almost never play some teams. I think the Iron Pigs (Phillies) have only been here once since Covid and I don't think they will be here next season. That's true of a lot of the Clippers traditional opponents from the old IL, especially those in the East. Mind you, I like the 6 game series idea as it cuts down on travel costs.
IDK why I'm posting about Dave Greeley, but you said the name and I need a distraction. I was close to Peter Wilt around the time Greeley was hired and when he heard news of the Crew/PSV hiring Greeley, all he said was, "you're fu-cked". I often think that neither of us knew how true that was/would become in the moment. Since we're talking about schedules, I'll just say I actually like this "midwest" division of us, FCC, Chicago, Minnesota, St. Louis, and SKC. Those are all really nice stadiums to see a game (as long as it's not February in Minnesota) and about as travel friendly for a visiting fan as you could ask for (even more so if you live in Indianapolis).
My only qualm is that away games will be an hour later. That's one reason the Blue Jackets eventually were moved from the Western Conference of the NHL to the Eastern (though games on the coast were more of an issue).
Last night's broadcast didn't get done until after 1am. I am a little surprised FanDuel Sports Ohio didn't join the game in progess to synch up with FanDuel Sports Cincinnati. I was expecting my guide to be wrong on that one. They showed filler material from the end of the Cavs broadcast and FD Cincinnati synched back up in the overnight hours.
There are going to be more of the later starts, unless there are more day games scheduled. As currently there are only 3 road matches versus the Western Conference. Now we will have 12 of our road matches against half of the 24 teams not in our division. Mixture of East and West. (And Queso FC will be here in either the 2027-28 or 2028-29 season).
They are gonna push it as far back as possible. 2028 would be fine anyway, 10 year anniversary of the Crew being saved. 2027 is 10 years since the story came to light. Also, who would be surprised if home-away didn't alternate every year like we all assume and we just always play in Austin lol. If league HQ had any common sense, they'd make a big deal about it and actually promote it, Austin finally coming here for the first time, the PASSION OF MLS FANS to save their team in Cbus, etc. Of course, they won't, because they don't have common sense.
If they do make Columbus-Austin permanently an Austin home game, there will come a point in the 30s (after about five or six straight Austin home games) where they'll have to publicly admit that they're doing it.
They just need to yank the bandaid off and do it. The second or third time, many folks will not care as much.
I had a dream recently where I ran into Dave Greeley in a professional setting. I ended up kicking his ass in front of his coworkers. Hey it’s my dream and yes those wounds still hurt.
Sadly, a decent chunk of or fans may be newer and don't recall how we (almost) got shafted. It will be at least 9 years before we play them since it all ended. 10 since the proposed move was first announced. Some passions cool over that length of time.
Agreed as long as he is around it’s a huge issue , ppl hate him much more than actually hating Austin FC. That said we will still mostly hate Austin and it’s well deserved and unlikely to go away even if he is out of the picture.
Tell the story to everyone you know. Some will forget or not know about it. Some will never forget, and we will be ready when the day arrives.
I can think of a few people who were regulars at games the last decade who haven't been at all since March 2020. There's a few others who I think still follow, although they live far away and it's hard/impossible for them to come. These people know because they lived it, even though they couldn't really care today. Then there's the guy from a long time ago (20+ years maybe) who became a TFC fan even though a well-known Crew fan did some stuff to get this guy's group to come to games. But we'll tell the newer fans. As an example, the spirit of Woody Hayes lives on, even though he died long before the current students were born.
I seriously don't understand why MLS hasn't gone out of their way to make this match happen sooner, as opposed to going out of their way to delay it. This isn't Argentina. There aren't going to be riots in the stands. We aren't going to be shooting flares at the opposing bench. What it WILL be is a frenzied, energized crowd that will feed tensions on the field and make it an amazing spectacle. It will have stories that write themselves. It's the kind of circumstance they usually embrace when it's the L.A. teams or Seattle/Portland, or for that matter, Hell Is Real. I really don't get it.
Probably two reasons for this; Dong Garble and Anthony Prec*nt. They know that they will be the villains again, and they don't like it. All of the bad press that will be associated with them during the build-up to the match....and the deafening boos and jeers during the entire match will be noticed. MLS and Prec*nt looked really bad during the #SaveTheCrew era, they would like everyone to forget about it, thus no AFC match in Columbus.
MLS hates any negative publicity, even when it can be easily spun to create positive publicity and disproportionately huge hype for what would be a game between two smaller market teams, undoubtedly on a Wednesday night. If you were MLS, wouldn't you be scared of the ravenous national and local media outlets that report on the league 24/7/365?