That is a truly terrible schedule. Of our 6 bad weather early home matches, exactly 1 is vs a warm weather team. We finish the season series with some EC teams before we play others. Our first match with FCC is 2 months after we wrap up play with Orlando. The lack of TV appearances shows the regard the team is held in by league HQ but I would have thought Bez or Dee could have avoided nonsense like midweek matches in April.
Month # of home games # of away games march 2 2 april 4 1 may 2 4 june 3 1 july 2 3 august 2 4 september 2 1 october 0 1 day # of games Sunday 5 Saturday 24 Wednesday 5 Time # of games 1230pm 1 100 pm 1 200 pm 2 400 pm 1 430pm 1 500 pm 1 600 pm 2 700 pm 3 730 pm 15 800 pm 2 830 pm 2 1000 pm 1 1030pm 1 TBD 1
Well, they compressed the schedule to avoid playoffs during the later year FIFA weeks. DC and Montreal both open in February. Revs schedule in March/April is not far off ours. The holes for the State Fair and QHC do impact our schedule still. Mind you, I don't think Columbus is held in high regard either--but it's also not all MLS' fault.
As @POdinCowtown said, it's not that we expected any favors from MLS HQ, it's that we expected new ownership to be more effective and demanding advocates for us with MLS HQ than was PSV. This schedule shows we're as toothless when it comes to scheduling and TV appearances as we were under PSV. I mean, last year, we could tell ourselves that it was all PSV's fault; that the league didn't even know if we'd exist when they made the schedule, and so on. There are no such excuses this year. It's a little shocking, actually.
If MLS is going to make northern teams play home matches early in the year, the least they could do is give them some warm weather opponents to freeze out. We get Orlando in April and that's it for warm weather opponents during our usual bad weather period. It's ridiculous to play a midweek match in April. It could be done in June or July easily enough.
Choose your own reply: Option 1: Is life supposed to be fair? Option 2: Do people still believe in the boogeyman?
Considering the leagues new compressed scheduling (for everyone). This looks fair enough considering we have a few other scheduling constraints while still at fairgrounds. I'm not going to complain. Glad we still have a team. Stoked we will have new stadium. That damn construction cam is addicting as hell - if you're angry about the schedule try watching for a few minutes, you'll calm the F down.
I understand that some clubs that are involved in things like CONCACAF champions league play may have some wacky early season schedules. That said, I just compared the number of Home and Away matches we have in Feb/March and April with a bunch of warm-weather clubs. Club H-A Crew 6-3 ORL 5-4 MIA 5-4 DAL 3-5 HOU 5-3 LAFC 4-4 LAG 4-5 SJ 5-5 ATL 3-4 FWIW, Chicago's numbers are 4-4, with their first three matches on the road. FCC is also 4-4, with their first two games on the road. DC is 5-4 PHL is 5-5 Colorado is 4-5 NE is 5-4 Minn is 5-5 Nash is 5-3 NYC is 4-4 NYRB is 3-6 RSL is 4-5 Look, maybe some other miserable club is as screwed over with its schedule. But every effing warmer (or indoor) weather club I looked at has fewer home games than us in the coldest months of the season. And we have more early season home games, period, than anyone I've looked at so far. It's bullshit.
Except that we have 6-7 weeks during the warmer parts of the season that we can't play at home. Those games have to go somewhere. And I'm not fond of the March games--Mrs KG usually can't go due to her asthma.
Nee is from the Knights who say Nee in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. We took a vow not to speak his name.
Yes, but only two in March and two of the four in April are late in the month. I can live with that. I can't live we the fact that three of the home games conflict with my Broadway in Columbus schedule. It would have been nice to have away games for those.
So I’ll ask just exactly how many games do we play away in warm months due to our scheduling constraints ? It seems that NYRB have the best schedule and we have the worst as far as weather goes
Actually we don't have anything near 6-7 weeks blacked out. The season ends on October 4 so most of the horse show is during the playoffs. The state fair is 12 days. We go on a 3 game road trip but could have played at home on August 12 but play on the road that Wednesday then are at home on the 15th.
I didn't mean to imply that. I'll try again. 1- MLS is a minor league in America with respect to other leagues and some colleges. A sales/marketing type views MLS as a springboard to other, better paying jobs. 2- MLS teams that are owned by other major league owners will see the talented employee and move them to the more profitable side. Example: a great Revs ticket seller will quickly become a Pats ticket seller. 3- MLS is unique that all teams are not treated equal from HQ. Big name players are generally reserved for certain teams who happen to be on TV a lot. Columbus is not one of those teams. Summary- When wondering why MLS lacks in marketing or quality ticket employees, it is because MLS is small time in the US sports land scape and Columbus is small time in the world of MLS. I don't think that MLS will pull a successful sales rep from Columbus and move them to LAFC. I do believe successful sales reps are in demand and will leave MLS for a better payday elsewhere. Hope that's more clear.
No but this is supposed to a sports league and not one of Dad's character building exercises. MLS prides itself on parity then shits on its own markets. The empty seats across the league and TV ratings agree with me. Absolutely. Some people call it Donald Trump, some call it Barak Obama. Some fans think Garber fits the bill, others call it Berhalter brothers. There's plenty of boogeymen in the world today. Don't ever ask me about Art Modell.
In the past it was--and it's still a fair bit, as hosting Crew games right before or right after is problematic as vendors for those events like to set up early or come in early and don't always leave right away--i.e. messed up parking. Mind you, I used to enjoy Crew games during the Fair, as the parking was cheaper and I would spend a few hours at the fair first. But they stopped that a while ago. That's not all of it of course. But it's an important part of the scheduling issues. It's not all on MLS--and that's my point. Mind you, I'm a bit puzzled why they don't take greater advantage of the warmer markets in March....
Au contraire, mon frere! It turns out I had the historically background fully correct, and my guess that Nee was tied to some awful British comedy like Monty Pythin was correct. Looks like hangclaus left the gift of knowledge in your stocking. One love.
As usual, I don’t get all the hand-wringing. I thought when you had more home games to start the season, it was a good thing because it gave you an opportunity to win more. I like this schedule because it doesn’t keep us at home or on the road for any extended length of time all year. We have one three-game road trip, in July, in eleven days, all against Eastern time zone clubs. Apart from that, there are no road stretches or homestands longer than two matches.
I don't see your logic here. Home games, whenever they are scheduled, should provide a better opportunity to win. If we had a track record as a club that always started fast, then sure. But I don't think that's been our consistent history. The criticism has really been about weather and attendance, right?