From what I read here the Revs/Fire will be playing on Sunday April 30th. I am guessing it will be a 4 or 5 pm start. http://special.patriots.com/Offers/index.cfm?UUID=RevsSponsoredCareerFairIndividual97
Is this the Revs home-opener? If it is we start with 4 (or more pending on weekday sched) away games or maybe a bye in there somewhere.
I would think not. April 1 we are away to El-Lay, and then away to Muttville on the 8th. I am guessing that Saturday the 15th would be our home opener. I hope we don't have a bye on the 23rd, but you never know about these things. If we do, that would mean the game we could have/would have played then would be pushed back to some Wednesday night in August when we could have players missing due to injuries or yellow cards. Tom EDIT: Well, I stand corrected. I just read the item on SNE and how this is in fact the Revs opener. This is insane. Given that they are unlikely to play 4 weeks on the road to start the season, that would mean a week off right when they are trying to jell (drink!) in the early season. Please think of this in August, and when all the "we can't take the Open Cup seriously" folks trot out the "fixture congestion" excuse. I wonder why they can't play at home on either the 15th or 23rd? Do the Pats have an intra-squad scrimmage scheduled and they need the stadium? Or how about an NFL draft party.
If your ticket rep is Michael Green, you just got an email saying he's leaving to go back to school, and that April 30th is the home opener. I bet they take the weekend of the 15th off for Easter, as they did last year.
There have been a couple of times that the draft party that the Pats host has been taking place when we get to the stadium to tailgate for the Revs game. This weekend is the weekend of the NFL draft by the way.
Sorry to whine. A month away, (ok, probably 3 matches, plus an off week), at any time during the season, is unacceptable. Period. WTF?
well i suppose that means theyll have a nice home stand sometime :| that is a bit ridiculous though. not only do we miss out on the ccc, we miss out on regular season mls at home till the end of april
At least we will have a good chance of having a reasonable quality grass field to play on by 30 April. As we all may remember the field was a mess last spring after the Patriots season. I wonder if this is another case where Coach Nicol does not want to risk player injury on the early spring field before it's had time to rejuvinate itself from the Patriot season. It's hard for me to think this road schedule is something forced on the Revs by the League. My guess is that Nicol somehow feels this served a usefull purpose for the team. My guess it's about field conditions.
Unfortunately, we are pretty likely to have a bye week. I'd rather just play the road games every week, because as you say, just when teams are trying to establish a "rhythm" [avoiding that word!], the last thing they want or need is a week off. But the answer to why no home games is most likely because they don't think they can get decent attendance in April (and I'd agree). Saving that home game for sometime during the summer is likely to be a net gain of several thousand (or more) tickets, not insignificant $$$. The Revs should be telling MLS: put us on the road for April, but don't give us any empty weeks in the spring. A couple of seasons ago, starting out with 4 away games would mean a big hole to climb out of and a significant impact for the season. Now I think they are established enough to, not only do well with a string of road games, but handle it well enough even if they don't get as many points as they would like.
Yeah ... I think the FCD fans were thinking the same thing ... Hey, I give 'em credit ... at least they're being consistent about not wanting to play in the cold weather here. Now the absolute fun part will be to see all the people here (like Doc) who are okay with this decision (especially if it wasn't MLS' decision) try and figure out why it's okay to play a home game in late March? Not that we'll actually have that chance anyway.
I'm asking a serious question. The sides have been drawn on the first round of the CCC. Your side believes it's fine not to play here, and you've used the field, the cold, the possible injury issue as an excuse. Fine. Now you're also stating that it's okay that we don't play a home game until essentially May. Still stating the field as an excuse. So ... would you be okay if we played a home game right in the middle of this stretch? I would assume not.
If we need "sides" (I'm with the People's Front of Judea, not the Judean People's Front ), I'm OK with Bermuda but not at all happy with a month on the road to start the season. I worry that the team that went 0 and 4 a couple of years ago could have done a lot better with a bit of home cooking in April. The team that started off so well last year might not have had such a good start if they had to look into May before getting a home date. While I don't expect the pitch to be great in April, it won't be rock hard like it would be in February. Last year's team opened the season with some very attractive soccer despite the remnants of the Pats season showing through the middle of the field. Monty can comment on how the field looked Saturday night, but on TV it seemed better than last year's season end.
Actually, Monty raises a good point here, even if the manner in which he makes it is certainly meant to provoke . If the Revolution are somehow able to win, and get past their Quarterfinal series with LDA, the odds are pretty good that they'd face a Mexican club in the Semi-Finals, perhaps Club America or CD Toluca. Now, with the Semi-finals taking place on March 22nd and 29th... just a couple of weeks after their match in Bermuda, where would the Revolution then play their "home" tie? Would it be in New England, Mexico, or some point in between? Considering that the Revolution home opener is scheduled for April 30th, seemingly due to concerns about the weather and field conditions, and that the Revolution were unable & unwilling to play "at home" just a few weeks prior to the Semi-finals, wouldn't it be odd if they did decide to play at home? So as I said, Monty raises a good point here, because if the Revolution were to advance, play a Mexican club, and decide to play the game in New England someplace, the club could come across as being just a bit hypocritical. The Magpie
Agreed. And most likely that will be only home game, so that'll be one less game's worth of damage on that field as compared to last year. For whatever that's worth.
Correct me if I am wrong but isn't the second game of the Revs season in NJ? April 8thish in NJ won't be much better than the weather here, so is weather really a factor for the MLS games? Could just be the way the schedule falls. Although, I do recall the only home game in April last season was a chilly but nice night - it was the games in the month of May that were dreadful.
Very possibly. My comments were based on those that thought that the Revs might have requested not having a home game for a while. And actually our coldest and worst weather day that I experienced last year was the April game. The May games weren't too bad, but the Chivas game (April 30th coincidentally) was awful. The Columbus game (April 9th, home opener), I think wasn't too bad.
Since we are on the subject of New England weather, and I have tendency to be a bit negative about it - I would like to point out what a beautiful winter January day it is... Sorry for the interuption - on with the soccer talk.
Re where to hold our late march home leg if we get to the 2nd round of the CCC--really tough call. Where are they scheduled to be located at that point (when do they finish up in CR)? If they got good support from the Khano Bregade might they go back to Bermuda? My guess they would play the match in the US but that Foxboro would still be considered unplayable. Late March is still a bitch re field conditions.
Same here. I'd really like to know for certain if this is the Revs' doing, or if it's at the league's behest. I would also be quite cross if it's discovered the flipside of this is an extended homestand in June.
While I would honestly be about ready to return my season tickets, at least you're being consistent. But I can almost guarantee that this game will be at home. And yes, money will be the reason. A) I hope it's not the Revs asking for this. B) I also would be ticked to have an extended homestand in mid June (World Cup) or even July/August. I think one thing the Revs should have learned by now is that when they have overcrowded their summer schedule, it has hurt attendance. It seems like that last few years, between US games, Revs games, etc, they have over done it at Foxboro, and people just can't make it out to that many games in a two week/one month span.
I think just to be on the safe side, we should forfeit all of our matches up to and including Memorial Day weekend! After all the boys need a good holiday Maybe we can reschedule some games to the first few weeks of June...Let's pack all the games in there...I'm sure the weather will be nice and the field in perfect condition This is just MLS reminding everyone that it is a joke of a league....Well done!