"Tower to Crew Cat: Release Wrecking Ball" https://scontent-ord5-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...Y_DbSINJvgsacZ43-G2DEff6WCH0f1RPQ&oe=675FCCE4
Per CommonMan and TBone and the OSU reddit, there was a Sponsor23 situation with the Ohio State playoff tickets. The presale code was OSUFB. But it sounds like you still had to have an account with them to buy them.
I have OSU football season tickets. That code was sent to me on Monday, for a Wednesday 10 am "before the public can buy" presale. Checked the site at Wednesday around 11:30 and nothing was available at face value. Between the code being well-known beforehand, unhappiness from the Michigan game and this being the biggest Vols game since Peyton Manning was there 20+ years ago ... I expect 40-50% of the crowd to be in orange. The OSU AD this morning requesting that fans not sell their tickets is ... a bad look. Shows they did not have a plan for this possibility. And way too late.
Bjorks interview this morning was just bad. And now there will be a pregame drone show. Osu keeps trying to make their gameday experience more like the crew, while the crew keep trying to make themselves more like OSU. All the behind the scenes stuff I'm hearing at OSU and having attending the graduation last May, I think the university is in a rough spot all of its own doing.
There is zero percent chance half the crowd in Ohio Stadium is orange for a playoff game. I think thats a huge overreaction. I remember much the same being said last December with the Ticketmaster snafu prior to MLS Cup. "Oh Don Garber is going to get his wish, and most of the crowd will be LAFC fans." These things suck in the moment for sure, but for the most part tend to be ironed out and corrected over time.
Part of the "professionalization" of the OSU (including) basketball game day experience might be because of their partnership with Learfield. They've really made basketball games feel like an NBA game with the canned music, especially during pregame intros. The announcer does the typical "let me hear you" stuff WHILE they're blaring canned music. Facepalm and roll eyes all at once.
It's horrible to hear the blaring music at both LDC of The Shoe. Part of what used to make college football special was the pageantry you only got at college events, like the band. That's gone. I was a Buckeye football STM for 20 years, ending about 10 years ago. I now go to a game or two a year and I was disappointed that during a timeout I could only hear the stadium sound system and not TBDBITL.
To each their own opinion. Equating LAFC fans flying across the country to win another trophy vs. rabid SEC fans driving 7-8 hours to see their school's biggest game in 20 years ... feels like an overreaction to me. At MLS Cup ... the LAFC fans were all stowed away in the upper deck at the South end. There will be orange throughout the stadium a week from Saturday, which will be much more noticeable, whatever the percentage. The callout is that OSU had an opportunity to prevent what happened at MLS Cup 23 ... and chose not to do so. All I had to have was a Ticketmaster account and the presale code OSUFB to get early access Wednesday ... not specifically my OSU linked account. Why wouldn't Tennessee fans flood the site, with plenty of OSU STHs already flipping their tickets?
My brother has told me that he will no longer go to Beaver Stadium for those exact reasons after his experience at the UCLA game this season (I have not been in a few years). I regularly note this issue with loudness when I get my Crew feedback form after a game, and it's not a lot different at Blue Jackets games. Mrs KG likes to take her noise reducing headphones to games.
For what it's worth, the Board has been advocating for the team to provide earplugs - either for free or for sale - for a couple of months.
Sure, but that's for the general public. He's talking about the Nordecke crowd, which feel that things should be delivered to them by strippers doing lap dances. They're special you know. I hope you're not suggesting that they leave their seats and go get something in the SW corner where they might encounter "ordinary" unwashed, less worthy fans. They might get cooties.
I can say with certainty that nobody I have ever brought to a Crew match and sat in Nordecke using my tickets have felt any of the above.
I've been thinking somewhat about what this proposed "Switch To A Winter Schedule" could mean for MLS Next Pro. As I've hinted before, could there be a future in which Crew tickets get so expensive that part of the fan base, such as youth teams and families get priced out and priced into Crew 2? The short version is that the Crew FO would be foolish to charge 2024 prices in 2026 and just as foolish to charge 2025 prices in 2030. But if MLS *does* switch, MLS Next Pro has two options: 1) Switch with MLS which would probably make a lot of sense for the player/competitive factors. 2) Stay on a summer schedule which would obviously be better for the fans...and if MLS/Crew prices continue to go up, what might that mean for MLS NP? (Someone wanting to buy 30 Crew tickets in 2029 for their youth soccer team OR wanting to buy 30 Crew 2 tickets...the cost difference is a world apart now. Just imagine several years down the road.) Short version: Ticket prices are going up. MLS might be moving to a winter schedule. The effects of these two things on MLS NP? Crazily enough, it wasn't THAT long ago when the Crew FO actually lowered ticket prices in some sections at LDC. Those days are history.
Generally, Bill's right and the Nordecke want strippers doing lap dances. But in this case we didn't know that there are auditory kits available and so when they told us, we changed our ask from providing kits to making the kits more readily available (at more locations in the stadium) and simply increasing awareness of their availability.
With the league hitting 30(!) teams, I've been thinking about realignment and scheduling and whatnot. I came across this dude's setup that I kinda love: For those that can't see/read the image, here's how the divisions are sorted: Midwest - Columbus, Minnesota, SKC, STL, Cincy, Chicago Northeast - Montreal, New England, NYRB, NYC, Philly, Toronto Southeast - Nashville, DC, Miami, Orlando, Charlotte, Atlanta Northwest - Colorado, Salt Lake, SJ, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver Southwest - LAG, LAFC, San Diego, Dallas, Houston, Austin As for the league format: Play each team in your division twice, then every other team once for 34 games (helps balance the Supporters' Shield/make it more representative and fair-er-er). Top two teams in each division go to playoffs, as well as the two best third-place teams, for a total of 12 playoff teams. In the playoffs: Teams reseeded into three groups of four teams: 1st seeded team gets 3 home playoff games in group 2nd seeded team gets 2 home playoff games in group 3rd seeded team gets 1 home playoff game in group Group winners and best second-place teams move on to semifinals/knockout phase MLS Cup winner would play 39 games between regular season and playoffs. Teams get rewarded for strong regular season by hosting more playoff games. Consolidates playoffs so they don't take 10 months to finish and adds a World Cup-flavor. It makes too much sense, so it won't happen.
The regions was something I put together about a year ago that this bullshit plagiarist online contributor seems to have stolen taken more mainstream. The group play format is new. I'll take it (or two-leg aggregates, or really any other format) over the 3-game first round series format they use now.
Merry, Merry! https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDdF7v7qWfM/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link If we switch the schedule, I want Nordecke on this stat.
Did anyone else notice that Ben Gelber did NOT do the weather this Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? That's gotta be some sort of streak he had going. It was some sort of inside joke...he ALWAYS did the weather forecasts for those newscasts.
Sidenote: The last song has "oh come let us adore them" which is a UK-English thing. I don't follow the BBC, Sky or any UK media and it looks weird to see teams named in the singular as the US does it. "The Columbus Crew had its home opener today..." "Manchester City won today. Their next game is..."
He is Jewish, which is one possible reason why. But I think Hanukah started on Christmas this year. He also might be getting ready to retire, as he is my age--we were both Class of '78 in college. We didn't know each other there (though he's done events for our alumni club over the years) but we did date the same gal at different times (no, not Mrs KG).