News: The New Normal - 2025-2026 Offseason Thread

Am I mistaken? I believe that we have been last or nearly last to announce our end of year roster updates at least since this ownership group took contorl.

 

They announced *really* early last year. Like, late October early.

 

I don't see any competitive reason to announce on any other day than the last, so I'm not mad. But I do seem to recall that in previous years, DC was one of the first teams to release their list.

 

It depends on how long it takes them to train the intern who compiles the list.

 

Perhaps the delay is negotiating Benteke down to TAM level.

 

I'm sure those discussions are occurring. If, and that's a bigly if, Benteke wants to stay, will he accept a TAM level deal to play for a team that its DSO/author/wannabe Harvard professor thinks will take 3 windows to be competitive consistently? At 35, Benteke could take a retirement payday in Saudi that likely would exceed anything DCU would offer. With my DSO hat on, I would not exercise Benteke's option and have the freedom to find 3 DPs to fill the many holes on this squad.

 

I struggle with the Benteke/TAM conundrum.

On one hand, if he’s healthy and you hit on the DPs you bring in, you’ve got a non-DP as a top 5 scorer in the league. On the other hand, there are severe stylistic/tactical parameters that are defined by having Benteke on the field at this point in his career, and there’s no guarantee of health.

 

Part of why it's going to take so many windows to be competitive is contract issues, as all the TAM players are signed through 26 or 27, and when the end of season moves are announced, all the U-22 slots will be filled, too. That doesn't leave a ton of wiggle room for big impact signings beyond the DPs until other players are moved out.

 

They need to use both buyouts to accelerate the process. Anything less is satisfaction with the status quo, which for us is dead last.

 

I agree. Might also be part of what's holding things up - are they trying to plant the foundation for selling some of the guys who might still have value vs. just letting them go?

Also, in hindsight after 2025, I wonder if part of why Lesesne's 2024 team overperformed was because of having the veteran presence (stats notwithstanding) of Dajome/Rodriguez/Pedro Santos/Klich around and on the field. The 2025 team was really lacking that veteran presence beyond Benteke. The fact that *all* of them were gone in 2025 didn't help things here.

 

I would agree that the veteran players masked the ineptitude of Lesesne as a manager. Left to their own devices, they could figure it out almost to making the playoffs. Their replacements were utterly unable to figure anything out on their own and Lesesne wasn't able to fix anything. I hate to credit RBNY, but their decision to pass on Lesesne after he got them into the playoffs indicates they realized he wasn't up to MLS standard.

 

Avid readers of this forum will recall that I've long dreamed of a Cristian Espinoza -> Christian Benteke partnership. Espinoza delivers more and better crosses than anybody in the league. Well, Sad Jose (accidentally?) missed the deadline on his contract expiration and he's a free agent who wants to stay in MLS.

 

A DP who already is familiar with MLS? Yes please.

 

Unfortunately, our new director of player personnel and our new coach have but modest knowledge of MLS, MLS players and recent MLS history. Which means that it ain’t going to happen.

 

One can still hope.

 

It's the hope that kills you.

 

you are in the wrong thread: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/the-optimism-thread.2131421/

 

Season Pass is going away, and the matches will be free to anyone with Apple TV.

https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/46954801/mls-apple-tv-scrapping-season-pass-26-season-sources

 

Smart move. But at the same time, another blow for season ticket renewal.

 

I'm sure season ticket renewals will be fine once we move to a winter schedule . Everybody loves a February night at the stadium.

 

Instead of hot dogs sold promotions, it'll be hot chocolate.

 

We already get those with the current schedule.

 

new STH perk - heated seats!

 

DC United has had games in February each of the last 4 years. The average attendance for those matches is 17,420.

The horse is looking pretty dead.

 

First, it will be earlier in February and it will be 2 home games and probably 2 away games. Probably looking at some December fixtures too. Most of the European leagues that take a break are only off for right around 3 weeks.

The Danes are off from early December to mid February. The rest of the more northerly Scandinavian teams play spring into the fall like MLS does now. The Scottish PL plays straight through and Ross County is the most northerly team this year and has Jan/Feb temps similar to DC. Montreal, Toronto, NY, Boston, Columbus, Cincy, Chicago, KC, St Louis, Minneapolis, Denver, SLC … are more like Copenhagen which is a good 10-12° difference highs and lows compared to DC. My interest in freezing my ass off to watch us make an annual run at the wooden spoon is nil. MLS will undoubtedly run into cold like the Honduras game in 2022 at some point or another.

How long till do you think that lasts? They had duct tape on club seats and the benches last year. The cup holder on my seat was broken at the first Defenders game in 2020 and was never replaced, they just capped the arm rest.