Beat me in St Louis - MLS 2023

[jefe]

And the Austin own-goal for the third goal for Violette needs to be seen to be believed.

[Exiled off Main Street]

Fall River Marskmen are still with us

[ursus arctos]

Though they weren't between 1931 and 2019 (see also Brookhattan)

This is the Austin own goal

https://twitter.com/foxsoccer/status/1633261022571266049?s=61&t=xvOireV8JOIS_CpbTtDBow

[jefe]

RSL will have a press conference on the 11th which is universally assumed to be the NWSL Utah Royals return.

Giannis and his brothers bought into Nashville FC.

The opening USOC rounds will be streamed by Barstool, ugh.

CBS is launching a free 24/7 soccer streaming network starting mid April.

USL Rhode Island's first coach and GM is going to be Khano Smith. And Michael Parkhurst is a co-owner.

[HeavyDracula]

The USL Championship kicks off on Saturday with the first 11 games, with another one on Sunday. For some reason, Colorado Springs Switchbacks are not playing New Mexico United in the opening round and instead will start their season next Thursday away at El Paso, with New Mexico beginning next Saturday at Miami.

The pick of the first round matches - all of which will be streamed live on the USL on YouTube channel - are probably Birmingham Legion vs Pittsburgh Riverhounds, San Diego Loyal vs Detroit City, and an absolute peach in Texas as San Antonio host Oakland Roots.

[HeavyDracula]

This week's MLS fixtures throw up some cool looking matches, including a clash of two unbeaten teams in Cincinnatti vs Seattle, free on Apple TV at 0.30am Saturday night/Sunday morning. Portland vs St Louis is also free, at 3.30am, and it'll be interesting to see if St Louis can keep up their momentum. The Guardian did a feature on them this week as a majority female-owned club. The other standout fixture is on Sunday as LAFC host New England with both hoping to maintain a 100% record.

The other free games on Apple TV this weekend are Charlotte vs Atlanta at 5pm, Nashville vs Montréal at 1.30am, Real Salt Lake vs Austin at 2.30am, and San Jose v Colorado at 3.30am (which I'd probably avoid, to be honest). Highlights will be on Apple TV and the MLS YouTube channel.

[jefe]

Jamie Vardy Rochester NY FC. Dead. Which leaves the Pittsburgh RIverhounds without a USOC opponent.

The USL Portland ME group is negotiating a stadium lease, still set for a 2024 start.

No fewer than 13 USL Championship teams have local TV deals, and the vast majority are over the air. Right now, the only one that could potentially be seen out of market is Orange County being back on Bally SoCal. Phoenix moved to a local provider, nothing about San Antonio. San Diego in particular are on Fox 5, who last week did a doubleheader of the NLL team and Sockers games.

Dane Kelly moved down a level, to Charlotte Independence.

[Hot Pepsi]

That sucks. The Rhinos were a very successful club. Changing the name didn’t help.

Obviously, something got fucked up with the stadium. Likewise, the MLL* (lacrosse) Rochester Rattlers moved to Dallas. If pro lacrosse can succeed anywhere, it should have been Rochester, which does have a viable NLL team

*MLL is kaput now because of COVID, stadium issues, and the PLL taking all their players.

[ursus arctos]

I assume that Flower City is still going. It never seemed viable for Rochester to support two clubs.

*Lax Hijack*

San Diego Seals played a pretty successful "outdoor box lacrosse" at the San Diego State gridiron stadium last weekend, which made me wonder if thatcwill become a thing more broadly.

[Hot Pepsi]

I assume that Flower City is still going. It never seemed viable for Rochester to support two clubs.

*Lax Hijack*

San Diego Seals played a pretty successful "outdoor box lacrosse" at the San Diego State gridiron stadium last weekend, which made me wonder if thatcwill become a thing more broadly.

The original plan was to build a temporary facility on the beach to get the scenery shots. I guess it proved untenable to build bleachers and what not.

[ursus arctos]

Ah, I didn't know that

I imagine that Torrey Pines and La Jolla said no.

Can one fit the field on an aircraft carrier?

[Hot Pepsi]

This is a few years old but provides context on the Rochester situation.

https://www.democratandchronicle.com...ojo/897804001/

[Hot Pepsi]

Ah, I didn't know that

I imagine that Torrey Pines and La Jolla said no.

Can one fit the field on an aircraft carrier?

I think that was one of the ideas too. I’m not sure if it would fit along with seats. I’m not sure of the details. I just heard the commentators discussing it on one of the broadcasts.

I think their main priority in these non traditional markets - which is most of them - is to just be more visible so people know they exist.

[ursus arctos]

Interesting piece.

It is a tough way to make money.

I note that in the intervening five years bother the Binghsmton AHL Team and the Harrisburg soccer team that were riding high have folded.

[Hot Pepsi]

City Islanders became Penn FC but couldn’t find a decent stadium. The one they had on City Island kept flooding and sharing with the Senators didn’t work.


Upstate New York seems to be a difficult place to try to maintain stable attendance.

Binghamton had the Senators but then the Ottawa Senators moved them closer to home. The Albany Devils, who weren’t drawing for some reason, moved to Binghamton but then couldn’t get along with the NJ Devils somehow so they moved to Utica to become the Comets after the previous Comets moved to Abbotsford to be near the Canucks.

Binghamton U is thinking about adding hockey. I wouldn’t bet in it.

[ursus arctos]

That AHL Franchise has also failed in Glens Falls..

It isn't a wealthy part of the state, and packs corporate support outside of Rochester and Syracuse.

[Hot Pepsi]

Adirondack were caught up in the Great Reshuffle a few years ago when NHL teams all tried to get their AHL team closer and to try to put ECHL teams in the smaller markets. So Glenn Falls has an ECHL team, the Thunder.

The AHL team that was there went to Stockton - essentially Adirondack and Stockton swapped teams. But the Flames now have their AHL team in Calgary.

All that movement is bad for building loyalty. But having teams in the same NHL market helps.

I think Utica spent money on their arena to attract a new AHL team.


I suspect Harrisburg could support a USL team if they had a stadium. Maybe somebody could put a team in Hershey. Call them the Pulisics.

But lots of small cities are trying to attract or keep whatever teams they can. And the lower the level, the more people there are who might be able to own a team.

[jefe]

HERCO already owned and folded the Hershey Wildcats, in the locker room after they lost the A-League final to Rochester year ago.

UA, Flower City merged with the Syracuse team. They'll play 9 in Rochester and 3 in Syracuse this season.

[HeavyDracula]

The viability of the Rochester club can't have been helped by being in a division full of reserve sides, surely?

[San Bernardhinault]

I don’t recall any of the stuff about San Diego Seals being at any of those weird locations. But they had been working hard on visibility before I left - there was a fair amount of stuff around town making sure we all knew when and where (Sports Arena as it was once called) games were. That said, I never heard any personal buzz about them - never heard of anyone going to games. So even with the visibility (and with almost no competition) I wasn’t sure it was going to work. I’m impressed they’ve lasted this long.

[ursus arctos]

They are averaging about 7500 a game, which is median for the league and a leader among "non-traditional markets"

[ursus arctos]

The viability of the Rochester club can't have been helped by being in a division full of reserve sides, surely?

It certainly can't have helped

Having a single independent club in a nationwide league ofc reserve teqms never made much sense

The successful minor league clubs in Rochester clubs have built upon strong rivalries with other Upstate New York clubs (the baseball rivalry with Syracuse and Buffalo is more than a century old). They never really had that for soccer.

[Hot Pepsi]

HERCO already owned and folded the Hershey Wildcats, in the locker room after they lost the A-League final to Rochester year ago.

UA, Flower City merged with the Syracuse team. They'll play 9 in Rochester and 3 in Syracuse this season.

I’d forgotten about the Wildcats.

[Hot Pepsi]

I don’t recall any of the stuff about San Diego Seals being at any of those weird locations. But they had been working hard on visibility before I left - there was a fair amount of stuff around town making sure we all knew when and where (Sports Arena as it was once called) games were. That said, I never heard any personal buzz about them - never heard of anyone going to games. So even with the visibility (and with almost no competition) I wasn’t sure it was going to work. I’m impressed they’ve lasted this long.

NLL is like indoor soccer. It never dies and yet it never seems to break through, even though it has the best players.

At one point, Toronto we’re getting close to 17k, but for some reason they couldn’t keep that going and have since moved back to Hamilton where they can get a better arena deal (but kept the Toronto Rock name for some reason).

The PLL touring circus set-up might work better.

Being on ESPN+ should help, but it’s not really a good sport for TV, especially for people who have never seen it before.

On this continent, at least, we’re just in Peak Sports. So Manu different sports all trying to grow and get into the Olympics at a time when there are so many other entertainment options on TV and kids are being pushed to just pick one sport.

I suspect that all of these minor sports are chipping away at the ratings numbers for the established sports, even the NFL.

But the popularity of the big sports, in any given country, has a lot of inertia because the main reason a lot of people go to games is for the atmosphere of the big crowd.

[ursus arctos]

I enjoy watching NLL, but then I first watched box lacrosse from the Onondaga Reservation more than 50 years ago, and have played outdoor, so have no problem following the ball or play.