2021 Schedule Thread

Of the 17 MLS Regular Season matches in 2021, how many will be played at Yankee Stadium?


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I agree, the thing that is going to drive me insane, is when they build a stadium they will just allow fans to buy Founding Members status but just under a different name. It will be cheaper than what I have spent on tickets to keep my founding member status. That’s because this FO is bullshit with their shell games they play with their fans.

Founding Member. Founding Stadium Member.

Even with a stadium, we're still going to be second to the Yankees in terms of TV scheduling, even if the Yankees are on the road because of YES Network.
 
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It really does suck to have that many games at RBA. It's understandable why they did it. We can complain about no stadium all we want, but the team has to deal with the situation they find themselves in. I believe they are trying to do the best they possibly can under difficult circumstances, and they know the shitstorm they are creating with this arrangement. They should have done a better job preparing fans for this likelihood. Instead of springing it on ticketholders a month before the home opener, they should have come out weeks ago and explained the tough spot they find themselves in and that this was likely going to be the situation.

A lot of the issues fans have with the front office are own goals. They do it to themselves when they pull these bait and switches. New York sports fans are smart -- we understand what the deal is, but when you continually try to spin everything, fans are going to see through it every time. And now they find themselves in a position where no one trusts anything they hear from the front office. I don't believe, like many here do, that CFG doesn't care or the front office doesn't care, I think they are earnestly trying to do the right thing, but that they're just sort of incompetent. There are better ways to handle these public relation nightmares they seem to always find themselves in.

We have every right to be angry -- I'm trying to think about what the reaction would be if the Yankees were forced to play half their home games at Fenway Park for multiple years in a row because they didn't have a stadium of their own. The outrage would be volcanic, and rightfully so.
 
By the way, from a competitive POV for a moment: The schedule is actually very favorable in one very important way:

Heber is expected to return in either June, July, or August.

We play only 7 games before June 20, and only 15 games by the end of July. So if Heber comes back quickly, there's a chance he only misses 7-15 games. If we can get 25 games with Heber at the tip of the spear, that probably changes things in terms of our season outlook.
 
Just echoing what others have said, they’ve had this money for a long time. I need refunds for games not used, not credits.

4 midweek games is great, but 3 in NJ. If they’re not good, that place will be a ghost town and they’ll find some way to sell tickets for $5.
So bummed about how this is working out.

Trying to get to Harrison for a midweek game is torture unless you work in NJ.
 
Schedule congestion doesn't look too bad, until we get to games 29-33 which is 5 games in 13 days.
 
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By the way, from a competitive POV for a moment: The schedule is actually very favorable in one very important way:

Heber is expected to return in either June, July, or August.

We play only 7 games before June 20, and only 15 games by the end of July. So if Heber comes back quickly, there's a chance he only misses 7-15 games. If we can get 25 games with Heber at the tip of the spear, that probably changes things in terms of our season outlook.

only if we get 2019 heber and not 2020 non-CCL heber...
 
It sucks to have so many games in NJ. It's a huge slog for me to get to Harrison - if it were easy, I'd have already been a Red Bulls fan in 2015.

Still, I understand why Yankee Stadium is limited this year. MLS was not going to be as flexible with our scheduling, and the Yankees probably didn't have as much flexibility either.

The big question is why no games at Citi Field. That's something they should have explained yesterday. It's a venue we have used, that's in the City and much more convenient than Harrison for the Club's fans. Plus, the Yankees and Mets tend not to be in town at the same time, so it should have afforded a lot of options.
 
We have every right to be angry -- I'm trying to think about what the reaction would be if the Yankees were forced to play half their home games at Fenway Park for multiple years in a row because they didn't have a stadium of their own. The outrage would be volcanic, and rightfully so.
The Yankees played at Shea Stadium for 2 full seasons while the Stadium was being renovated and, according to people I know who were around then, nobody cared at all.

Also, they played a game at Shea in 1998 when a beam fell at the Stadium and I can not recall anybody caring.

Although the situation sucks, I think there is only a small group of people who find it offensive.
 
The Yankees played at Shea Stadium for 2 full seasons while the Stadium was being renovated and, according to people I know who were around then, nobody cared at all.

Also, they played a game at Shea in 1998 when a beam fell at the Stadium and I can not recall anybody caring.

Although the situation sucks, I think there is only a small group of people who find it offensive.
Different if they have a stadium being renovated vs no stadium at all, is what I believe the response will be here
 
The Yankees played at Shea Stadium for 2 full seasons while the Stadium was being renovated and, according to people I know who were around then, nobody cared at all.

Also, they played a game at Shea in 1998 when a beam fell at the Stadium and I can not recall anybody caring.

Although the situation sucks, I think there is only a small group of people who find it offensive.
Those situations are completely different. For Yankees fans they KNEW they had a home and KNEW when they would be back in the Bronx. If I knew this was only a one, two or even a three year thing that would lead to us having our own stadium I would be ok with it.

Not only that, our club advertises and promotes that it is a club WITHIN the NYC limits. "My City, My Club". As many have stated it's just the incompetence, tone deafness and seemingly lack of care towards its fan base that is beginning to boil over.

Unfortunately a groundshare is an embarrassment if it continues past the pandemic years.
 
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Those situations are completely different. For Yankees fans they KNEW they had a home and KNEW when they would be back in the Bronx. If I knew this was only a one, two or even a three year thing that would lead to us having our own stadium I would be ok with it.

Not only that, our club advertises and promotes that it is a club WITHIN the NYC limits. "My City, My Club". As many have stated it's just the incompetence, tone deafness and seemingly lack of care towards its fan base that is beginning to boil over.

Unfortunately a groundshare is an embarrassment if it continues past the pandemic years.

Bingo. We’re no longer New York’s team
 
You have to separate the practical from the emotional reasons why this is bad.

When the Yankees played at Shea, I as a Yankee fan didn't care aboout the symbolism because, as has been noted, I knew it was temporary while YS was getting a needed renovation. But as a young teen living in Yonkers, I could get to YS in 30-45 minutes and Shea took 90-120. I went to almost no games those 2 years as a result. Which was fine because I had not prepaid for a slate of tickets more than 12 months previously only to have the relocation announced a month before the season started.

Symbolism aside, unless you live in a few Manhattan neighborhoods, getting home from RBA late night or on weekends sucks. People have season tickets they paid for more than a year ago and are just finding out they've been committed to making that trip regularly with no info about refunds, credits or anything. How will allocations work when 90% of STHs ask for every YS game and 0 RBA games? There's still no info available. Put aside NY/NJ symbolism, that sucks.

WRT the symbolism, I have always been an outlier in that I find the whole NY/NJ thing WAY overdone. BUT, it matters to a lot of people, the club and league have known this from before the expansion announcement, and marketed on that basis. Add in the club history of deception and poor communication: Lampard, ending paper tickets, the 2019 playoff Citi Field seat assignment nonsense, the 2020 Citi Field seat assignment repeat nonsense. I can't even keep track, but there were more, and with every one you have speculation, denials, a last minute announcement that confirms the speculation and renders all prior statements outright lies, accompanied by no apology and if there's any explanation it is of the "what did you expect, you were fools for believing us" variety. Add in the never ending stadium saga, which we barely even talk about any more we've gotten bored with it, and yes, there are fair excuses but again, they sold something different. The whole Founding Member wall promise is a bad joke. The idea that anyone reasonably believed that to make the Wall you could maintain tickets for six years and not even have a site announcement on the horizon is absurd. In retrospect, the 2018 focus groups were just an expensive dog and pony show to make people think something was imminent when clearly it was not.

People are understandably frustrated. How will the club handle scheduling and multiple stadiums once the pandemic ends? There's no reason to expect anything good. NYCFC might handle it well, but there's no excess, reserve goodwill left to make people want to give them the benefit of the doubt. And as always you have 3 choices, walk away completely, remain a fan but with decreased engagement and/or spend, or suck it up. And both options 2 and 3 just keep punching you in the face.
 
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Fwiw... Third rail seems to be boycotting nj games based on their tweet about the schedule. Though they have not officially stated as much..
 
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One thing I'll say from my perspective is that currently as it stands when I go to games midweek, it takes me the same amount of time to get home from RB and YS. By car, YS is definitely faster, but I find that most of the time I am able to go to the midweek games over the weekend ones, and thus for me the hassle to go to RBA vs YS not too bad
 
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You have to separate the practical from the emotional reasons why this is bad.

When the Yankees played at Shea, I as a Yankee fan didn't care aboout the symbolism because, as has been noted, I knew it was temporary while YS was getting a needed renovation. But as a young teen living in Yonkers, I could get to YS in 30-45 minutes and Shea took 90-120. I went to almost no games those 2 years as a result. Which was fine because I had not prepaid for a slate of tickets more than 12 months previously only to have the relocation announced a month before the season started.

Symbolism aside, unless you live in a few Manhattan neighborhoods, getting home from RBA late night or on weekends sucks. People have season tickets they paid for more than a year ago and are just finding out they've been committed to making that trip regularly with no info about refunds, credits or anything. How will allocations work when 90% of STHs ask for every YS game and 0 RBA games? There's still no info available. Put aside NY/NJ symbolism, that sucks.

WRT the symbolism, I have always been an outlier in that I find the whole NY/NJ thing WAY overdone. BUT, it matters to a lot of people, the club and league have known this from before the expansion announcement, and marketed on that basis. Add in the club history of deception and poor communication: Lampard, ending paper tickets, the 2019 playoff Citi Field seat assignment nonsense, the 2020 Citi Field seat assignment repeat nonsense. I can't even keep track, but there were more, and with every one you have speculation, denials, a last minute announcement that confirms the speculation and renders all prior statements outright lies, accompanied by no apology and if there's any explanation it is of the "what did you expect, you were fools for believing us" variety. Add in the never ending stadium saga, which we barely even talk about any more we've gotten bored with it, and yes, there are fair excuses but again, they sold something different. The whole Founding Member wall promise is a bad joke. The idea that anyone reasonably believed that to make the Wall you could maintain tickets for six years and not even have a site announcement on the horizon is absurd. In retrospect, the 2018 focus groups were just an expensive dog and pony show to make people think something was imminent when clearly it was not.

People are understandably frustrated. How will the club handle scheduling and multiple stadiums once the pandemic ends? There's no reason to expect anything good. NYCFC might handle it well, but there's no excess, reserve goodwill left to make people want to give them the benefit of the doubt. And as always you have 3 choices, walk away completely, remain a fan but with decreased engagement and/or spend, or suck it up. And both options 2 and 3 just keep punching you in the face.

FRAME THIS