when is the 24 hour game gonna be?
2019 Offseason Thread
- Thread starter LionNYC
- Start date
Last year it was March 10. Given that it's less than a month away and we haven't heard about it I'd be surprised if it's happening again.
Has he really though? Lewis disappeared while hot last season. I don't recall a scenario in which a "hot foot" broke into the lineup last season.
Last year it was announced on Feb. 22, so that's not entirely a closed door yet.
https://www.nycfc.com/post/2018/02/22/nycfc-invites-city-never-sleeps-24-hour-soccer-match
https://www.denverpost.com/2019/02/21/backpass-rapids-mls-secret-preseason/
The article doesn't really say anything we don't know or could not have guessed. He basically says teams don't stream preseason games because players are rusty and won't look good and they don't want to reveal tactics, etc until they have to. He also says he thinks the mindset is dumb. This is my favorite bit:
"The club may feel that fans will be shocked and dismayed if they tuned into an early February match to watch their center-back flubbing passing and their midfielders getting nutmegged nonstop. There may be fear by team officials that the fanbase will panic and declare the club a disaster before a single meaningful game has even been played."
Which they probably do think but they underestimate our ability to declare the club a disaster without even watching the games.
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Since it's preseason, if we watch the whole match, we look for good points to take away from it. "this young player looks improved". "This player can also play another position" Even if the overall product is crap. If we can't see it and only get snippets where we hear of an own goal by our LB, we tend to be more pessimistic. At least that's my opinion.
It's like the old saying, 'tis better to hide your games and have everyone think you're terrible, than show them and remove all doubt.
Liked for this line alone.
It’s not that they underestimate our abilty to grasp the context of the performance. No, it’s that they underestimate our ability to bitch and moan despite having almost no information.
It may be better for teams to show show rusty they are to provide context to why they’re losing and not scoring. Always better to face a situation (potential scandle) head-on than to try to hide it; get ahead of the commentary to frame it with a positive spin - that’s PR 101
Don't count out money in all this. Some teams are probably too cheap to want to stream the games if they have to pay for it. Orlando definitely didn't stream because they wanted people to buy tickets and show up in person.
And how'd that work out for them. I'm still a proponent of a Manchester preseason. It makes the most sense.
There might be more value for the TV/streaming rights to friendlies vs Euro opponents. And they could play at those teams stadiums, drawing a larger gate to split. Imaging if they played AIK at their stadium? I think the crowd would be a bit larger than Orlando. Use Manchester as a home base to train, play friendlies vs UK and Euro opponents. They would come back to the US much more prepared than the other MLS teams, and wouldn't have Visa issues in the preseason.
I'd bet dollars to donuts the faculties in Manchester are much better than Abu Dhabi. They can train w Man City. The weather gets them ready for March in NY. And it's much easier to schedule friendlies in Manchester to travel to other clubs from there. And also tons more fans would show up and watch if we played away friendlies, and it would toughen up the club to do so.
I think it's a near certainty that Abu Dhabi in February is a bigger draw than Manchester for clubs in Copenhagen and Stockholm.
ETA: And they're also not good places to host friendlies. Not many want to come out to a meaningless game in 30-35° weather. Otherwise the team could train and host games here.
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On reflection after reading the article I posted this morning, I think one area this club surprisingly excels at in terms of transparency and communication is with respect to preseason games. I cannot think of one instance where the team had control over whether to stream that there was not something available. Maybe I'm forgetting one, but generally the only blackouts have been imposed by host teams. And they put up as much as they can fast when there are restrictions. It doesn't change their other communication issues, but this is one thing they do right I think.
They always blacked out the matches vs college teams. But those were more closed door scrimmages. So your point can still stand, depending on your position as to whether those count as matches
Like the Jacksonville ones, right? That's what I wasn't sure about.They always blacked out the matches vs college teams. But those were more closed door scrimmages. So your point can still stand, depending on your position as to whether those count as matches
