I bitch about everything, but I am OK with this the more I think about it. CONCACAF won't sign off on YS or CF. RBA isn't available. Reduces travel time. I'm OK with it.
CCL - February 23 - Santos de Guapiles (Home*)
- Thread starter LionNYC
- Start date
in addition to the travel, the change in temperature as well. To go from preseason (warm) to CR (warm) then to fly all the way back to NY (freezing cold) and then back to CA (warm) is quite a change.
It’s A TON of travel. Curious if that would have been the worst theoretical travel
For CCL teams
Winterization of Yankee Stadium and general cold weather meaning poor attendance for home matches, even if we are the champions.
We've never played our first MLS home game before March 9 (or so), so we were always going to start on the road. Sure, could we maybe have started at Atlanta and Miami or something? I guess. But this isn't bad. LA and Vancouver in a dome is a pretty good way to play the first two games of the season. Get the west coast games out of the way.
I specifically said two road matches against Eastern Conference teams. I accept that we'll never open at home due to the weather.
I did, however, fuck up in my understanding of when our CCL matches against Santos are, mistakenly thinking that the second leg was between our first two MLS games, thereby making my point moot and worthy of a good toke.
Can someone please tell me specifically why CCL will not approve YS as a venue? Is it the smaller pitch size or some advertising boards in outfield?
As far as I can tell, no one has said definitively why CCL will not approve YS (or CitiField) as a venue. I looked at the tournament regs and as long as the field conforms with the laws of the game, its ok for the Champions League Tournament.
There is chatter that CONCACAF wont approve YS because its a baseball stadium. I think thats nonsense. Fields are approved in Caribbean cricket stadiums -- what is the difference? If it was just a question of widening the field there are no issues with doing that in February and March before the Yankees' pitching mound is built.
My theory (just a theory) is the issue is Section 15.5.5 of the Champions League tournament regs " If the stadium has a stadium video screen, message boards, LED boards, or any other similar digital medium, these will be exclusively reserved for Concacaf on MD-1 and MD. ". I suspect the scoreboard sponsors (maybe other sponsors?) for YS and CitiField have an agreement in place that their signage will be displayed for ALL events, not just baseball games and the baseball clubs will not ask to change the agreement for Champions League soccer.
The club has to pay for CONCACAF to inspect stadiums and approve them -- I think they made a smart choice with our first 'home' game in the tournament once RBA was unavailable. Santos de Guapile qualified for the tournament by losing to Canadian Premiere League Hamilton 4-3 home and away in the qualifying quarterfinals. If NYCFC cant beat them in 2 relatively neutral venues we cant win the Championship.
That makes sense, but it seems like it would make fiscal sense to have big tarps draped over those signs if that meant they could expect to have at least 2 home games at YS. The revenue and goodwill should outweigh the cost of the coverings -- thats why I suspect there are contractual issues with the baseball stadiums and it isnt as simple as putting big tarps up to cover ads during the baseball offseason in order to get the stadium approved for Champions League play.
As anyone who reads my posts knows, though, I have been wrong before and probably am now, too.
Did I mention how frustrating this CONCACAF BS is?
I'm sure those sponsors would flip out -- rightfully so -- if they tried to do something like that.
And it is complete BS. It's laughable, and I don't put it at the feet of NYCFC. This is on CONCACAF for being overbearing. Way too many teams, especially in the Caribbean, aren't allowed to host games at their stadium. It makes the tournament look farcical. Figure out a way to make it work.
I think this is pretty important and really creates frustrating situations that didn’t need to exist. It’s like Concacaf believes this to be the biggest tournament so many more people are going to go to this game. But if a small team in a small market, like San Guapiles goes on a great run and earns a spot, they are basically punished for being small. Now they are in a neutral site and many of their fans won’t be able to attend, taking away even more of the advantage. Plus the stands of the neutral site won’t be filled making the important “atmosphere” looking lack luster. Maybe in practice it’s not such a big deal but in theory they are shitty rules.
Exactly. This is the second straight time we've been in CCL that our opponent hasn't been able to play in its own stadium, too. What are we doing? It's making the tournament look mickey mouse. ... OK, even more mickey mouse than it already looks with the laughably low TV production standards. I hope we go on a deep run, but it's impossible to think CONCACAF runs this event smoothly.
FO seems to think our mid-March season opener against MTL (not an opponent that traditionally draws much against NYCFC) is one of the most expensive games in their variable pricing, hmmmm
It will probably have some sort of championship ceremony. Do MLS Cup winners do rings? No mater. People who weren't in Portland will want to celebrate the Cup with the squad.
Agreed. Opening day as champions, bringing out the cup, buying jerseys with a star. Makes sense. I know *I'll* be there!
I would hope that's one of the most valuable games! Home opener after winning the Cup? There's going to be a ceremony and celebrations. I bet that game is packed.
Mid-March in the city? It's going to be in the mid 60s and sunny! Or not, who knows!
