Little late this week. Having a game at 7 on a Saturday isn't ideal from that standpoint, gets mixed up with the rest of the weekend. Fortunately there aren't many of those on the schedule. Wasn't the best game to watch, especially considering the weather. Still a fun night though:
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KANSAS CITY 1, NEW YORK 0
Belated thoughts after the first loss in New York City FC history.
It’s a small sample size but thus far the club has gone on the road for draws, while saving the results for home. With nearly three weeks to go until the next home game (Philadelphia Union, April 16th) it’s likely that last night was the last cold weather setting we’ll have to endure – at least until the playoffs.
New York’s crowd is a work in progress. There was a different atmosphere in the building last night. The opener two weeks ago felt like a major event, this time around things were more subdued. The game was officially a sell-out with 27,454 in attendance but the upper deck was closed off so it still felt fairly empty. Obviously drawing 25,000+ is great, the club and league will be thrilled if that keeps up all season, but it just highlights another drawback of playing in Yankee Stadium. The place is simply too big for the usual MLS crowd.
I don’t know if the club has announced if/when they’re planning to open the upper deck again this season. If it’s something they’re willing to consider game to game based on demand then we might see 40,000+ a few more times in 2015. The obvious candidates are Seattle on May 3 (Clint Dempsey), Red Bulls on June 28 (local rival) and Orlando on July 26 (Kaka). Toronto is another with US National Team fixtures Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore on the roster, but they’ll both be away at Gold Cup when the club visits on July 12. Frank Lampard’s first game is a good candidate along with any playoff games. 27,454 is the realistic ceiling for most of the season so we’ll have to get used to the empty upper deck.
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