Photo: 215Pix
We play 3 straight away games next week. Have to fly to San Jose for a midweek game. I’m pretty sure you can still demand charter flights for these types of trips/games while also trying to eliminate 3 letter acronyms & increasing the salary cap. https://t.co/4COpK2lbR4
— Alejandro Bedoya (@AleBedoya17) September 17, 2019
Philadelphia Union
The Union will not use any charter flights during their 3 game road trip next week.
Look back on one year of Phang.
If you somehow missed the Union take on LAFC, here’s a quick recap.
Kacper Przybylko is the Player of the Month for August.
Meanwhile, Jack Elliott took home Goal of the Month.
MLS
It feels like Zlatan is the Player of the Week every other week.
What to make of all of the MLS action from the weekend.
This week’s episode of Instant Replay is here.
Here is the rest of the Team of the Week.
Who does FiveThirtyEight think will win MLS Cup?
World
Has the NWSL kept its post World Cup bump in attendance?
Alex Morgan’s season is over after suffering an injury with the USWNT.
Is Jesse Marsch one of the greatest American coaches?
Another week, another racist attack in Italian soccer.
David De Gea is staying at Manchester United.
According to Jurgen Klopp, Man City are still the best team in the world.
CAN WE PLEASE GET A BILLIONARE TO BYE THE team?
Boy do I hope you mean buy rather than bye…
Isn’t Richie Graham a Billionaire?
Absolutely pathetic that they aren’t using it.
Congrats to Kacper on player of the month.
.
Is there any other possible explanation as to why they wouldn’t be using the charter flights now? There are 4 correct? So it’s not like they’d be out for the playoffs if needed. It is solely because of the cost? There’s not much anyone can do to force ownership, but eventually the players not wanting to be here will say everything. What happens when charters are increased? Really really bad look for ownership with Bedoya coming out so publicly.
I love him coming out… as I’m sure many do. Enough is enough. We just filled the stadium for you Jay… 3 straight times (minus the Pumas game). Maybe take a few dollars from that and buck up for some charter flights?!?!
.
No wonder “rich” folks want in this league… all it costs is the expansion fee and you get to sit on your ass and watch your asset increase.
.
Best season in franchise history and we can’t even use the charter flights we are able to use, when we have a mid-week game on the west coast, in September. What a joke you are Sugarman.
Ernst to Sugarman: Well I guess we repaired all the bad will that was directed at you as a cheap owner by proving we can compete by using the academy.
.
Sugarman: hold my martini and helicopter keys.
LOL
This is good content.
BRILLIANT
Literally wiping off my monitor right now. Just spit out my afternoon coffee
Maybe some of the charter flight stuff could be solved by not scheduling teams 3 straight away games in 8 days? And with the league getting bigger every year, perhaps they can fly across the country less. Home and homes within the conference will get you 22 games. Play each team in the other conference once and you get a 33-game season now…. Will be more with new additions. That’ll do it. Half of those games away will mean 6 to 7 flights. Charter ’em. This shouldn’t be that hard.
I think it’s tougher than it seems to set up a schedule that avoids three-games-in-eight-days on the road entirely. It’s also worth remembering, as I’ve said before, that travel is *much tougher* for Western Conference teams, who have to travel long distances even for their in-conference games. The cost of having a lot more charters is felt much more for those teams than by the Union (and other mid-Atlantic teams). (This has been a dispatch from the Rocky Mountain Bureau.)
Somehow NYRB managed to get games in Seattle and Portland 3 days apart rather than having to go make 3 separate trips to LA, San Jose, and Vancouver.
.
I know scheduling is tough, but there is no reason to make the game in San Jose the middle of the three.
Be thankful we are not Rio Grande Valley Toros of the USLC West.
.
They have no direct flights to opponents from their airport.
.
They have to fly to San Antonio or Dallas for every away game.
.
Yes, I wish they were hotel hopping until after Columbus rather than coming home. Do recall that in the past they have done that. Why they have not this year I have no idea. But they may have spent the extra money on players.
.
I would guess that Sugarman gives them a set pot, and within that boundary the allocations are made by others.
.
It is just possible that Tanner’s lack of direct personal experience of North American travel is at work here.
.
When thinking about European Geography, always remember that Napoleon traveling to Moscow in 1812, or Tsar Alexander the 1st to Paris in 1814 travelled only from Philadelphia to St. Louis.
.
Europe’s east – west distances fit entirely within the U. S. of A. east of the Mississippi. Very roughly, to get the equivalent of our East Coast to West Coast you have to go from Paris to Lake Baikal.
.
Only Siberia has longer east-west distances. (Moscow to Vladivostok is roughly 5,000 miles. The old Soviet Union contained 13 time zones,
Any idea if NYCFC will be able to have a full size pitch if the Yankees get eliminated early in October ? (Yankees not allowing the pitcher’s mound to be removed I believe is the reason for the smaller then normal pitch.
Would NYCFC want a larger pitch though? They play with that all year long, I think it’s a distinct advantage for them.
—–
That being said, it’s an outrage they play on that pitch, especially for something as important as a playoff game. Single elimination nonetheless. If teams like Cincinnati, Orlando and even USL teams like Sacramento and Loudoun United can build their own stadiums, why can’t a team owned by two of the most valuable clubs in the world build their own?
Because finding the real estate upon which to build said stadium in the country’s most expensive city is a very challenging proposition — much more so than in Cincinnati and Orlando, where land is far more readily available.
–
You do realize that both of the NFL teams play in Northern NJ, right?
Yea … and I don’t care. Don’t put a team in the city until they have a stadium deal finalized. MLS essentially required Philly, Montreal, Portland, Orlando, etc etc to have stadium deals in place before they began play, but looked the other way for NYCFC because they wanted a team in the city so bad. But is it really worth it to have a conference final game on national tv on that pitch? At least with Atlanta it’s a more traditional configuration and they sell it out.
——-
Also I never actually said build one in the city. I don’t really care where they build their stadium, just build one for soccer, even if it’s in NJ, Yonkers, Long Island, or wherever.
Steve, look at the story of Sacramento expanding.
.
They had no billionaires.
.
The Cityzens have oil sheiks. MLS did everything possible no matter how extraordinary to get that kind of money into the league.
.
Detroit has only a lower minor leagues soccer team. But their ownership has billions and experience with big TV contracts. Guess who was the serious candidate and who was not, for a time.
I can understand today’s players are more interested in making as much money as possible when they make less than 100K a year. I also notice that those speaking up about travel aren’t the one making less than a 100K a year. Maybe there is a compromise in the next CBA that would be as simple as this.
.
Make charter flights mandatory when a team crosses two time zones. Also when a team has less than four days rest for their next game of more than 200 miles and it takes more than four hours in travel to get home from the current game. So if Philadelphia is playing Washington Saturday and Miami on Wednesday a train and a charter fight. If it was D.C.and NYCFC two train rides. If it was LAFC and Miami two charters.
.
Ideally you would want nothing but charter flights for every game but when you make 75K and it’s a choice between less charter flights and 100K minimum wages as opposed to 80K….what would you vote for?
It doesn’t have to be a “charter flight OR salary raise” argument. Professional athletes should always have the advantage of charter flights (no one likes flying commercial) but I don’t think they should be mandatory. MLS should remove the limit and allow teams to make their own choices. If a team’s ownership does want to spend money on charter flights that’s their prerogative, but it may ultimately hurt their recruitment and player happiness.
——-
However, if Sugarman takes that $300,000 plus he’s saving on charter flights and spends it on a great player (he won’t, though) then I’d have a harder time arguing against it.
I slept in a tent right next to the I-80 two weekends ago in the middle of the state with six people, a dog and the stench of wet smoke lingering under the fly.
.
Worked my ass off, managed 8 games over those two days with an illegal dog pitch side, cooking, camp kitchen cleaning – pack unpack pack unpack the needed provisions, crick in the neck nearly unbearable back pain from the root under the faux air mattress without complaint.
.
Then the next weekend watched a 50 minute soccer game between a 4 hour round trip while working night shift then the same thing the next two weekends traveling all around for love of the game.
.
With respect… today is not the day to bitch about Charters Ale.
.
Stay focused, go take care of the goddamn business and address it later.
.
Fuck All.
Hard disagree.
–
The time to force changes to be made is when you have people’s attention and can make a strong argument. THAT’S how you get anything done in this world. Not by being polite and waiting until it’s convenient.
–
Fuck politesse.
Great so we can have the narrative of dropped points because of airplanes. Will we have the same narrative of 9 points won on the opposite side of continuum- the smile of the crew?
.
.
No way…. been through too much with this team over a decade with too much on the line this season and the next 8 days to attach importance to this right now.
.
Stay focused.
TBF to Ale, maybe he’s just stirring the pot which is also what you like to do all of the time.
well I have been know to do that, so… touche.
Gracefully acknowledged, Mighty Elephant.
A final point on travel costs.
.
Keep in mind that the USL C club flies. and in the past they have travelled a day early to acclimate.
.
Last year for the playoff game in Pittsburgh, a Saturday game, they travelled on Wednesday and stayed over. And they took four extra players for practice.
Pach sand! You’re nobody’s hero for this. I’m actually tired of all your arrogant pontifications. Nice mouth, by the way. I’m sure you’re proud of that, too.
Great article, and well-timed by Tannenwald. It’s a bad look for ownership, and Cap’n Bedoya’s tweets undercut the lame excuse they made Tanner trot out. As the article points out, it’ll be an even worse look for Jay if the Union miss 1st or 2nd place by points the drop in the Cbus game.
I don’t begrudge Tanner for basically saying “well, we already bought the other tickets, so…”
.
And it was probably too late to change when the article came out.
.
But
.
I have to think some onus is on Ernst to make this happen. I know he’s the new guy in the office, but he has to be the one to convince Sugarman of the importance of this.
.
I admit that when you are looking at where is the best place to invest money that will improve the team, this has a higher cost to benefit ratio.
.
But sometimes you have to scrape your pockets for some extra change when it comes to these ancillary items. And I imagine Sugarman has this rattling around in his pockets somewhere. Especially after reading an interview with him from June(see below). While it might not be back to pre-2007 days, when IStar is shifting $500mil around I think it’s safe to say they have recovered.
.
https://therealdeal.com/issues_articles/the-closing-jay-sugarman/
.
I mean it sounds like they are single-handedly saving (monetizing?) bowling in the US.
Brain dust… sex dust? Sugarman is into some stuff. He’s certainly rich enough though. Good Lord… just charter the flights Jay
On Instant Replay video they somehow managed to confuse Jack and Ray. I can understand that given how much alike they look.