Major League Soccer

lols http://www.lagalaxy.com/video/2014/04/24/alexi-lalas-runs-hill-during-2011-lamar-hunt-us-open-cup-0

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2014/05/major-league-soccer-money-problems.html

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/05/12/Media/MLS-TV.aspx

New TV deal, $75 mil/year, all streaming moves to ESPN/Fox platforms. End of Direct Kick, possibly?

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/05/12/Media/ESPN-MLS-out-of-market.aspx

ESPN dealing with the streaming side of things, thankfully

(out of market, that is)

If they lock it to Watch ESPN I'm done. Not getting tv to follow the games. Happy with the online pass as it is.

Howie ‏@Howie_OT 3m

36 year-old Lampard passing to 33 year-old David Villa in a baseball stadium will exorcise the NASL demons from MLS once and for all.

new nycfc sg, can't tell if srs but still laughing

https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/t1.0-9/10433902_10200864844662262_8823603754387136065_n.jpg

hahaha

i hope nycfc sucks as much as the knicks do

ugh fuck the fire so much

years of non-investment, purposeful agitation of fans, and general mismanagement are sinking the club, it's so fucking frustrating, I almost wish there was relegation here to permanently fuck over the idiots who are in charge

don't know anything about the Fire other than the Sounders-Fire cup game I saw last night but that was brutal

that was just the latest straw

Lalas just said New England are getting Jermaine Jones

Revs announced it on twitter.

Somebody sent me email about JJJ deal gone astray a few days ago.

Here was earlier story: http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/66/united-states/2014/08/21/5049423/sources-jermaine-jones-deal-with-mls-hits-snag?ICID=HP_HN_1

Okay, I see

All reports indicate the league decided this by flipping a coin

god i love mls

on a serious note it really sucks that this of all seasons is the year it's been mostly impossible for me to go to dcu games - they've been incredible (and there's something deeply funny about eddie johnson sort of being a liability to that)

yeah they got chris rolfe from chicago and he's been his same old self again, must have just needed a change of scenery (I heard he wanted out pretty badly + the fire wanted to dump salary)

kudos to dc for sticking with ben olsen long enough for his plan to come together, it's too bad the fire didn't keep frank klopas around long enough for him to get there

rolfe broke his arm, probably out for a month or so :(

(or maybe he can use the cast as a weapon a la "cowboy" bob orton)

dang, that sucks, but that's the other side of rolfe -- he's good for at least one month+ injury break every year

haha:
During pregame tifo setup, the capos on the stand started jawing at the New York players as is the norm for any team coming through the tunnel. One of the capos started calling Thierry Henry "Captain Handball", and he and Henry "chirped back and forth for like a minute" according to the capo. Apparently Petke came back up the tunnel and started screaming "Hey! Hey! F**K YOU!" while pointing at the capo. Petke continued his tantrum by saying "You're all scumbags! You'll never amount to anything!" before going back down the tunnel to the locker rooms.

lol petke

the comments on that post imply that petke might have been pissed off about the water on the field - i was watching the game saturday and it was hard for me not to think of that 2012 playoff game against dc, when nyrb famously did the bare minimum to get the snow cleared off the field before kickoff. if they don't get angrier about field conditions than every other mls team combined, they certainly don't do anything to dispel that reputation.

usoc woo btw

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BxtADcFIIAE_Vys.png

3 former Fire players in that Seattle lineup u_u

David Villa on $60k lol

http://www.mlsplayers.org/images/September%2015%202014%20Salary%20Information%20-%20Alphabetical.pdf

Also Chivas USA suspends operations for 2015-2016 ;_;

Say whaaaaat

http://www.si.com/soccer/planet-futbol/2014/09/30/chivas-usa-ownership-mls-vincent-tan-henry-nguyen-peter-guber-tom-penn-la

ho boy

http://www.si.com/soccer/planet-futbol/2014/10/01/thierry-henry-new-york-red-bulls-mls-premier-league-uefa-concussions

interesting talk here too: henry is not re-signing and red bull is not sticking with their team/stadium long-term

they really needed this

http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i/?img=/photo/2014/1008/soc_newcrewlogo_600x600.jpg&w=738&site=espnfc

so much better!

Dear Members and Loyal Supporters:

The D.C. United Front Office has unilaterally decided to only allocate 200 tickets in the 100 Sections to La Barra Brava for the 2014 Playoffs.

This is a significant change from past years where we sold tickets across Sections 135, 136, 137, and 138 into the 200's and even the 300s. For comparison purposes we sold in excess of 800 tickets for the 2012 Playoffs and regularly sell more than 200 tickets for regular season matches.
Sections 137 and 138 will no longer be Supporter Sections for the 2014 Playoffs.

welp this'll end well

Eeesh. Although, and I fully accept I could be wrong about this, but doesn't Barra Brava resell tickets at a markup? Or only to people who purchase a membership in the group? I know I've heard some members of other DCU groups complain about that practice.

face value for those tickets is $35. barra's single-game prices are $26 members/$31 guests/$35 non-members, vs $30/$35 day of game for screaming eagles (eagles prices may be lower now too - iirc those prices reflect the recent ticket price adjustments)

barra isn't exactly the most, er, transparent SG you're ever going to find, but i was a member when i lived in dc, and i never felt like it was overly shady or anything. somebody pointed out that the barra overflow sections are not currently on sale on ticketmaster as single tickets, so there may be more to this story. (barra's official speculation is that "the Front Office believes that their actions will encourage members to purchase season tickets next year")

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Playoff-Tickets-On-Sale-Now---Only-200-Tickets-Available---Must-Read-Announcement.html?soid=1104748327734&aid=GoZe1rBPayk

this is the full announcement btw

should also point out that i've necessarily been out of the loop the last couple seasons, so there very well could be something shady happening here - nonetheless this seems like a weird way to stage-manage it

'sup shield!

so fun and lolsome
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b8xdaNDXek

RIP Chivas USA

so, Bradley Wright-Phillips then?

He has worked out better than Luke Rodgers.

http://twitter.com/AaronQ13Fox/status/526962202096697344/photo/1

hmm http://twitter.com/AaronQ13Fox/status/526962202096697344/photo/1

LOL LAFC ownership

http://partners.lafc.com/#Leadership

includes Vincent Tan, Magic Johnson, Mia Hamm, and like 19 other people

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B1eVzgMCEAAvCey.jpg

terrible game yesterday, but lmao @ whoever brought the nycfc season ticket banner

heh heh heh