News: Random Soccer News Thread

I was a kid, so it was in the 70’s, but definitely not a one-off, we would go often. Maybe one season?

 

And the Capitals. The one time I went to see the Invaders, I ended up sitting next to Kinsley. Also saw the Quest and Horizon there.

 

Nothing regular in the 1970's except the Magic, from a quick internet look--but I came here in 1978, so I would have missed anything before that. They played at Cooper Stadium outside. 1 FC Kaiserslautern played a friendly with them there. I have a program and photos I took.

 

I went to a game in Batelle Hall, and it was pathetic.

The venue was ridiculous, totally unsuited for indoor soccer. And then there was the playing surface, which they dragged over from Canton with six or eight big mismatched patches and some stupid logo that they had stitched in where they had obviously ripped out an old one.

The whole thing looked shabby as hell.

Which was OK because it was pretty much a friends and family crowd.

The players were a collection of old guys who obviously hadn't played in a while, young college grads who looked totally confused and a couple ex-Xoggz guys who looked embarrassed to be there.

And they lost by a million or so. That may be an exaggeration but not a huge one.

 

Just came across this....

https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/spo...1&cvid=d8dfb1d27f1b4b4f8915436155a466ac&ei=44

 

Speaking of, he promoted a game at the Fairgrounds between Cleveland Force and, IIRC, Pittsburgh in the MISL. Sold out as I recall.

But there was also a Columbus team that played there.

 

I was at that game, but thought that the Columbus teams only played at the Ohio Center/Battelle Hall.

 

BTW, at the Xoggz reunion in 2017, I recall talking with Willy Merrick about all of the shenanigans surrounding the Invaders--first to the bank got paid, for one. He might be one of the few with an Columbus Invaders jersey, as he kept his in lieu of pay.

 

Didn't the Horizon also play at the Fairgrounds Coliseum? I have friends who are big basketball people...somehow, they also had Chill season tickets for a few years and I remember seeing Columbus Horizon banners in there. I have way more memories of the Chill from the early 90s. It's hard to believe the Chill essentially overlapped with Crew Stadium. I think their last home game was April of 99.

Bonus points for anyone who remembers the Columbus Cagerz.

 

I have a jersey--somewhere.

 

Was in Toronto earlier this year and saw a Chill Jersey proudly displayed at the Hall of Fame. Bonus points for anyone who knows why it was unique.

 

Mad Cows?

 

I read a story that Randy Malloy posted about that a couple of months ago. One of their early players worked at CD101 and as part of a promo wore a #101 jersey to become the first player to wear a three-digit jersey number in a professional hockey game. Randy tracked down the guy's son to give him the other framed #101 jersey that was hung in the radio station.

 

Spot on. It was just around the corner from the fan zone and caught me completely off guard. Even minor league hockey from Columbus is truly Massive.

 

Between that and the Browns moving, it hasn't been a good week in Cleveland.

 

Great way to kill the league in the north half of the US. Would guess owners of these teams are not going to stand for it. Will be interesting to follow news on it.

 

I dont think I mind this...? Especially for the transfer market aspect and being able to finally shut the league down fully during international windows like the rest of the world.

 

Not gonna happen. The league is still largely dependent on ticket sales.

 

I'd have to stop getting season tickets if this happened.

 

I would give up my season tickets, then. Mrs KG has cold-induced asthma. We need to take some of these FIFA idiots to Montreal, Minnesota, or Denver in January. Didn't they learn anything from that US-Costa Rica game in Denver??

We were in Denver in October a couple of years back. Was 85 in the afternoon most of the time--and then it went to 15 deg and 3 inches of snow overnight.

 

Don Garber: "We really don't want to axe Leagues Cup, but it's about to get too complicated with that and various other tournaments."