More shuffling in the D.C. United office, Audi Field considers expansion, and more: Wednesday Freedom Kicks
I know it’s been December since Friday, but… I can’t believe it’s December… and the MLS Playoffs are still ongoing.
D.C. United Announce the Departure of Stewart Mairs and Sean Howe (D.C. United): It’s just the way of the world when a new GM comes in. Right now, the mystery of the unknown future still holds more intrigue than a future where D.C. United and its staff look similar to 2023.
D.C. United owner Jason Levien wants to add more seating to Audi Field (Washington Business Journal): First off, good luck expanding capacity at one of the tightest-fit stadium properties I’ve ever seen. Secondly… “United averaged 17,540 per game this past season, which ranked 26th overall in the 29-team league and marked a slight improvement over the previous campaign.” This can’t actually improve all that much. Audi Field is 22nd in the league on the capacity front (yes, the table below is only listed capacity, not actual capacity, for all those people looking at New England or Chicago for example…).
I do think it’s important to note the mean, median, and standard deviation values above. While D.C. United is one of the smallest stadiums in the league, it’s also well within the scope of the league’s stadiums. Audi Field’s capacity is only 9% smaller than the median and 18% smaller than the league average.
Should the nation’s capital have one of the largest and most prestigious soccer complexes in the nation? One can dream. But 20k is still a respectable size. In fact, even the smallest stadium, San Jose’s PayPal Park, is (just barely) within one standard deviation of the average, which I’d go so far as to suggest that implies no stadium is falling behind in the league… at least by capacity standards.
Would be nice if D.C. United could hit that 20k capacity more often though…
USMNT to play Copa América group stage in Dallas-Fort Worth, Atlanta, Kansas City (SSFC): Those are in (American) football stadiums, by the way.
Chicago Fire FC Names Frank Klopas Head Coach (Chicago Fire): The more things change… the more Chicago Fire doesn’t. Another coach is now certain to not take the helm at D.C. United.
Swansea City part with head coach Michael Duff (Swansea City): Jason Levien may or may not enjoy head coach searches.
2023 Athlete of the Year: Lionel Messi (Time): The Leagues Cup truly elevates athletes.
Meanwhile…
Look, if MLS wants to partner with Adidas to do this for the entire league, I know someone who would buy a pair of D.C. United sneakers.
In other news, it seems Crew fans may be having a hard time getting tickets to a certain December soccer match. Can you imagine your favorite team still playing competitive soccer in December? The local team in the District was kind enough to respect the holiday season with a league equivalent of leaving the office at 3:00 PM.
That’s all for today’s kicks. Add your own kicks in the comments!
The start of the HBSC 7s series for both the US Men’s and Women’s 7s was rough this past weekend. In the pool play stage, the women’s team started strong with a dominant 27-0 win over Spain. Then a tough loss in an always close match with Canada 15-10. Finally they wrapped up pool play with 38-5 loss to France. The men’s pool play was interesting as they started with a nailbiter of a loss to 21-14 to Fiji who scored just before time ran out. They followed that up by beating Great Britain 36-12. The men wrapped pool play by beating France 26-14. Day 2 of the Dubai 7s started with a 32-5 loss to Australia for the Women in the quarterfinal. That saw them slotted into the 7th place playoff match in which beat Brazil 38-7. On the men’s side of things, we saw similar results. The men got dominated by New Zealand 40-0 in the quarterfinal, but they were able to beat Australia 26-12 in the 7th place match. Both the men and women will continue play in the HBSC 7s series this coming weekend at the Cape Town 7s in South Africa.
Full Women’s Recap: https://eagles.rugby/news/tough-results-from-dubai-but-usa-womens-sevens-remain-confident-in-podium-potential-2023123
Full Men’s Recap: https://eagles.rugby/news/usa-mens-sevens-aim-to-improve-on-quarterfinal-momentum-in-dubai-2023123
usually read this in feedly, but I appreciated the double 3pm office emigration burn enough to come here and thank you for it
I think part of the reason for expanding Audi Field is that it’s a competitive venue for non-DCU matches (ie: stuff like USMNT, USWNT matches). FedEx doesn’t cut it and so as a result, DC is shut out except for smaller nations and friendlies.
And yep, it looks like Mackay is going through a real house-cleaning. I’ll say one thing: in my limited experiences, player agents have superb connections. They spend a lot of time talking to other organizations (and that means it becomes easy to make connections in stuff that isn’t directly related to player contacts, or to hear gossip about “so and so is really impressive.”) Let’s hope that is true with Mackay and he’s got a thick “rolodex.”
I don’t really see how within the footprint they can expand Buzzard Point
The most obvious thing would be if they decided to take out the Heineken bar and adding more seats there, but that’s also where the sports book is. Otherwise… yeah, I think they’re maxed out without some really serious restructuring (adding a Bombanera-style terrace to the south end?). It could just be that they’re trying to squeeze in as many seats as they possibly can around the edges and things.
Follow the Dan Snyder model of selling “partial view premium seats”…….
Kind of related: If RFK site gets the new stadium, making it soccer regulation capable would be a brilliant solution for the future when soccer matches (DCU or of any kind) can be played in our “National Stadium.” It is a disgrace that the World Cup will not be visited in our nation’s capital. A first in World Cup history. Thanks, Snyder.
Honestly, they should still just play the final in RFK. As is.
Wouldn’t that be The grandest send-off in history for the Old Girl?
Thanks, Kerry. It’s been an arid desert since last Friday with no Freedom Kicks Monday (from Ryan) and Tuesday (from ???).
A bigger stadium is a nice thing, but I’m pretty satisfied with Audi Field’s size as far as demand goes, and it also allows it to be a reasonable host for the Spirit and the Defenders, and the periodic Howard game or weird soccer tournament host. It sucks that DC isn’t a host for the big national tournaments, but perhaps if (when?) a new stadium will be built on the RFK site, it will fill that role for sporadic tournament host. Having the regular use at Audi Field is overall a better use of that site, I think.
I wouldn’t mind finding ways to enhance the fan impact. I’d love to find some way to cover the north and south ends, trap the noise and make it more possible for elaborate tifo displays. Before it was finished, I said that United could be playing in a Tiny Hate Box. It could still be that way. Seeing the atmosphere at the (one and only) playoff game the stadium hosted was really incredible. With a team worth cheering for, stakes worth playing for, and some of those enhancements, it could be a real fortress.
And then maybe we could worry about not being able to get tickets for the MLS Cup final that we’re hosting.
Sorry, I grabbed the RFK thingy prematurely. Wasn’t stealing your thunder. :^)
I visited the National Harbor over the weekend, and finally got to see the Awakening sculpture for the first time. It was very cool, but I was excited to see that that area has a bunch of seats installed from RFK.
Awakening is so cool. I remember when it was at Haines Point and we had flooding, so it was coming out of the water.
I think it is cool to repurpose/remember the seats from RFK. Maybe Ally should get few for our future DC United museum. Tradition matters.
They should have that as a seating option at Audi Field, with their “expanded capacity.” The “Tradition Seats,” where you get to have the seats from RFK.
THAT is a brilliant idea.
Goff floated some interesting names in his article about the FO departures. First was Domènec Torrent, who I’d rather not have. My recollection is he was good at NYC but always very whiny and left frustrated with MLS. Second was Mark Warburton, who I know nothing about other than what Goff mentioned (recently assistant at West Ham). There was also the gaggle of MLS veterans still without a job (Fraser I’d be interested in, everyone else I somewhere between unsure and hell no).
Caleb Porter piqued my interest. He can be a polarizing figure, but the man knows how to win. Whoever McKay decides on I at least want to be able to see the announcement and go “okay I see where we’re going now” whether that’s starting from scratch and suffering for a season or two for the sake of getting things right or going full bore towards the playoffs with an actual plan aside from “we have 3 DPs and a bunch of expensive veterans.”
We could do worse than Caleb Porter. In fact, I’m pretty certain we will.
Ally Mackay ousted two Scots (or some kind of celtic dudes), revenge for a 16th century grudge, or egalitarian dismissal…? Hmmm….
The Point: CBS Sports at 3PM today features Rangers vs Heart of Midlothian live from Tynecastle in Edinburgh. I visited Tynecastle for a tour in June. A Tiny Hate Box indeed, just about our size. It has a splendid museum, and my buddy (Hearts devotee) and I got a wonderful guided tour of the complex. DCU United could and should do such a thing. Tradition does matter. Maybe Ally might understand this having trained with Partick Thistle. I’d love a dedicated space for such a museum. It would be easy.
Tune in, it should be fine romp between mighty Rangers and can-do Hearts!
1) I already have a Hearts scarf, from waaaaay back!
2) I love that their Twitter handle is @jamtarts.
3) Perry Kitchen used to play there!
4) A museum would be cool. I believe there are some storefront spaces, specifically on the east side of the stadium. I’m sure they’d like to fill those with paying tenants, but putting a small exhibit area there could be pretty cool, and reflect DC’s proud museum tradition (said by a museum professional).
Way to support the Jambos, Bren! I like Rangers just fine, but this is at Fortress Tynecastle, so I wore my Hearts jersey to work today.
The Tynecastle museum is not a architectural load, space-wise. Maybe about 50 % larger than our team store. It packs a wonderful punch, however. DCU could easily do it, and purpose it also for welcoming guests, tourists, cocktail hour, whatever….
Regarding the Miami shoes: DC United is now offering red shoe laces for your black and white sambas. Viola! A Chef’s Kiss…….
With Audi Field — it seems silly to consider expanding given how rarely the current configuration even approaches a sell-out, but perhaps a cheaper tier of seats might reach out to people getting priced out of games. I’m not sure whether there’s a way to do this, and it would be amusing after the finishing off the west side roof, but the west side is the one that has most vertical room. Building a second tier there could make sense if it’s doable — with stairs probably only in one or maybe both corners and limited concessions, it might be doable.
The other sides are pretty close to the city’s height limit. The east side roof is a the height limit (or, at least, sketches I’ve seen indicated that is the case). To be honest, that’s never made sense to me. Nationals Park and surrounding buildings seem taller to me (there’s an exception for penthouses and utility rooms, but they seem taller even than that, compared with Audi Field).
Perhaps they could get a waiver of the height limit? I’m not sure if that’s ever happened, but I don’t see why it couldn’t happen. There was an effort a decade ago — a big study by the NCPC recommending legislation for areas outside L’Enfant City that could be left to the District government to assess what’s an appropriate height.
Otherwise, I’m sure a few thousand seats could be added by a redesign of the Heineken Club corner. The Club itself could even be a feature still, either above or below a new stand. They could even knock off some rows from the supporters stand, and build a 2nd tier that extends across the whole of the north side. They’d have to relocate the big screen, but maybe that would be in the corner next to the Heineken club? In most European stadiums, that’s where the screens are.
If Levien wants to fund expanding Audi Field, it can be done. It won’t be cheap but it’s possible. There is room over the north and south stands for a second level. I am unsure if there are some sort of restrictions over the western stands otherwise there is room for a second level there too. It would be hard to install stairs to get up there but it’s in the realm of the feasible. I don’t think it’s possible to get to a third level but I think that 30-40,000 ish is in the realm of the possible but expensive realm.
We will have to wait until the local pro football team gets a new stadium to get international tournaments again. Still bummed that we will have to travel to hopefully see a World Cup game. If I’m lucky, we will host another World Cup in my later lifetime.
During construction of Audi Field there was mention of some sort of restriction on the west side stands with regard to their distance from Ft. McNair across the street. I don’t recall if it was horizontal distance, for example limiting the ability to build over the sidewalk, or the height of the stands and too much “looming” over property of the fort. Or both.
Major League Rugby has already lost the Toronto Arrows this offseason and it looks like the New York Ironworkers (formerly Rugby United New York) may also be on thin ice and in need of cash infusions.
https://www.goffrugbyreport.com/news/mlr-loses-another-team-maybe-another-thin-ice
And its official New York Ironworkers won’t compete in MLR next season. OGDC played them in the eastern conference semifinal. That’s now 2 Eastern Conference teams who have either folded and/or won’t be competing in MLR next season.
https://www.majorleague.rugby/news/a-statement-from-nic-benson-ceo-of-major-league-rugby/