Because they are at 53 N latitude, similar to Edmonton.

BIMS O1 said:

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Because they are at 53 N latitude, similar to Edmonton.

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Crazy. They should do something like daylight savings to make the day longer.

Dang, blowing it right at the end

From Hollywood ending to total letdown. Yeesh.

Great match, what a heartbreaking draw. Man up, goal ahead and in stoppage time at home. That was the one to win.

Argh.

Feels like they let sooo many games slip away late

No call on the handball ended up being a big deal

So now that they tied do they have to go play a match at Sheffield United?

Yes. I have not seen a date yet

jt2hunt said:

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So now that they tied do they have to go play a match at Sheffield United?

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They said in the broadcast in 8-10 days. At this point they might as well phone it in as this match was took a physical toll. They need to focus on finishing on top.

What are the finances involved in such a match - especially considering it's away?

deadbq03 said:

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What are the finances involved in such a match - especially considering it's away?

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It's a short bus trip. Probably a hotel isn't even required. Probably not a ton.

deadbq03 said:

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What are the finances involved in such a match - especially considering it's away?

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4th round winners get 120k.

I get that there's prize money. I'm just curious if there's extra compensation (tickets/tv/etc) due to there now being a whole new bonus game. Or does the FA just gobble it all up and then crap out that same lousy prize money? Or does Sheffield get most/all since it's their venue?

ETA I looked it up and if what I found is correct, they'll get 45% of ticket sales as well as a percentage of TV broadcast money. So forcing another game, even if they lose, is going to be a financial boon, especially going to a 30k+ stadium in Sheffield.

Good deal.

The amount of butt hurt the US Soccer community particularly the MLS is showing about this is hilarious.

Chuck Cunningham said:

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The amount of butt hurt the US Soccer community particularly the MLS is showing about this is hilarious.

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What?

TXAggie2011 said:

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Chuck Cunningham said:

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The amount of butt hurt the US Soccer community particularly the MLS is showing about this is hilarious.

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What?

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The amount of butt hurt the US Soccer community particularly the MLS is showing about this is hilarious.

Why?

Ice cold from his wife:

Couple goals pic.twitter.com/0H0XNtGn2n

— Troll Football (@TrollFootball) January 30, 2023

I imagine some MLS fans are annoyed at people who claimed for years that they wouldnt care about "low quality soccer" like MLS but now want to watch a 5th level professional club kick around some semi-pro teams because they watched a TV show about it.

I don't think there is any real "butthurt" or "give a ****" though. Wrexham is in no danger of having any kind of real impact on "US Soccer" or "MLS" except possibly getting a handful of new people interested in the sport.

deadbq03 said:

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JJxvi said:

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I imagine some MLS fans are annoyed at people who claimed for years that they wouldnt care about "low quality soccer" like MLS but now want to watch a 5th level professional club kick around some semi-pro teams because they watched a TV show about it.

I don't think there is any real "butthurt" or "give a ****" though. Wrexham is in no danger of having any kind of real impact on "US Soccer" or "MLS" except possibly getting a handful of new people interested in the sport.

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Here's the thing. What Wrexham proves is that sports is about stories.

And the MLS story is inferior to soccer almost anywhere else - not because of the quality on the field, but because of single entity ownership, bizarre transfer rules, no promotion/relegation, and constant expansion.

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Very true, the interest in Wrexham is seeing if two actors can invest in a town and a team and bring it out of the bottom league and up to notoriety.

The fact that every game of theirs is wild ass just adds to the theater. Not a lot of 1-0 defensive efforts with Wrexham.

Aston94 said:

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Chuck Cunningham said:

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TXAggie2011 said:

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Chuck Cunningham said:

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The amount of butt hurt the US Soccer community particularly the MLS is showing about this is hilarious.

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What?

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The amount of butt hurt the US Soccer community particularly the MLS is showing about this is hilarious.

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I have discovered that if you go to Twitter you can find someone butthurt at just about anything...

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This. I like twitter. But making Thing A a referendum on Thing B is like 75% of the content there.

People like compelling stories. Like Wrexham. Or the Mighty Ducks.

MLS needs to put more work into selling compelling stories. I did hear recently that a part of the Apple TV - MLS deal was that every team has to produce a ton of non-game content for the streaming service. A few clubs already do good work in that area, but a lot of them are pretty lazy and don't do much to get their product and players out there in novel and interesting ways. So it'll be interesting to see if any changes come from the new requirements. I follow a couple of USL teams online (including my hometown NM United) and they do an outstanding job of creating video and content that sell the story of their clubs and teams and players and fans. Far and away better than most MLS clubs, imo. Soccer is full of stories that can be compelling. MLS just needs to work harder to tell some of them.

Aston94 said:

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Chuck Cunningham said:

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TXAggie2011 said:

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Chuck Cunningham said:

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The amount of butt hurt the US Soccer community particularly the MLS is showing about this is hilarious.

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What?

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The amount of butt hurt the US Soccer community particularly the MLS is showing about this is hilarious.

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I have discovered that if you go to Twitter you can find someone butthurt at just about anything...

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That's true....

The biggest culprits are those who took offfense to RR saying there's nothing like this in NA,....

He's right really. No one gives a **** about the lamar hunt cup and that pisses people off.

I disagree, there are stories, and even large historic soccer communities associated with MLS franchises. MLS is a big boy league even if people don't recognize it. I agree that a lot of the things they have done to take risk out of the ownership structure are holding about half of these clubs back from being some of the biggest in the world. But getting rid of those things wouldn't suddenly make stories blossom out of nothing, it would just make people take notice that it exists in these places. Seattle, Portland, New York, LA etc are never going to be places that care about a club like Wrexham will, but its foolish to judge that Wrexham has some kind of "authenticity" because its a club that shot itself in the foot down to the dregs of the sport and then got bought by some celebrities and put on world TV by them.

Ok...here's the closest we can find to something in US soccer.

Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mc buy Rochester New York FC. It's the oldest club in MLSnext.

Rochester has about 75% more population than Wrexham and an old club in terms of US soccer.

They are stuck in MLS next.

What if they could pump millions into Rochester New York, get them to advance from MLS Next to NISL to USL League Two, USL League One, then MLS?

Wouldn't that be a great story?

But we don't have towns that there whole identity is there club. The closest thing were really have is high school football in the US, Texas in particular, and that's a very common theme in movies and TV.

Saying that something like the FA Cup doesnt exist in north america really isnt true either. In terms of soccer and maybe even in terms of professional sports generally maybe. But we do obviously have games and competitions like that that are ingrained in our sporting culture. Texas A&M Aggies fans posting on this message board will certainly know about some of those sports/competitions. The FA Cup is, if anything, a competition that is on its deathbed, not a robust amazing spectacle just because Wrexham had a cinderella story.

Chuck Cunningham said:

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Ok...here's the closest we can find to something in US soccer.

Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mc buy Rochester New York FC. It's the oldest club in MLSnext.

Rochester has about 75% more population than Wrexham and an old club in terms of US soccer.

They are stuck in MLS next.

What if they could pump millions into Rochester New York, get them to advance from MLS Next to NISL to USL League Two, USL League One, then MLS?

Wouldn't that be a great story?

But we don't have towns that there whole identity is there club. The closest thing were really have is high school football in the US, Texas in particular, and that's a very common theme in movies and TV.

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College sports are the equivalent. In the US we play sports at school not at clubs. Or at least we did back when these things developed in the era where all of these things became ingrained into American culture in the 20th century.

Still haven't seen a date for the replay with Sheffield but this was the draw today

The winner of the FA Cup Fourth Round Replay between Wrexham and Sheffield United will be at home to Tottenham Hotspur in the Fifth Round

🔴⚪ #WxmAFC pic.twitter.com/2N3IlG6n8W

— Wrexham AFC (@Wrexham_AFC) January 30, 2023

deadbq03 said:

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JJxvi said:

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I imagine some MLS fans are annoyed at people who claimed for years that they wouldnt care about "low quality soccer" like MLS but now want to watch a 5th level professional club kick around some semi-pro teams because they watched a TV show about it.

I don't think there is any real "butthurt" or "give a ****" though. Wrexham is in no danger of having any kind of real impact on "US Soccer" or "MLS" except possibly getting a handful of new people interested in the sport.

---

Here's the thing. What Wrexham proves is that sports is about stories.

And the MLS story is inferior to soccer almost anywhere else - not because of the quality on the field, but because of single entity ownership, bizarre transfer rules, no promotion/relegation, and constant expansion.

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Definitely agree that stories matter in sports.

But, meh to the second paragraph. Very few things are born great. You have to start somewhere. MLS and US Soccer in general need to tell better stories, in better ways, but this Wrexham story stems from a complex bunch of factors that had to boil for decades and decades to become as compelling as it has been.

Quote:

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MLS needs to put more work into selling compelling stories. I did hear recently that a part of the Apple TV - MLS deal was that every team has to produce a ton of non-game content for the streaming service. A few clubs already do good work in that area, but a lot of them are pretty lazy and don't do much to get their product and players out there in novel and interesting ways

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Its not a perfect example, but the Bundesliga's two weekly highlight shows on ESPN+ have helped that league grow on me over the years. While one is a weekly highlight show, the other is a more general collection of stories of the teams, the fans, and the players.

Are we derailing this thread?

Wrexham really blew it. But it will make for a very compelling episode.

The people who ***** about low quality MLS but then watch Wrexham were never going to watch MLS regardless of the quality.

And I don't buy that there aren't any compelling stories in US soccer because we don't have history or pro/rel. That's just a bunch of garbage. All you need is attention care and talent to tell a story.

Chuck Cunningham said:

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Ok...here's the closest we can find to something in US soccer.

Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mc buy Rochester New York FC. It's the oldest club in MLSnext.

Rochester has about 75% more population than Wrexham and an old club in terms of US soccer.

They are stuck in MLS next.

What if they could pump millions into Rochester New York, get them to advance from MLS Next to NISL to USL League Two, USL League One, then MLS?

Wouldn't that be a great story?

But we don't have towns that there whole identity is there club. The closest thing were really have is high school football in the US, Texas in particular, and that's a very common theme in movies and TV.

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Wait, they aren't the Raging Rhinos any more? Lame.