With all the talk of present and soon to arrive SSS, how can I not? Even before dropping my Season Ticket last year out of respect for my digestive tract and the effect that SSS {Steve Samson Soccer} was having on it, I thought the term "Soccer Specific Stadium" was, at best a dream or, at worst, a cruel hoax. Here I was making my way to the "US Mecca of Soccer", the "Taj Mahal" to every home game to watch soccer played on a pitch that often looked more like a pasture than a soccer pitch - & this from "Day One". Galaxy & HDC management always was quick with reasons but slow to fix. In Carson "SSS" might better mean " Sandwich Soccer in Soon" or "Soccer Sometimes Stadium". Rather than any degree of soccer specifcity, the beautiful game is sandwiched in with X Games, High School Marching Band Competitions, Graduation Ceremonies, Rugby, no idea how many concerts, High School Football Games [3 / day over the past 2 weekends], and other events that don't hit my
radar screen.
The following is from a column by Bill Plaschke, a lead columnist for the LA Times. I have no reason to believe that he has ever been to HDC before.
"Considering this was California's first north-south championship showdown in decades, that Home Depot Center field could have been better.It was brown. It was patched. It contained lines from both baseball and soccer. The midfield emblem — "CIF: 79 Years Of Waiting" — was faded.Yeah, 79 years of waiting for fertilizer." Pretty funny to read a football guy complain about soccer lines on a football field IN A SOCCER SPECIFIC STADIUM.
And this - also from Plaschke and indicative of why this is the least user friendly stadium that I have visited -
" Jimmy Clausen spotted an orange cooler filled with green liquid, popped the top and leaned down to pick it up.He was going to pour it on the coach's head. That's what you do after
you win a championship, right?
Clausen's Westlake Village Oaks Christian High football team had just won the Division III title in the state's first championship game in 79 years, and Clausen is the quarterback, so it was his job to …
"No!" shouted a security guard.
"No?" said Clausen.
"No water on the field!" shouted the guard.
"Why not?" said Clausen.
"We have two more games here today, you have to be respectful of other people," shouted the guard."
Where's the fun any
more??
BTW - Denmark in 3+ weeks - new turf, AGAIN?. Watch the divots fly!!
Cheers & Best Holiday Wishes to All !!!!!!
art
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
---
See all of today's Soccer News Links at: http://www.sams-army.com/
NAS is hosted by America Kicks (http://www.americakicks.com)
To subscribe or unsubscribe: http://nas.americakicks.com
To post, send an email to nas@americakicks.com