TFC v Roma at BMO Aug 7, 2013

[v00d00daddy]

Nice research! . That would be a good football story if it translated to a sold out BMO. Unfortunately it does not.

How can I predict a sold out BMO for this years game? I just grabbed the past numbers to show you that the attendance wasn't terrible, and in fact, close to sell outs for all of them.

Why would this Roma game be different?

[Fort York Redcoat]

For regular season games. I know we're talking about this friendly. My bad. If it sells out I don't give 2 shits. No I do. It'll piss me off next real home game.

[nonc]

When are we going to get a "huge announcement" that actually benefits the competitiveness of our team? A player or two who can actually make us better? Another mid-season cash-grab friendly? So far with the new regime, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Completely agree with Jack's statement. This is just more mismanagement and bullshit money grabbing from our FO. Unfortunately the new regime that is here doesn't trump the guys making these decisions like Berine ect. Those guys are still here.

I almost hope that this has nothing to do with Leiweike and co. If it does then Jacks statement is right. We're right back where we were.

I hope this is a complete and utter failure and the building is either empty or full of Roma fans. Look good on them lets have an away game at home. Wonder how the lads on te squad feel about playing at home with a crowd full of away support?

Rediculous.

This is the kind of stuff I can't help but laugh at, the fact that people think our new regime is degenerating based on an irrelevant friendly, which will feature a lot of non first team players. Clubs across MLS play friendlies, how in the hell does this negatively affect building a competitive team? Never seen such grasping at straws and whinging in all my life. You'd think you'd have more of an idea where things were going based on signing the first youngDP ever...but oh no a friendly is definitely sending this club back years!!

Muppets.

[Phil]

AAAAh yes "opt out" except for that little thing ML$E did when they were taking orders for season tickets. There were 2 options. 1) just pay for TFC games and 2) pay for TFC and all other games and get a discount on the CCL "extra" games. Remember? I wonder if those that took the "discounted" package will get smoked by a retarded price for this shit? {yes I keep calling it shit because that's what it is, we're not completely out of the playoff race and to shoehorn in a *&%@#! cash grab game in a busy week is complete SHIT!}

I think the opt in option was for CCL games. I would be a bit surprised if they lumped an overpriced friendly into it. The nature of the venue for annoucing it lends me to think its more about attracting the Roma fans than SSH. I could be wrong though, best to talk to your ticket rep when they actually annouce the game.

[tfcleeds]

I imagine it will come close to being a sellout, but in the end, it won't be. Juventus-Fiorentina barely drew 20,000 to the Rogers Centre. And Serie A fans are just as knowledgeable of the "value" of friendlies as anyone else - they know they'll be seeing mostly reserve players.

[Canary10]

For regular season games. I know we're talking about this friendly. My bad. If it sells out I don't give 2 shits. No I do. It'll piss me off next real home game.

I think you and I had a conversation in another thread a while back about people living in the GTA who are big football fans, but will never go to a TFC game because of the perceived shittiness of MLS football. Those are who this game appeals to. And you're probably right, 95% of them won't come back to fill the stands at an MLS home game. Maybe if the club goes all out to make sure they enjoy themselves, we might get 5% who do come back. That's probably the best this could do.

[bones]

I think the opt in option was for CCL games. I would be a bit surprised if they lumped an overpriced friendly into it. The nature of the venue for annoucing it lends me to think its more about attracting the Roma fans than SSH. I could be wrong though, best to talk to your ticket rep when they actually annouce the game.

Email was already sent when I saw this and just now I received a confirmation email from a sales rep that this game will NOT be forced into the "opt in" people. THANK GOD!

[Canary10]

I imagine it will come close to being a sellout, but in the end, it won't be. Juventus-Fiorentina barely drew 20,000 to the Rogers Centre. And Serie A fans are just as knowledgeable of the "value" of friendlies as anyone else - they know they'll be seeing mostly reserve players.

The timing of this match means there'll be a lot of starters playing at least a good portion of the game. August 7 is getting really close to the start of the season. They'll be wanting to get players close to game shape at that point.

[forzatoronto]

Sigh. I'll be going because I want to get a look at Roma before the new season and see if they're still the same anemic, un-balanced team they were under Luis Enrique and Zdenek Zeman (and probably cackle at the horrible new crest their American owners have designed for them), but this is the usual ill-timed mid-season friendly that doesn't really serve any purpose for the team. At the very least, it's comforting that this season it can't really hurt our playoff chances, seeing as those are practically out the window already.

Anyway, as someone said, August 7th is close enough to the start of the season that a lot of the starters might be playing. It would be nice to see Totti, Danielino and Perrotta anyway, Roma's World Cup winners...

[BuSaPuNk]

This is the kind of stuff I can't help but laugh at, the fact that people think our new regime is degenerating based on an irrelevant friendly, which will feature a lot of non first team players. Clubs across MLS play friendlies, how in the hell does this negatively affect building a competitive team? Never seen such grasping at straws and whinging in all my life. You'd think you'd have more of an idea where things were going based on signing the first youngDP ever...but oh no a friendly is definitely sending this club back years!!

Muppets.

3 games in 7 days. Doesn't matter how many academy kids they call up there will be a deal with Roma that we will play some of our starters for a required amount of time. Goes the same way with them. The longer Caldwell, O'Dea, Koevs, ect play the worse off we are. More time for injuries to happen and for the squad to be tired going into a home game on the Saturday.

If you want to shell out the $ for this by all means. I will not be and never will for meaningless friendlies unless there scheduled properly not during a two games in 6 days in the leauge as well as 4 of our players coming back from Gold Cup duty at the same time.

And one young DP signing does not create a platform for success. Look at DC.

[tfcleeds]

Serie A season starts on August 24, so yeah, chances are quite a few first-team players will be getting an extended runout. Still don't think it's gonna be a sellout though. 18-19K perhaps, at the most.

[Jack]

This is the kind of stuff I can't help but laugh at, the fact that people think our new regime is degenerating based on an irrelevant friendly, which will feature a lot of non first team players. Clubs across MLS play friendlies, how in the hell does this negatively affect building a competitive team? Never seen such grasping at straws and whinging in all my life. You'd think you'd have more of an idea where things were going based on signing the first youngDP ever...but oh no a friendly is definitely sending this club back years!!

Muppets.

We've had several DPs come through the club so far and none of them has actually impressed. Laba has been decent so far, for sure. As for mid-season friendlies crammed in the middle of a week with two tough competitive matches, I'd rather we not have them and this is certainly not my idea of a HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT. I don't think the new regime is "degenerating" as they haven't accomplished anything from which to degenerate in the first place.

Also, you can make your point without throwing out insults. It will end up getting you banned.

[Justin10000]

I can't be fussed by a friendly tbh. My only gripe is that it could have been held a week earlier. Other than that, I might go if the price is reasonable. There is no reason why TFC can't play a game during the week.

[tfcleeds]

Just an aside, but speaking of "big announcements", I remember one time the official Leeds United website had fans in a tizzy as they announced that a "major signing" was imminent. This went on for a couple of days, and it turned out in the end that the "signing" was none other than a new PR director - a big name in his field, sure, but not what the fans were hoping for! So ever since then, I've learned to treat such things with much skepticism! When I saw it was TFC TV with Rachel, I knew the "big announcement" was going to be the friendly. Big player signings wouldn't be announced through those channels anyway.

[Leedsoronto]

Maybe Totti will defect to Toronto?

Oops my alarm just gone off, time to wake up :@)

[Yagbod]

I'm just glad we have something new to bitch about. It was getting a bit stale for awhile...

[Canary10]

I'm just glad we have something new to bitch about. It was getting a bit stale for awhile...

Yeah, I was going to say the same thing.

(It could be a lot worse. Columbus is playing Wigan after all).

[Ultra & Proud]

And the guys on the team (most of them I'd assume) love playing against this level of competition. For the young guys it's a glimpse of what it takes for them to achieve their goals. What kind of player they need to become.

Could they do without it? Sure. But it's never stopped MLSE from doing it before. Why do we expect them to stop now? LOL

Never stopped most teams from doing it before, or again. Lots of playoff bound MLS teams play mid-season friendlies and quite a few European ones play friendlies/testimonials towards the end of their seasons. I bet if you asked our squad if they wanted to play this match the majority would say yes. More interesting than scrimmaging at the training ground where you can also get injured easily and a chance for the reserves and Academy guys to play some good competition on a stage better than an empty post-TFC match BMO or at the Kia Training Grounds.

Should this cost an assload of cash like RM or even what Liverpool cost? No but it probably will be similar to Liverpool pricing. I'm not going anyway but I don't get the whole rally against mid-season friendlies because it's been a part of the MLS set up for years, not just for us either but also for playoff bound teams, and it'll be part of the future too. I think there are more important things to worry about in a season like this than playing a mid week match that starters at most will play 45 minutes in.

[TFCAURORA]

So is this the HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT????

[prizby]

Benfica (18,370)
Aston Villa (20,147)
Pachuca (18,097)
Indipendiente (18,741)
River Plate (20,005)
Real Madrid (22,089)
Bolton (19,507)
Liverpool (33,807 at Rogers Centre)

Those weren't bad attendances. I know that's probably papered but still.

Maybe you're right about our level as a football city. Or maybe it's who the powers that be cater to in this city that make it what it is.

One thing is for sure. If people can sit through matches with team like Villa and Bolton, they sure as hell can buck up and sit through a game with Roma.

As for me, I won't be going because it's a case of too little too late.

only the RM and Liverpool game were not part of the season ticket package

[Phil]

So is this the HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT????

Actually, it was 'special announcement'.

Just pointing out fact as the fiction takes on a life of its own around here.

[ProfessorDamage]

Roma? Yawn.

Even if it's free I'll skip it since it's a Wednesday game.

[Super]

Meh, it's the usual friendly for our summer. I'm not personally interested, but maybe it'll introduce TFC to new fans. I'm not too concerned. I liked how we played our B-squad for most of the Liverpool game. That makes perfect sense. Let's do that again - give the bench guys a shot at some playing time.

[Technorgasm]

Will they have a designated section for the Lazio supporters?

Fuck Ensco, you always beat me to it!

Remember when those AMAZING Boca fans joined us in 112 for the River Plate Friendly?
thats dedication to your hate right there.
impressive.

Forza TFC

[TFC1154ever]

Underneath the urinals in the washrooms?

A little angry that you have completely dominated by Lazio the last 3 years? I'm excited to watch the circus which is AS Merda.

[cmonyoureds]

At least if TFC win we'll be able to fill a few hundred pages discussing if the "fix was in".

[nascarguy]

I think the ticket was a part of the season ticket pack if so I'm going to sell my ticket if we play athere game in the skydome in the summer there will be hell to pay

[WestStandGeoff]

A little angry that you have completely dominated by Lazio the last 3 years? I'm excited to watch the circus which is AS Merda.

Huh? Angry about what now?

I'm not a Roma fan, I really don't even follow Serie A. But one thing I'm certainly not a fan of are fascists.

[Canary10]

I think the ticket was a part of the season ticket pack if so I'm going to sell my ticket if we play athere game in the skydome in the summer there will be hell to pay

It wasn't part of the season ticket package.

[BuSaPuNk]

Huh? Angry about what now?

I'm not a Roma fan, I really don't even follow Serie A. But one thing I'm certainly not a fan of are fascists.

+1 big problem with that. Lets being a club who's FO turns a blind eye to fascist and racist things happening. Deplorable