Wednesday, April 29, 2015

But They Love Us!



Count me among the people who don't think this proposal from NYCFC to demolish and replace Wien Stadium will ever happen.

I do see some positives from it, but plenty of negatives especially the loss of whatever autonomy Columbia has over the space. And I don't see how the streets in the neighborhood could accommodate even 10,000 more cars coming into that bottleneck 20 times a year.

But here's one completely positive thing to consider: The fact that deep-pocketed private sector investors see our home field and environs as an attractive location is a nice boost. Does anyone think that anyone saw Inwood as the place to be 40, 30, or even 20 years ago?

Hey Ivy opponents, which one of your stadiums or locations has been targeted for a $400 million professional sports stadium and millions more in other amenities? I can't hear you. Yeah, that's what I thought.

The days of deprecating our location just got a half billion dollar slap in the face. No need to actually build this soccer stadium, the proposal says it all.

The negative recruiting of players by using our location against is over and this slams the door on that.



Welcome Eric Hahn

Columbia has picked up Eric Hahn from Bucknell as our new of football operations. He's another guy with Penn and St. Joseph's connections. He's got a lot of work to catch up on as Columbia prepares for its recruiting summer camps at Baker Field and much more.


And ONE MORE Thing...

You MUST check out this great video depicting Columbia's start down the road to success.

This is what the beginning of rising from the ashes looks like:



8 comments:

Anonymous said...

People have had all kinds of interesting ideas for pro sports venues in NYC. Wasn't there a floating mega barge proposed at some point and a mega rooftop facility? In practical terms, I would not be in favor of sharing a venue with a pro sports team unless revenue guarantees made it worth the hassle. Soccer needs their own facilities. That has been proven over time as soccer has grown in the U.S.

Not having seen good practice footage for the program in quite a while , my impressions are they look like an actual team with a sense of purpose. That is at least 2 steps forward from the deflated morale of the past few seasons.

oldlion said...

Any reports on how Chris Connors is doing? I thought he had the best pair of hands on the team before his broken leg slowed him down.

Jake said...

Sadly, Chris seems to be way down on the depth chart. But i still have hopes.

alawicius said...

Jake,

And Nellie is gone for good?

Coach said...

Why are they spending a million dollars for a new field when the money could go towards the recruiting budget?

Jake said...

Field turf needs to be replaced every 10 years

Coach said...

Peter Pilling called the Taylor report a "living" document and a "baseline" for future success. Jake - you talked about ending the secrecy of the Athletics department. Why can't we see the Taylor report if it so significant?
Also, what happened to your idea regarding the JV football program?

oldlion said...

Jake, best news today is that we will not be getting the Obama Library. Money that would have gone for that boondoggle can now be put to better use.