Hartford Athletic to Begin Season in July | The Boneyard

Hartford Athletic to Begin Season in July

UCFBfan

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This is great news. It's good to see one minor league franchise in Hartford will be playing.

I'm seriously worried about the Yard Goats future. I just read the SI article about MiLB and their issues and it was from info in April. Looking at how things have panned out now and how MLB is looking to control MiLB....it's going to be tough for any MiLB team to come out of this....
 
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This is great news. It's good to see one minor league franchise in Hartford will be playing.

I'm seriously worried about the Yard Goats future. I just read the SI article about MiLB and their issues and it was from info in April. Looking at how things have panned out now and how MLB is looking to control MiLB....it's going to be tough for any MiLB team to come out of this....
I wouldn't worry about the Yard Goats. They are one of the most successful minor league teams in the country.
 

Waquoit

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I wouldn't worry about the Yard Goats. They are one of the most successful minor league teams in the country.
Insider tip: Get a table in the Bud center field. The bar and head are right there. And the seats are Hartford's version of Monster seats. The four of us had a great time even though it was rain delayed until 9.
 
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Waquoit

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Did you check your Cheerios for traces of yellow?
 
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This is great news. It's good to see one minor league franchise in Hartford will be playing.

I'm seriously worried about the Yard Goats future. I just read the SI article about MiLB and their issues and it was from info in April. Looking at how things have panned out now and how MLB is looking to control MiLB....it's going to be tough for any MiLB team to come out of this....

I'm not that worried about the Yard Goats. They have a new facility, solid attendance and are in the Northeast located in close proximity to a bunch of MLB teams so travel costs are lower. The Norwich team is on the cutting block though along with the entire A Short-Season New York Penn League. I don't think they can be saved; but, I think MLB will try to work out some league change for the Brooklyn Cyclones, Lowell Spinners and maybe the Staten Island Yankees as all are located near major league teams and draw well.
 
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I'm not that worried about the Yard Goats. They have a new facility, solid attendance and are in the Northeast located in close proximity to a bunch of MLB teams so travel costs are lower. The Norwich team is on the cutting block though along with the entire A Short-Season New York Penn League. I don't think they can be saved; but, I think MLB will try to work out some league change for the Brooklyn Cyclones, Lowell Spinners and maybe the Staten Island Yankees as all are located near major league teams and draw well.
There's been a big drop-off in NY-P attendance in recent years so most teams are candidates to be cut. Staten Island has performed terribly at the gate - basically having the same attendance as Norwich over the last four years. The top draws are Brooklyn (which has still fallen from 7.5K to about 5K), Hudson Valley (Poughkeepsie area) and Tri-City (Albany area). They may be the only three survivors. Lowell is a possibility even though they've fallen from a guaranteed 5K sellout to 3K+. The Spinners might be a 4th survivor or replace Hudson Valley, which might lose out because its stadium is marginal (lots of bleachers across I-84 from Fishkill prison). These clubs will replace weak links at higher levels such as Binghamton and Erie in the Eastern League.

In any case, Hartford will be safe for the foreseeable future. However, those that think they are locked in as one of the strongest franchises don't know minor league history. It's littered with teams that drew tremendously for a period (in addition to those discussed above look at Aberdeen in the NY-P which was a guaranteed sellout for the stadium's first 5 years and was owned by Cal Ripken) and then fell off a cliff. It's important for Yard Goats management to keep the foot on the pedal and work to keep the experience fresh once the "new stadium smell" wears off.
 
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Hartford Athletic's first home game is going to be on ESPN2! July 20.
Makes sense. No live baseball or NFL camps open yet so there won't be much competition and they only have to send a production truck 20 miles up I-84 so it's cheap content.
 
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ESPN signed a three year deal with the USL mostly to advance ESPN+ but it had already intented to show some games on cable. Given the dearth of sports on TV, it worked out well for both.
 
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Up 1-0, but they look just like last season. No build up or ball control. It's at most a pass or two and then they try to go over the top. Everyone is standing around instead of moving to space. Ball control was 65% NYRB II at the half.
 

Waquoit

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Last year they didn't win until their 11th game.
 
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True, but if they played 10 more times like this, HA might be 1-10. They got an early SportsCenter type goal because of an alert clearance by the goaltender and a brutal play by his RBII peer. After that they played the overwhelming majority of the game in their own end, packing the defense and just making long clears to force NY to build up from the back again.
 

Waquoit

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That's how they win on the road in Serie A. Get a goal on the counter-attack and close up shop. No shots on goal for the home team in the 2nd half. Go pee in someone is someone else's Cheerios, bub.
 
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Oh please. They won and that's good. However, you know that there are wins when you outplay the opposition and games when you don't but eek one out on fortuitous bounces. This was one of the latter. Thanks to an awful play by RBII's goaltender, HA converted their one real chance (OK, maybe two if you add one other counter attack by Dixon which he put just wide) while RBII had a far greater number of superior opportunities that they didn't convert. That included two in the second half that should have been sure goals, one off the post and one when their striker got his legs tangled up while taking a cross all alone in front of the goal. I'll guarantee that the coach is happy with 3 points, but will tell them they need to play much better if they want to compete this year. Being better than last year's nearly bottom of the table result should not be the standard.
 

Waquoit

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Last year this board was wondering if Hartford win a game all year. Now this team wins on the road as an underdog first time out of the box and you're muttering about style points. The announcers for the home team praised Athletic all second half for their discipline with the lead. That's good coaching. And that was a great win, your posts are just blather.
 
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That's how they win on the road in Serie A. Get a goal on the counter-attack and close up shop. No shots on goal for the home team in the 2nd half. Go pee in someone is someone else's Cheerios, bub.

That's how Leicester City won the Prem.
 
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Last year this board was wondering if Hartford win a game all year. Now this team wins on the road as an underdog first time out of the box and you're muttering about style points. The announcers for the home team praised Athletic all second half for their discipline with the lead. That's good coaching. And that was a great win, your posts are just blather.
I was at the first home win last year so I know how long it took. That should not be the standard to measure this year. You can play disciplined defense and still have some semblance of ball control passing. You can also counter attack against a pressing team by playing the ball to space and generating deliberate movement forward. It doesn't mean you have to stand around while a defender boots the ball (often blindly) downfield - occasionally with a runner to try and counter but more often just to turn the ball over. Good defense or not, had RBII converted any of a half-dozen premium chances this game would have been considered a bust in which HA was dominated.

As for being on a the road, they were playing in an empty stadium where the home roster had never played. RB has an offsite training complex 30 minutes away so at most the reserve team (note that they were shown arriving on a bus, presumably from the training ground) might have snuck in a practice in their new temporary home. That's not much of a home field advantage. Add in the fact that they were missing some members still with the big club as practice players so they had to sign kids out of their academy to field a full squad and it doesn't seem like such an intimidating environment. Take the 3 points, but don't try to make this into some grand victory.
 
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I'm not even reading that last screed.
Ignorance is bliss. If you think what we saw on Friday was comparable to Leicester City then I'm not sure what to tell you. They actually take advantage of space and move forward with an order to their counter. Just playing defense and doing long clears with little intent to organize a counter is not the same thing. Leicester City actually finished as one of the top goal scoring teams that year because the counter attack is a critical 90 minute strategy for them. I'm curious if ZooCougar actually saw the HA game or is just basing it on a presumption of a counter-attacking style that really didn't exist.
 
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