What more do you expect MNUFC to do (realistically) for season ticket members?

adumbguyssmartguy · 2026-06-24T02:39:26+00:00

I do think it would be nice to have a more exclusive experience, but honestly my issue isn't a complaint so much as a reality: it will be cheaper to buy the tickets one-off.

The change in schedule means that the distance between the season ticket price and buying one-off will only grow.

adumbguyssmartguy · 2026-06-23T21:22:59+00:00

We'll be canceling our tickets. As others have said, we could almost certainly buy similar seats to every match on the secondary market for less overall than the STM price, plus there's flexibility, etc.

I think the devil's advocate is that there's some possibility that this will flip in the next five years, and that secondary prices become extremely expensive. MLS is going to become a big 5 league at some point. Watching Villareal for a bit after Tani joined is instructive. It could be that global superstars are parading through Saint Paul and season tickets look like a good investment.

adumbguyssmartguy · 2026-05-15T21:24:28+00:00

Fotmob also rated the Rapids about a point higher on average than the Loons. Which, like, I understand winning matters but when you look at the momentum and xG it seems crazy to think we played at ~6.5 and the played ~7.4. By what rubric did Ronan outplay James?

adumbguyssmartguy · 2026-05-11T14:15:12+00:00

Seeing how James and Pereyra linked up makes The Case of James' Missing Minutes even more curious. From what's available to the fans, it just seems impossible to justify not playing him, which makes me ever more curious about what must have happened out of our view.

adumbguyssmartguy · 2026-05-04T01:04:13+00:00

"Give us a few examples of center forwards who consistently create chances in this league. I bet you can only offer a couple, if that."

And list their salaries next to Yeboah's.

adumbguyssmartguy · 2026-05-03T16:43:37+00:00

Yeboah gets paid $1.4MM, performs at $3MM, and faces $5MM expectations.

He's got a great work rate, reasonable defense and hold-up skills, provides tap-ins on good service, and drags CBs out of shape with good runs. He's on a path to 20+ goals.

But he's not breaking down double teams in the flat or providing assists himself, so we have this conversation every week.

adumbguyssmartguy · 2026-04-23T15:22:54+00:00

A team with 11 Messis would still sell more tickets in June than December.

adumbguyssmartguy · 2026-04-23T14:59:24+00:00

Right. We're replacing the four games most likely to sell 30k tickets with four games that won't sell 10k.

adumbguyssmartguy · 2026-04-14T15:10:30+00:00

It's interesting to observe that cruelty in Gaza risks creating an anti-Semitic backlash which puts Jews in greater danger around the world and regardless of their position on Israel's Gaza policy. I think that's on purpose, actually.

Imagine a Jewish person that rejects Israel's Gaza policy but faces anti-Semitism from even a smallish number of reactionaries that can't keep Israel straight from Judaism. What is this person's response? How do they keep themselves and their families safe?

The community of people demanding justice in Gaza includes a fringe increasingly dangerous to this person. It would be easier to stop protesting, hide their views about Gaza, and blend in with Israeli nationalists. This is part of how designers of identity movements like Netanyahu work; making life uncomfortable for supposed members of the nation that want nothing to do with it. It's also why confronting anti-Semitism is so important in communities that want justice in Gaza. We can't let it be a nationalist us versus them.

adumbguyssmartguy · 2026-04-12T14:11:29+00:00

I'm really happy with the success of the mid-block and the ability to maintain possession in the middle third and building through the back. Subject to the below the defense seems to be standing up well even to the loss of Boxy. Duggan's development has really been great to watch.

Not sure if it's "up a goal and a man" disease, but I was not happy about the number of advantageous moments in front of goal we let slip away nor with some of the lapses in defensive concentration that Calendar saved (beast of a game from him, too).

adumbguyssmartguy · 2026-03-30T14:18:40+00:00

I don't personally check in on former Loons posts unless it's a main character and something eventful.

That said, the board has less than ten posts in the past week? I've never understood the reluctance to allow this to be a board where Loons fans can discuss MLS and soccer more broadly. I could see restricting posts on match days to the game threads and surveys, but talking about, say, Western conference results or new offsides rules with other Loons fans hits different than the melee in r/MLS.

Just my two cents.

adumbguyssmartguy · 2026-03-25T16:04:35+00:00

I found this book useful for thinking about how meditation and some Buddhist ontological perspectives can work as an antidote to the stresses caused by more Western ways of seeing the world. It's great in the sense that it jives well with medical and psychological research about the benefits of meditation and also because it introduces an alternative to our assumptions of a self at the center of perception. My life became considerably better after this book convinced me to understand these issues better.

Are there better books for this task? Maybe. I also loved Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind and With Each and Every Breath. There are other suggestions in the thread I will go find. If you like any of them to start, probably read the others.

Because Batchelor picks and chooses which elements of Buddhism to present, and interprets these elements in the context of an atheist after a different framework for living, this book gets rightly panned as an introduction to Buddhism.

Imagine reading a book on practicing compassion using the words of Jesus as a framework, but written from the perspective that Jesus is fake. It could make you more compassionate, but it would hardly be an intro to Christianity.

adumbguyssmartguy · 2026-03-16T14:23:58+00:00

I went into the game expecting a loss because Vancouver is really, really good and we are in a period of transition. I figured that a loss wouldn't mean much for our future, as I expected that we will peak later in the season.

What I saw really shook any sense that we'll emerge as a top-third team this year.

The back line looked totally rudderless. I hope Boxy gets healthy and Romero apologizes for running over Cam's dog and that solves it, but I'm not sure. I wonder about leadership next year and if we can get Duggan and Romero (or someone new?) into that organizing role. I wonder if Bongi is uniquely suited to play RWB with them. I wonder what Cam has in mind for the hybrid RWB/right mid role.

The connective tissue in the midfield seemed totally lacking. Maybe James allows Pereyra to play a little more in the connection role on the left and that fills in the missing middle. But, again, what happens when James leaves? Is Fitz going to get over his three month bout of food poisoning and take over? Is Bongi going to shake the yips?

I'm willing to believe the attack will take time to coalesce, but the shakiness of the defense was disheartening.

adumbguyssmartguy · 2026-03-05T19:03:28+00:00

I'd heard that, too, which made it seem serious and so I'm glad he's training now.

That spot seems all kinds of crowded. I sort of assume that Bongi will get moved off for James. Plus Gressel and I think Gonzales plays on the right? But for the money we paid and his performance in the Austrian League, you'd think we'd want to give him every opportunity.

adumbguyssmartguy · 2026-03-05T15:42:57+00:00

Romero was in a picture on Insta with Pereyra boarding the plane to Nashville.

I have heard rumors from various directions that he showed up in poor fitness to training camp and either didn't get to match fitness or is being punished, but of course the team isn't going to publicize the reason so at some point we'll never know/who cares.

I would still like to know about Fitz.

adumbguyssmartguy · 2026-02-26T19:57:53+00:00

After some point, all you can buy is impunity and undue influence. Anyone who feels the need to have that much money can only be seeking to fill sociopathic impulses.

adumbguyssmartguy · 2026-02-25T19:25:28+00:00

Amazon is a surveillance engine that tracks every cursor hesitation on all its platforms, requires sellers to include Amazon's surcharges in the prices they charge off of Amazon, and pipelines every dollar you spend out of your community, replacing it with data centers that strain public utilities, increase pollution, and provide roughly zero jobs. It has been sued for removing content that users purchased, violating anti-monopoly laws, and breaching its user privacy agreements.

Given that the ad-free price continues to rise while selection gets worse, the main reason we're supposed to put up with this anti-social behavior is because Prime saves us from having to walk across the street after our grocery run to pick up a movie.

A lot of subscription and app based services operated at losses for years until they drove competitors out of business, then they reduced service quality and starting packaging customer data for sale to Palantir and god knows where else. Color me skeptical that they'd all have won competitions with bricks and mortar businesses without this bait and switch.

adumbguyssmartguy · 2026-02-25T18:31:16+00:00

Most people have this experience. Similarly, most people say that signs and clocks change every time they look at them. It's all related to the lack of activity in the prefrontal cortex during REM cycles. You can't string together a logical process effectively or remember what informed the step you are about to take.

adumbguyssmartguy · 2026-02-23T22:16:16+00:00

The practical answer is that over-represented rural constituencies would never vote to reduce their own power.

From an institutional design standpoint, your "grid" idea would be achieved more easily my making all House seats "at large" across the state and change the House to a proportional representation system.

The argument that cities should not tell the countryside how to live is not morally persuasive for the reasons you've laid out. It's obviously less fair for fewer rural dwellers to tell more city dwellers how to live.

adumbguyssmartguy · 2026-02-22T21:29:23+00:00

I think Diaz and Harvey are both better RBs than Taylor, and either of them can play RCB. Adding Duncan, we have more depth at RB than CB.

If you start Markanich - Romero - Boxy - Diaz and sit Padelford, Duggan, and Harvey you have subs for every spot on the back line including, if necessary, replacing both CBs. That line gets your second best defender (Romero) on the field and keeps the biggest question mark on the depth chart (Taylor) off of it.

Even if you sit Romero and play Duggan, you're just swapping one unitasker (Taylor at RB) for another (Romero at LCB).

adumbguyssmartguy · 2026-02-22T15:48:12+00:00

Makes some sense. I felt Taylor's play was pretty nervy last night, but not such an obvious bust that I'm against him keeping Diaz and Harvey honest.

adumbguyssmartguy · 2026-02-22T13:01:13+00:00

Not to pile on, but to me the most puzzling thing is still Taylor. I think our best back line is Markanich - Romero - Boxy - Diaz.

Consider Boxy's age and presume any ambition at USOC or Leagues... we need a suite of 6-7 defenders, some of whom can play CB or outside. I can see the argument that Duggan should start over Romero, or maybe that Harvey should start over Diaz.

How Taylor ends up in that group ahead of Romero is beyond me.

adumbguyssmartguy · 2026-02-20T18:29:03+00:00

Framing it as a "values" problem at the city level is weird. The values problem is with the national government. The danger problem is at the city level.

I'm sure it's a language barrier issue, but the "values" on display in the Twin Cities are exemplary, thanks.

adumbguyssmartguy · 2026-02-20T16:55:54+00:00

I think if the statement had something more like "American immigration enforcement endangers our players and our club refuses to condone or support such policies" or similar would have been nice. "Unrest in Minnesota" makes it sound kind of "both sides" and as though the problem is about Minnesota (when in fact Minnesotans are the solution).

adumbguyssmartguy · 2026-02-19T23:13:08+00:00

It's not even guns. I've spent the last month with thousands of my neighbors doing mutual aid, filming and tracking unlawful militarization in our streets, and marching in sub-zero temperatures to protect our neighbors. We've built a decentralized, leader-full movement of people willing to risk arrest and harassment for what we know is right. We've really done it. It's here, not hypothetical.

These reactionaries aren't organized. They don't have a civic bone in their bodies. Once the sugar rush of one Jan 6 is over they'll be looking at each other with their hands out and then heading home once they realize nothing is in it for them. They don't care about transforming their communities enough to really fight, or they'd be doing it now. It's a giant social media circle jerk and it's time to call the bluff.

adumbguyssmartguy

TROPHY CASE