Make it red with a yellow facemask and it'd be decent

Sorry. Yes in this case it appears to be private companies. I assumed it was a dep't of public works that handled this like most other cities. And in fairness, unions pretty much invented bid-rigging (the practice was once so entrenched that it inspired movies like On The Waterfront). But point taken on this…

unionized public works that are expensive and corrupt?!?! I'm shocked...SHOCKED!!!

Buddy of mine does this every year. Set his personal best this year by making it until Thursday (4 days). Amusing to follow along, if for no other reason than to realize how pervasive The Knowledge really is. I couldn't/wouldn't want to attempt it.

I care nothing for Bob Kraft, but just for the record, Gillette Stadium was privately financed (albeit half with loans from the NFL to Kraft). He did make some threats about moving the team to RI or CT before getting a deal from the state of MA for infrastructure improvements (mainly to Route 1), but no public funds…

You're right about the contractors and the private organizing committee, headed by people like the Krafts and some Celtics minority owners. You're wrong about no city government input. Marty Walsh has been all over this, even if he's not "on the committee." And he was a union boss before becoming mayor and very tight…

The hubris and cognitive dissonance required to utter

Greg Howard: MLS sucks and isn't a viable career option for any good Americans

Wrong comparison. Dom Dwyer, BWP, Martins, Dempsey, Higuain would all tear up Ligue 1 today.

How many bona-fide stars cam you name playing in Ligue 1 (PSG excluded, or not since Zlatan's over 30, I don't care) or the Eredivisie? Because they have about as many as MLS and the quality of play is quite similar.

The worst part of this is that it prolongs ESPN's hagiographic "1K" promotion of Duke games leading up to Coach K's 1,000th win. I was already sick of it and now it extends another week or two.

Can't wait for my alma mater (Kansas) to snag him out from Missouri's backyard. Rescue him from the hellhole that is Columbia, MO.

My wife used to have a roommate in college who would drive 20 minutes across town to buy expired bread from the Wonder Bread outlet. Extra time/gas & much worse food all to save like one dollar, max two. What a moron.

This is one of the things I always think when Eurosnobs blindly insist MLS emulate everything Europe. Yet, in fairness, European clubs are hyperlocal, and like European political parties, often developed on the same ethnic, religious, or class faultlines that have always caused friction in Europe. In MLS, since clubs…

Knoxville. Knoxville is the least cool of Tennessee's mid-sized cities. Too much orange, no good food. Too big to be a proper college town, too small to be remarkable. Nashville has quite a lot going for it & is much more than it's country music only Nash-vegas image. Memphis at least has BBQ. Chattanooga is not…

To prove your point about other guys in the league/Europe being stuck while Philly pays cardboard cutouts: Jeff Withey could benefit from some PT this season. He's stuck behind Davis & Asik in N.O. and showed some signs of being a useful backup big in this league. But at this rate, he's probably out of luck when his…

Wouldn't mind them going back to KC. Although at this point Sprint Center is doing ok (actually profitable!) without an anchor tenant, and serves as a useful object lesson about the duplicity and mendacity employed by outfits like AEG to get arenas/stadiums built around the country.

In the words of WSJ's Jason Gay:

i agree there are some good independent bloggers putting out some very sharp and deep content. problem is, those are labors of love, not paying gigs (in almost all cases), and they still hinge on being granted access by the clubs (who retain veto rights over things like, say, season ticket renewals). it's really…

Same thing happened with Andy Edwards and Sporting KC - they pushed for his removal from hosting the post-game radio call-in show because he was deemed too critical for the club's liking. Pathetic, really (and I'm a SKC supporter).