This week saw the release of the first schedule in the history of the Riveters as they get ready for their debut season.
If you take a closer look, indeed as the Steel Army did on social media, you’ll spot that there are a few weekends this upcoming season where the Riveters and Riverhounds will be playing on back-to-back days.
Given that Highmark Stadium is an artificial surface, meaning it’s more accommodating to multiple events on the same day, you might have expected that the two teams would have experimented with games on the same day, one after the other, to sell the partnership between the sides. It could even have introduced both sides to new audiences, because, trust me there is still a lot of work to do globally when it comes to fans of men's and women’s football getting along in total harmony.
Team President Jeff Garner has told me that the concept was considered for the team’s first year, but one or two problems prevented them from doing so, although he did say that the idea will certainly be revisited in the future:
“Absolutely it was considered, and we will definitely use it in the future. I think it came down to the scheduling mechanisms available to both teams. The stadium itself was also a consideration because of the changeover of locker rooms.
“With the upcoming stadium expansion there will be additional, bigger locker rooms, so then all of a sudden that concern goes out the window. The Riveters want their locker room, the Riverhounds will want their locker room, and whether there are two visiting locker rooms or one, the visiting team’s is a whole lot easier to switch in and out.
“So I think it was partially operational, part of it schedule-based, but we wanted to have some of those doubleheader weekends and we worked out that three of the five possible. So we do like the crossover, we want to have those things close together, but for one reason or the other, we weren't able to get them on the same day.”
Beyond having a few hours of just the two main teams on display, Garner would go even further and hint that we could be in line for a whole day’s worth of activities at Highmark one day if things were able to line up right:
“I just had a conversation actually in Atlanta with Detroit, who also have a USLW team. They do days where they do doubleheaders and they do bands in between, they do events and they make it a big soccer festival. You could bring in youth games, you could do a small tournament, you could do different things and then make it like a full day. So that seems very appealing to me. I think that sounds like a great day for a family.”
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THE ASYLUM
Hounds-Riveters doubleheaders 'definitely' coming
This week saw the release of the first schedule in the history of the Riveters as they get ready for their debut season.
If you take a closer look, indeed as the Steel Army did on social media, you’ll spot that there are a few weekends this upcoming season where the Riveters and Riverhounds will be playing on back-to-back days.
Given that Highmark Stadium is an artificial surface, meaning it’s more accommodating to multiple events on the same day, you might have expected that the two teams would have experimented with games on the same day, one after the other, to sell the partnership between the sides. It could even have introduced both sides to new audiences, because, trust me there is still a lot of work to do globally when it comes to fans of men's and women’s football getting along in total harmony.
Team President Jeff Garner has told me that the concept was considered for the team’s first year, but one or two problems prevented them from doing so, although he did say that the idea will certainly be revisited in the future:
“Absolutely it was considered, and we will definitely use it in the future. I think it came down to the scheduling mechanisms available to both teams. The stadium itself was also a consideration because of the changeover of locker rooms.
“With the upcoming stadium expansion there will be additional, bigger locker rooms, so then all of a sudden that concern goes out the window. The Riveters want their locker room, the Riverhounds will want their locker room, and whether there are two visiting locker rooms or one, the visiting team’s is a whole lot easier to switch in and out.
“So I think it was partially operational, part of it schedule-based, but we wanted to have some of those doubleheader weekends and we worked out that three of the five possible. So we do like the crossover, we want to have those things close together, but for one reason or the other, we weren't able to get them on the same day.”
Beyond having a few hours of just the two main teams on display, Garner would go even further and hint that we could be in line for a whole day’s worth of activities at Highmark one day if things were able to line up right:
“I just had a conversation actually in Atlanta with Detroit, who also have a USLW team. They do days where they do doubleheaders and they do bands in between, they do events and they make it a big soccer festival. You could bring in youth games, you could do a small tournament, you could do different things and then make it like a full day. So that seems very appealing to me. I think that sounds like a great day for a family.”
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