Lower-division soccer must reckon with climate change-related schedule changes
Currently, Memphis 901 FC personnel are on a 10-hour bus ride back from Charleston. Soc Takes understands that club personnel shared concerns over the likelihood of Hurricane Dorian making landfall on the East Coast of the United States this week. Sources with direct knowledge of the situation informed Soc Takes that Memphis personnel recommended the game be canceled.
While the sources suggested that the league required the squad to travel down to Charleston, a USL spokesperson suggested the decision involved an equitable conversation between the club and league.
“Memphis and the league were in dialogue regarding the weather on Thursday, Aug. 29,” USL communications and public relations senior manager Scott Stewart told Soc Takes via email. “Both parties agreed that the team should travel, given there was no way to determine how the weather will materialize. The city issued a mandatory evacuation on the Sunday evening after Memphis had already traveled into market for the match. The club was given options to fly back but opted to bus.”
Regardless of whether the club had as much agency in the decision making as Stewart claims, players and staff are having to deal with the consequences of shoddy travel arrangements that could have — and should have — been avoided.
In the big scheme of things, however, particularly given the catastrophic reality of what Dorian is doing to the island of Bahamas, travel inconvenience is perhaps a trivial concern.
Yet, at some point the USL and its clubs will have to deal with the unfortunate reality which faces all of us:
- Climate change will continue to produce adverse weather events such as hurricanes.
- These will affect cities in which USL clubs operate.
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The lower divisions don’t have the best record with making responsible decisions around hurricanes.
Two weeks prior to the catastrophe of Hurricane Maria, Hurricane Irma made landfall close to Puerto Rico. At the time, Puerto Rico FC was still an active member of the then-Division II NASL.
At the time, three PRFC players reached out to Soc Takes revealing that the squad had been asked to train even though people were being asked to leave the island. A few headed to the airport directly from training, and were able to get off the island before Irma hit. A few remained stuck on the island. Luckily for the latter, Irma was not as devastating as initially predicted.
At the time, both the NASL and PRFC did not address the Irma issue with the clarity that the issue required.
Luckily, all of them were off the island by the time hurricane Maria changed the course of Puerto Rico and PRFC.
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Leagues face a difficult predicament, as they have to balance the logistics and cost of rescheduling games with player and fan safety. And the uncertainty dancing upon the fulcrum upon which that seesaw swings is summarized by Stewart’s statement, “… There was no way to determine how the weather will materialize.”
However, perhaps it is time to codify how exactly the league will respond to these increasingly common climate events.
Will the league simply wait until the last minute like PRFC and the NASL did, following city/state guidelines? Or will the league err on the side of caution when climate models are seemingly suggesting the possibility of doom, accepting that there will likely be false positives?
Should the USL schedule in extra game days at the end of the season as “make-up days” knowing that the likes of Tampa and Charleston are likely to need them? Should individual teams budget for an extra away travel day each season?
Should the league favor a lopsided schedule where coastal teams play fewer games during hurricane season?
For while the weather is unpredictable, we can confidently predict that this will happen again.
And again.
Edit: An earlier version of the article misidentified the Bahamas as Bermuda. This was corrected on 9/3/19.
Follow Nipun on Twitter: @NipunChopra7.
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