Yesterday, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jonathan Tannenwald dropped a story challenging the Philadelphia Union ownership group in a call for charter flights to be used during the Union’s stretch of three road matches in eight days. Soon enough, Twitter was buzzing.
Three road matches in eight days. One of which is across the country in San Jose, California. Yet Philadelphia Union Sporting Director Ernst Tanner decided the travel – if done commercially – would not inhibit the players’ ability to recovery, regen, and rest.
It’s a Sunday, Wednesday, to Sunday swing next week for Philadelphia and it starts at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, NJ. Then to California from Monday to Thursday (potentially). Followed by a quick stop back in Chester until Saturday when they head to Columbus, Ohio.
As reported by the Inquirer, no players within the locker room were willing to go on record about the advantages – if any – that chartered flights could provide when compared to commercial travel in instances like the one ahead for the team. Yet Union captain Alejandro Bedoya jumped to twitter last night to share some thoughts on the matter.
The above tweet from Bedoya sheds some light on what not only he is thinking when it comes to demanding charter flights from team owners, but also a league-wide opinion as well. The CBA negotiations will focus heavily on the topic, as they should.
The MLS Players Association has been a strong advocate for lifting the limit on charter flights each team can utilize throughout a given season. Right now, that limit sits at four-legs, yet some ownership groups have deep enough pockets to travel charter significantly more often but aren’t allowed. An issue some players have taken very personally, including DC United’s Wayne Rooney – publicly criticizing his team’s travel plans last month on Twitter (see below).
But for Philadelphia and Bedoya, they’ve yet to use any charter flights this season. With just four matches to go, some wonder if they’ll use any. One simple way to give a group an extra boost of self-confidence would be to provide a personal touch when traveling this week, but ultimately the decision was made without costs in mind. Meaning, costs allegedly played no role in the decision not to go charter this week.
Tim McDermott, Union CBO, joined in the twitter conversation later last night, tweeting out what he explained as the truth.
In a tweet responding to Tannenwald’s piece, McDermott stated:
“Ernst evaluated and decided best to stay overnight and go through regeneration. Rather than fly through night. Has nothing to do at all with costs. Ownership has never denied the team going charter. If Ernst felt it was best then that’s what we would do.” – McDermott
In short, this decision had nothing to do with ownership denying a charter request. In fact, according to McDermott, Union owners Jay Sugarman and Rich Leibovitch have never denied such a request.
But maybe that’s not the point here. Maybe some just want the ownership to offer the charter flights without being asked – in an effort to show some support for a team that’s outperforming any other in franchise history.
In the end, the discussion isn’t really about whether ownership denied the chartered flights, it’s all about the fact that they seem unbothered to put the idea in place without a formal request.
But for now, Union ownership will stay on the conservative side of things while sticking behind Tanner’s decision.
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Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
