Open Galaxy Practices: The First Casualty of You-Know-Who’s Impending Arrival

By: Laurie | July 12th, 2007

This was a BigSoccer post from last Friday by longtime Galaxy fan Howie. (Posted with permission.)

So today I decided to roll up to the Galaxy practice like I have done for the past few Fridays. (I’m currently teaching summer school and have Fridays off.) The press release said they were going to be practicing in University Field # 2. I parked and walked over,(slurpee in one hand, lawn chair in the other) and was greeted by green mesh all around the field and about 3 or 4 security guards. I was told by the heavy set woman (I hope she reads this!) wearing a blue securty shirt and cool toys’r'us head set communication device, that “the practices were now going to by closed to the public.” I told her that they should post this on their website so people like me would not waste their time and drive 30 minutes for nothing. She told me that her company was hired by the Galaxy to secure their practices for the rest of the season and they had nothing to do with the website.

We all knew things were going to change but I was hoping to get in one last look at a pracitice. Well, hopefully the rent-a-cop was wrong and we’ll be able to see some practices in the future, but probably not.

The posts that follow offer up several ideas on reasoning:

Safety. Valid, of course. But one poster remarks that Real Madrid opens almost all of its practices to the public. Do we really have more to worry about than they do?

Image rights. Interesting thought. I wonder if there’s anything to this. And on a related note, I’m wondering if practices will be closed to the (picture-taking) media, or just to the average Galaxy-loving fan. Does anybody know?

Distraction for the team from paparazzi. This one I can see, especially since a lot of the Galaxy guys aren’t used to what’s going to be happening. But still, I would think that this reason would be temporary. Let them get used to it, allow them to build up a tolerance, then reopen practices. It’s not so bad to get used to performing under pressure. Might even help with the actual games.

So there may be some valid reasons for the change. That said, though, do practices really need to be completely closed? Allowing fans to attend practices is a great way to allow the real fans — i.e. the ones who fork over real money for tickets and team gear — to feel closer to a team. There’s something immediate and personal about attending a practice that is very different from attending a game. It seems there should be some kind of happy medium. Maybe putting some physical distance between the players and the fans but still allowing the fans to be there?

And I’m wondering: When all the media hype dies down, will they be begging the real fans to come back?

UPDATE: Comment from reader “Typical.”