Anonymous wrote:Is there a website or link that tells you if Muldoons is open or closed? We have an early game Saturday.

No way to check online.

When we played at OBSL, they do have people checking the field condition early in the morning and send emails to managers/coaches.

Based on the experience of the past two weeks, the weekend games are likely to be on schedule if Friday rains.

Is there a website or link that tells you if Muldoons is open or closed? We have an early game Saturday.

Anonymous wrote:I hope that BSC doesn’t have a home game at Muldoon Farms this weekend as the weather is expected to dump anywhere from 0.5 to 1 inch of rain tomorrow.

We have games at Muldoon both Saturday and Sunday.
Sigh.

This place is a dump, smells like crap, grass is always too long, bugs everywhere, and such a PIA to get to.

I hope that BSC doesn’t have a home game at Muldoon Farms this weekend as the weather is expected to dump anywhere from 0.5 to 1 inch of rain tomorrow.

Muldoons horrible- imagine being one of those top teams traveling in from canada, Ohio, michigan etc and playing on those fields for the Bethesda Cup- and then having to play shortened halves, have the ball not even roll because its in standing water......our players were standing in water that covered their shoelances in the corners of the field.

Horrible. Our team is not playing that tourney ever again.

Our game was just cancelled there for tomorrow.

DS has a game tomorrow afternoon at Muldoon's. With all this rain today, what will the condition be like. Is there a chance its gets cancelled?

Someone once posted the best team in the DC area were:

1) The team easiest to get to during rush hour commute.
2) The team that has the most number of your child's friends.
3) The team with the best record, coaches, strategy, skills, tactics, etc...

For a U10, I'd seriously consider a simpler option

Anonymous wrote:This is a useful stream. I have a u10 who is interested in trying out for Bethesda, but now I'm questioning--the classic team we're on has practices that are close and on good fields, and games that are pretty close and on turf. This might be the tipping point on our decision.

It’s really pathetic that BSC Travel Teams play their home game in a mud pit all the way in Poolesville while the MSI Classic Teams (select) play most of their games on turf at Germantown Soccerplex or at the local high school turf fields.

I hope BSC’s U13 and above teams plays on better grass fields or turf fields.

This is a useful stream. I have a u10 who is interested in trying out for Bethesda, but now I'm questioning--the classic team we're on has practices that are close and on good fields, and games that are pretty close and on turf. This might be the tipping point on our decision.

Anonymous wrote:I’m out at Muldoon Farms right now for a ‘soccer game’
It’s in quotes because the field is so bad that it barely resembles soccer.
It’s embarrassing to BSC, and it’s insulting to every visiting team.
I urge everyone in BSC and everyone from other programs that have to play there to email the new BSC executive director to let her know this is not acceptable.

Lisa Frates, Executive Director

lfrates@bethesdasoccer.org

You mean the "mud pit"?

The owner said the other day he was reseeding some of the fields (i.e. the 'higher ones closer to the ridge line) so they weren't open for use.

I have heard the owner of Muldoon's talk about Brad Roos wanting the fields in certain condition for tournaments (to be clear - not that it was great and it ended up being a fiasco). Wonder if he thinks Brad Roos is now gone, he has zero responsibility to save any decent field for Bethesda league games and just save for whatever event(s) he has coming up this spring. There were parts of the field that were very playable - flat, not muddy, but they were saved while the steep slopes on the sides were used for the weekend games. Refs warned about ticks as the balls went out of bounds because it was as close to the side as possible. It wasn't just NCSL, but also EDP games. We had other games for other kids on very basic grass fields that were absolutely fine. Still BSC ultimate responsibility, but something really smells on this one.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This photo doesn't really do justice as it 'looks' kind of ok but when you stepped on the grass you sank about an inch or so and water squished up from all sides. There were puddles formed in all the divots and the referee said it was simply not safe.

I would have played on it in college, when drunk.

Keep in mind, this is after a fairly dry spring. It's not like we had terrible rain storms all last week before the weekend games. Grass fields at other, non-Muldoons locations were fine and not wet at all this weekend.

You'd think that Bethesda's and Potomac's agreements with Muldoons for these fields would require some minimum level of field quality. Maybe those two clubs should threaten to terminate the agreements if Muldoons doesn't improve the field quality. Appreciate that would not improve anything the rest of this season, but it could be fixed over the summer.

The crazy thing is that the guy who owns the fields is very often out there in his golf cart monitoring the fields and keeping people from walking in the roped off areas.

My kids have played at both Potomac and Bethesda for many years. We're in the small minority that always enjoyed playing at Muldoon's farms (for regular league games, at least) because it's beautiful out there even if the fields have never been great. But as others have said, what we saw this weekend was far worse than the normal state at Muldoon's.

If you live in Potomac/Bethesda area and you play for these clubs, your home games might be farther away than your away games.

As a BSC family that actually lives in Bethesda, 90% of our away games are closer than our home games. 100% are on better fields.