Washington Spirit negotiating training site with D.C. United, and more: Freedom Kicks for 10/26/2021

Good morning! Yesterday I felt like D.C. United had a long time between games, because instead of less than 72 hours between kickoffs, it was an incredible over 90 hours between kickoffs! Can you imagine? What an absurdly long amount of time between games! Might as well be one whole year.

Ha, just kidding, it has actually once again been not enough time, the schedule will devour us all. Here’s the injury update:

It’s not great, but if Andy Najar and Paul Arriola end up on the positive side of that TBD, United’s suddenly much more formidable going forward. Here’s hoping for good news at roughly 6:35pm tomorrow.

Washington Spirit training at local high school amid dispute with D.C. United over facility use | The Athletic
Things are in flux for the Washington Spirit at the moment, and that includes where training has taken place all year (there are at least six places they’ve trained this year that I have knowledge of, and Pablo Maurer’s report here mentions Audi Field, which would take the figure up to seven). Negotiations are ongoing on how much it would cost them to move in at United’s training facility, but that would be complicated by the ownership situation still being worked out.

There are a lot of details in here, including changed dynamics in the Spirit front office, so read up.

Onto less ambiguous news:

Kumi Yokoyama proposed to their partner at Audi Field yesterday, which is just tremendous. Congrats to them both!

Rodolfo Pizarro could soon be leaving Inter Miami | 90min
Our old friend Lizzy Becherano is reporting that Rodolfo Pizarro’s reps met with Inter Miami recently. Miami certainly has to do something to sort out what is fundamentally a broken roster that will be hemmed in by their years-long punishment for violating MLS rules.

Kansas City NWSL and Port KC Finalize Plans for First NWSL Purpose-Built Stadium at Kansas City Riverfront | KCwoso.com
This is flat-out huge NWSL news breaking this morning: Kansas City NWSL announced plans to build a privately-funded downtown stadium for themselves. Since we already discussed NWSL training facilities, it’s worth noting that KC already has plans underway on that front.

Kassouf: Angel City’s ticket-revenue share with players is simple and smart | Equalizer Soccer
Speaking of breaking new ground, here’s an explainer on how Angel City FC’s plan to share 1% of ticket revenue with its players will work.

Alright, time for breakfast. Stay dry out there!