Sports

Yankee Stadium soccer pitch criticized by Union’s Alejandro Bedoya: ‘Absolutely the worst field ever’

Published

1 day ago

August 17, 2026

Yankee Stadium’s temporary soccer pitch drew ridicule and criticism from fans and Philadelphia Union midfielder Alejandro Bedoya, who called it “absolutely the worst field ever” before Sunday’s win over New York City FC.

The field at Yankee Stadium, which mostly hosts baseball, has long been problematic for Major League Soccer matches. Grass is laid over the infield dirt of the baseball diamond, which is often still visible.

But it looked especially grotesque on Sunday evening. Significant chunks of the temporary grass — near second base on the baseball diamond, and near the sideline at midfield of the soccer pitch — looked dead.

“Look how patchy it is,” Bedoya said in a video that he later posted to Instagram.

There was also a solid strip on the field of play near one corner flag that wasn’t covered with grass. It appeared to be the first-base coach’s box.

“Look at this, rock hard,” Bedoya said in his video as he stomped on the solid surface. “This is terrible.”

The video was taken during pre-game familiarization, a time when players stroll the pitch in sneakers and casual clothes before changing into their boots and kits. In the background, one of Bedoya’s peers said: “MLS. S***!”

Bedoya then turned his camera to show a dark line — which appeared to be an outfield portion of the first-base line — intersecting the six-yard box.

About the pitch…

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— Jonathan Tannenwald (@jtannenwald.bsky.social) 23:13 · Aug 16, 2026

“I cannot wait for the new stadium,” Bedoya continued, “because, yeah, Yankee Stadium, it’s cool for baseball. For soccer? Never.”

The “new stadium” that Bedoya referenced is Etihad Park, which will open in July of 2027. It is the soccer-specific stadium that NYCFC has been seeking for more than a decade, ever since it launched as an MLS expansion franchise in 2015 and even beforehand.

While the club explored potential sites and pursued various stadium plans, Yankee Stadium has been its primary home. The stadium, located in the Bronx, is owned by the City of New York but operated by Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees, whose holding company also owns a 10 per cent stake in NYCFC.

Throughout its decade-plus as a soccer venue, Yankee Stadium has drawn consistent derision, both for the narrowness of its pitch and the playing surface.

“It’s not a good pitch,” Montreal Impact coach Remi Garde said after a game there in 2019. “It’s a shame that good players, like there were on the field today on both sides, cannot play good football.”

It is not always as bad as it was on Sunday, though. The reasons for the pronounced issues weren’t immediately clear. An NYCFC spokesperson declined to comment. The Yankees had played there on Thursday, but were out of town for a weekend series and will remain on the road until Friday of the coming week — a relatively standard cadence.

After Thursday’s baseball game, a reporter on site captured a video of the field-conversion process beginning.

The pitch did not significantly impact Sunday’s match between the Union and NYCFC in any major moments, though all five goals were scored at the other end, where the outfield grass generally makes for an OK soccer surface.

NYCFC led 2-0 at halftime, but the Union came back to win 3-2, with striker Bruno Damiani scoring both the equalizer and the winner.

The Athletic has approached a MLS spokespeople for comment.

Sports

Nottingham Forest announce new shirt sponsor four days before Premier League opener

Published

5 minutes ago

August 19, 2026

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Forest had played in pre-season without a front-of-shirt sponsor. David Rogers/Getty Images

Aug. 18, 2026 7:54 am EDT Updated

Nottingham Forest have secured a new front-of-shirt sponsor four days ahead of the visit of Leeds United for the start of their Premier League season.

Global financial services platform Marex have agreed a deal to sponsor the City Ground club, as well as the women’s team and the Nottingham Forest netball side.

Forest had previously been sponsored by Bally’s last season but new rules preventing top-flight sides from being sponsored by companies with links to gambling ensured that they had to find a new sponsor.

And, as Forest enter into their fifth consecutive season in the Premier League, under the newly appointed Oliver Glasner, they will do so with the Marex logo on the front of their shirts, after agreeing a multi-year deal.

Marex is a diversified global financial services platform with more than 50 offices worldwide and over 3,000 employees across Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis said in a statement: “This partnership is another important step in the continued growth of our club, and we look forward to working together and building a successful relationship.”

A boost for Forest ahead of new season

Forest were one of a handful of Premier League teams who faced the prospect of starting the new season with a blank space on the front of their shirts.

Like many other clubs, Forest have been impacted by the rules preventing the promotion of gambling — five of their last seven sponsors had links to the gambling industry.

One of the exceptions was in 2022-2023, when the club generously displayed the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) logo on the front of their shirts, after failing to secure a principal sponsor.

Securing an agreement with a company in the financial industry is a boost for the club ahead of the new season.

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Sports

Fallout from the Lakers’ sale already reverberating throughout the organization

Published

12 minutes ago

August 19, 2026

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There’s what’s good for Mark Walter, the loans and the credit he used to conquer Los Angeles’ pro sports empire coming due as quickly as the boundaries were built. For him, a quickie sale of the Los Angeles Lakers to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner for a record valuation of $12.5 billion made a bunch of sense.

There’s what’s good for the Buss siblings not in the team facility, a chance to fully wash clean of the family business that’s caused fractures and frustrations, while cashing out for the second time in a little more than a year. For them, the roles with the organization that defined their family name essentially ended a year ago when Walter bought the team, either formally or informally. It’s why they voted as a block to put their shares up for sale, something they informed Walter, Iger and Kushner of on Monday.

There’s what’s good for Jeanie Buss, the governor who took control of the organization after the death of her and her siblings’ father and steered them through family drama, unthinkable organizational tragedies from the death of Kobe Bryant to the Palisades fires, and one championship. She led the Lakers into that $10 billion sale to Walter, securing at least five years of governorship. And now, according to her attorney, she believes the family trust doesn’t have majority voting authority to trigger a sale. So she’s going to fight. Because that’s what makes the most sense for her.

For the Lakers, there are ripples.

Everything we know about the Lakers being sold again

Dan Woike

What about the players who are boarding flights to Slovenia to invest in their locker room for the upcoming season, to build chemistry and push the Lakers back to championship glory? What about the employees in the building, the ones who could only sort of shrug their shoulders as they’ve seen two sales since June 2025? What about the ones who held their breath as the new ownership group underwent two separate runs of layoffs and saw their friends ushered by security into a holding room near the front door while they waited to be fired? What about front office bosses who have hired people while on their way out? What about those who built a roster in the image of one group but now wait for another one? What about a fan base sold a vision that the success of the Los Angeles Dodgers would soon be theirs?

What about the Lakers?

Inside the team facility, according to sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the uncertainty around everyone’s job security, it was, weirdly enough, business as usual Monday.

According to a pair of league sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to publicly discuss the Lakers’ internal operations, there is a belief around the NBA that the team cannot complete the buildout of its basketball operations department until the ownership situation is resolved. After laying out a vision for a pair of assistant general managers, with one focused on analytics and one focused on player scouting, the team has yet to make any inroads in pro scouting. With preseason games set to start in a little more than a month, filling a staff and getting everyone accustomed to a system was already going to be difficult. Now it feels like a distant hope more than a reality.

Franchise sales always result in a bit of a holding pattern, as the old group still technically operates things while the new group moves toward closing. In typical situations, a longer bid process means teams that buy in have a pretty good plan in place and can start putting things into motion. That’s not the case when a deal like this comes together over a weekend and there aren’t any real plans in place.

“It’s just premature to speculate at all about what we plan to do, because frankly, we haven’t made any plans yet,” Iger told the California Post last week.

That’s probably for the best. An already fluid situation got more fluid Monday, as any hope of a smooth transition disappeared with that letter from Jeanie Buss’ attorney. This kind of change was probably never going to be smooth.

And now, everyone else involved will deal with the bumps.

— Sam Amick contributed to this report.

Sports

How to watch Blue Jays vs. Rays: TV channel and streaming options for August 18

Published

19 minutes ago

August 19, 2026

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Ryan Vilade brings a two-game homer streak into the Tampa Bay Rays’ game against the Toronto Blue Jays at 6:40 p.m. ET on Tuesday, at Tropicana Field. Nick Martinez (12-3, 2.74 ERA) gets the start for the Rays, who are 75-49 this season and first in the AL East. Jose Soriano (9-6, 3.23 ERA) is the expected starter for the Blue Jays, who are 61-65 and fifth in the AL East.

How to watch Toronto Blue Jays vs. Tampa Bay Rays

Blue Jays vs. Rays odds

Favorite Moneyline: Rays -135
Underdog Moneyline: Blue Jays +115
Total: 7.5
Total Over Odds: -105
Total Under Odds: -115

Injury reports

Rays

Ben Williamson: 10 Day IL (Hamstring), Cole Sulser: 15 Day IL (Back), Griffin Jax: 15 Day IL (Elbow), Jake Fraley: 60 Day IL (Groin), Manuel Rodriguez: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Ryan Pepiot: 60 Day IL (Hip), Gavin Lux: 60 Day IL (Shoulder), Jon Heasley: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Edwin Uceta: 60 Day IL (Shoulder)

Blue Jays

Luis Urias: 10 Day IL (Quadricep), Jonatan Clase: 10 Day IL (Foot), Spencer Arrighetti: 15 Day IL (Foot), Jameson Taillon: 15 Day IL (Forearm), Trey Yesavage: 15 Day IL (Knee), Cody Ponce: 60 Day IL (Knee), Anthony Santander: 60 Day IL (Shoulder), Jake Bloss: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Bowden Francis: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Joe Mantiply: 60 Day IL (Knee), Addison Barger: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Yimi Garcia: 60 Day IL (Elbow), José Berrios: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Patrick Corbin: 60 Day IL (Shoulder), Vladimir Guerrero Jr.: 7 Day IL (Head)

Stats to know

Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero has hit 35 home runs this season, which ranks 4th in MLB. He has also tallied 79 RBIs (9th in MLB) and has scored 77 runs. In 542 plate appearances, he has recorded a .273 BA, .363 OBP and .538 SLG with a 12.2% walk rate and an 18.8% strikeout rate.
In 530 plate appearances, Yandy Diaz is hitting .304/.374/.468 with a .842 OPS. He has hit 18 long balls, driven in 70 runs and scored 70 times.
Toronto’s Ernie Clement is slashing .281/.306/.403 this season with nine home runs, 43 RBIs and an OPS of .709. He has a 9.5% strikeout rate and a 3.4% walk rate in 493 plate appearances, and he has scored 51 total runs.
In 493 plate appearances, Kazuma Okamoto has slashed .227/.300/.428 this season. He has hit 24 long balls and driven in 71 runs with a strikeout rate of 30.8% and a walk rate of 8.3%. and has scored 65 runs.

This watch guide was created using technology provided by Data Skrive.

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Photo: Jamie Squire, Ishika Samant, Scott Taetsch, Alika Jenner / Getty Images