Riverhounds season remains in limbo
USL explores resuming some limited workouts
Robbie Mertz left Highmark Stadium the morning of March 16 with a cardboard box full of belongings. Cleats, shin guards, practice kit, sweats. Everything had to go with the midfielder as the Riverhounds SC hired a cleaning crew to disinfect their locker room, a COVID-19 preventative measure with a training session still scheduled the following day.
But there never was a training session, and there hasn’t been one at Highmark Stadium in 50 days.
Mertz left that box in the back seat of his car for over a month but finally took it out last week. He thought he could get by leaving it there. Why dump everything out if he would return to the facility sooner or later? But Mertz eventually caved, realizing no one knows for sure when “later” will be.
The Riverhounds — and the USL Championship as a whole — are in a state of limbo. Like the rest of the sports world, the spread of COVID-19 has disrupted any sense of normalcy, forcing head coach Bob Lilley and his side to prepare for a 2020 season without a confirmed start date.
On March 12 — less than 24 hours before the Riverhounds were slated to fly to Charlotte, N.C., for the season opener — the USL suspended match play for a minimum of 30 days. Six days later, the league suspended its season through May 10. And Thursday, USL extended its suspension indefinitely while setting a training moratorium through May 15.
According to a statement, the USL is exploring scenarios that would allow players to return Monday to facilities for individual or small group work. But kicking off a season? That likely will have to wait until at least the middle of summer.
Lilley, speaking with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette prior to but anticipating the USL’s decision last week, said matches in early July is the “best-case scenario.” The league has contingency models in place to start play in June, August and September, as well. But Lilley said teams — having logged six weeks of preseason training in February and March — would need three or four weeks to ramp up for league play. With facilities still closed, a June start difficult to fathom. So is the USL’s is participation in the U.S. Open Cup.
“There are still a lot of questions to be answered,” he said, “but it’s being worked on constantly.”
Lilley said coaches, owners and the league office are in frequent contact. Conference calls and team surveys have offered clarity on where the 35 USL clubs stand.
“There may be certain sports that may elect to go back to empty stadiums because of the TV revenue. It may be more workable for them. I don’t think you’re going to see that at this point [with the USL],” he said. “The teams at this point aren’t in favor of playing a schedule with no fans.”
Which makes sense given the USL’s standing.
In August 2019, the league struck a three-year TV deal with ESPN that would triple the number of televised games annually. Despite the increased exposure, whatever TV revenue the USL would receive doesn’t compare to what’s distributed in MLB or the NBA. Pushing on without fan revenue would sting the Pirates or Penguins. But that reality would be more of an inconvenience, whereas many USL clubs are reliant on ticket sales and game-day revenue.
USL president Jake Edwards told Sports Illustrated recently that about 75% of club revenue comes from sponsorships and ticket sales, and the sponsorships are linked to the amount of games played.
The number of matches, of course, could be fewer in 2020 than originally planned, affecting those sponsorship dollars.
It’s uncertain how a fanless season would affect the Riverhounds, specifically. Club owner Tuffy Shallenberger could not be reached for this story. The Riverhounds have exhibited financial stability in the interim.
A team spokesperson said all the Riverhounds’ full-time staffers and stadium workers are being paid as usual. Meanwhile, pay cuts for players and coaches were discussed at a league and ownership level, Lilley said, but neither has been implemented. Lilley said Shallenberger was
“able to file for relief” to keep team-related personnel on payroll throughout the pandemic.
“That’s not something that the league is prepared to do,” Lilley said of player pay cuts. “It’s going to continue to be evaluated. But our league is a little bit different. For some of our highest-paid players, if you gave them 70 percent of their wages they would cope. … But there’s a large percentage of our players that are on rookie salaries that are basically paying expenses.”
“We’re in a different bracket, shall we say, than a lot of those [top division] guys,” said Mertz, a second-year pro and former Upper St. Clair standout, when asked about players across Europe taking wage deferrals. “A pay cut for them doesn’t necessarily affect their livelihood. Whereas, there are some guys on our team who have families, and that would affect them big time. It says a lot about Tuffy and the league as a whole and what they’re trying to accomplish.
“They didn’t abandon us in this time. It was a relief for a lot of people.”
And as Lilley pointed out, with the players still on payroll, they’re expected to maintain their fitness during the COVID-19 quarantine and remain ready for whenever the USL resumes play. That means mile runs, Zoom calls and cone work in garages and backyards.
Every week, the Riverhounds are doing three days of workouts over Zoom with the technical staff, with three days of individual work sprinkled in. Head trainer Bob Smith has the players operating at 70% to 80% fitness, as a way to keep them prepared without burning anyone out. Smith is continually changing the routine to make sure they’re engaged, while assistant coach Dan Visser is leading on-ball Zoom sessions consisting of simple drills.
For example, defender Jordan Dover explained he’ll have one cone set up in the living room of his parents’ house outside of Toronto. He loops the ball around the cone using the inside and outside of his right foot and then the same with his left, followed by more variations. Nothing too crazy. Just enough to ensure the players aren’t losing their touch.
The advanced and imaginative skill moves are saved for the academy videos. Riverhounds academy director Scott Gibson sends daily clips to the club’s youngsters, featuring senior players showing off tricks. Well, not all of them. “I tried, but my skill didn’t make the cut,” Dover said, laughing. “I’m not known for my flair.”
Dover, who started 54 games the past two seasons on the back line, boasts reliability, and that’s what Lilley will need from him whenever the season gets underway. That is, as long as Dover can get back into the country.
Dover, along with fellow Canadian teammates Ryan James and Skylar Thomas, are quarantining north of the border — a border that is currently closed to nonessential workers. Air Canada has suspended flights to the United States until May 22. And given the day-to-day uncertainty that comes with COVID-19, that always could be extended, possibly affecting the availability of two mainstay defenders.
The Riverhounds’ other international players — Ghanaian striker Ropapa Mensah, Cape Verde attacker Steevan Dos Santos and the rest — stayed in Pittsburgh at the team-provided apartments, Lilley said. On March 16, after the players left the facility, Lilley texted his players, giving them the option to go home, be with family and wait out the pandemic.
There was no telling then how long match play would be halted. No one had a clue how long players might be away from the facility. And seven weeks later, that sentiment remains largely unchanged.
The season (and the game itself) might be different when it returns. Maybe the USL withdraws from the U.S. Open Cup. Maybe, if Lilley’s wishes are considered, teams are allowed five substitutes per game instead of three to account for rust and a possible compacted campaign. But regardless of what 2020 looks like, the Riverhounds just hope for a chance to defend their regular-season Eastern Conference title.
At this point, they’ll take a season opener in July — even if it is four months after their original start date.
“We’re still trying to keep things moving and hoping for a season,” Lilley said. “A lot’s going to have to happen.”