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The Union Haven’t Won a Home Game Since Opening New Beer Hall
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The Union slogged through a scintillating nil-nil draw at home on Wednesday night, their second in a row. At least they’re keeping clean sheets, but the attack is going on 190 minutes without scoring a goal. They’re now 1-4-2 at Subaru Park and the “Curse of Union Yards” might be a real thing:
If you wanna talk about curses then talk about the Curse of Union Yards – DOOP are 0W-1D-4L at home since the opening of their new brew-hall on premises, Union Yards
— Jimmy King (@Jimmyking35) May 30, 2024
Union Yards opened on Saturday, April 27th. It’s a beer hall and tailgate area at the stadium.
In the five home games since, the Union:
- lost 2-1 to RSL
- lost 3-2 to Seattle
- lost 3-2 to Orlando
- lost 2-1 to NYC FC
- drew 0-0 with Toronto FC
They’re -6 in goal differential and have earned just one point out of 15 at home since the brew hall opened. They’re now up to four home losses on the season, which is more regular season home losses than what they had in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 combined. Subaru Park used to be a fortress, but the moat dried up and the walls need repairs.
My original thought was that the curse might stem from too much IPA on the draft list:
I see an Evil Genius IPA, Sterling Pig IPA, and Dogfish Head IPA. The rest of the 17-beer taplist includes a New Trail hazy IPA and Neshaminy Creek Pale Ale, so basically 4.5 being some sort of hoppy abomination. That’s about 25%, actually a good ratio, so we can rule out the IPA theory. They are not losing at home because of a skewed shit beer-to-good beer ratio.
The only other plausible explanation is that maybe the Union are just a bang average team this year. Andre Blake is injured. Julian Carranza now, too, and they didn’t add to the squad in the offseason. They ran it back after running it back, and so they’re exactly where we thought they might be – in the middle of the Eastern Conference table.
Regardless, we are paying attention to the “Curse of Union Yards” angle. This is a developing story.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com