Wizards 2007 schedule released

The Wizards 2007 schedule was released today along with the rest of the schedule for Major League Soccer.

I personally have a few problems with the scheduling as it's come about for the Wizards, and not surprisingly most of them happen on big events.

1. Home opener Wednesday 4/25 against Toronto FC - Great, so the Wizards home opener is on a Wednesday night while school is in session, that's a great way to get people out to the game for the home opener.
2. Saturday 5/5 against Columbus Crew - So not only is our first home game on a Wednesday night, but our second home game is in the middle of the afternoon in the middle of spring soccer season. The reason? The Royals have a home game that night against Detroit. So then why put the Wizards at home that same weekend?
3. Wednesday 7/4 against DC United - So you'd think 'Great, the Wizards get a 4th of July game, nice little attendance boost.' That's until you see the fact that the Wizards game kicks off at NOON that day killing any fireworks. Again it's cause the Royals are in town the same weekend. WHY have the Wizards at home when the Royals are?
4. Thursday 9/27 against LA Galaxy - So KC gets to see Beckham, like the rest of MLS. The Wizards get to see him midweek on a school night. That's a great one. I love the fact that ESPN has given MLS their own primetime slot during the week, but seriously did MLS not think about this? The Wizards never draw well for midweek games.
5. Finally 10/13 and 10/20 at Red Bulls and at FC Dallas - For the third year in a row, the Wizards end the regular season on the road. Seriously what do we have to do to finally have home field for the last game?

I'm not the only one that's unhappy with the schedule, many of the KC posters on bigsoccer are also not happy with the scheduling.

The more I think about it, the more I believe that the Wizards and OnGoal are to blame for some of these problems, specifically the 2 middle of the afternoon Saturday games. My guess is that these were both originally scheduled to be night games at a temporary venue, but when the Wizads moved back to Arrowhead, the Wizards were forced to change the time. The amount of time it took the team to decide on their temp venue will be something that will hurt the Wizards quite a bit at the gate this season, as those first 3 home games I listed were likely all primed for a decent turnout at the gate, but not now with the times that these games are set to take place.