Out of all the humbling indignities of life as an early era Major League Soccer club, few were more stark and stigmatizing than teams being forced to move matches to often amateurish alternate venues. Some clubs like Dallas Burn and Chicago Fire were forced by circumstance to spend entire seasons playing at suburban high school venues with raw metal bleachers and psychedelic multi-sport field lines in an age that an increasingly history-focused league often avoids commemorating.
While the MetroStars/Red Bull organization never ended up playing as low as high school level, the crowded schedules at Giants Stadium and Red Bull Arena have made for some far-flung nights of soccer in the Tri-State area.