The Montreal Impact changed from their normal home venue, the Saputo Stadium, to the Olympic Stadium for their 2016 MLS Cup Eastern Conference Final, and it looked like a stroke of genius. Instead of playing in front of 20,801 supporters, the Impact raised the attendance for Tuesday night’s first-leg match to over 61,000.
Unfortunately, the Olympic Stadium’s grounds crew wasn’t on the same page.
At both ends of the field, the 18 yard box lines are being painted (?) over with green and - I expect - redrawn. Too narrow. #TFCLive pic.twitter.com/L4rjw3vcbe
— Laura Armstrong (@lauraarmy) November 23, 2016
Kick off was slated for 6:00 PM MT, but they’ve had to paint over the existing lines, measure the correct dimensions of the 18-yard box, mix new paint and draw new lines. It also didn't help that the referee got stuck in traffic and couldn't arrive early to the game to check out the dimensions.
It’s all happening in Montreal.