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Tim Parker Tweets chronicle New York Red Bulls’ full day of flight delays out of Orlando

Parker’s epic 19-tweet thread of commentary highlighted the issues with league’s much-maligned practice of teams taking commercial flights.

The New York Red Bulls were supposed to depart Orlando International Airport at 11:00 a.m. ET Monday following a 1-0 win over Orlando City SC at Exploria Stadium the night before.

That didn’t happen.

The team didn’t leave until nearly 24 hours later and spent 10 of those hours in the airport going through delay after delay after delay, which Red Bulls defender Tim Parker chronicled on Twitter in real time.

“3 games in a week, cap off the week with a great away result. Now sitting at airport, flight delayed 4 hours till 3pm. Good recovery and day off  #mlstravel,” Parker wrote at the beginning of his epic 19-tweet thread of commentary, which highlighted the issues with Major League Soccer’s much-maligned practice of teams taking commercial flights. (See full thread at bottom of page).

The Red Bulls arrived at Orlando airport at 10:30 a.m. Monday for the 2 1/2-hour flight after receiving three notifications of delays (12:20 p.m., 12:40 p.m. and 1:15 p.m.). The United Airlines plane had not yet arrived at that point.

Once it did, the team remained in the terminal until 8:15 p.m. because Newark International Airport grounded all air traffic due to torrential downpours and localized flooding in New Jersey. There was the hope of a 6:51 p.m. departure, but after 45 minutes on the plane, it was towed back to the gate.

The team eventually left the airport and checked into a nearby hotel, then returned for a 9:22 a.m. charter flight Tuesday. 

After the hard-fought win Sunday night, Red Bulls coach Chris Armas said in the locker room “I like to suffer.” He probably didn’t have suffering through 24 hours of travel delays in mind.

The long process to get out of Orlando was just the latest travel nightmare for the Red Bulls, which arrived in Atlanta just hours before a pivotal clash with Atlanta United July 7. 

It’s also not an uncommon scenario for MLS teams. The league prioritizes spending in other areas, so teams travel on commercial flights and are allowed just four charter flights per season. That will likely change with a new Collective Bargaining Agreement under negotiation, according to MLS commissioner Don Garber, but for now the problem continues to frustrate players. 

For example, the Red Bulls and New York City FC can’t agree on New York’s colors, but they have major traveling hassles out of Orlando in common.

NYCFC’s journey after a July 10 penalty-kick shootout loss to the Lions in the U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals was nearly the sequel of the 1987 movie “Planes, Trains and Automobiles.”

The team arrived at Orlando International Airport at 10 a.m. for an originally-scheduled 12:15 p.m. flight. The plane took off after a 45-minute delay, but was unable to land at LaGuardia Airport due to inclement weather. After circling the airport, the flight was diverted to Hartford, Conn., where it landed at 4:30 p.m. 

NYCFC then waited to find out when the plane would leave again for LaGuardia, but players scattered after a 5 p.m. announcement saying the airline wouldn’t have additional information for at least another hour. Some players took rental cars. Vans were booked and Ubers were called. NYCFC coach Dome Torrent said it took nearly 11 hours to return home from Florida and he was unequivocal about what MLS needed to take the next step as a league.

“It’s about the charters, the comfortable flights,” Torrent said in a conference call with reporters last week. “If not, it’s impossible to play well in the summertime, in the long trips when you play four games. You have to learn what happens in the best leagues. If not, it’s impossible to play really well when that happens”

See Parker’s full thread about the delays below: