Atlanta United’s game against Charleston in the U.S. Open Cup won’t be played for the next several days.
After the game was abandoned on Tuesday because of unplayable field conditions at MUSC Health Stadium, Atlanta United packed up and returned to Atlanta Wednesday morning. The field at the Battery's home has been battered by heavy rain for the past four days. Several large patches of mud were filled in with with sand. It is expected to continue to rain for the next few days.
A makeup date for the game has yet to be announced, but discussions are ongoing, according to a Battery spokesman. The Battery said that a decision would be announced by noon Wednesday.
There are two issues that making trying to reschedule the game at another site in Charleston or moving the game to Atlanta challenging:
• The first is that Charleston has a USL game on Saturday at Tampa. That game and the required travel eliminates playing the Open Cup game on Friday or Sunday. Trying to play on Thursday or Monday also would be less than ideal because of the travel.
• The second is the next round of the tournament begins as early as June 18 and can be played as late as June 23.
There are still possibilities:
• The game could be rescheduled for another site in the Charleston area for early next week. Officials visited the College of Charleston's soccer stadium Tuesday night to see if it could host the game on Wednesday. The Battery put out a statement late Tuesday saying the game couldn't be played on Wednesday because of the pending rain.
• The game could be moved to Atlanta and played at Kennesaw State's Fifth Third Bank Stadium, which hosts Atlanta United's USL team, Atlanta United 2, and is already wired to broadcast events on TV. However, Charleston may not want to give up its rights to host.
• Charleston could also forfeit.
According to U.S. Open Cup rules, "In the event that the game cannot be rescheduled for the next day and the teams involved cannot within 24 hours of cancellation reach agreement on a new match date that is within 7 days of the originally scheduled date, the Commissioner will set the date."
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