Dear Andrew Hauptman

He has stated he is willing to spend DP money for a good player like robbie keane,well now is the time for him to put his wallet where his mouth is.

 

I think there's going to be some changes coming.

 

I have said this before.. and I am going to say it again.... We need to get rid of two things... Andrew Hauptman and Logan Pause

 

Dear Andrew,
I will be using my 2012 Playoff tickets mailed to me earlier this week. I will be tailgating this Saturday in the VIP Lot and you're invited to join me.

Please bring the steaks, beer, whiskey, grill, table, stripper pole and strippers. I'll bring the plates.

 

Game was supposed to be Sunday @230pm.

 

1) I'm booked Sunday, the Bears will be on TV.

2) The Fire FO calendar should be wide fukcn open Saturday.

 

Was he at the game last night?

 

He was at the game and walking around the tailgate area for 20-30 minutes.

 

I always love the off-season because of rumors and transfers, but hate it right now as a Fire fan because I know our cheap ass owner doesn't have the balls to go out and get a well-known player.

 

Except the average attendance was a bit over 16,000. There's about 4000 tickets left to sell. At an average price of $25 that's about $100k a game and $1.5mil a year minus all the cuts which puts it at less than a million profit, probably.

To sign, lets say...Kaka, it'd probably take a $5mil/year contract.

Pictured here, not Andrew Hauptman:



I don't think i can explain anything else.

 

But that strategy worked so well for the Mutiny and Fusion...

 

If you are counting nickels collected at the gate, then go buy a USL team. I want an owner that will try to compete with the other teams in MLS. As we saw with Blanco, the right guy can generate a lot of revenue that goes waaaaaaay beyond ticket sales. Sponsorships, tv contracts (ones that actually pay you), gear etc. I think Blanco more than paid for his own salary through the Best Buy deal and jersey sales. A truly world class player like Kaka could do the same. While Blanco had the built in Mexican market, the Fire need a serious lift to the entire brand name.

Finally, this is MLS. The owners . . . the really good ones . . . know that you aren't trying to turn a profit year to year. You are trying to build the value of your brand. I've said this before when debating Andrew's cheapiness. George Steinbrenner didn't turn a lot of profits with the Yankees. But he paid 10 million for them circa 1971 and now the club is worth more than a billion. You don't own a sports franchise to count your money at the gate.

 

New York releases Marquez and they already have a possible replacement for him. Yeah I know New York has won NOTHING with their DP's, but at least the owner is willing to spend to get players, unlike Andy......

 

Exactly my point. NY is at least trying and ok you say NYRB have failed but look at the LAG they won it with 3 DP's. I'm not saying we make as much as them or whatever else but they went out and had the balls to go sign some players and it was great for them. Our owner doesn't have those balls.

 

I remember at one of the get togethers a couple years ago that Andrew said no team with a DP has won the champonship. With La winning two in a row we can put that to rest.

 

With all do respect, I didn't know I had to continuously post this in my repetitive banter. I'll continue to post the same shit until I'm no longer informed of this.

There are sponsors out there that would love to jump on the World Class DP bandwagon like a "Hawks fan" on the BH after WWs death. But those sponsors don't exist until they do. It's a risk.

The ticket is king. You sign a WCDP and you can get 50 sponsors but the stadium better be sold out every 30 degree weather night too. And if Hauptmann wanted a low salary no DP team to back his comment, he should have hired Bruce Arena or his equivalent or better.

You sign Ronaldinho and Kaka 2 years ago and we're playing in Soldier Field every home game for the time being.

Also Best Buy sponsorship with Blanco didn't sell out the stadium often and we didn't win shit then either. But hey, it was fun!

 

Why are you fixated on sell outs? LA hasn't sold out every game the last two years. That was kind of my point. You want strong ticket sales, but you can't run a club on the ups and downs of ticket sales. THAT was the Fusion way. The owner was as close to an NASL owner as we have had. He was a circus barker who needed to fill his big top or he was in trouble. That was never a concern with AEG. This is a financial big boy's club. If Andrew isn't up to it, then he should sell our club to someone who is and move on.

 

So the two examples here are a team that failed with not one, not two, but THREE DPs on the roster. And not MacDonald or Flaco type DPs, but three of the four highest paid DPs in the history of DPs. Your other example is a team that finally did find success after years of trying to fit the pieces together, and again, with three DPs that are among the highest paid in the league.

Sure they will bring in money, but I care about success more. And right now, the two most spendfree clubs are proving that, even if you shell out top dollar for the best available players in the world, its still just a crapshoot on if it will work or not.

You guys say you just want to have Andy spend Keane money, but the second he does that, and bring in Ronaldinho, and the success doesn't come immediately (it almost never has with DPs), it will be well, he needs a partner, Andy needs to shell out a second round of Keane money. It'll be constantly shifting pieces and changing teams to suit one player, and when it doesn't work, nothing will. It will be like the "just hit it long for Oduro" gameplan on steroids. Shut down the one threat, and so little will have been spent on a quality TEAM, that the other 10 players will look and perform like shit.

For an example, look at Higuain and the Crew. They lit it up his first bunch of games, then teams realized they just had to shut him down, and he did basically nothing over the next seven, and the Crew slid down out of the playoff hunt. Because nobody could pick up the slack. They were a bad team temporarily masked by a good player. LA has the advantage that if one of them gets shut down, two others are around to pick up the slack.

 

Yes, I want Andrew to spend money. But the real reason LA is successful comes down to an ownership smart enough, and engaged enough to hire the likes of Tim Lieweke and Bruce Arena. Andrew is really bad at running a soccer club.

 

I don't necessarily agree that Andrew is bad at running a club (I don't really know enough about that side of the Fire to have an opinion). But as for the rest I agree. LA has made so many good moves both in players and staff that the DPs just add to an already great team.

My guess is they would still be serious playoff contenders if you replaced their DPs with just regular, good MLS players. Especially if they clean up their GK situation