This isn't unique to MLS. Many teams in the NBA and NHL are in the red year after year and then the owner recoups his yearly losses when he sells the team down the road, due to appreciating franchise value. It's rare to find an owner like Mike Ilitch who sees himself as a steward of the club, and a beacon of the city until such time as another takes up the torch. Andrew is having fun with the team while it's his, and he will profit from it's sale at some point in the next decade.
Andrew Hauptman is a great owner. He has invested a lot in the club. Increasing support staff, adding the second star club, and generally being sensitive to supporters and being available to them. How many owners would stand up as he will this Friday at an open forum to field questions from fans? Be thankful for the owner we have. The team isn't there yet, but they are progressing and I still feel that a DP will be added eventually that will put us into title contention. Blanco, Ljundberg, etc. aren't that easy to fit in and win. Rolfe is a step in the right direction. Posada, Javier, Hauptman will make it happen. The Quaker deal is huge. So is the partnership with Athletic Madrid, etc.. Go Fire!!!
Spend time on your knees much! What are you Hauptmans personal fluffer? dude this is the biggest bunch of BS I have read on here in a long time. Andrew has done nothing more than bought and paid for the loyalties of Section 8.. you guys are brainwashed.
fyp.... and you must have missed the entire "Questions for PW" threads that ran while he was running the team. No, PW wasn't an owner, but he did meet with the fans and answer their questions. Andy is not PW. He doesn't meet regularly with the fans because he doesn't live here. This happens -what- once a year? The fact that Andy is having his own Q+A session tells me that he is a micro-manager. I didn't care about AEG's ownership of the team until 2005. Ditto Welcome to Wrigley Field South No, but our team wears their team's jerseys. Bragging about who does not own you doesn't really solve the problem of who does. It's a bit like arguing which is worse: death by stabbing or death by crucifixion.
You're right! Who needs perspective? The world is black and white. Hauptman is the worst owner we could have in the worst of all possible worlds. It's probably because I'm not a "real" Fire fan, but I think most of this thread is a grandiose overreaction.
No, you missed the point: that we need to focus on our own team. If you say that at least we aren't owned by X, then someone else can say: that we should have an owner more like Y. I think that it is more fair to use our own past as a point of perspective rather than Team Brand X. That perspective of the Fire back when missing the playoffs for 2 straight years was completely unacceptable is the one that I use. The only person who has been called "not a "real" Fire fan" here is me. I agree that some of it is overreaction. But that overreaction is brought out by what I see as over-expectation. I've learned not to expect much positive from Andy, and he hasn't let me down. I will go back to my original point: Andy is not likely to spend big money on someone who does not sell the tickets, jerseys, otherwise recoup his own paycheck.
Ya, I get what you're saying. Winning is priority number one as far as I'm concerned, and there have surely been some mistakes made by ownership, but it's not all bad. It's unreasonable to expect any team in MLS to be consistent champions. It's just not the way the league is set up. Our owner has been willing to spend money on players. He built a team store. He built a club house thing that I can't afford to enter. I think this forum is prone to overreaction.
All of these things are true. I have never been called a fluffer, a sellout, and a cultist in one post before. I admire your (admittedly infantile) skills So, its bad that he isn't available more often, and its bad that he makes himself available at all? There's just no pleasing some people.
No, it's bad to say that he is "available" to the fans with respect to the Fans of the Fire. It may in fact be a good thing that he isn't out there each week spewing half-truths, lies, and more corporate double-speak, but the fact is that as an out-of-town absentee owner, he just isn't around.
In all of their combined years in MLS, how many trophies have they won? How many have they won for the Fire? Guppy has them all beat. But hey, the group that brought the Fire its longest playoff drought will bring us *back* to the promised land, I suppose.
Wow. 1 match? I'm impressed. Not. In fact, you yourself have made the argument before that he is an (in your words) "absentee owner." But that was before you were on the board.
He will be at the match Saturday, which will make it 3 for 3 this year. Is he absentee, or is he a micro-manager? You've charged him with being both today, which seems counter to logical, rational, sane, and coherent thought.
So? He's no Wilt, not even a Guppy. First of all, they were far more available. They didn't need formal Q+As, because they were accessible every other day to begin with. Telephones, computers, the internet, and other modern conveniences allow micro-managers to be absent from the actual point-of-production. Dude, you have referred to him before as an absentee owner in a thread about locations of USOC home matches. Man, I hate having to school folks and point out their contradictions. Everyone who is or has not on the board and has met me thinks you guys are hilarious exhibiting your paranoia that my very real complaints with team management might encourage some sort of mass boycott by season ticket holders, and you two gutter-huggin' drunks might have to either find your own way or pay full price for the annual mega-beerbus trip to Columbus. It's almost laughable. I write that not only is the change in colors god-awfully disgusting, but that the design itself is horrible, and once again, you CHEERLEADERS FOR ANDY come-a-runnin' to this board and engage in fantastic, ad-hom directed damage control. Must be because you actually have nothing else to counter with. The real question isn't why do you two engage me in that matter, why but do I even respond? LOL As has been said: "Nobody listens to the board."
http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/...signing-as-things-get-crowded-at-toyota-park/ At least this part is wrong:
Well he just signed there 2nd DP (Joseph 1st), to our ZERO (One if you count Puppo). http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...k-honduran-striker-bengtson-designated-player
Not saying I'm happy with our current DP situation but think of the DP's we have signed compared to Kraft since the rule was implemented.
Blanco was our only DP we signed (this will be the 3rd year without a big DP signning), Ljungberg was sloppy seconds and don't even get me started on Castillo (both only were here for 1/2 a year). I would think that we could be more like New York and Los Angeles, then teams like New England and Columbus signning big name DP's. Yes Blanco was a big name, but it's going on three years since Blanco and Andy had NOTHING to do with that. Well looks like MacDonald is coming, that might be our 2nd DP on the roster (depending on tranfer fee).