Ethnic Fear Mongering? LOL Relax bro. I think some people have strayed away from the original argument. Is there any hope for an actual Chivas USA stadium?? Yes, ofcourse there is. As long as they have the Chiva name anything is possible. Sure there are many anti-Chiva people in L.A/Southern California but the team has managed to get 10k to the HDC on a consistent basis the past 5 years. So i find it very possible for them to pull in 15-17k in metro L.A. Do you have any idea how much more populated Metro L.A is than Carson or the South Bay?? . Also some people apperantely have this fear that Chivas USA is "too latino" or "too mexican" which is laugable. Yes, their name isnt ideal and well it screams to be re-branded but to say that a team name is "too latino" or "too mexican/spanish" is absurd. We live in Los Angeles, hello!!
It's one thing to embrace a Latino heritage. It's another thing all together to actively alienate and ignore every other culture living in the LA area. Chivas USA has a history of doing the latter.
And how is the galaxy not ignoring every other culture? The only difference bewteen your club and mine is the name. Chivas USA is as important to this league as any other club. Having our own stadium in LA just makes it more competitive for the HDC. Not everyone is a galaxy fan and as a rival I don't gals to understand.
What makes you think I'm a Galaxy fan? Cus I'm not. I'm someone whose job it was to interact with front office personnel for every MLS team. Chivas USA absolutely treated the English speaking media as a secondary concern rather than on an equal footing with Spanish speaking media. I'm intimately aware of the marketing strategies of Chivas USA since day 1. And me saying that they went out of their way to not include anyone other than Mexicans in their marketing efforts isn't an exaggeration at all. As far as the Galaxy not being inclusive, you really need to educate yourself on the subject to avoid sounding ignorant. The Galaxy have run marketing campaigns in multiple languages, not just English and Spanish either, since day 1. Chivas took 4 years before they did any marketing of any kind in a language other than Spanish. 4 YEARS. If you don't believe me I'll scan a copy of the interview I did with their director of marketing where he openly admits it, and send it to you.
I think the myth that won't die is that nobody saw how this was all going to play out. Yes, there were people who thought Chivas USA would be a feeder team and by extension cause us to be seen as a feeder league. There were also people who thought they'd be bigger than the Cosmos, bring in crowds we now associate with Seattle, and the team set itself up with "Adios Soccer, Hola Futbol!" as it's original motto. The main objection mentioned by a large number of people was (IIRC) that this was going to be less-than-successful (if not an outright failure) for...well, the reasons it hasn't been anywhere close to how successful it was set up to be by the ownership and league. They had a South Park Underwear Gnome plan for success. Mexican club name in LA/Blank space/Profit. Nobody seems to know what the real ties are between the teams. They certainly underestimated the league and got kicked from one end of the park to the other. Then Vergara high-tailed out of the country, going from doing regular interviews (like the one where he said they could regularly fill Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego) to almost none. Has he talked about CDCUSA recently? Poor Antonio Cue was left in LA to lose bets and get his hair dyed green. It'd be better if they were a feeder team, to be honest. They couldn't even get the Mothership to send them Omar Bravo. Now that is embarrassing. They're trading on the name and identity of original flavor Chivas but can't secure a guy like Bravo to come to their team? Now Hunter has left and he was supposed to be the guy who was going to turn it all around. Not good. How are you suppose to get a fanbase and potential fans interested in you with the current situation? "Hi, we're not really the Chivas from Mexico. We wear the same jerseys though. Kind of. We play in the same stadium as the Galaxy, you know, the team with Beckham. Bofo? No he doesn't play here. Bravo? No, he went to Sporting Kansas City. We've got ChivaGirls though!" I don't want to see any MLS team fold or relocate, we're all in this boat together. However I do want to see them get their act together.
fyp Nobody... Absolutely nobody on these boards thought that. And the whole Vergara/San Diego Qualcomm comment was part of the negotiating process that nobody paid attention to. And I'd like to point out that the current reality is far closer to what the organization was prognosticating than the fire and brimstone doomsday scenario that the BS Chicken Littles were doling out.
Why is everyone so convinced Chivas USA went after Bravo and couldn't get him to sign? Anyone even consider they didn't want him?
Very interesting plan. Sports Arena needs to go. With the Forum sitting empty most of the time, many dates can go there, not to mention all the other much newer arenas in the area= Staple, the Pond, Pyramid in LB, Galen Center, renovated Paulie at UCLA and the Forum... Going down 1 arena in the area will help all the others. - The site will have decent parking, or you could double deck one of the lots and I am sure USC would appreciate that and most of all- Light Rail to the game ! (also plenty of regular bus service as well) With the new light rail line, Union Station becomes in reach and people can come from more distant points by subway, Metrolink etc.. A good location !! My 2 big questions= 1/ The Colesium Commission. Very difficult to work with. Look at all the franchises they once had and have left= Kings, Lakers, Rams, Raiders, UCLA They must be desparate if they want soccer to bail them out !!! 2/ Chivas needs a rebrand in a major way.... and no better than when opening a new stadium. I have no problem with them marketing to the whole Hispanic market. LAG will prob. be a more Euro-middle america type team with a few stars dropped in. THIS is then what will create or improve the rivalry between the teams- different identity and in different stadiums.. = = I can't stand them as a rival, but little doubt, they need to improve their situation. It not only helps them, but helps the whole league... The league is only as strong as the weakest team and this helps one of the weaker teams. Now lets move on to SJ-DC-NE.
Yet another myth is that there's gadzillions of old NASL fans still out there waiting for their particular team name to reappear. Some idiots in New York keep thinking the Cosmos name is the key to selling tickets. For the record, the LA Aztecs played their last game in 1981. That means it's been almost 30 years and most of the younger fans that MLS is trying to attract were not even born. Heck, most of their parents were still in junior high school. Good luck with that.
Chivas USA or what ever incarnation of the second team in LA will be is going to have a hard time drawing like the LA Galaxy do. Relocation may help but Galaxy are LA's team. When I ask who the team in LA is the response is Galaxy. same as the NBA LA's Basketball team is the Lakers. Not to say the clippers don't have fans but the Lakers were already embeded in the community. Sam with LA and CUSA.
I agree. But if the team can rebrand and get their own stadium, they can start to attract and market to soccer fans in LA and not just Chivas fans. They can start a real rivalry with the Galaxy. The "Super Classico" just seems manufactured. They have the potential, but they need to get away from the Chivas USA name, that has already alienated fans.
chivas isn't a perfect brand in mls, but there's a few things to be said in its defense. the overemphasis on spanish language and the too narrow marketing can be looked at as mistakes that have been corrected. the fact that they used to carry on business a certain way five years ago isn't a 100% fair criticism of the present, although lingering effects of past actions might still be considered. the attendance for cusa actually isn't awful when you consider how bad this team was. this year, for example, cusa soccer was pretty much unwatchable. yet, they had semi-respectable crowds. finally, as bad as a name might be, it becomes more legit the longer it's been around. 'chivas' is a little harder than 'padres' for mainstream purposes, but it's not exactly impossible to get one's arms around. to me, the uniforms actually are more of an issue than the name. they don't look mls-esque, given that all the other teams' come from a single design source. but imo what's needed most right now is a better product on the field.
This. Although I was wrong about the benefits of Chivas USA, I still feel strongly that LA Metro could hold as many as four MLS teams if the league got big enough. There's plenty of room for everyone, if you correctly market to the geographic and cultural diversity of the different parts of LA AND put a quality product out on the field.
The tickets for Chivas USA are cheap. Waaaay cheaper than the Galaxy. And Chivas' uniform design and logo are just blatant ripoffs from Guadalajara. That's not going to help form their own identity either. If they can just get away from the Chivas USA part and incorporate Los Angeles in there. They need to get their own uniform and logo design and market to LA fans. This will all help get the team stronger and make for a better rivalry against the Galaxy.
imo in 'chivas usa' the 'usa' part actually is worse than the 'chivas' part. chivas los angeles would be better.
That's what I'm saying. That's why I bolded the USA part. It's horrendous. I'm not a fan of the Chivas part either, but they need to get rid of the USA part and incorporate LA in the name. The whole name should go, honestly.
doesnt matter... I'm 21 and love the idea of Aztecs and Cosmos, probanly moreso than those who lived thru theyre demise.
I'm old enough to remember those teams, and actually have seen them play. As it happens, those are two of the many cool team names the NASL had. They also had some lousy ones: California Surf, Oakland Stompers, Jacksonville (previously New England) Tea Men, Minnesota Kicks, San Diego Sockers and Caribous of Colorado are a few examples that need to stay locked in the mists of time. I'm not sure that many of those who want NASL team names to come back aren't motivated more by the fact that the names are actually good ones, rather than any great sense of nostalgia. Sounders, Timbers and Whitecaps are truly great team names. Earthquakes really isn't a great name, but it's not bad, and it looked a lot better when compared to Clash. Similarly, Chivas USA will tend to make anything else look good (although I do think that Aztecs stands on its own quite nicely).
Yeah, I was just using him as an example of a Latino player who is a US citizen and a good player to boot. Any team in MLS would have wanted to have him, but Chivas wasn't going to be able to sign all the good Latino players from around the league just because they were part of their "ethnic marketing campaign."
That's wonderful. One guy's in England and the other supports the Galaxy. Yeah, lots of great potential ticket sales there. Hey, I'm not disputing that the NASL had some great names. But how does that translate into building a fan base in the 21st Century? I guess they could sell a few jerseys to the nostalgia folks but I seriously doubt if it would put butts in the seats.
I live in LA and go to both Galaxy AND Chivas games. I love to watch soccer live. So yes, I AM a potential buyer. Just because Galaxy is my team of choice, doesn't mean I won't ever attend a Chivas game. Have you ever gone to a Chivas USA game? They are painful. I don't care if Chivas rebrands to a NASL name. That's not the point. I'm talking about rebranding and getting out of the HDC so they can attract and market to LA fans. The Chivas USA name has done enough damage in LA by alienating fans and needs to be revised, starting with new uniforms and a logo.