It's also important to note that this is a clear example of "How Kraft Soccer works". Bring in big countries like Brazil and Portugal...with almost no chance of building Revolution fans, just to balance to checkbook.
Goes with the comment made my Bilello a couple years ago about needing X number of people to walk through the gates. This will put 68k to that number.
Normally I would agree with you, but as a Revs STH of Portuguese descent, this may be the easiest way for me to ever watch the Portuguese National Team in person. Might be my only chance.
Well the atmosphere will be a party no doubt so while its an expensive one-off friendly, I can see why you'd want to go. But for me, US Mexico is far more important.
I think your comment speaks to a common sense of entitlement to Bob Kraft's finances. It's okay for him to spend money (in fact, its a necessity), but not okay for him to make money.
You're right. I want a steward of soccer in New England. If that makes me a bad person, I'm cool with that. But the point of these friendlies can be and should be to get more fans through the gate every Saturday.
It's fine if he sets up a big payday like this every year or every other year. Yes, it's great for fans of those national teams to get the chance to see them live, which doesn't happen very often. Win-win. The issue I and others have is that this is done as part of this totally unreleated sector of Kraft Inc. called "soccer," with no correlation whatsoever between the one-off big event and the every other week events that happen throughout the year. There is little overlap and instead of offering some kind of incentive for those attending this friendly to come see the Revs, it might as well be Country Fest. A completely different crowd, but they pay for tickets, parking and concessions. Money in the bank. Woo-hoo! Instead, maybe hand out a flyer with a discount for a future Revs game, something to re-introduce the team to people who may only be vaguely aware of it or may have dismissed it years ago. They need to be encouraged to give it another shot. Out of the 68,000 in attendance do you think maybe 1% of the fans might nibble? Nah, why bother....
Can anyone who has access to the pre-sale of these tickets just provide information of the different tiers of prices and/or stadium location of those seats?
Map. Field Level $500 Row 1 Midfield/Sideline $300 Row 1 Corner/Goal $200 Putnam Club Midfield $175 Putnam Club Sideline $150 100-Level Lower Midfield (Rows 2-10) $225 100-Level Midfield $150 100-Level Sideline $125 100-Level Corner/Goal $75 200-Level Mezzanine Prime $60 200-Level Mezzanine Side $50
If profits from events like this benefit the Revs budget, directly or indirectly, that's a worth it IMO. It's fine to want a steward, but its Kraft's right to choose not to be one. It's not like he took over Liverpool and let a long and proud tradition decay - he gave birth to the Revs and he gets the right to raise it as he sees fit. The steward or benevolent owner is a pretty rare commodity. And, those types are often able to be benevolent because they have been able to exploit other parties (e.g., players, like the pre-free-agency baseball owners).
Sure, the parents that appear in front of a judge in family court use that excuse every time, just before they take the kids away. "C'mon, I gave birth to the li-ul rug rats! I can do as I see fit!" It isn't about benevolence. It is about the competence to see your investment for what it is, and use everything possible to make it as good as it can me. The old "put in 5% more effort to get a 50% more return" doesn't seem to resonate with this bunch
Never mind, I didn't click the link because why bother doing that when I can bother you about it? $60 300 Lower Mid $50 300 Lower Side $50 300 Upper Mid $40 300 Upper Side
While many on here don't really care much for this match, I think this is a great score for the Krafts. It is smart to put on matches like this because there is a massive fanbase of Soccer fans in the area who do not support the Revs or US who will be thrilled to see this match. If you are in the Soccer and Stadium business at the same time and you are not pulling in friendly's like this to capitalize on your $300m+ investment, your not doing it right. While this match will have very slight, if any, spillover onto the Revs fanbase it will not hurt in anyway, except maybe get us a home game on grass! Not to mention the STH's who happen to be Brazil or Portuguese supporters who will be pleased. Sure, many of us don't care for this match, but this is not one of the things we can knock the Krafts for.
You're telling me these two teams won't have to contend with a plastic pitch with Patriots markings and a flying Elvis in the center circle?
I wonder about this. The grounds crew would have to work overnight to have the grass replaced by the time the NFL requires a stadium to be ready for use for the visiting team's run through. The Jets (and Pats) will have a run through on Wednesday, so the timing on this is interesting.
Yeah, the logistics are going to be tough for this. I'm sure they would have preferred to do this a day or so earlier, and I wonder why they couldn't work that out. My assumption is that teams like this would require a grass field to be laid down as part of the contract. They know Gillette is a turf stadium, and if Gillette can't accommodate them with grass, you know there are other similar sized stadiums who would. And Foxboro143, I don't think anyone has a problem with them getting this game. As someone points out, bringing in this kind of revenue is never a bad thing. But will any of it be used to help the Revs? I may be wrong aobut this, but I get the sense that "soccer" and "Revolution" are separate departments within the Kraft Empire. In other words, whatever revenue this (or any other international friendly/non-Revs game) brings in, it isn't going to be used to prop up the less-profitable other division of the company. Instead of using the money to give a boost where it is needed the most, let 'em eat cake!
Bob Kraft said it in that recent interview where he talked about balking at the Liverpool proposal. He said that all of his businesses must stand on their own legs and they must not be money losers. So, I believe what you are feeling is totally true.
You need to credit the Cranberries on that line! That's because that's purely a fantasy. If you want to stay in business, you don't go spending large sums of money purely on the hope of a big return. I think a lot of people here are convinced there's this big untapped market, but IMO that's far from a sure thing. I don't think that answers whether they consider soccer friendlies a different business. I got my tickets through a link from my season ticketholder account and was notified and updated by my season ticket rep. It sure looks like the "Revs" business organization to me. It's seems like they are leveraging the Revs organization for this event. I think they could hardly make the case that some of the profit from this and similar events shouldn't be available for the Revs when they took advantage of the Revs labor and organization to produce the game.
Depends. Is there a soccer market? Yes. We're probably going to see 68k fill this stadium. We were close to that for US/Spain. We had a great crowd for ManU. So there is a soccer market. The Revs, sadly in their own backyard, are a small niche of that market. And that's basically because they have failed at actually marketing themselves. I know we sold out a small field at Soldier's Field, but not once during the two games between Rochester and RBNY did they actually advertise the USOC match. Why?
My guess is they were sure they would sell 2,500 tickets based solely on their diehard fan base (and they were right). Given that they likely lost money on that game anyway due to hosting/facility costs, why invest more money in promoting that game? So the 20 or so stragglers who bought tickets a few days before the game, would buy earlier? What I want to see during the next USOC, though, is that having recognized they can get a minimum of 2,500 to a metro Boston game on a weeknight with no marketing, the Revs could try to get 8,000 to say, Nickerson, WITH some marketing. That would further prove the long-term viability of an urban stadium.
They didn't officially sell the last ticket for the USOC match till 3 days before. Announcing it at Gillette would have cost them $0.
Actually it's 10,000 Maniacs on that one. Regarding putting in 5% more effort for a significantly larger return... Actually, it isn't. Doing free or inexpensive things (like making announcements at the stadium, advertising in your own program, your own website and dozens of other things they could be doing but don't) all can help the bottom line with little or no effort or cost. Things like, I dunno, when the owner is on the radio anyway, having him be mindful enough to mention that they are playing a game at home that night is worth it even if one extra person buys a ticket who wouldn't have otherwise. There is a big market for soccer. Unfortunately, the way the Revs have positioned themselves, there isn't much of a market for their brand. Yeah, maybe so. In an ideal and just world, the Revs would have some extra cash to splash around for next winter's "big signings," since this game surely generated a lot of profit on the "soccer" side of the business. Let's see if the Revs have any more resources than usual for this sort of thing before we assume anything.