New stadium for Chivas

I live in NJ (and have lived in Manhattan) and have to say BS to that notion. I'm approaching this from my own perspective, not second hand hearsay so I know what the real (red)bullshit is. It's only a pain in the ass for a small minority of potential fans, namely carless people who live in Manhattan and the boroughs who think that going anywhere futher than 10 blocks from their apartments is an adventure into the uncharted wilderness. Those "hundreds" of friends and family members you have probably alos feel it's a pain in the ass to go from 2nd Avenue to 8th Avenue or from the East Village to midtown. I know that mentality. I felt the same way when I lived in Manhattan, but it had little to do with reality. So you have a few friends and family membrs in the area. They are not a true representation of ALL soccer fans here, just the ones that you know.

Manhattan and the boroughs are not the only places where soccer fans live in the NY metro area. There is a very large concentration of hispanic soccer fans in northern and central NJ that is as large (if not larger) than that in the boroughs. Red Bull Arena is directly adjacent to the Ironbound, which is the largest enclave of Portuguese and Brazilians in the US. Youth soccer programs have thrived in NJ and Connecticut for decades so you have generations of soccer enthusiasts who have grown up with the sport. There are plenty, if not more, soccer fans in NJ than there probably are in Manhattan and the boroughs AND they aren't as easily dissuaded from making the effort to go to games.

The problem is not that there are not enough fans on the NJ side to support an MLS team and that somehow there are more soccer fans in Long Island and the boroughs. I can attest that it is a lot easier and cheaper to get from the outer boroughs to Red Bull Arena than it is for soccer fans from the NJ and Connecticut suburbs to get to a stadium in Queens or Long Island whether driving or using public transportation, so if the stadium were located there attendance wouldn't be much different than it is at Red Bull Arena since you'd lose a vast number of NJ and Connecticut fans who wouldn't bother because "it's a pain in the ass to get over there."

The bottom line is that it doesn't matter much where a stadium is located in the NY metro area. Attendance will always suffer because MLS is 10th or 11th in a very crowded sports market. The Red Bulls organization is doing a poor job promoting the team and cutting through the noise (I still encounter people who aren't even aware there's a professional soccer team here) and they've pissed off people like me who go out of my way to invest in MLS, not because I care about the Red Bulls but because I want to support the sport and see it grow and thrive in the US as a whole.

Then there's the fact that most potential soccer fans here don''t give a damn about MLS. They're fans of Euro or Mexican or Central American or South American teams who somehow find it magically easy and worth the effort to show up and sell out games at NJ venues regularly when some Euro/Mexican/Central American/South American team passes through. That attitude is almost an epidemic here, and I've never been anywhere else in the US where that attitude has been even comparably prevalent.

Having lived in LA I can also attest that it's a "pain in the ass" to get to the Home Depot Center from the Valley, Orange County, Riverside/San Bernadino, and even San Diego, yet the Galaxy has numerous fans and season ticket holders who drive in from those areas. That's a hell of a lot more difficult than getting to Red Bull Arena from Manhattan, Brooklyn or Queens. The bottom line is that most New Yorkers are a bunch of whiners and wimps who think that the world ends two blocks past their neighborhoods, and who can't hack living in LA because there are few places that will deliver beer and food to their fat asses because walking to their apartment front door is all the exercise they can handle. All those empty seats you see in the lower sections of Red Bull Arena are already bought and paid for by season ticket holders who don't show up to games, not because Red Bull Arena is a pain in the ass to get to but because they're too lazy and simply can't be bothered to make an effort to show up.

And Chivas suck.

 

All true, but the location doesn't help one bit, unless you're me. I can walk there. It takes me nearly two hours and $20 in tolls to drive to Long Island, and not on gameday. Driving to Brooklyn or Manhattan is out of the question, but it takes me 45 minutes to get to TriBeCa without train delays (like on a crowded gameday or late at night after a game), where no one actually lives who'd go to a game. Everywhere else in NYC is a much, much longer ride. Queens? Only in my fevered nightmares. Westchester's a little better, unless the George is a mess, and that never happens, right?

Now yes, NYRB has some significant opportunities for growth in their Front Office. But the location problem is really quite significant, as opposed to HDC, which (unless you're in the Valley or the rest of Ventura or other points north) is quite manageable. Chivas's problems (IMHO) are 40% shitty team, 50% shitty front office and 10% location. NYRB's problems are 50% shitty front office and 50% location.

 

To be honset though, in my opinion, he's right. Its the organization that is Red Bull's biggest problem as to not maximizing that market's potential, not the location.

 

They only got that many because they did a giveaway.

One sense of self-entitlement per shovel.

 

tl;dr The indifference/apathy that NY soccer fans have for the Red Bulls parallels the indifference/apathy we have for Chivas USA.

 

Can we go back to bashing chivas USA who are making major FO and coaching changes, please

 

Why most certainly, mensahib.

 

Bull! I went to a game there and I believe I took two trains to get there from the upper west side. It was easy as pie.

How hard is it to have someone drive a train for you while you sit on your ass?

 

No matter where in the NY metro area a stadium could be located it's going to be a pain in the ass for some large percentage of potential fans or another. But that's really just an excuse. If you're truly motivated and give a damn you'll make the effort to get out there. People do it all the time for big club exhibitions or international friendlies when congestion hassles are even worse than they are for the average MLS regular season match. Most potential Red Bulls fans here don't care enough about the team or MLS to make the same effort. And many that did care don't anymore because they got tired of getting ripped off, lied to, and screwed over by the Red Bulls' inept front office.

 

Come on Trick, let's not be mean...they have at least 100 fans. I'm sure an indoor soccer facility would do just fine.

 

http://homepages.sover.net/~spectrum/hudson.html

West Hudson has been a hotbed of American soccer since before the ASL days. John Harkes, Peter Vermes, Tab Ramos and Tony Meola all grew up in Jersey, and Alexi Lalas played his college ball there. The one thing RB did right when they considered location is put the ballpark in a sacred spot for American soccer history.

But yeah, back on topic. Chivas sucks and they have no fans, so why don't they just play at Rancho Cucamonga High and be done with it?

 

I think you're exaggerating. Many competent managers have struggled to get the best out of aging talent.

Maybe I'm just too literal, but terrible implies that you don't even cover the basics of running a team. For example, if a coach were to miss something glaringly important like the scheduling of a regional confederation international tournament which involved a number of his players. That would be gross incompetence in my view...

 

They need to rebrand the team entirely. The new name should be CD Los Angeles. Second the area they want to build is in down near the Colostomy. In Exabition park. Wrong place the area has lots of Hispanics but they are mostly Central Americans who hate Mexicans because they breathe. They should build the stadium in East La area.(Montebello,Commerce,Huntington Park,South Gate) where the Mexican immagrants and Mexican Americans live. AND let them choose the nickname.

 

You missed the joke.

Hans Backe didn't realise there was a Gold Cup last year and therefore made no consideration for it in his roster. Then volunteered the fact publically when the tournament came around.

He's truly awful. Even when he selects a winning team by default, he screws it up by moving a vital component like Dax McCarty to accommodate the locker room cancer that is Rafa Marquez.

 

Hey, nothing like fighting with your own fan base and going back to an idea that failed miserably the first time.

 

If anything, Chivas Guadalajara has aligned itself closer to Chivas USA. Now they're both crap.

 

I was explaining the midweek Home Depot max attendance rules to my wife last night, that were suspended for the game, and she asked a good question that I didn't have an answer for.

Why did they build the stadium in the first place on the CSU campus? Did CSU help pay for it?