http://www.metrofanatic.com/frame/i...gapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id=10676 Interesting stuff. Could this be the Euro invasion that the MLSU post was talking about. What does this have to do with the stadium deals? Poor attendance? Can this man fix these things? What are your thoughts...
Red Bull (soccer) are an organizational joke. Give me as much money as De Grandpre/Arena had- and I could have built you just as good a team with better attendence. Because we'd be more exciting. Because I would have never let Arena sign Reyna... They deserve to be losing their ass now. $$. I just hope the stadium gets built. Then I won't care if Red Bull gets tired of their losses (which they will at some point- their drink is a .com waiting to happen). After the stadium built- nothing will matter, since NJ will always have an MLS team w/1st class facility- well, at least for the next 25 years..won't matter if Red Bull selll.
I figured this wasnt too far around the corner. I don't think Degrandpre had any idea what he was doing and was in over his head. The way he botched the TV Deal and the lousy attendance just to name a few.
It means that Red Bull is still angry at De Grandpre for screwing up things with the club along with the Savarese firing debacle for the head of the Youth clubs department. It means that some of the moves that were done are not to their liking. It also means they are going to make some changes and Mr. Hofl ( I hope I spelled his last name correctly) is coming over to show the people here in the states including the people at RBNY how to run a professional football club. One thing we have to admire is that Red Bull doesn't sit on their butts and waits for nothing. If this doesn't show all of us their dedication as well as their wanting a championship here in MLS to add to their First Austrian Bundasliga title & building a stadium with no concert stage, then I don't know what will.
The only problem GIO is that these are all rumors, including the stadium situation. I'm not sure how a guy from Austria can help improve attendance or the team when the money has been spent and the salary cap is real.
At the end of the day the salary cap is what it really boils down to and why what they are doing at Salzburg isnt easily transferrable to MLS. The rules of MLS are a completely different animal from any other league in the world. Its why some of the big name coaches here in the past have left. They couldn't understand the idea of being handicapped by a salary cap and the draft. In MLS, it really isn't about how much money you are willing to spend. One poor player selection on a big salary can doom an organization (see SGR in the Bradley era) for a couple years.
Please. I understand where you're coming from, but that kind of refrain is the easy way out. You hear it in the context of coaches, GMs; i.e. "what can anyone do with this team"? Then you hire someone with some skills (e.g. Bill Parcells, Rod Thorn, etc.) and you get results. We don't have to make RedBull better than ManU, we only have to make them better than the other MLS teams, all which operate under the same rules. Attendance? That may be somewhat out of our control but we should at least be doing 5-10,000 better, on average. I saw a picture of the new guy on metrofanatic: nice hair. =NLK=
Um... How about some stability in this club? We've had enough front office/coaching changes over the years. We need to try sticking with something/someone for more than a season if we ever want our organization to get anywhere. We've changed horses midstream so many times that all we've achieved are a lot of drowned horses.
As far as I know, this Grandpre guy had nothing to do with the team, he was the marketing guy. If Reb Bull was unhappy with the team they would replace Arena. And if they are disatisfied with attendance, I go back to my question, why would we think that a guy from Austria would be the solution?
I dont know sometimes with this team i feel its like damned if you do and damned if you dont. We have had so much turmoil and upheaval in this organiztion throughout the years, yet at the same time there have been years of ineptitude as well. You clearly cant leave the inept people in charge, but at the same time it seems whenever the new people take over they cant seem to make the organization rise above a culture of mediocrity. With this team i sometimes dont know whether to laugh or cry. We have had som any self proclaimed saviors in the past yet here we are again ten years later.... It is clear De Grandpre didnt know what he was doing and screwing up the tv deal with MSG and the Savarese firing were clear signs of messing up. Yet i cant help wonder will the new person be any better? Also I dont know how to react at the news that the guy will be directing things from afar in some office in Austria and that on top of RBNY he also has to wrry about RB Salzburg. Will we play second fiddle to the european sister club as fr as his time and atention are concerned? Will he truly understand the MLS and how to build a winner in this league? I think I will celebrate when I can clearly see some of these results--a strong competitive team, a new stadium, 2/3 regular attendance in the new stadium, major advertising for the team , and of course let's not froget the ultimate prize--an MLS Cup.
No, no, no, no. Man, the Red Bulls LOST A GAME this past week. A GAME! Sure, they beat DC earlier - BUT THEY LOST A GAME AFTERWARDS! We got to throw everyone off the team from the coaches to the players to who selects the youth teams at halftime. I mean, look at all those successful teams who just fire everyone at will! Stability requires time and patience and as a fan, I shouldn't have to have either of them!
In the updated Michael Lewis story on Big Apple Soccer, it says Red Bull is denying this also: http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/columns/lewis.php?article_id=10687
Right, cause what would the marketing guy have to do with attendance? I mean his job is only to "market" the team and gain cutomers "read fans". He couldn't have any impact on whether or not th stands were mostly empty...
Meaning Grandpre wouldn't have anything to do with who the players are and how they play, that's what I mean by "team". As for the stands being empty, that was the case before Grandpre came along and will continue to be the case as long as the team lacks quality and star players. Grandpre did say Red Bull does not market inferior products, so at least they have been true to that idea. We need a team on the field that is worth marketing. Sadly, that is not the case even after using up 2 DP slots. Whoever is responsible for that is the culprit. I doubt Grandpre is that guy!
Frankly speaking, if I can get away with this kind of crap talk with my bosses, my workload and hours would be a lot shorter than they are now. I would sure love to have MDG's job and get by with these excuses. The narrative of RBNY with the current regime has been "Well, we tried one big push and it didn't take, so we're just not going to give a hoot about anything on or off the field until the stadium gets built, because that will fix EVERYTHING that's wrong with this team, as if we're not to blame." Sponsors have been chased away, attendance continues to disappoint, and marketing is next to nothing. Yeah, at least they've been true to their principles, but should I be impressed? Awe-inspired? Maybe I should give a gold star because their efforts matched their pitiful expectations. At least they matched them, right? At least past regimes tried to show that they gave a damn. We've had a team that has underperformed with twelve years, do you think everyone before MDG said "Well, let's just wait until a worthy team comes along"? At least with Nick, I got the impression that there was some effort, however misguided. Even a handyman's special should get worked on. With deGrandpre, we have an absent landlord.
All they did in the past was flush their money down the toilet! The NYRB idea, it seems to me, was to build a better ball club and then we'll market it. The team traded for 2 DPs. We used both DP slots. Other than that, they're limited by salary cap. The results? This team is nowhere near ready to spend money on marketing. The more people who come to see a team like the one that played against Chivas, the more they'll stay away after. Not showing this crap team to the rest of the world is the best we can do. Until this team is decent and has star players, every penny spent in advertising is a waste of money and will only hurt us in the long run.
Alternatively, you can work on building an organization that means something to its fans whether they're champions or also-rans. Nah.
The NYRB idea, it seems to me, is to blame everybody else for their troubles without doing a single thing about it. That's just lazy, pure and simple. I remember the days when people around here were complaining that Nick wasn't doing enough to draw fans. If past GMs tried this excuse, we would never hear the end of it on these boards. What makes Red Bull worthy of a free pass from scrutiny? Oh, yeah. They're from Europe.
How can you say that? They brough in the highest profile coach in North America and the most successful one in MLS history and gave him total control of the club. They traded for a second DP. They are paying for 2 DPs, something no other team has done. They are building what will be the best sss in the country. They built a nice training facility for the team. Come on! I'm not happy I have to walk around advertising an energy drink every time I put on the NYRB jersey, but these guys have tried. The team is crap! That's not the organization's fault. Makes no sense to advertise this team until that changes. It will only turn off more people if they see this team play. They say they don't advertise an inferior product. But that's what they have on their hands!
You know that I would argue it's impossible for RBNY to mean anything no matter what, but yeah, at the very least they'd have to do a lot of work that they show no inkling of doing. I can't get over how so many fans just take it on faith that the big push - the foreign saviors, the big (and EFFECTIVE) marketing - is just going to happen when Harrison opens, and that's it's going to actually work when it does. It's like, "RB's keeping their powder dry for a couple more years...we'll just keep sucking it up. 'Scool."