So the goal is to develop the fan base in, say, Michigan? Upstate New York? Indiana? I'm still trying to find out when MLS is going to start refunding the $50 Crew fans paid for a viewing package that will never, ever have a Crew game available. The Berhalter evolution will take the league by storm, but most of Ohio will only be able to read about it. Helluva job, boys.
The rebranding is scheduled for this Fall. This is the swan song farewell tour for the Three Constuction Dudes.
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I wouldn't go as far as to say there's been a revolution but I did single out Columbus to improve this season. They made some good moves and imo Higuain can influence a match as much as any top DP's in the league. I like their squad and I think they'll make the playoffs.
Despite the fact that the MLS seaosn has just gotten underway and most of the teams were coming out of preseason, the first leg games of the Champions League have seen some good performances by the MLS teams. I am surprised by how they have come out of the gate roaring. Let's hope the 2nd legs prove equally as positive.
Sadly, yes. Apparently by the time Anthony Precourt bought the team in late summer, the 2014 uniform designs from adidas had already been done and approved (an interesting though not at all surprising factoid all by itself). Otherwise, he says he would have done it during the last offseason and kicked it off last week. There just wasn't time. According to him, the only thing that's definitely going to stay the same is the color scheme, while the crest is definitely gone. The biggest question mark is the name, but the betting is that it's gone as well. Which isn't germane to this thread except for this: the Berhalter article points out that there are signs of life in CBus (although kicking DC around the pitch isn't exactly the best barometer, and I do mean that as a direct slap at Knave, thank you) and if by some freak of sport or nature or whatever the Crew has a great year, say the Shield or the Cup or even a stirring stretch run that gets everybody cranked up, do you really rebrand? Normally you do that with a team that's flat on it's back.
Thanks Bill. I cant help but be saddened by the news. Columbus Crew definitely has been one of the most iconic and beloved brands in the league. Cant help but think that the owner is a bit blind not to see it--but what can you do? It's his money and he can do what he likes. The "classic Crew" will definitely be missed.
Yeah, agree completely. It's just so corny and awful that it's cool. And you can't replace the history.
Perhaps, but doing it when many eyes are on you due to a good run or even a championship is a good way to keep those eyes on you in the offseason...
Generally agree. But business is regularly trying to find ways to make new/more money and "replace (or modernize) the history" (of whatever) in some sense. And who knows, in another 20 or 30 years, Columbus's MLS franchise operator may decide to go retro and bring back the "Crew" for MLS season 40 or 50!
There's no question that the team needs to reintroduce itself to the city, which started out loving the whole deal and was gradually turned off by so many awful, boneheaded decisions that eventually it went away. People forget - and newer teams never knew - that Columbus led the league in attendance, led the league in season tickets and used to jam 22,000 people in on a regular basis. By the mid 2000's they had to lie their asses off to claim they'd seated 10,000 and half of those were freebies. The whole thing is a case study in how not to run a professional team, and it got so bad that even winning it all in 2008 only bumped interest up a few notches. (FWIW, the main culprit is former team President Jim Smith, may he die choking on his own blood. Sadly, he's now an executive with the Falcons and will undoubtedly play a huge role if the Blanks end up landing a team. A former WWF promoter, he was convinced that since he himself hated soccer everybody else did too and that halftime entertainment was more important than the games themselves. He also famously chased off all the supporters groups, telling them that they all meant nothing to him other than "a bunch of cheap tickets". Not one single Crew supporters group predates his departure; an original MLS founding team whose supporter's culture began in 2006. Unbelievable) Anyway, so yes, the relaunch is intended to bury the past and give the team a new beginning in terms of a community which fell out of love with them. I accept that it's necessary. I just think it's a shame.
Gotcha. The conditions that caused the need for the relaunch appear to be the real shame. (More so than the actually needed/decided and to-be-executed relaunch.) What's getting buried (is the more-recent "bad stuff") -- and unfortunately that burying is also going to take down with it some of the better moments from the team's (older) history. While at the same time, the relaunch can and should try to in some way also allow for a focus on or a recapturing of some of the "good times" and "good stuff" from the very early days of the league, and the Columbus franchise within it.
wait...are you implying that Atlanta might not be a super slam dunk uber success because you know Arthur Blank is a very successful owner of an NFL team and he will most certainly hire the right people (like Jim Smith) to run the MLS team...what could possibly go wrong?
i understand why local fans my not want to see a rebrand, but my completely worthless non-local perspective see's it as a good thing. i've never liked the badge.
This is a "yes but..." It's impossible to believe that when the topic around the executive suite is Major League Soccer, the guy in the room who was previously the President of an MLS team isn't consulted and his opinions given substantial weight. And if and when Blank does land a team, isn't he more than likely to turn to his trusted VP of something-or-other, the Former MLS Team President, for guidance if not in fact a more active role rather than call up Don Garber and ask if he knows any unemployed soccer execs he could interview? Hell, they hired the asshole straight from the Crew. Clearly they feel he was a rousing success. Any organization on Earth would turn to a trusted in-house member of their own team in a situation like this. The fact that he's a worthless assclown who is a dead ringer for Ned Flanders has obviously never entered their minds.
i think you are quite right. when Blank, dedicated owner of an NFL team who doesn't know jack-all (nor has he shown any propensity toward caring about) soccer in NA, gets an MLS team he is sure to turn to a trusted employee who has "MLS experience"...it seems almost fait accompli. i was only pointing out that those MLS-ATL fans who are so ready to engage in this faustian bargain with NFLBlank to get an MLS team in their town always use the "but it doesn't matter if Blank doesn't know or care all that much about soccer/MLS he is a savvy sports owner and will hire the right people who do know and care about MLS" ... which is ironic given that Jim Smith is likely to be that guy. and since you and others have pretty clearly illustrated that this guy is doucho numero uno unless he has had an asshatectomy since leaving the Crew (or Blank has an epiphany about his MLS team destroying track record) it may very well end up being one of those "be careful what you wish for you might just get it" sort of situations.
Of course you're not showing any bias in this scenario by starting your post with an unsupported line like:
so you are saying that Blank is an experienced and very knowledgeable soccer guy? with a long history of being involved in and supporting the growth and development of soccer in this country?
so your contention is that he is secretly knowledgeable about soccer and has been involved in the development of soccer in NA in some clandestine and hidden way? when the point of his lack of soccer knowledge, experience and heretofor interest is brought up to atlanta fans they nearly never dispute the fact on its face, but rather they pull the "well he doesn't need to be since he will just hire somebody who is" ... and that might theoretically work out fine, if he actually does hire somebody like that ... unfortunately the most likely candidate is not at all like that, the opposite in fact. and it seems more than passingly odd that these less than engaged mls owners, those who most seem to put their MLS teams way down their priority list seem to very often "hire "soccer guys" to worry about/run that side of things who are shockingly incompetent ... Kraft-Bilello; Kronke-Hinchey; Vergara-Take your pick of previous club presidents/etc; DCU-Kasper ... i wonder if not knowing much about soccer, not really caring much about MLS compared to your other sports ventures might have something to do with that?