The "State of the Revs"? The New England Revolution are an entry in a ledger at the Kraft Group. They are a means of filling dates at Gillette Stadium during the New England Patriots' off-season. They are an afterthought. We've all read or heard the accounts of Robert Kraft's fandom for the New England Patriots stretching all the way back to the team's nomadic days bouncing from Nickerson Field to Fenway Park to Alumni Stadium to Harvard Stadium. Of how he bought Pats season-tickets in 1971, when the franchise made the move to Schaefer Stadium in Foxboro. We've basked in the heartwarming tales of Bob and his four young sons sharing the experience of sitting amongst the "shot-and-a-beer", "regular Joe" crowds at the barebones stadium on Sunday afternoons. Of how memories of his heartbreak over having his beloved Boston Braves relocate to Milwaukee in 1953 inspired Bob to step-up and buy the Patriots in 1994, sparing fellow fans of the NFL team from having to experience the pain he'd once known. By contrast, as the Patriots and Revolution websites rather succinctly remind us, Robert Kraft's "long-standing support of soccer in the United States dates back to his efforts in the early 1990s to secure Foxborough as one of the nine host venues for the 1994 FIFA World Cup and becoming a principal investor in Major League Soccer when he founded the New England Revolution in 1995." My point? We're talking passion versus pragmatism here, folks. Love versus lucre. On the one hand, a bond and commitment rooted in a longstanding, deep-seated emotional attachment... on the other, a corporate endeavor undertaken as a means to an economic end. Yes, yes... I know that the Kraft Family makes the proverbial "pretty penny" as owners of a National Football League franchise. I realize that they've proven themselves quite capable of making decisions concerning the Patriots that were driven by what was ultimately best for their financial bottom-line. Still, there's no denying that there's an ardor the Krafts harbor for the New England Patriots that is palpably missing from their stewardship of the Revolution. Much to the latter team's detriment. Who knows? If Bob had sprung for Boston Minutemen season-tickets, or he and his sons had bonded over New England Tea Men matches at Schaefer Stadium back in the day, perhaps the New England Revolution might actually be a treasured priority to the men responsible for the team's care. Sadly - and, for the supporters of the Revs, frustratingly - that just isn't the case.
Playoff probabilities for every MLS team after Week 28 https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/09/17/playoff-probabilities-every-mls-team-after-week-28 Revs have fallen to 4%.
The stare of the Revs is _____________________ (fill in the blank) abysmal laughable pathetic sad poor embarrassing
I went back to some old threads, between October, 2011 and early 2012 (like April). We are now where we were then.....not much has changed at all..... And finally from October 21st, 2011…..
Thats about as possible as my turning in an under 3 hour time in the DeMars Marathon I'm scheduled to run this Sunday. I'm 81 and Soehn isn't Sir Alex
He doesn't need to go 5-0. All he has to do is win a road game and he's outperformed Heaps. I'm thinking the last game of the season in MON after the Impact are officially out of the playoff hunt. Revs seem to do better on Canadian soil anyway.
Wow, those old posts....just wow! We probably will see some kind of a bump. The players that had tuned out Heaps will be rejuvenated, knowing that everyone is watching closely and that it is a new day, with a new coach who will certainly be watching the DVD of this game when he's hired. That's not a bad thing, but who the Revs hire right now will say a lot about just how serious they are about this team.
Some old timers will remember, but I picked that timeframe because it was right after Nicol was fired and Jay took over.
I have been seeing posts across a few threads from both the KAD and NNN camps that make me wonder, is there widespread agreement that Kraft is the biggest issue? Is there a case that Kraft is not the issue? What is the case, that can be made in 2017, that Kraft ownership of the Revs is not the problem?
This! I've been a supporter since the beginning; read these boards for many years. Thank you for articulating what I've seen and felt for a long time. Owning a "franchise" in America means something vastly different than a Club. Some in MLS are understanding this and propelling forward while we are...what we are. I came across this article today (sorry-I'm not versed yet in linking on this site) and see how much Kraft's philosophy reflects this approach. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/16/sports/soccer/premier-league-american-owners.html?mcubz=1&_r=0
Last night at halftime of Atlanta-LA game, Twellman had a brief comment on Heaps firing. Basically this is a crossroads of that organization if people think Heaps was the only problem. No follow-up. Hmmmm.....
Good. If Twellman, who played his whole career for the club (even if he barely admits it) is saying this, and Soccer America, and a bunch of other "pundits" are essentially calling out the Krafts as the crappy owners they are, it would be a lot harder for them to brush it off like they did with the "Worst Owners in the League" piece from a few years ago. You may recall, one of the only times they commented on it was when Sonny Kraft went on 98.5 and was asked about the article, he went to the now-fashionable "fake news" defense, questioning the writer's credibility, and in particular, the throwaway line at the end, that "no one from the Kraft organization was available for comment, as a spokesman said they were preparing for the AFC playoff game" or something like that. He completely ignored the main points of the article, which were largely true, and tried to mock the idea that he was sitting down with Bellichick, coming up with new plays that would help the Pats win. Nice strawman.
JK's behavior in that interview on 98.5 was petulant, condescending and dismissive. It is more irritating than Joe Public or selling home leg to Alajuelense. It's right up there with most-anger-inducing events in Revs history. In case you can't tell how much this got under my skin: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/bo...-owners-in-mls-part-ii.2004398/#post-30372374 https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/th...read-thread-vii.2004102/page-14#post-30378722 https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/mls-cup-galaxy-vs-revs-iii.2013945/page-5#post-31489564
What he said. Remember all those wonderful things Jay (and Burns) said about all the support that the Krafts gave them - how they were never turned down for anything they asked for???!!! Well, Krafts either that's a load of cr*p or you have the wrong people telling you how to make the team successful. SO -- here is the moment of truth KRAFTs -- fire the GM and President as well OR start showing us true investment in what is transparently obvious to folks about your under-investment in the club: real scouting, access to LA talent, a real 2nd division investment, a way to develop talent (really how has that Sporting partnership done?) true DP talent, etc.
I still wanna know about the "list of 20 South Americans" that Steve Nicol had, and how every single one of them were turned down by the Worst Owners in the League (WOitL).
Let's see: W 3-0 W 7-0 D 3-3 W 4-0 They seem to be doing well so far (2.5 PPG). Maybe, just maybe, it's only the Revs that use fixture congestion as an excuse...
Updated 'projected' table (see below) shows that IF the other teams maintain their PPG average, the Revs need to get 11 points from their last 4 games to get into the playoffs. Their remaining games are Orlando (away), Atlanta and NYCFC at home and finally, Montreal away. So no real 6 point swings here as both Atlanta and NYCFC are beyond reach. The 'Magic Number' for the teams over the Revs are as follows: Atlanta 2 points (any 2 for Atlanta or dropped by the Revs or some combination) Chicago - 3 Columbus - 4 Red Bulls - 9
ATL won another (2-0 over MON), but lost their #10 (Almiron) to injury for 3 weeks. I guess fixture congestion does have a price.