With the Rapids officially eliminated on September 27, we might as well move on to our annual exercise in despair, wishful thinking, and apathy. The joy of November 21, 2010 seems like an eternity ago.
Conversely, similar to a college degree, once you have it no matter how bad things get it can't be taken away (if you earned it legitimately). - FO personnel and their families may be thrilled by the bonus length of their off season vacation? - List of players to protect in expansion draft should be easy to make. - With the head coach search starting when it did they will really have to get creative to delay naming someone until right before the season starts. - Next year, regardless of how much or how little they do, will most likely land somewhere between the extremes of the two previous ones.
Suggested Rapids shopping list for the offseason: Find a coach. For once in the team's history, find somebody who actually can coach current MLS-level talent. Don't wait until 30 minutes before kickoff in 2018. Don't take the first warm body who is willing to work for Kroenke-wages. Don't troll the ex-Rapids roster for somebody who might want to be a coach some day. Don't promise a coaching search and not do a real one. This had better be real this time. (I'm cautiously optimistic, given the detailed and helpful reports by @Quinn 33 .) Loosen the shackles that bind the team to overpriced and underperforming players. The 2017 season was a disaster. The team can finish at the bottom without these players, and there isn't any sentimental reason to keep them. There may be some contracts carrying over that the team can't ditch. So be it. Clean house as far as possible. Honesty goes a long way toward rebuilding the burned bridges with fans. We've all been around the game a long time, and most of us have played the game. We know a bad team when we see it. We know a rebuilding season when we see it. We fully understand that this team needs to be bulldozed and rebuilt from scratch. Just be honest, admit up front that 2018 will be a rebuilding year. We'll be OK with that as long as (a) there is a plan and (b) the player acquisitions make sense. Don't sign a bunch of maybe-some-of-them-will-stick players. There won't be much patience for auditioning players under the pretense of rebuilding. Bring in real players who fit an intentional plan to build to a comprehensible system We would rather see 2 or 3 players with actual talent than 20 "with promise." At least that approach would give hope for the team to get better over the next few seasons, rather than every season being year zero in another fifteen year plan. Don't troll the soccer retirement villages for over-the-hill players, on the pretense that this will make the team competitive now. That hasn't been a formula for success. Take time, and get this right. Stick with the coach through the rebuilding process. If the right coach has been hired, the players will start to develop and the vision will come into focus. It's OK not to win right away if the vision and steps to implement the vision are there. Chloroform the overly eager ticket sales telemarketers in the RFO. If the team starts to look like a real soccer team, people will return. If every year looks like 2017 redux, all the marketing genius of the 18 year old interns won't accomplish anything. Change the ticket policy. Kroenke's abusive and threatening automatic renewal-unless-an-opt-out-occurs, threats to sue fans, actual suits against fans, and constant harassment of STH and ex-STH by the RFO goon squad is why a number of us don't want anything to do with Kroenke ever again. An apology from His Majesty would be a good start. Meaningful changes would be a good next step. And something resembling customer service would be a good goal. There hasn't been quality customer service since Marcus Myrick moved away. Bring some long-time fans into the loop. There are several long-time fans who have invested a lot of time trying to help make the Rapids games worth attending. Rather than snubbing them, try building trust and rapport with them. These fans aren't the enemy. They are the reason for the business. I know a lot of them, and know that they want the Rapids to succeed. Other teams have fan advisory boards or the like, and have much better rapport with fans than the Rapids. Build the fan base by reaching out intentionally to communities within commuter distance of Commerce City. Colorado Springs, Boulder, Longmont, Loveland, Fort Collins, Greeley, Laramie, and Cheyenne all have soccer fans and youth soccer programs. Start by establishing away-game viewing parties in these cities. Consider charter bus runs and special fan nights at the stadium for the cities and colleges. Bring back the frisbee dogs. Seriously. Lift the MLS Live blackout for home games. This will build fans, not cost the team money.
I haven't been kidding when I said it, either. Even if it costs a little money, it is worth it. I get that the kids like playing soccer at halftime, but it doesn't drive interest much beyond the immediate families. Frisbee dogs once a month or something would really help. Maybe find a few other fun things. I suggest looking to minor league baseball for some creative ideas. Those teams have really figured out how to drive fan enjoyment.... rod.
It does, however, drive tickets. Those clubs that play are all required to buy X amount of tickets as part of the chance to play on the field. Ugh no. I feel like our pregame/halftime entertainment has already gone too far that way. I'd like a big league club to spend enough to have big league entertainment, not sausage races and blaring music.
For me the hardest part is deciding on who to bring back since it's so hard to judge individuals with Disaster this has been this year. Keepers: Stefan Aigner- just signed him so why not Marlon Hairston- Needs work on Defending but brings it on offense, regardless of where he lines up Dominique Badji- Likely Golden boot winger, although role going forward as a late game offensive sub Zak MacMath- If Howard stays, need someone to fill in for all the games he will miss Kortne Ford- Showed some promise, like his great athleticism but needs work Axel Sjöberg- Hopefully we can get another year or 2 before his mobility totally becomes unplayable Dillon Serna- HG, not sure why he has played so little but still like his rocket shots for a late game sub Shkëlzen Gashi- Toughest call, really dropped this year most likely do to injuries, worth a chance at another year in my book- Just really wish they play him as a 10 Really I don't think any others are worth bringing back, due to either Talent or Cap Hit cost.
I'd add in Howard (for obvious reasons) plus Calvert and Perez as homegrown players. Boateng is going to be back, he's a Smith signing and probably deserves a shot without breaking his back. Maybe Azira and Saied. After that...
I'm cool with the frisbie dogs. But my reaction to "look at minor league teams" is "AWWWW HEEEEEEEEELL NOOO!" One the biggest issues with this club is they have been very minor league in their mentality. They need to be conducting themselves as a mature, polished, and professional organization. If you want big league crowds, you need to be run like a big league team. You know what a minor league team would do? Have 4 mascots.
perhaps I over-spoke. I am saying we could use some injection of interest in the halftime and maybe before/after games. minor league teams would absolutely have food trucks and frisbee dogs. Don't really need the 4 mascots, although that is better than cheerleaders.
I get your point but also see this article on most successful minor league team (18 years of sell outs) and you see they have to go this route because they have zero control of how good the team is, all controlled by players and coaches all parent club controlled. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...or-league-team-with-an-18-year-sellout-streak I simply want a quality product on the field and care less about anything other then food/ beer quality
Loved reading this post and can agree heartily with almost all of it, especially (among other things) lifting the MLS blackout for home games. Since KSE owns Altitude I suppose they would need to allow airing of the games on MLS Live while being shown on Altitude. MLS Live creates revenue, so I doubt KSE would be willing unless they were able see some of this revenue thrown their way. Long shot, but since I pay for MLS Live as well as a VPN service each year, I'd welcome the $59 savings. I'd like to see Howard with LAFC next year. Give him a little (lot) more lime light to run out his career... and save the Rapids $2million (well, I don't know how much of that money would actually be freed up for the Rapids since MLS pays $x of his salary). But, if it gives us notably more room to work with putting a more solid attack together, hell yes. McMath is trustworthy.
Very little since what's not being paid by MLS is being paid by Transamerica and they'd almost certainly walk away form the sponsorship without Howard or a similar "big name" on the team (LA's TV contract has a "big name" clause in it, I'm sure Transamerica's sponsorship contract does as well). And I don't know who you get that has a similarly big name at the price we're getting Howard for.
Do we get additional roster spots to build depth for CONCACAF Champions League? If so, provided we have a strong starting 11, I'd be OK with some projects like Calvert and Gatt. I'd also keep Azira and Saied. For depth and locker room leaders, I'd also keep Gordon and Burling.
No, in fact its explicitly not allowed as only players eligible to play in MLS are eligible to play in CCL. We do get additional GAM though. But there are two HG-only roster spots that two of Calvert, Serna, Ford, and Perez can fill.
I don't think serna will be back, and quite frankly I'm good with that. Guy doesnt have a postion. he's a textbook tweener
With MLS being Single Entity, I think this would involve more than KSE to make it happen and likely of it actually occurring somewhere next to zero.
Actually MLS allows each team to set its own blackout rules and many (most?) teams don't have blackout rules.
I live more than five hours from Dick's Sporting Goods Park and make it to 1-2 games each season. But the blackout has absolutely no impact on my attendance and only serves to annoy me that I can't watch home matches via MLS Live. Instead, I end up watching some other teams when I could be following the Rapids. Come to think of it, perhaps they're doing me a favor...
Technically its Altitude and not the Rapids that would have to lift the blackout BTW. Most teams negotiate blackouts as part of their TV contracts but since the Rapids apparently have no say but to contract with Altitude I'm not sure how much power they have.
Interesting Sources: MLS still hasn't told clubs if there will be new TAM in 2018, and if so, how much will be added. Clubs getting very frustrated.— Sam Stejskal (@samstejskal) October 3, 2017
I watch as many Rapids games as I can on MLS Live, sometimes just watching the replay (condensed is nice if I already know the outcome). With VPN it's possible to catch most games. I'm not sure what the business model is for KSE and Altitude when it comes to the Rapids, but growing fan base is obviously not an immediate priority. For a franchise flush with fans clamoring to get tix (POR, ATL, SEA) and watch the game on tv, making the product more scarce via MLS Live blackouts may make sense (in some way). But in a limited-fan market such as CO, limiting access to viewing the games makes no sense in the long run to me. Not to mention that cable TV, though still a big force in sports viewing, is becoming less less popular. Making the Rapids easily available,but not nec. free, to the cord-cutting audience makes very good sense, as long as it's part of a long term plan to increase fan base, be competitive and invest in the team (haha pie-in-the-sky). For short term gain or tax write-off, the current MO is probably just fine.
One positive is that ownership's may get so fed up with this shit, that they remove garber and push some positive change through