Well, since we left the 2018 season behind we've had two changes: 1) President of Business Operations: In: John Walker, Out: Chris Canetti 2) Chief Revenue Office: In: Dionna Widder, Out: Steven Powell Walker has been here a few months and clearly has business-only responsibilities instead of Canetti's portrayal of a business AND soccer GM role. The new revenue officer hasn't really started yet. I would observe that they BOTH came from NBA jobs which presumably would pay pretty well (or better than Brener would pay in MLS) but also came from teams that are not exactly lighting things on fire this year and have fairly bleak futures. I'm gonna guess that they knew each other from NBA or thru contacts. Now, I always get a tremendous chuckle out of Dynamo PR writing up releases to make any transaction or announcement seem monumental and you always write puff pieces about new hires' past achievements, but one "achievement" from today's release really had me rolling (link to full release below): "Under Widder’s leadership, the Cavs have recorded more than 250 home consecutive sellouts at the 20,562-seat Quicken Loans Arena, a streak that dates back to her first season with the team in 2014. Among the keys to the Cavs’ strong sales results were a switch to an innovative year-round membership model and a strong focus on personalizing the organization’s interactions with its members." Do you think that maybe LeBron James coming back to Cleveland in the summer of 2014 had a little more to do with the sellout streak than the Cavs' ticket manager? FFS, I guess most would miss that nuance but that's like trying to give full credit to a generator salesman after a hurricane cuts power for weeks. Just don't insult folks intelligence http://www.houstondynamo.com/post/2...dash-name-dionna-widder-chief-revenue-officer
I am hoping for some growth from the Baghdad Bob method of putting out slanted press releases that are insulting to intelligence. It’s got nothing to do with the hire itself, just some unnecessary embellishment on a normal press release.
Not in our FO but this link is our head coaches updated staff breakdown. Which is our club. Now let's be a club!, let's put our big boy pants on and be an actual association football club and stop being a minor league baseball franchise that fields a pro soccer team in orange! https://www.houstondynamo.com/post/...YD7C18TPTzJzTNs3wQMax9_6cFlV3H78bWv-tWh2KxWTQ
It tells me what I need to know that the team misses the playoffs and we retain a lot of field players, the coaches, the GM, and what gets swept out is the business side. As though the primary driver of revenue isn't the sports product. As you kind of get at with "if you want sell outs sign LeBron James."
Business side of MLS and the global scene as well. https://www.prosoccerusa.com/mls/la-galaxy/soccerex-2019-football-finance-100/ English Premier League champion Manchester City is the No. 1 overall team in the rankings for the second season in a row. Paris Saint-Germain is No. 2, while Bayern Munch rounds out the top three. U.S.-based individual owners and organizations own 18 percent of the clubs in the top 100, according to Soccerex’s report. As a nation, China’s owners have 13 percent of the top 100. “I am delighted that we can again bring the market this unique global perspective of soccer clubs’ financial strength; one that is in tune with the modern reality of the game showing the impact of owner investment and financial prudence at the top end of the global game,” Soccerex marketing director David Wright said in a statement. “The Soccerex Football Finance 100 also provides an indicator of where the ownership of the game might be going. The influence of the US will surely only continue to grow, fueled by both the expansion of MLS and the prospect of co-hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup.” Here is the full list of ranked MLS teams: No. 18 LA Galaxy No. 21 Seattle Sounders No. 30 New England Revolution No. 31 Colorado Rapids No. 32 New York Red Bulls No. 38 New York City FC No. 40 Toronto FC No. 46 Sporting Kansas City No. 47 San Jose Earthquakes No. 50 Atlanta United No. 51 Orlando City No. 54 Houston Dynamo No. 56 Portland Timbers No. 57 Chicago Fire
Also there is this on Ajax and their specific business model. A concept that several of us around here have been advocating for our own Houston Dynamo, accordingly since we witness our very talent rich youth culture. Yet our club struggles to cultivate our own backyard crops. http://www.espn.com/soccer/blog/esp...is-a-killer-for-ajax-its-their-business-model Tremendous insight into how Ajax run their club.
Part of it is added income but part of it is a puzzling lack of aggression for businesspeople. I keep waiting for them to go all in on some aspect of being a sports team. Like FCD and their academy. Some niche. I'm curious if Torres rattled them on the selling idea. Except a struggling player who we way overpaid for should never have been proof of concept. I do agree that the academy is a second stream to develop, play, and sell if desired, but I'd think that gets in to my theory on academies as being like recruiting for college sports. People will flock to teams that get people to the first team and use them. People will flock to a winner. Success breeds success. Some of that is us doing our half. Some of that is players believing that we are a smarter choice than FCD or Texans. FCD puts people on their first team who look the part. FCD sells players to name clubs abroad. The Texans every so often get a player somewhere. The thing to me is if you spend even hundreds of thousands on better coaches and facilities and such, you make that back on not paying transfer or loan fees for everyone. You make that back on rookie salaries instead of veteran market money. You make that back and then some on the first player out to some big name club. So much of what we do is pennywise pound foolish. Scared money don't make money. The other thing is these strategies are like small club 101. Build an academy, scout under radar veterans, and then sell some onwards. Our tactics are like a lower division English team that has no ambitions to be in a league above where it is. But in my impression teams that try to sit still actually fall downwards and eventually circle the drain. If they wanted a business to make a modest margin and squeeze expenses go by a grocery store. Who buys a sports team to save money.
Juve, good post. You kept it shorter than normal and dished up some very solid questioning. Specifically this. It was mentioned a few weeks ago around here that with MLS HQ announcing Cincinnati and Nashville coming into the league, with Becky in Miami and Precourt in Austin after that. To then speak of Sacramento, St. Louis and San Diego beyond that. With Single Entity it was mentioned that our owners might literally be content to run their MLS business model, aka our fantastic Dynamo, as we witness these several seasons now, take all profit that us fans and area sponsors hand over to pay off the Stadium debt for years to come and yet continually get money in from expansion checks to the league likewise over the years to come. SE works for them, they really do "save money". Just spitballin' here, but all info keeps pointing in this direction. Specifically when our FO hires some company to help them add more entertainment and concerts at our BBVA and then nothing comes to pass. Did that company take the check and burn off??? Or like continuing to install more bar like options inside BBVA when the stadium was specifically built downtown where people have all the bar options down there outside of the stadium for pre and post game enjoyment. Thus, GOING TO THE GAME is what our club should focus on. The soccer! Having good pro association football on display every night downtown. Our city's soccer culture is so soccer savvy our FO must know how to deliver buen futbol or else people will vote with their feet.
I’ll sum up many of the Dynamo business issues this way - in order to make money you need to spend money. Dynamo have too often acted like they are the crappy gas station with a great corner intersection location just waiting until someone comes along with a great offer for the land so they don’t have to invest. I think the Dynamo have really brought in what looks to be seasoned sports business executives. But all of the cheap quick fixes to enhance revenue without investment (on or off field) are mostly gone.
That article tells nothing. It's just a lazy copy paste from other articles in the past that only know Ajax, while in the Netherlands at the moment other academies like AZ Alkmaar are delivering talents Ajax are eager to steal away and then act as if they were the ones that layed the foundation. Suarez wasnot developed by Ajax, but by FC Groningen. You know, the club where Robben and Virgil van Dijk came from.
The lie is in the assumption it's a business model, as the situation they strive for. It bloody isnot. Their and for that also the strive of PSV and Feyenoord too is to win the CL. The problem is that the big money clubs cut that run to the CL Cup short by swooping up the players capable of doing that. The selling isnot their aim, it's the outcome of the economic powershift to leagues with high media income markets. The aim is to be a successful football club, not a merchandise business. That title goes to ManCity and Chelsea with their cattle of loanies in wait for being sold. In the days that wasnot the case we as a tiny country ruled club football in Europe in the seventies. After that we occasionally could grab a Cup, with the last one in 2002 with the UEFA Cup. Ajax a few years ago was again close to doing that again, but that's a rarity. I constantly come across this AngloSaxon copy paste nonsense that is just a sign of ignorance and shallow surface probing instead of telling the real story.
So you are basically reminding all of us that the Dutch football league has become equivilant with the Scottish football league. Both were once winning European Cups when disco was cool and now having to witness the Limey's and their clubs like Man City and Chelsea rule the roost. Right on.
If you can't see the difference between a business model as an on purpose actively sought after result and the running the club as a successful soccerclub that has the unfortunate environment it is in than that's your loss, not mine.
Speaking of youth...I just finished listening to an interview with Charles Bohem on Top Drawer Soccer Show and he mentioned that a few MLS teams want to shutter their academy system entirely. Anyone laying odds if one of them is us?
Haha! Move goal posts often amigo. All I did was post an ESPN link on Ajax and then you arrive going long on how the English have taken over. What in tar nation are you on about now?!?
Sorry chap. The goal post is firmly where it was. The article and comments in here were about Ajax having a business model of developing and selling at a profit, which I deny. Everything I posted here after that article mentioned is still the same, it isnot a business model.
Well, if a Feyenoord fan vows for the enemy it tells the people who know about our rivalry a thing or two.
Apparently the Dynamo are giving Texian Army some deal on concessions, if they don't extend something similar to STHs or the whole stadium its evidence again they haven't learned from prior mistakes that erode season ticket holder value. Meanwhile, fans who don’t get discounted seats but show up to more matches than 90% of your group still have to pay $10+ for beers. Thanks a lot @HoustonDynamo.— Bryan Hayman (@TheRealCoach_H) February 9, 2019
Here is a write up on our team's outlook for 2019 from MLSsoccer.com https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019...st-dynamo-feel-more-balanced-after-tough-2018 From that article: See Jordan's specific mindset on bringing players for Wilmer Struna, 28, inked a four-year deal with Houston after spending the previous six years in Italy, primarily in Serie B. Vera is a more familiar type of signing for the Dynamo. The 23-year-old Argentine is relatively young, Latin American, not all that expensive and not particularly high-profile. That’s the general mold Manotas, Cabezas, Quioto, Elis and Martinez fit into when they arrived in Texas, though the latter two players were somewhat bigger commodities when they signed. Targeting that specific type of player is intentional. Houston aren’t paying massive transfer fees for finished products or hotshot prospects. Historically, they’ve had to look a bit more toward the bargain bin, finding players on the cheap that are then developed by head coach Wilmer Cabrera and his staff. “We wanted to build a roster that’s young, that’s dynamic, that has upside and has a capacity, a good capacity, for growth,” said Jordan. “For us, that has been really important. And it’s also important to have a coaching staff that’s passionate about teaching those players and helping them improve, so that’s been a really important part of our strategic plan.” Elis and Manotas, both 23, are undoubtedly Houston’s two biggest success stories. Both arrived at the club without much high-level first-team experience, and both have turned into legitimate MLS stars. Elis recorded 11 goals and 10 assists in 30 games last season, giving him 21 goals and 14 helpers in 56 regular-season appearances in two seasons with Houston. Manotas followed his 10-goal, five-assist 2017 with an even bigger 2018, finishing tied for fourth in MLS with 19 goals in 33 matches.
This depth bullshit is getting annoying. I feel like Jordan has praised our depth every damn season since he got the job. It has never panned out and if it does who cares about depth when half the starters are subpar?
Ok, a bit of off-field Dynamo business/ stadium experience news: 1) streamers are now banned per MLS rules (@webtilton quite sad) 2) Dynamo rolled out their new customer experience enhancements for 2019: http://www.houstondynamo.com/post/2...-receiving-several-upgrades-ahead-2019-dynamo The fans are nice touch although I doubt it will have a huge impact and the lower bowl will still swelter with no airflow in summer. The "Sensory Room" thing sounds like a bad gimmick from a horror movie but what do I know. It was designed for a media preview session so they could get some good PR while spending little money on the stadium. 3) Dynamo "Happy Hour" menu pricing - another one of those things that sounds like a real great thing but short on details other than it will be for 60 minutes after gates open (which i think means it ends 40 minutes before kickoff) and at selected locations. Translation: we'll have it at 3 stands that will have long lines and those at the back will have to pay full price by the time they get the counter since security will back up outside because we only open one entrance early. They could have done more but will blame it on their contract with Levy, other restrictions, etc. A quarter-measure if I've ever seen one. http://www.houstondynamo.com/post/2...ns-coming-houston-dynamo-dash-home-games-2019 What I didn't hear was: additional staffing, more points of sale so shorter lines, general customer service improvements.
eventually the dynamo will start doing things right and eventually we're going to have to give them credit. i see the big ass fans and the happy hour pricing as a step in the right direction. re: the happy hour pricing. while BBVA has a concession pricing and logistics problems, it also has a late arriving fan problem (all Houston sports teams do). if getting cheap popcorn and beer 30-45 minutes before kickoff gets people in the door sooner then that's a good thing. seriously, 30 minutes early is not as inconvenient as people make it out to be. ive been early plenty of times and it went fast when socializing, browsing the store, and buying concessions.