I don't doubt it at all. Never met the guy, but find it hard pressed to see someone who actually works for the Dynamo actually doing something like that out in the at all much less out in the open!
Given the contempt for the customer the Dynamo sometimes show, I wouldn't be so sure about that. At this point they are blaming the fanbase for everything to save their own butts
Blaming the fans - This is exactly what happened with Precourt and Columbus. Except at least they have had a good coach and team.
The test on "fans" is how many would show up for a big friendly, which is your latent demand you haven't activated, and also how many people show up for an opponent that does spend money, or a rivalry game, or on average in your best season. If we can get 70k+ for friendlies, it's not the fans' fault. If we can fill the place for rivalry games or when the other team has cool players, it's not the fans' fault. If the attendance drops from 20k to 16k as the team erodes on the field, it's not the fans' fault. You're failing to motivate fans who will show for that level of soccer. It's only the fans' fault if we show up like Dallas does at home. The Astros were a top 10 attendance team back around their first world series, dipped down to horrific during the non spending years, and are back top 10 again with a champion. Can they blame the fans for not showing for the years they didn't even try? I mean, this is pro sports. The product is the quality of the team. The attraction is that the team is much better than some men's league and competitive for its league. We're not paying just to be loyal to the fact we have a team. That is lowest common denominator BS. Nor have they put the effort into presentation and entertainment where the experience offsets any performance failure that year.
Folks, I don’t care what people think of this guy personally, but if the mentality of the FO is that fans that have become disenchanted with the Dynamo and no longer buy tickets should have no “voice” because they aren’t buying tickets then all hope is lost. Im pretty sure the marketing heads of McDonalds and Budweiser don’t subscribe to the theory of “F you if you don’t buy tickets to our crappy product” . http://mobile.twitter.com/JayAdelberg/status/1036083176878342144
Im not spending season ticket type money to watch Central American players not named Keylor Navas. I’ve been watching CONCACAF since the 80s. The quality just ain’t there. Who you going to believe: me or a ticket rep in his 20s or an internet show with 20 listeners.
The usual coalition of FO personnel and Orange Kool-Aid drinkers gathering on twitter to commiserate about how spending in MLS means nothing (they cite the Galaxy and Toronto likely being out of playoffs but ignore Atlanta, Seattle, LAFC, etc. who spend real money) and how the Dynamo were in the West final and thus still so close to being good. And shots at the fans for being spoiled 1036436813601222656 is not a valid tweet id They just don’t get it. The best is good ol Fan of the Year Web Tilton talking about the Astros not winning with a high payroll or having any “stars”, ignoring that the Astros had 4 all-Stars playing on their entry-level contracts!!! Who has the Dynamo drafted or developed in the last 5 years?? Can’t win with a low payroll if you have to get all your players from external sources unless you hit on every signing. What this says is: expect more of the same cheap crap in 2019
Thought the reddit comment below was spot on in terms of describing our ownership http://www.reddit.com/r/dynamo/comments/9c8quk/thoughts/ “Pretty sure we already know their strategy: Cut costs, pay down debt, add stadium "features" to raise value, make money off of expansion fees, sell when those stop at some kind of profit. They're not going to come out and tell you this, but it's pretty apparent when you're in the stadium that this a foreclosed house that is being flipped by a slumlord. They put in the cheapest fixtures they can find to sell at a profit when it's time to get out. This isn't a home they plan on living in like Atlanta, Portland, or KC's ownership, this a Section 8 rental they're trying to milk and sell when the time is right. Not sure how much they're going to get for it if they keep this shit up though”
Is that the same one that posts absurd tweets like this: “Pro Soccer in Houston is not a right, it is a privilege. If you think stopping support of the team will enforce change, it might. Change that sees the club leave the city. Is that what you all want? Call in Tuesday and let us know!” http://mobile.twitter.com/GenOrangeRadio/status/1036099450857574400
Is this dig from our FO to remind all of us in Houston how AEG had a loyal fan base in San Jose but did not find a way to work with local civic leaders to find a way outta a college gridiron stadium to keep their MLS team in town or is this our FO having a go at all of us in Houston informing us that our owner will move from an incredible downtown stadium with outstanding youth local talent and proven fan and supporter backing to relocate this club once again to some college gridiron stadium in another city that, of course, has zero proven support for pro soccer??? I mean, I'm shaking in my boots! Aren't y'all? !?
It’s from the Gen Orange Podcast twitter account, the guys with 20 viewers of a show from a guy’s kitchen table who have views that are oddly correct and incorrect at the same time. They are pretty ignorant about a lot of soccer business related things or just parrot what that Jay Adelberg guy tells them. For example, comparing the Dynamo to the Columbus situation is wrong because: a) MLS has to approve any move as a single-entity; b) I don’t believe Brener has an out clause like Precourt got for Austin when he bought the Crew; c) Brener would have to pay off the debt on the stadium AND get a sweet stadium deal in a second city; and D) if they read the publicly posted Dynamo Stadium lease deal with the county sports authority they’d see the “outs” are pretty narrow and expensive. Scare tactics by someone - and there is a continual effort to somehow blame the fans for the FO inability to invest and put s good product out there.
I actually hadn’t seen this tweet thread before - these Gen Orange guys really leap from taking the Zlatan-generated sellout crowd at BBVA as proof Dynamo fans who abandon the team are replaceable - yeah, if ownership would sign guys like Zlatan!!!!!! And this whole deal about maybe you could end up worse with a different owner than Brener . . . . I mean I guess so but we have an owner in the bottom quartile or maybe tenth of MLS so not much downside http://mobile.twitter.com/HoustonSports4/status/1036093877202153472
One other observation from fans I saw this weekend (on Facebook I think), paraphrasing some: “how can you get excited over a club whose ambition is merely to exist as a business?”.
No, just look at the Jay Adelberg guy on twitter, and the responses, and the Fan of the Year’s comments and you’ll see the narrative. Look, I don’t think spending at Atlanta or Toronto levels is necessary or prudent, but the Dynamo are so far away from that it’s bit funny.
The problem isn't that they don't spend LA levels (or insert new hot thing here) it's that they don't invest in anything. And when they dip their toes at doing so it's so badly done that of course it goes horribly wrong. Their best bet has always been to develop local players but they refuse to do that.
Because there is no short-term ROI, they don’t bother to propose anything that may have a long-term ROI. I couldn’t almost synopsize the predicament the Dynamo are in with their lack of player development and lagging fan support and attendance with this one concept of only making short-term decisions. This is all ownership and Canetti/FO/marketing/ticket sales has done - 10 years of this has accumulated into the mess of today
But the FO acts like its because we are having a bad season that fans are jumping ship. That's just the tip of the iceberg. The last straw for some camels...
It’s like they think they erased 2014-16 from the team website so fans should act like it didn’t happen. I’ll make this statement: I felt more valued by the club as a season ticket holder in 2007 with a couple of $350 seats than I did at BBVA with a STH bill each year approaching $4,000.
This may be the biggest “dick” thread from FO personnel in a while - soliciting concrete ideas only to shoot most down, like customers with real jobs are responsible for better ideas than FO employees who do this for a living: http://mobile.twitter.com/JayAdelberg/status/1037145502557655041 My favorite: Replying to@jayc13 and @DynamicFoxtrot How is marketing the problem? It was sold out when Zlatan came to town. Somehow 22,000 people found out about that with no billboards, yes? 8:23 PM · Sep 4, 2018
To try and use a visiting player the level of Zlatan that sold out that game on his presence as proof that that Dynamo have done adequate marketing is beyond absurd.