Dynamo FO/TD Opinions

That’s the most Dynamo fan thing I’ve ever heard. Pretty much sums up our fan base feelings towards MLS level strikers.

 

Nice player with some nice finishes in the first half of the season but really faded hard.. If the Dynamo are spending that kind of money they need consistency.

 

I really don’t understand the decision to let the Beckham group have an MLS franchise. MLS does not seem to be doing very well, but how well would they be without the expansion fees?

 

It's a Ponzi scheme. At about the same exact time as the league is filling up available spots and no more expansion is possible, the league will attempt to renew a TV deal where ratings have only moved marginally in a decade. The house of cards will fall. No doubt.

 

If I was Beckham I woulda looked into markets like Charlotte, where the sport is very strong in North Carolina, both male and female youth very strong and a demographic that will be all in for Brand Becky. More so than Miami and their lame ass fan base.
Or a market like Cincinnati, Memphis or Tulsa. Places that do not have a NBA(Memphis does but then no NFL, MLB or NHL at all!) or NHL team and yet have show in the past and more recently with Cinncy that the sport is strong.

 

That would make more sense, but you can’t park your yacht in Cincinnati.

 

oh no, baghdad bob is gone?!?!? hope he is able to find himself on his sojourn. #eatpraylove

 

I was informed that our Front Office head honchos have once again made significant changes to the staff at our FO. This releasing of the VP of ticket sales is example 1A of such "moves".

 

When we signed Martinez our Argentine, he stated that he looked forward to playing at BBVA, that our stadium was compact and had the fans very close to the field of play, he specifically mentioned that our BBVA reminded him of Boca Jrs. iconic home ground of La Bombanera in that the fans are so close to the field. I of course fell out of my seat when I heard this from him. I DREAMED of the day back at Butler Stadium with our USL team that one day our city would have an MLS team, To which we had some sort of home ground that was compact and with a great home atmosphere. Which is what our people completed.
Now, all these years on from being renters at the Rob and with all that we have down for our FO to have a selling point, a marketing of pro soccer point to hammer home to new fans to the booming sport, our FO cuts staff, cuts Sales staff certainly and actually finds ways to hamper the growth of our Dynamo brand. The sport, combined with a good crowd, sells itself. All a FO has to do is market the hell outta the good time to be had, offer some quality food n customer service and make sure the team wins more often at home than they lose. Us die hard fans are on a buzz for the return of Dynamo footy but like you mention, our FO has no moves to generate a new season sales throttle. Rockets n Astros glory is to be welcomed by our FO, not used as a pass, even if the success of the others has fewer Houstonians to spend their cash on our club. The city is on the up on many levels, we were on the dessert years back and it was our boys in Naranja that brought Houston back to saying the word Champions. Our FO must get their thoughts together and sell the sport more!

 

Why would you be losing momentum when the team was a semifinialist?

 

I'd separate out two things. One, they offered MLS 2.0 atmosphere and got 2.0 style crowds. We are still on the old presentation model, not going full fan involvement, and the primary product is on the field. MLS has moved on to 3.0 atmosphere and teams having that get full stadia, not just 2.0 crowds in the high teens. We used to be better than 1.0 atmosphere in NFL stadia. But we are falling behind the curve, as we once did on the field playing 2.0 soccer in a league increasingly with 3.0 soccer and spending.

Thus, two, we are judged as a sports product. When the sports product slipped, then I think all the little glitches, inconveniences, greed, modest presentation/atmosphere efforts, come to the forefront. It's fairly fun to see but not like "I would watch TFC miss the playoffs for years" atmosphere. So once the payroll and team effort slipped, the fans could see it, and judging by product, walked.

They have burned the lagging loyalty they had from years of good teams, that bought them a pass in the rare year like 2010. If you aren't going to spend, and the magnet is the team on the field, the fans can see it, and it's going to be a harder sell and a slower attendance rebuild. We are winning again and judging by some playoff games starting to win fans back, but it's a harder sell. What we were trading on was sustained success. To get that same fan level back, on a "winner" approach, well, gotta sustain it again for a while.

FWIW the stuff like restaurants and seats goes to the bottom line fairly directly. That's repairing the money machine or trying to make the money churner more attractive. But while people may want more efficient food or better food, I don't buy a soccer ticket for the food. The food is to fuel me while I am there and as long as promptly served and decent, does the job. Don't screw over the fans on food, get it to them promptly, and you will make enough in concessions. But obsessing about it? Are we in Major League Concessions?

What really makes people want to go see soccer is (1) team on the field and (2) presentation of the games. And the deal there is it shows if you don't try hard enough, or don't spend enough. You can't remodel around that. You either spend competitive wages, and have creative people creating more and more fun, or you don't. They obsess about the money machine side of it, like a restaurant owner worrying about making more money turning around tables or gouging customers a quarter more a dish. When what gets people in the door is how good the pizza is and how fun it is to eat there. You are a pizza maker. Focus on the pizza making. Metaphorically.

The soccer team needs some help still, but the untapped part is making the pizza shop more fun in a way more like the new franchises. Rendering chicken fingers more efficient doesn't fix that. And if you don't fix the presentation aspect, fans are going to try and see us win and less just to enjoy, and you will be judged up or down every year on the soccer field. You want off that yoyo, work on atmosphere.

 

Why is our FO laying off sales staff when selling our team is exactly what needs to be done for a Conference Finalist!

 

This stood out from that article:
The official MLS “maximum’’ salary for any one player is $504,375. But there are exceptions,

Knowing that this is the money cap for below level DP talent and the additional new Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) spending rules. There is the concept that a club like ours that sits in the first or second most youth talented market in our nation, that our club go long on a residential Academy and grow our own in house talent. Thus telling our local youth talent that if you are good enough, we will offer you $250,000 (half of the above figure) to sign at 18 and if really good bump you to $378,000 as you progress. With the possibility of progressing to the gold ring for a 21 to 23 year old and reach that max figure of $504,375. Our MLS club offers two solid choices to our local boys, be good enough to go to Clemson and play college ball so you can get that degree for mom n day to then get in the MLS draft and possibly have a pro career.OR sign for the team you grew up with and get paid 250K at 18, you can as well go back to college whenever your pro career is over.

 

There is also this from that article from Seattle:

So, if you’re the Sounders, you’ll have to hope your large crowds keep showing up and likely be prepared to spend a bigger chunk of that revenue down the road. At this rate, it’s going to cost increasingly more to keep up talent-wise with elite franchises threatening to permanently separate from the pack.

Our FO is focusing on paying off stadium debt however. Which is a business decision, just know Dynamo FO that even teams that average 40,000+, average!, are going to fall behind other clubs paying for talent over paying off debt.

 

He will be missed.