Beckham Arrives to Find a Sport Thriving in Its Own Way (New York Times, July 8) Columbus is not mentioned among the five teams. If I recall correctly, Conventional BigSoccer Wisdom has held that while the Columbus Crew wasn't profitable Columbus Crew Stadium (whatever its technical company name) is based on its retention of the typical stadium revenues - concessions and parking - for MLS games and its other events. Does anyone have some educated guesses or actual knowledge if this is true?
Given that they have a couple of concerts there per year (which I've heard do pretty well) I'd assume they would make a profit. I think concerts are typically quite profitable, assuming they fill the place. I'd think they'd have to make a killing on an all-day, sold out festival like Rock on the Range. Once you go in, you can't leave and come back so you're stuck buying $5 bottles of water and $8 hamburgers all day.
I think they could make a bit more money with some better merchandise. Maybe my expectations are high but I think our merchandise is crap.
The only think I know about business is "give the customer what they want"...works everytime...the crew needs to learn this
I too think the merchandise could be a bit better. Pretty much the only yellow shirt you could get early in the season is a replica jersey which runs around $60. A bit steep for many potential customers. You want something less expensive and you have to buy a black tee shirt, or a really lame tee shirt. I ended up resorting to e-bay. No polo shirts either. I'm guessing this is more due to adidas and the way contracts are let versus anything to do with the Crew specifically.
i was thinking this the other day too...i was wondering who we could suggest that too because i hate the new adidas scarves
If someone wants to design a scarf (*cough* brook *cough*) we could try to pass it on to the crew. Usually the lot size needs to be a min of 250, so this is something the Crew Store could probably help out with if prompted with the idea and known interest.
That's the drawback to single-entity. Everything goes thru the league office--which means it ends up in a black hole (unless it's Beckham, of course).
no i'm asking because i'm preparing to sell them...please DON'T contact the crew I was trying to find out interest.
Just make sure they are quality and a good design otherwise they won't sell. Look forward to seeing what you come up with. SportScarf.com makes some really good stuff, they do scarfs for yanks abroad, if you're comparing manufacturers
Be careful not to infringe on trademark/copyright or you will get hosed. I think "Columbus 'till I die" with the team colors should be ok--but I am not a lawyer nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. (I have to know a bit about copyright and trademarks in my job tho...).
Its okay, if the cops come after you just go into your safe-house and all the cop heat badges will go away. Works every time, right? Edit: I'd buy one
Ok...I never said I would be printing anything Illegal but if I did or anyone did I doubt a bunch of cops would come to my door. Probley just some crew thug telling me to seize and desist...also thanks for the support...ill get it to you as soon as possible
Are you saying the crew thug would "seize" your scarves and tell you to "desist", or do you mean the crew thugh would tell you to "cease and desist"?
Well, let's just put it this way. There are some old guard types around that can tell you something about Crew scarves and customs agents and the troubles with that. Although, if you can find somebody local, then I guess you circumvent that issue.
well the idea is to do everything legally...the crew don't own the words Columbus or Crew seprate from eachother. They also don't own Yellow and Black and the certainly don't own "Columbus Til I Die"...my question and I'm not sure if anyone knows this or not but If I were to screen print a shirt that has Schelotto...If or who owns the rights....thanks
I'ver personally thought it would awesome to see a high contrast picture of Guille with a stern look on his face, yellow print on a black t-shirt, with the words "Don't mess with Guille" on it. I'd buy 5. Edit: To answer your question, usually, you can use an image of someone if you own the rights to the image. Of course, if that someone is Tiger Woods, or Michael Jordan, then their name is a trademarked brand, which would be different. But if you got a picture of Guille, I think you would be OK. Not a trademark lawyer either, but that's my limited knowledge of the subject. Assuming the scarves are near the "quality" of the Crew scarves, I'd buy one or two. Columbus Till I Die.
I was just joking. I was implying that everyone was taking the matter a little too seriously. I really don't think they would come after you for something like that, especially being a supporter (unless you like blatantly used the Crew logo or something like that)