And all you hear from the NASL guys is "Big news coming!" "Just wait!" Bullshit! I don't believe any of them anymore
Yea, they keep saying that, but I don't know either. I mean, you have to go back months and months to see anything, outside of two random tweets, that even mention the NASL. And with how the Energy are handling this thing with The Grid, I don't know how much faith I have in them either. I may not agree with everything The Grid does, but threatening to throw the acting president of the group out because of language, even after the concession was made to curb the language, seems a little extreme to me.
I find it funny how people get offended at soccer games over language, but no one gets butthurt at OU games when it's flowing rich and deep
I think it has a lot to do with one, it being a large, organized chant of profanity, and two, and probably more accurately, people here still filter soccer through the lens of something their kids play and enjoy, not something that grown men and women can get passionate about.
Oh, total hypocrisy. Not that I would expect anything different from my more closeminded neighbors in OKC.
For the guys who actually care about the team I hope their protest worked, but I don't really know if it did. The only reason we went last night was that our friend got a block of tickets in the chairback section which included (2) beer coupons. Observations: 1) Biggest crowd I've seen so far. 2) Quietest crowd I've seen, outside of an FC Dallas game. 3. Nobody got excited about anything EXCEPT when the free t-shirts were been thrown out. Crap, you'd think they were giving out the cure for cancer! 4.) My friend (who feels about Bob Funk like I do) and I started cheering for OC Blues just to see if we could get a rise out of anyone. Nope. One kid in our section kept turning around and looking at us. When OKC scored the tying goal he turned around and gave us the "L for loser" sign. We laughed and gave him the thumbs up for at least caring! 5) One of our friends who came with us had never been to a soccer game. He was also making comments about how quiet the crowd was. We told him about the kerfuffle going on with the supporters and the FO and how apparently they were marketing towards families, blah blah blah. Even HE saw a flaw in that logic; if you are marketing to families, then why are tickets so high? For a family of (4) to go to an Energy game it will cost them at least $120 for tickets, hot dogs, drinks, etc... So obviously that should NOT be their target demographic. But as I keep saying, Funk and Prodigal don't know d!ck about soccer, or sports in general IMHO. They will continue to mismanage the team until it goes the way of the barons OR until they realize the soccer grass is greener at their other investment in Tulsa and they put all their eggs in that basket, leaving OKC high and dry.
I posted a similar picture on a local forum. This is Sacramento. This is what an owner builds for a supporter's group that he actually; 1. Appreciates 2. Likes 3. Understands Bob Funk and Tim McLaughlin apparently neither like, appreciate, nor understand supporter culture and how it is the lifeblood of a soccer team and one of the most important ways it builds relevance in a community. Their idea of building excitement is having teenagers run through the stands every 15 minutes and throw t-shirts to the the crowd. Given the current momentum of this ownership group the Energy are destined to become nothing more than another option for entertainment. And if something else is going on (Arts Festival, minor league baseball game, movie, restaurant opening, tractor pull, drag racing, dog show, circus, etc...etc...etc...) the attendance will drop because not enough people have bought into the team, not just a soccer game. The people they need are supporters, and lots of them. What they seem to be marketing towards are casual fans. Good luck with that. Just Google Oklahoma City Barons to see how successful that strategy was. They even gave aawy a freaking CAR every Saturday night, and people STILL didnt give a $#!+
I side with The Grid on this one. They allowed all of this to happen and then once they are moved to Section 8 they try to censor them? Not only that but they side swipe them by inviting them to a meet and greet that involves the president of the Cauldron giving them a PowerPoint on how to be a supporters group?! The two fatal flaws for The Grid was the fact they printed out their chants in Tulsa last time they visited that had all of the profanity printed and they avoided having a capo. Regardless of that, the front office are complete idiots. You can't threaten one person that is a paying customer because of the actions of an entire group. If they did that to me I'd walk out and never return. And let it be clear...I haaaaaate OKC, but come on. Play ball and let us have fun.
Yeah, I'm not even sure how they get that number. They don't have a scanner at the front gate. I'd assume they get that from tickets sold which means the actual attendance was even lower. I think OKC is in a tough spot with the front office they have down there. The press box has been under construction for months, the YouTube feed never works, the supporters section does silent protest and you've got a team to right up the turnpike that does everything right.
Got to realize that Sacramento (2,244,397) has 900,000 more residents in its metropolitan area than OKC (1,336,767). Soccer will catch fire in OKC when someone with marketing knowledge runs the USL-OKC franchise. Great attendance when you factor in the high ticket prices. A downtown-Bricktown-riverfront venue would enhance the ULS soccer experience. There aren't any 'family attractions' like restaurants, pregame things to do in the area of Taft Stadium. Sure, there are a few McDonalds, Onion Burgers and Taco Hells (fast food) in the area. Brad Lund would have been great for that organization; however, he tore his draws (showed his ass) with Funk Sr., (OKC Blazers debacle). Took my grandsons to a couple of games; however, the language from the supporters section (Grid) burned my ears; let alone to have children under 11 be exposed to that kind of language. It's bad enough to have them calling other kids 'yard birds' listening to Traber on WWLS. Got tired of hearing my daughter-in-laws say, 'every time' you take the boys out they come back using 'foul language.' Both grandsons are of black & Latino mix, their mothers have a difficult time teaching them Spanish; they claim I'm exposing them to a third language (profanity). Agreed that NBA basketball may be the better sports options than soccer. You want to be able to spoil your grand children. This is the Funks 4th go round; from the IGA Ladies Tennis Tournament (lost to Memphis) -1, Oklahoma City RedHawks (sold) -2, Oklahoma City Barons (defunct) -3. Had much faith in the enthusiasm they had when the team moved from Pribil to Taft Stadium (joined by McLaughlin) that OKC would probably make the second future wave of MLS expansion following 2020. Now, I'm totally confused. Hope things get worked out.
And for those of you who don't know, @Laramie is one of the fairest, most level-headed writers on this, or any other, forum. For him to say the things he is now saying means a lot to me. It means things are pretty bad, from his perspective. He has been, from day one, "Lets see how this goes", and "I'm hoping for the best." I have been MUCH less sanguine about the Bob Funk Jr's ability to make ANYTHING succeed. And due to my loyalties toward the other team that was supposed to be playing in OKC I am much more caustic in my analysis of their ass-hattery and seemingly total incompetence. I mean WHO KNEW that raising ticket prices to almost MLS levels for 3rd division soccer in a high school stadium (that isn't even complete yet!) would keep people from coming?!? WHO KNEW? On another forum these are a few of the comments: