The "Ownership vs. Stewardship" Thread

We did for about 3 years in the mid-2000's. Our fans didn't support that team any better than our current mediocre-to-bad teams. The marginal fans (not those on these boards, or in supporters groups) don't seem to care what the quality of the team is (just as they don't seem to care about game day atmosphere -- unless that means getting a friggin $3 t-shirt for free at halftime, or on the big screen).

 

Yeah, about that... How much money and effort did the Revs put in to marketing and publicizing those very good teams who were in the top of the league and nearly won the whole shebang 4 different times?

Zero.

Maybe if they did a little bit of that, the general public might have known about them, that there was a team worth watching down in Foxboro, but when they team's "president" was a guy who supposedly had all those media connections (and a pretty nice Super Bowl ring too!) but the team never got a peep in the local press, its' not on the fans.

 

Maybe what's been demonstrated over the years is that marketing this team is going to have a negligible effect - and that's why they don't invest much in it.

 

So you're saying that no matter what they do effort and money wise to promote the team to get it into the public eye, people aren't going to show up, so why bother?

But I guess we'll never know that, since the only time they ever did that they were among the top teams in the league in attendance.

 

Maybe. But they should move or sell the franchise if true

 

I don't understand why the Revs aren't running ads during EPL games. I saw a NBCSB plug for their Revs show during the Celtics game tonight, but the team isn't advertising beyond that.

 

I think it's broader trends that affect public interest in the team. Some examples:

- the economic downturn that coincided with the opening of Gillette was a big blow that lasted for years. And, on the flip side, a good and improving economy in NE has helped fuel the more recent growth in attendance.

- broader growth of interest in the sport and MLS helps grow support for the team over time.

Well, advertising on the same station that they have a broadcast contract with is a fairly natural outcome of a friendly relationship.

I think people who are watching EPL on TV are not, in general, who they think their best target audience is (i.e., soccer snobs).

 

$$$

Actually, in a bizarre way, NBA fans (especially local) are a better target audience for MLS than prem fans. Lots if crossover interest between Kobe being a Barcelona fan to Steve Nash being a part owner in MLS and general interest in soccer by various NBA players (LeBron is theoretically a Liverpool fan but who knows). The second reason is quite simplyssthe product. If you go from watching a pulsating Liverpool-City match to the dire revs-Colorado match (as an example) the transition is ...painful... to put it politely.

 

I'm going to guess that audience features and inordinately high number of Millennials. That's who they've got to get. Also, the other thing about soccer snobs (and I'm one) is they like soccer.

 

The NBA audience also tends to skew young. That's where the Revs have got to recruit.

I watch a lot of La Liga and a fair amount of EPL, and the Revs first two games of this season were jarring to say the least. Some of that we can hang on early season rust. Every league takes about a month to settle into its season. Yet you touch on something interesting. Wouldn't be great to have an owner who got the whole organization together and asked "How do we go from where/what we are to that (Liverpool v. City)?" We are in a first-tier sports city, perfect place to aim big.

 

I think the key to remember is being a 'snob' by definition means you have high taste and look down on lesser quality.

Hence, applied to soccer, speaking as a Liverpool fan and fellow soccer snob, I would slightly fix your post (bolding mine).

To me, soccer snobbery (if you will) falls along a spectrum. Fans can be passionate and closed minded in whom they support, which can hurt newer league like MLS until they build a critical mass.

For example, I know soccer snobs who never bother with MLS all the way to being both a diehard for their foreign team and a longtime MLS season ticket holder. The variable is usually twofold:
a) how knowledgeable is the fan is about MLS?
b )how open-minded are they towards giving it a fair shot? This means not jumping to conclusions after a game or or making "retirement league" assumptions when a guy like Zlatan signs.

FWIW, I am a loyal supporter of Liverpool and the revs, watching LFC every weekend (as often as I can) and being a revs fan for 22 years and sometimes STH. I am knowledgeable enough about MLS to certainly acknowledge the good with the bad and not jump to either side too heavily. There are dire games in every league; the key is to give any league enough time to realize there's also pulsating games everywhere as well.

 

Soccer's a bit like pizza. Even when it's bad, it's still all right. What the Revs have to convince people on is "See that thing in Europe you love? Let's do it better here." Obviously the Krafts fall down on that latter point. Yet the second they commit to being a first-class organization I think we'd see a dramatic change in the amount of local interest they receive.

 

Back in the old days if I went to a pub on a Saturday morning and tried to talk up the Revs, I'd often get the old [English accent]Whoy would Oi pay ten dollars to wotch a bunch of college boys in a kickabout?[/English accent]. Now 20+ years later, it's still hard to overcome the "MLS is crap" mindset, even when MLS as a whole, clearly is not.

The problem is that in many places around the league like Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Toronto, the atmosphere is amazing and the presentation is as good as anywhere in the world. But not here. And if Foxboro is your only point of reference, that clouds your view of the entire league.

Other teams have shown they can do the kinds of things we can only wish for. Sure, there are nuances in each market, but if we took the same approach and had the same commitment (in effort, budget and creativity) as those teams, we would be in a far better place. Maybe not Atlanta/Seattle level, but much better than we are.

 

Well, the soccer and the business sides are two different animals. If he got, say, a guy like Bruce Arena without the humility and modesty, to be the "Soccer Belichick," that would work on the field. Clearly this guy could make a good case for signing big-time player X for a lot of money.

But they also need someone like that on the business side. They don't have to be "soccer people" in the sense of being fanboys, but they do need to love and appreciate the game for what it is, and not view it through the lens of other "sports management" perspectives. That person would need to be creative enough to imagine what would and wouldn't work, rather than just trying to be a photocopy of a successful team like the Patriots.

 

At least he's talking about them - progress

 

Felger was commenting on Gillette, not the lack of top tier players.

 

Once you leave the NY-to-Boston corridor there's a LOT of bad pizza that is far from alright; you have no idea how good you have it up there. I have been to countless pizza joints here in Atlanta and it's amazing how so many people can screw up something so easy. Kraft is serving you Atlanta quality pizza instead of Atlanta United quality ambition.

 

I know its off topic, but PREACH. Surprisingly bad pizza in Illinois. Its like all the Italians that never learned about spice cabinets got kicked out of the northeast and had to settle somewhere else

 

Chicago and the surrounding area has fantastic pizza, can't speak to the rest of the state.

 

I have to disagree with you, but to each their own! I would much rather go for detroit style than the pizza soup people describe as deep dish (it honestly needs more garlic and basil)

 

I had some near Calgary made with cheddar. Yuchh.

 

It could actually be a great thing [potentially]. Our previous relationships with international clubs have pretty come to nothing, but with an ownership stake, there would a lot more clout behind training requests, player loans, coaching trips, shared scouting info, scrimmages, friendlies, etc., etc.

As I said, potentially.