The "Thoughts That Don't Require Their Own Thread" Thread XIII

Interesting concept, but I see this more as a one-off, not a future trend.

 

Brian Bilello was on our flight form Iceland to Boston last night. I did not get a chance to talk to him. Just wondering...

 

Not surprising, but no Revs in the All Star game this year.
2019 MLS All-Star Roster

Honestly, I'd rather no rep than Zahibo (like last year).

 

That’s insulting to Gil IMHO.

 

Yeah, if any Rev made it, it would be Gil.

I would have to think he made the second team (which doesn't go to the game, but still gets named due to the CBA).

 

I don't see it gaining much, if any, traction at all.

For starters, let's take a look at the response of St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman to Tampa Bay Rays owner Stuart Sternberg's proposal to have his MLB team split its schedule between Florida and Montréal:

"The City of St. Petersburg will not participate in the funding of a new stadium for a part-time team."

My point being, professional teams and leagues are already experiencing an increased reluctance on the part of governmental entities towards the investment of public funds into the construction of facilities that primarily or solely benefit privately-held sports businesses. Frankly, it is ludicrous to believe that it is going to become easier for teams and leagues to wring public funding out of cities, counties, and states when said entities are only going to play host to teams for half a season.

Which begs the question, if owners of sports franchises suddenly find themselves having to shoulder more of the financial responsibility for facility construction and maintenance, and in two cities to boot, how likely is it that they're going to want to pursue Stuart Sternberg's split-market scenario? In my opinion, not very.

Bottom line? In spite of his protests to the contrary, I believe that Stuart Sternberg's Tampa Bay-Montréal proposal is, in reality, a thinly-veiled threat that is meant to either coerce political leaders in his team's current market to pony-up public dollars for a new ballpark, or set the table for ultimately relocating the Rays to Montréal, where local leadership - including, businessman Stephen Bronfman - has been slowly, but steadily, building support for bringing Major League Baseball back to the city.

On its face, the Tampa-Montréal "solution" for what ails the Rays is absolutely asinine. I just don't see it becoming part of the everyday fabric of professional sports in this country.

 

Why the F*CK have we not announced any signings when pretty much every other team in the league has? Do they need more help than we do?

 

Thats all well and good to say (as you mentioned), but with other teams performing far better in the league than us having already IDENTIFIED, and SIGNING their players, and WAITING for the window to start, I just feel like the Revs should be one of those teams.

I'd have absolutely no problem with putting down the pitchfork if I heard a couple names they were speaking with, and extending deals to. I want to see someone walk through the door on July 7th when the window opens.

 

I think it's safe to say that we're looking at different players with Arena at the helm than we were with Burns and Friedel, so we might be a step or two behind in the identification step.

 

In addition, there may be cap challenges left over from Burns' propensity to sign highly paid, underperforming defenders.

 

Speaking of highly paid, underperforming - does anyone think we will see a Mancienne appearance again? Maybe against Houston due to the squad rotation Arena talked about. But if I'm remembering right he hasn't even made a game day roster since Arena came in.

 

He is injured.

 

Thanks! i clearly haven't read the injury report in some time. Will be interesting to see how Arena rates him once he's healed.

 

This story is kind of a hoot:

https://theathletic.com/1011128/201...ows-best-meet-the-team-dad-of-the-revolution/

 

Thank you to Gillette Stadium and whoever is responsible for switching to paper straws.

 

538 has the Revs at a 34% chance of making the playoffs. When Friedel was fired, it was 8%.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/mls/

 

This seems like BS to me. I would fancy their chances at a lot higher than 34% now.

 

We’ll see. We have games remaining with a lot of teams we’ve struggled with lately. Let’s start by beating Cincinnati and Orlando.

 

Our targets are Montreal and Toronto. If we're going to overtake anyone, it's one of those two. (NYCFC has fewer points than either of them, but has played fewer games.) It's going to be tough to catch them. Not impossible, but it'll be a grind. Still, if we keep winning out...?

 

On the basis of recent performance I tend to agree with you. The other lens to use is who we would replace above the line. We shouldn’t be passed by teams below us even if 538 ranks Orlando and Chicago higher. The only team above us that we are likely to pass is Montreal. We have a game in hand and three points back.. They’re not playing very well. NYCFC still has a bunch of games in hand. We could catch one of the others, but that seems about as likely as one of those below us getting hot. So maybe 50:50 mostly based on being better than Montreal but still behind in the standings. And we still have to see if Da Bruce can keep us out of our summer swoon.

 

Watched El Trafico as a neutral, and was entertained. Saw that the two teams do not like each other. I still don't feel that I have a sense what distinguishes the teams wrt their personalities and their supporters. Does anyone have any thoughts/impressions?

 

IIRC LAFC came in trying to position itself as the team of the “real” LA (whatever that is) in contrast to the Gals who are out in the suburbs of Carson. The Gals weren’t enthused about being marginalized like that. I don't know how that distinction has played out.

 

As critical of the Revs as I can be, I'd be remiss to not shout them out for the Bou signing.