"USA Swimming will announce Tim Hinchey as its new chief executive officer Thursday." https://sports.yahoo.com/news/usa-swimming-announces-tim-hinchey-new-chief-160012538.html
Fitting..............he already sunk and drowned more than once with the Rapids. Maybe he can learn to "swim". He clearly could not with the Rapids. Adios! Have fun in your speedo! Ok maybe I am being a little harsh on Hinchey. I realize he was hamstrung under the umbrella that is KSE. He did some good things. He did some ok things. He did some bad things. A mixed bag. Regardless, change is good and the RFO desperately needs a change in philosophy and mentality.
I think this is fair. Everyone knows my relationship with Tim but off the field he did a number of good things for this club, especially after detaching from being the face of the Front Office and the team's success (or lack of it).
Here's the news release from the Rapids. https://www.coloradorapids.com/post...ent-tim-hinchey-accepts-position-usa-swimming
Totally forgot!That's right you are great pals, beer buddies who golf together Like you alluded to, his off the field accomplishments far outweigh his on the field accomplishments. My stance tended to soften once he was no longer the RFO "Face", too
The interesting thing will be to see who replaces him. Somebody with soccer background and accomplishments?
It was his texting that killed me the most, which he eventually learned to not do. However, his Winter break was one of the best in business so I guess this new gig with 3 years off (Not true I know) beats 3 months.
I feel bad for US Swimming though. But seriously, in the last 6 months, we had a semi-successful season, then let our Technical Director go, became the worst team in MLS, and let our president go. The KSE blueprint stays on course!
I never got the sense Tim knew how to make a consistently competitive team with the resources he was given from KSE. Hiring Pablo as coach and spending millions on TH so we could have a star that would "put butts in seats" were not good decisions imo (Howard's play impacts, but not for those $). The lack of communication from the FO with fans (especially when explanations or apologies are in order) is disrespectful and makes the fans look like $ signs only to club mgmt. Overall I'm glad he's gone.
Wew, the Rapids FB page is filtering the comments section of the press release quite heavily. He never was particularly good and ingratiating himself to the fans. Hinchey did some good things for the club on the business side, and was markedly better than his predecessor. Ticket sales rose significantly during his reign, sponsorship money noticeably increased, and he was able to acquire a handful of DPs. However, I never got the impression that he ever really had a clue how to handle the on-field product. In spite of the good things that happened on the business side, he had presided over a team that was very poorly managed and consistently one of the worst in the league. He never seemed to hold anyone accountable for poor job performance and showed unjustified blind faith in personnel. The seeming constant chaotic state of team and the frequent turnover of technical staff, coaches, and assistant coaches shows a distinct inability to manage. His approach to PR was also basically one fresh disaster after another. He legacy is very mixed to say the least. However, this does mean even more instability in an already chaotic FO. Its safe to say I'm more than a little concerned over what useless and unqualified sack-of-shit bean-counter KSE will hire to replace him.
I've alway thought the real issue is KSE rather than Hinchey. In the couple of interactions I had with him, he seemed like a good guy. Agree that he had some challenges but some great successes (shirt sponsor and DPs) as well. My concern now is who replaces him ... very worried about that.
The biggest problem with the Rapids is well upstream of Hinchey Falls, in the headwaters of the Enos Stanley swamp.
My thoughts on Hinchey are pretty well summed up here. But as far as the business side of his time here, I mean, I'll give him credit for getting a jersey sponsorship, where his predecessors failed...but Hinchey also failed spectacularly there as well with Ciao. I'll give him credit for measures to raise attendance...but at the same time, we still had one of the worst attendances in the league every season he was here. I'll give him credit for increasing revenue...but also don't care, because of how much he and the technical directors have wasted on a poor performing team. I'll give him credit for raising STH numbers...but then his punting of the 2017 season undermines that effort and created ill will with many season ticket holders. So...yeah, I can't give him anything but qualified praise for any of his time or efforts here.
I think TH has punted every other season for a while, remember we changed coaches but did nothing personal wise.
Wasn't he also the marketing guy who was in on the player acquisition decisions? (At least according to Gary Smith.) That was not a good start to things.
Didn't realize USA Swimming was based in Colorado Springs, wonder why they don't build a huge aquatic center for that over the outdoor stadium idea.
A couple of interesting tidbits: USA Swimming has only had two CEOs since 1980 (job security), serves as a volunteer swin coach for a Special Olympics team, and he swam in college. This seems like a dream job for him. Again, always liked Tim and wish him luck. I'm now more worried about who KSE brings in.
This bit of Rapids news seems to be odd the radar, but as a fan and STH it's on my mind as theoretically they are in the hunt for up to three signings. So I am wondering who will play the Hinchey role in negotiating and getting the contract signed? Is that now up to Smith? Claudio Lopez? Will we have to wait until the new person is under contract before negotiations take place? (I hope not!) From my perspective 90% of an evaluation of Hinchey has to do with what takes place on the pitch as he sets the foundations. I state this knowing that KSE has to be willing to be supportive to some extent.