I've basically stayed out of this debate ... was curious to see which direction it flowed. And while in general I agree with your sentiments, there are some comments he threw out that even I don't understand. Does he know that the Riders (for example) also tailgate, and do the things he mentioned? Does he know that their group's not the only one getting the $10 tickets, and those types of benefits? Personally speaking, I don't agree with the "Get a player from "[insert country name] here and everyone from that community will show up." We've not really seen a bump from that in the past, but who knows. I'm in the "get the damn best player we can for the salary we can give" camp. But I can see how La Barra feels neglected. The security talk is nonsense. Speak English or not, the security's been a major problem for a long time. It gets better at times, and then reverts back to their normal point. I do think though that if you're going to talk about how you're such good fans ... you should probably show up at the game before the 15-20 minute mark. I've been part of the Riders/Rev Army/other fans that have gone over and joined their drum circle. But we've also been doing that for a few years ourselves. It's nothing new. What it is ... fun, gets others involved, and a little bit of a party.
i'm tellin ya its easy - i'll type slo so the guys in the FO can understand. The article was long so i summarized the money points here. - Sign old Central American player - Sign players from local pickup leagues - offer free parking and $10 tickets as a special enticement - put the score on the scoreboard in spanish - serve tacos - have a special area behind the goal where fans can play drums, sing etc - let fans tailgate in the parkinglot. - don't schedule games during second shift on weeknights do these simple things and its a guarunteed fkn sell out in gilette 70k fans no problem. done deal, NEXT!
FYI - the cosmos did all those things in thier heyday, and the rest of the NASL didn't Proof it works. we may want to appoint this Cruz guy to the FO. posssibly bring in Chinalia as well, as a consultant to replace gulati as well. money in the bank.
Chief Operating Officer Brian Bilello's take over on DefendTheFort: http://myrevs.ning.com/forum/topics/revolution-barra?page=6&commentId=2388058%3AComment%3A14704&x=1#2388058Comment14704
Great response by Brian B. He called Bullsh!t on the stuff that needed to be called out and gave a pretty thoughtful response about the stuff that is really the issue. This quote says a lot about what the issue is for bringing in "ethnic" fans: To those who are citing this a yet another failure of the FO, I think you are just looking for stuff to put on them, and not being objective here (Not that there isn't plenty to blame them for). They tried to outreach to an ethnic community by providing a section for them, season ticketholder privileges for non-STH's, and FO liaison and it appears that it didn't work (or hasn't worked yet). What did they do wrong, short of not providing a Real Madrid-level football experience? BTW, the post that Brian was responding to was very well thought out (hope it was one of us).
If I understand it correctly, the $10 means they can get tickets for $10 for individual games ( as opposed to the $16 group rate season ticket holders get for extra tickets ). Maybe there are others who get that same deal, but I am unaware of who that would be. Average Joe Schmo does not get tickets for $10 outside of Fort season tickets.
You can do that. And then think of how many Central and Latin American players play (or have played) for the Sox, and in the MLB as a whole.
I confess. I would have given up my season tickets years ago if it wasn't for Gillette having the food choice of my 'community' ...
You want to know what, I am perfectly ok with any first generation fresh off the boat or airplane or whatever they came off of immigrant saying, "you wanna know what? This is no Santos Laguna, or this is no Lake Titicaca FC." But if any of those idiots are second generation and weren't born in their home country, then them fools just being ignorant.
How is any of this different from many Italian-Americans showing up only for Milan-Inter, or Irish-Americans showing up only for their national team or for Celtic? There will always be people for whom futbol is more cultural identification than sporting passion. This is true for the Sox too, BTW - they are callled bandwagon jumpers, The hardcore complain when they come out of the woodwork, and complain when they fade back in. Anyhow, if these Sunday morning heroes are really the demo that the Revs want to target, maybe instead of Meet The Revs, they should have a Play the Revs event. Or a reality series.
It isn't, and they're annoying as well. What's annoying here is that instead of preferring a league of a higher caliber than MLS, these guys are complaining we're not better than Central American leagues. I'm all in favor of instead of the Revs scrimmaging a college team (like they did with Harvard) doing it against a team from the league this guy runs. Of course, a poor result from these "Sunday morning heroes" (nice one) would probably result in classic MLS-phobic excuses but hey.