NYRB have sold more than 6500 ST so far

Getting us back on topic:

6500 STH means that approximately covers 25% of the stadium's seating capacity. If the goal is 8000 STH, then we're talking 33% of the stadium's seating capacity.

Sure, the current numbers are disappointing but not a disaster. Given the economic climate, and last season's record, it's a marvel that they've received that many.

As was said before, now that the stadium's built and if the FO can produce a winning team (I believe the first 3 regular season home games are extremely important), then, you'll see STH numbers increase. The team, in both incarnations have disappointed over the years so it's going to be a slow road and a few championships to get people to make that kind of financial commitment.

 

Wow, I forget how much I can't stand the Big Soccer smartassy tendency to ignore context to react to perceived slights against your team. It's a real waste of my time, but because I was sloppy with words I owe you this, even though your "how dare you imply that Colorado is the worst" reaction is just the kind of thing that makes Big Soccer kind of shitty at times.

Yes, NY have been worse than the next worst team, which happens to be Colorado, if you consider points per season over 14 years. They're also tied with a team, which happens to be Colorado, if you look at hardware, or appearances in finals.

They're not the worst if you look at "number of seasons where they didn't make the playoffs" and since that was the CONTEXT OF THIS ENTIRE DISCUSSION, I thought that was pretty clear.

But let me be Dudley Moore to your Peter Cook and run around the letter box, pretending to abase myself by throwing invisible dirt on myself.

But don't you feel great? By some useless metric that doesn't even have a sensible standard (point calculations changed, only regular season counts), your team isn't quite the worst in MLS history! You've successfully defended your team on the internet yet again!

 

This should follow all of DCU1996's posts

 

Speaking of BigSoccer smartassy tendencies, like reading stuff into posts that aren't actually there.

I will gladly and willingly share the title of worst team in MLS between NY and Colorado. Its deserved. What I don't care for is the BigSoccer tendency to re-write history and ignore facts.

 

The stated metric was "number of seasons between 1996 and 2003 when a given team didn't make the playoffs."

Under that metric, they were not the worst.

Understand?

 

The reported season tix number is good, especially considering all this strike talk may be keeping some folks from laying out the cash. I plan on hitting many matches myself and consider this a new beginning that has been long in the works. I dislike the Red Bull moniker and tend to call them the Metro Bulls myself, but I have to face the facts, what other ownership group would have produced such a world-class facility? They have spared no expense to make it top notch, for fans and players a like, so I have to give them some props. They even set up the press to be in the best seats possible, close to the field to really get the best experience possible. Hopefully the new braintrust will turn the tide on the pitch.

As for the team's legendary suckitude, the "product as name" absolutely cements it for many. But what else contributes?
1. As noted, poorest point totals, wins, lack of hardware.
2. Revolving door of coaches, practically a new guy every season, including such big names as Eddie Firmani, Carlos Q, Carlos Alberto Perriera, Bora, Bradley, Bruce, Mo Johnston, Ritchie Williams as the perennial interim guy.
3. Until Angel, a slew of disappointing "superstars" like Donadoni (he tried), Matteus (he didn't), Branco (he sucked) and the guy from France who faked an injury so he could go watch his buddies play in the World Cup.
4. The Jint, possibly the worst MLS stadium of all, when you consider the turf, the goon squad security, the schlep, etc.
5. The original MetroStars name, a ridiculous moniker all its own.

Yes, I was there at the very first match ever watching in stunned silence as the clock ticked to zero and the infamous own goal bounced into the home net, cursing us all for the next fifteen seasons. In a weird way, it's fitting we lost that MLS Cup Final, becuase to win would have felt like a fluke. Call me crazy. But who cares? Onward and upward! A winning season, an average of 20K fans per game, the playoffs, a championship? In MLS 2010, all is possible, even no season at all!

 

More likely than 3 years ago, I'd wager. That was the chief worry I had when they bought the team originally. The best argument back then was the sense of perspective that there wasn't really another option. And the scariest part was that. . . there wasn't really another option. If Red Bull didn't work for this franchise, who could?

I was immediately struck by the similarity with the way Warner Communications treated the Cosmos' perpetual losses as a marketing expenditure for that company because, as El Jefe put it "that works great until you make a crappy E.T. cartridge for your video game system." The first rule in the ad game is, "I know I'm wasting half my money, I just don't know which half," and the response to that is usually to slash those budgets when things aren't going well.

I figured that was probably a matter of time (I actually thought Red Bull the energy drink would be more of a flash in the pan than it turned out to be), and was crossing my fingers hoping this day would come first.

The franchise is now something worth selling. Perhaps at a loss if the seller's hand was forced, but still worth something. If nothing else was gained, that much was.

 

No. You want names I'll give you names.

 

I can't really buy into the idea that those points are huge reasons why there's a lack of support. Not to say they aren't main reasons, but whenever I tell people I'm a fan of RBNY they just simply don't know they exist. I just feel like there's a general lack of knowledge about this league and our team in this country and our region accordingly.

as far as the CBA halts causing a lack of ST purchases, same thing. I mean any of us on these boards are obviously big fans and thus follow these things, but the "soccer mom and dad" demographic doesn't really have a clue what's going on IMO.

Either way there's just so much going on the wrong way and it is hurting our potential support.

 

The story is long and twisted, with many factors. The area is glutted with pro-sports, there are millions of soccer "snobs" who play but don't watch, or watch only foreign clubs, the local press doesn't like soccer, etc, etc.

Interestingly enough, the list of former and present Nat team members is quite impressive:

Meola, Agoos, Lalas, Ramos, Reyna, Cletus, Eddie Pope, Tim Howard, Jozy, Ricardo Clark, Michael Bradley, to name a few. I bet there are more I'm forgetting, like maybe Caliguir snuck in there t some point?

 

Given expectations I'm relatively pleased that Red Bull is approaching 7,000 season tickets. If Henry is actually signed or if agreement in principle has been reached the team has to find a way of announcing it (maybe that's part of the final stage of the marketing blitz). With Henry we could be looking at RedBullArena sold out for the entire season.

 

No one's asked you to prove anything so don't change the subject. But your next paragraph kinda sums up what I've been seeing.

This is one forum where you can express your disgust for what's going on. You're just kvetching, and usually off topic as well. Red Bull Arena could be sold out all season and the team could win MLS Cup and I suppose you'd still whine. That's fine. It's out in the open now, not that there was much doubt.

Again, I sympathize with the shitty situation but trolling around complaining isn't going to help.

 

=If they had named the team Red Bull NY or NY Red Bull - and if there were no beverage company by that name- would we be having this conversation?
=
Bottom line, they got the team out of the hell known as the swamp- overlarge stadium, plastic pitch, lines all over the place, no roof etc etc
=
They build the most beautiful soccer only stadium north of Mexico with a wonderfull grass field and a roof.. in a hard and expensive place to build in NJ, after AEG basically gave up...
These guys are heros in my book
=
OK, that was chapter 1
Now, we need into chapter 2, 3 etc. as they build a decent fan base and decent team at the same time.
=Down the road, we hope the final chapter will not be a suprise ending, but a long awaited ending of a championship caliber team, playing soccer that comes up to the level of the stadium...
=
Not too many people in LA will give NY props, but your stadium makes be jealous beyond belief.... and, you don't have the circus ownership we have in AEG. AEG tries to do too many things, too many teams etc..
-
in Red Bull, its basically soccer and auto racing.. That to me is another plus
=
I am already figuring vacation schedules to get to a game at your place.
Don't become too successfull too fast, as I want to be able to get a ticket !

 

They did, however, also just come off of an epically crap season with 20 losses. Does anyone have the year-end 2008 numbers? I have a feeling it would point to the mid-table-ness of the mediocrity a bit more clearly. The general comment was that NY has been historically underwhelming, and that the perception of suck led to fans staying away. Whatever the numbers say, no doubt they haven't been a success, but I consider the team (been a season ticket holder since 2001) to be clearly mediocre, yet in the same general bucket as Colorado, Dallas, etc. It has not been 14 straight years of LA Clippers or anything, and the '97 USOC win isn't pushing many FC Dallas tickets nowadays, surely.

Having been in the section with him at times, I do thank you for that bit of comedy.

 

01 LAG 593
02 DCU 586
03 CLB 539
04 FCD 534
05 KCW 527
06 CHI 519
07 NER 513
08 NYR 509
09 COL 508
10 SJE 444
11 TPB 235
12 MIA 158
13 CHV 157
14 HOU 149
15 RSL 126
16 TFC 060

You switch places with Colorado and draw closer to New England. Still more than a point a season behind Kansas City and 2 points behind everyone else.

 

Cosmos = DEAD!
NASL = DEAD!
MetroStars = DEAD!
Giants Stadium = DEAD!

Time to purge bad memories. It's a chance for a new beginning.

A new fantastic stadium
A new rival (Union)
New management (Soler and Backe)
Double the number of season tickets from last year, with weeks still to go
New ad campaign, already very visible across metro area
An open DP slot to be used
Lots of dead weight expunged from last year's rotten team
Two season tickets, first row of upper deck
Walking distance to the Portuguese restaurants

Naysayers will NOT curb my enthusiasm! Bring on the season!!!

 

Schalke 04 of the German Bundesliga has this system!

 

As does The Arsenal:

Let them wallow in their angst, fighting that "good fight" in their heads.

C'mon Red Bull!

 

I know you don't realize it, but you are proving my and Haig's point. Take a look at that table above. The difference between Metro/RBNY, KC, Col, and New England is 1 point per season or less. Do you really think that 1 point per season is the difference between "Mediocre" and "Sucks"?

The difference, which I pointed out and Haig reiterated, is that NY has been consistently mediocre, whereas the other teams have varied much more. So New England had a number of horrible seasons early on (worse than NY) but then has had a number of very good seasons where they were near the top of the league. That is how NY can make the playoffs more than other teams but still end up with fewer overall wins (although not many fewer - less than 1 per year compared to most). NY and NE have almost the same record in the list above and neither has won MLS Cup, yet would anyone consider them equally successful franchises?

And at the risk of taking this thread back on topic, that was the point. If there had been a few more successful years (even without a championship) and a few more really bad years, the franchise would be in better shape today from a fan persepective because they would have tasted some success. It was the consistent mediocrity which has worn out the fanbase and it will take some sustained success to convince those people in the NYC area who are open to MLS that this won't again be the "same old Metros/Red Bulls".

But now to completely break bigsoccer tradition and return precisely to the topic, ending up between 7-8,000 season tickets by opening day doesn't seem too bad to me given the state of the economy and the history involved.

 

Very nice post, look the the future

Only negative I can find is the last sentence, what happens when the Union strikes and their is no season?

 

That's a list without one season. If I had the time I could go and redo the list after this season but pulling out a bad season for Colorado or NE instead and it would once again show NY a full point per season behind every team.

You don't get to make a statement like "NY being the worst team in MLS is a myth" and then back it up by showing stats with selective seasons removed. Over the 14 year history of MLS NY is last in points by over a point a season and tied for last in major honors. That's not mediocre while other teams varied wildly, that's bad.

And yes, Colorado has been bad too, I'm not denying that, and shares that worst spot with NY.

 

Well back to the topic at hand. Just got off the phone with ticket office. I mentioned the 6,500 number and he said it was closer to 7,000 now.

 

Yep. Figure I'll watch the game then find a local pub for the CL final.