Pre-match: Columbus Crew vs Toronto FC 3/27 (Crewsmas Edition)

Not that I endorse giving them page hits, but reading this is pure, adulterated fun...

http://www.redpatchboys.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=20985

 

I figured out why you call him Rodney....

Like Rodney Dangerfield he "can't get no respect"....

 

Not even close... guess again?

 

In that Rogers makes a good play about as often as Dangerfield was funny?

 

Lol, they sure could use a cheer me up over there. Their team is shambolic, I saw some website preseason rate their team as 7 out of 16 with Red Bull at 14. The Red Bull team that played Santos is light years ahead of TFC. Especially when you consider that all 8 goals scored by TFC in preseason this year were by trialists not even signed with TFC.

Everything is headed towards a 3-0 or 4-0 win, which means that somehow Warzycha will play a retarded lineup with Burns, Rogers, and Garey and TFC will pull this one out, knowing soccer.

 

I suppose you're right. We should take the BOX SCORE of a PRESEASON game none of us saw as opposed to the two Champions League games we all saw where Ekpo and Renteria were better, despite all the goals scored by both Rogers and Gavin.

I'll give you that's a tougher opponent in champs league, but they also had the support of the rest of the starters.

 

I would not go over to Uncle Fester's site, this all you need to read
"A bad stadium design, no security plan, some Toronto and Columbus fans acting like, well, idiots and a whole lot of noise without much actual violence." some how he forgets all the damage tfc fans did to the Stadium. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGSNbLCMBYI"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGSNbLCMBYI[/ame]

How is it the Stadium's fault?

 

As much as I love to hate on TFC, (and I really, really do) if the club on the path they're on now, how long do we have before talk of TFC folding begin? It's one thing to lose a few games, but when your own fans are hopeful for a tie? That kind of drop in morale has got to be noticed by the ownership.

 

HSG has been doing it to Dallas for years. They're still around.

 

Does noone around here remember pre-1997? They did it to US with Nee.

 

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUP1AaQoXsg"]YouTube- Steven Lenhart Dances[/ame]

 

Golazo bonanza.

 

The people of Toronto have been supporting a hockey team that hasn't won a thing in over 40 years, we're not going to give up on TFC after 3

There's really no chance of TFC folding, the owners (MLSE) are making a ton of money. 16,000 season seats sold, all single game seats sold (another 4,000 or so per game), 1,500 new seats added to the stadium this year - they're being sold to the people who are on the season ticket waiting list (10,000+ people)...our merch sells like crazy. There's a good chance that we'll be both the worst team in the league and the most profitable!

A lot of people are fed with with how poorly the team has been managed, but the money keeps rolling in. People are essentially forced into paying for season tickets that they might not want to buy because if they don't they'll be gone to someone on the waiting list they'll never be able to get them back.

This year, despite how terrible things are, we can actually project a 10% increase in profits (above and beyond whatever the increased projections would have naturally been) based solely on the current exchange rate.

This team has more problems that I can list, but money is far, far, far from being one of them.

 

What do they see in Mo Johnston? I don't think the guy has made a good move in three years? Dude has some dirt on someone in MLSE.

 

The question is: why? The team has been bad every year. Is there just nothing else to do in Toronto during the summer? Is baseball so boring that Torontans are convinced the Jays are never going to make the playoffs again so long as they are in the same division as the Yankees and Red Sox? Are Torontans just masochists? It's not like there was some great tradition of winning before a long playoff drought. We're talking about a 3 year-old franchise here.

 

The supporters hate him. Over the past 3 seasons he's been a polarizing figure and there's been a bit of a divide between those who liked Mo and those who hated him. Today, you'd have a hard time finding anyone who thinks he's managing our team well. Unless a miracle happens, the pressure from the fan base to fire Mo will be very vocal this year.

The owners love him though. In their eyes they invested a tiny amount of money and its grown into a considerable investment and they credit Mo with at least some part of that success. Wins and losses don't mean a thing to them, Mo has made them millions and that's all that matters. The parent company (MLSE) is owned in large part by a pension fund (for the teachers of Ontario). Their sole purpose is to make money, if selling snuggies made more money than sports they'd be in the snuggy business.

 

I obviously can't speak for everyone, but...

Personally, I expected that we'd be shit for a couple of years. We were a new team, and that means growing pains. I was willing to support a crap team as long as it looked like we were heading in the right direction. Season 1 was a write off. Season 2 we made modest improvements, but more importantly Mo positioned the team to have a successfull Season 3. He spent the year gathering 1st round draft picks and allocation money, with the idea of having a break-out season 3. In season 3 he went for it. He traded for DeRo, signed the club's first DP, used the allocation money to make other roster improvements...he had the right plan, he just made a series of mistakes when it came to execution. Now we're paying for his failures. We don't have the allocation money that we had last year, so we're forced to dump salaries (Robinson, Serioux, Guevara, Gerba). Mo rolled the dice last year and went for it. Apparently he didn't have a plan B to deal with the fall out of it not working.

As for the other part of your question, there's about 5 million people in the Toronto area. Half of them weren't born in Canada. Most immigrants come from countries where soccer is the #1 sport. Factor in that most 1st and 2nd generation Canadians in the area come from Italy, England, Ireland, Scotland and other parts of Europe its no surprise that soccer is a huge success with a giant fan base. Many people - like myself - have been waiting their whole lives for a local team to support. Canadian support for the EPL, La Liga, Serie A etc. has always been high.

Baseball, I think, is a dying sport here. For whatever reason, immigrants aren't drawn to it as much as they are other to sports. They want to do the 'Canadian thing' and take an interest in hockey. Basketball is a popular sport outside of North America so the Raptors do well, soccer - like I said, it's the #1 sport in most other countries so TFC is going to do well. Every year, baseball becomes more and more of a niche sport (and lack of results, and being forced to compete with the Yankees and Red Sox doesn't help). I grew up in Montreal and I haven't watched a single game since the Expos left town.

 

3-0 Crew. Preki or no Preki, Toronto's defense is in for along day

 

Thy're trying to forget the match before it has even happened!

 

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_KutAOjdvE"]YouTube- Season Opener[/ame]

 

Cool visuals, needs better music

 

And therein lies the catch-22.

The owners continue to sell their stadium out. Sure, they'd love to play in front of a full house every game, but if they sell the ticket, that's what really counts.

The owners don't really have much incentive to make changes at the top as long as they're still selling tickets en masse. They'll look at gate receipts and say "Hey! 90% of our stadium was full on game day. Ok, only 74% of the stadium was full this day, but it was on a cold, rainy weeknight. Things happen."

The fans that show up revolt and protest. At the end of the day, they're still buying a ticket and maybe a beer or two in the stadium.

"Respectable ticket sales, shit team" is one of the worst positions to be in as a fan.