From the Revs Twitter: Tune in to Felger & Mazzarotti on @985thesportshub at 4:30 pm today when Jonathan Kraft talks #Revs, #worldcup , soccer Over/Under on how many minutes are actually spent on the Revs? How long before it devolves to Patriot Place talk? I'm keeping my fingers crossed because Felger is doing the interview.
I'm going to be heading down to Gillette at 4:30, so this should be interesting. If anyone else is driving down, and sees a guy in a Revs jersey repeatedly banging his head on the steering well ... well, now you know why.
3:58 PM Felger mentions the interview and says he's going to focus on US Soccer, not the Revs. Doesn't know Jon Kraft's official title with the Revs. The he ends it with "Maybe we'll sneak in some Brady contract talk as well". Yeah, this is shaping up as a regular tease/waste of time.
This is where JK needs to step in during the interview and take it back to the Revs. Or the Revs should not twitter that he will talk Revs.
Yep, and I called the Revs Twitter account out on it. No response yet. Not for nothing, but the PR people at the Revs should be insistent on both their own employees and their business/broadcast partners to focus talk on the product. If they do and this is the result, I'd be furious.
Heard one of the donkeys just say.."We're waiting for Jonathan Kraft, the President of New England patriots, who's not here yet.."
Rah Rah Rah... We've heard from the owners...yay..we're so happy!! I'm even more freaking depressed now... a bunch of donkeys on a radio show talking about nothing. Do nothing about attendance for 15 years and then go on the radio and say how much you love the Game...Give me a break!!! Amazing what kind of slop people will put up with..wow!
By my count it was 11 mins of revs-us soccer talk and 6 mins of pats talk. I think it was an improvement over the last time they did this, but still not good enough.
The interview focused more on U.S. soccer and its future. The Revs talk was more about Kraft insisting he and his family "loves" soccer." He also repeated the "we're going to build a stadium" mantra. Frankly, it sounded a lot like every other soccer interview we hear on the radio, which is mostly due to the general ignorance local radio types have about the game, though I like the fact that Michael Felger seems to be an enthusiastic yahoo about the sport.
The irony is Bilello talked about how great the new media partnerships have been this season and in the span of a few days we have a CSSNE columnist bashing the sport and the owner of the team on 98.5 barely discussing the Revs (more of the same, nothing of value or substance at least). But yeah, those media partners are amazing Brian, well done.
I can picture the conversation ... Lizz Summers: Jonathan, you HAVE to spend more time talking about the Revs. You hear me? More time on the Revs. J. Kraft: You're fired.
1. A columnist is supposed to have an opinion. And the fact that someone "bashed" soccer (how original!) doesn't conflict with the station's broadcasting the sport. Personally, if I run an opinion column, I want it to get a reaction! 2. The fault for how the radio interviews really lies with the interviewers, who know so little about the sport and don't spend time following it so they have new topics to discuss. So we end up with the same generic shit.
Sorry this makes no sense. You're a media partner which in theory means your company promotes and makes money off a sport by broadcasting the games. Bashing said sport will get a reaction out of the people who won't listen to the broadcast (we'll probably be at the games) but may influence people who are lukewarm about the sport by highlighting the negatives (many of the soccer fans in New England fall in this category, as do would-be fans at a very sensitive point RIGHT after the momentum built up from the World Cup). That's like justifying a columnist for NESN.com would highlight how incredibly boring last night's MLB all star game was (I read reports and reactions but did not watch it). Or how it got the lowest rating ever at a 7.5 share. He might get a reaction but it's probably not the type of content his bosses that are always looking to get better ratings for their Red Sox game coverage would want immediately in the wake of one of the sport's showcase events (All Star game may not correlate exactly as baseball's WC final but considering they are the best players in the world ostensibly "playing for something," you get the point). It's even worse when the sport isn't regionally ubiquitous like professional soccer in New England when compared to the Sox that are part of the fabric of the region. So yes he has a right to his opinion but it's not the ideal situation for a partner that has an already struggling product both on and off the field. Given the timing, people may read it, agree with him (and the Borges etc), take no action and go into a soccer coma for 4 more years, detrimental to both CSSNE and the Revs. Pushing people away from your product does your organization no services should be frowned upon by partners who also link to those sites. While he did not bash the Revs specifically or even MLS, the larger sport makes it inexcusable. Well once again, as an organization one of the partnership stipulations should be to educate the DJ's on the sport. It's really not that hard, there are hundreds of books, websites, you name it. If the DJ looks like an idiot interviewing your team's owner you [the organization] do too by extension. While 98.5 or Comcast are external to the Revs, they are still partners and therefore the brand image is transferred. More diligence needs to be done to effectively communicate the goals of the Revs when signing the dotted line (the tv debacle this year, now we have the radio and web content examples).
Imagine if you will, a more diabolical intent. That these titans of NFL pointy football have a much different motive. The actual suppression of soccer in America. Consider a Sports Group who invests in the up and coming sport of soccer. They purchase an MLS franchise with the unstated intent of 'keeping it suppressed', hiring the marginally talented to run the organization, or worse, having it administered by the full time NFL staffers as their make-work summer job. Next, make player acquisitions based entirely on the shoe string low cost alternatives, hiring only enough talent from college drafts and low priced third world'ers to keep the franchise ... operational. Run the effort on a break even financial model, and occasionally profit, based on your 'devotion to the sport', with Brazil vs Mexico one off type events. Bottom line ... after 15 years, the goal is fully realized. The global behemoth that is soccer, is still viewed as a sub standard sports entity, under the full and complete control of it's local NFL master. I know, very black helicopter stuff ...
I'm not sure why this is totally negative. Felger and DA have talked more serious soccer talk this month than I have ever heard on boston radio. So Felger isn't a huge Revs fan... Its better he's a soccer fan than a soccer hater. If you haven't heard him during the world cup he was very into the US team and spent a few days mainly talking soccer. While Felger is enthusiastic but only somewhat knowledgeable DA is both enthusiastic and knowledgeable. I feel any serious soccer talk in this market is helpful to the Revs. I found one piece interesting. JK mentioned a 15 year old in the Revs academy who could be a special striker. Do we know who he is talking about?
Their ignorance concerning the local professional soccer team is more than enough reason to be negative about it. Their station is the team's broadcast partner. Do some homework, you're professionals. Would anyone say, "well they're not Bruins fans but hey they know about Olympic hockey?"
No it isn't Alan, This has been my premise all along... ...and in the end when the game finally reaches the heights, they'll be sitting there telling everyone.."Oh, we knew all along".. and if it never does they can say.."Dang, sorry folks, park's closed, Moose should have told you on the way in...we tried!!"
Diego Fagundez. Checkout the DAP thread for more on him. He's with the US U-17s right now in Houston.