That was my initial thought, too. But then it occurred to me that the only people who care enough to comment on such an article are, well... us. To be sure, I'm glad the comments are more favorable than unfavorable, but I do wonder how much they represent opinion at large.
This is the argument I've been having here, that many people don't know about the Revs ... and I'd argue that more than don't even care. "Soccer's boring" is such a pitiful line from people that love baseball. Sorry, not taking a shot at baseball, but what goes around...
My three favorite "sports" are Soccer, Baseball and Poker. To be honest, you can say that all three are boring, and well they are. There is something inside of the boringness that needs to be understood and appreciated in order to be entertained by it (if that makes any sense) that many people do not see in soccer because it does not have the history and generational support that Baseball does.
Yeah, no. Sit down with your conspiracy theory. There's absolutely no connection between the Metro and Sports departments. I know, I've checked. There's an awful lot more "the Globe sucks" chatter than I think is deserved. Quick, go look at the newspapers of record for Denver, Los Angeles, Dallas, Salt Lake City...name one of them that has their MLS team as prominently located and easily found on the sports page. They don't; many of them feature high school sports more visibly. I'm not saying we get "enough" coverage, I'm saying stop making it sound like the Globe does nothing. It's among the better papers for MLS coverage in the country.
Actually there is significant new information contained in the article(re: the negotiations between Somerville and the state/MBTA). And, even though that information may have been previously published, it's not unusual to write a follow-up article in a more prominent location when the space is available. Life-support? Could we get any more melo-dramatic OR misguided? This is Steve Nicol's team. He's bet on some injury-ridden players, he had a string of 2 or 3 bad draft years a few years back and we're seeing the results. He's an excellent coach IMO, but any coach can have a bad year. How does this always get layed at the feet of Kraft? He doesn't pick the players (and despite the conspiracy theories, he doesn't tie Nicol's hands). Who is this "straw man" that you're countering. No one is asking for thanks or for you to accept anything. FWIW, you complain over and over that he doesn't show more interest. Then when he does, you complain that "somebody" wants you to be grateful? Shouldn't you just be moving onto the next complaint on your list? It's bottomless, so you needn't worry about running out. Oh yeah, the Globe just goes and prints whatever Bob Kraft wants. Hello, there IS a new development which allows the feasibility process to proceed and makes the whole plan significantly more likely to become reality. Maybe that's why there's a prominent new article. Of course not, write about news? The media and the corporate elite work everything out behind closed doors - it's all fixed people, wake up. Oh yeah, and they killed JFK and Marilyn, and they have the aliens in that base out in the desert ...
Agreed. Not only that, the depth and breadth of sports coverage in general is better than most papers of record. Garrett and I are two of the few remaining people who like to read newspapers, and I think he'd back me up in saying the sports reporting is pretty solid at El Globo.
I'd say the same publicly about my employers, so you know, I can keep my job. Sports reporting yes, Revolution coverage no. Monty if the Globe's Revs coverage is one of the top MLS covering papers in the country.....that's pretty sad. Case in point, they do the little "Globe 10.0" videos which are actually great for people out of town who aren't aware of what's happening with the local teams. They have a couple talking heads discussing an event related to Boston sports that happened recently or is set to happen in the near future like big trades, suspensions, lack of health of the red sox, whatever. In the intro they have a dramatic image of each of the big 4 teams but no Revs. The Globe 10.0 topics are a great opportunity to have more Rev content from self-proclaimed soccer aficionado Bob Ryan, yet are 100% non-Rev related (although they had "Who is going to win th WC Final" with Bob Ryan and Kevin Paul Dupont). Nothing about the Revs or having FDA on with the Editor or one of the other guys discussing Superliga (will the Revs win it again? Chance to talk about foreign competition vs MLS), who the Revs may get during the transfer window (even if it's rhetorical to us hardcores it still may drive interest in the team), whether a SSS would help the Revs (another rhetorical, but it's got broader interest and gets people talking), hell anything. It's what you could call "low hanging fruit" when it comes to including the Revs in with the other big 4 teams, even just 1 topic of the Globe 10.0 videos would be fine. Instead we get an occasional article with nothing much new to anyone who actually follows the team or has been to the blog in the past month. Until the coverage is 10% of the other 4 Boston teams, I won't consider the Globe as having adequate, let alone good MLS coverage.
Interesting that a lot of the comments are of the "how much government money is Kraft going to get?" kind, when it's fair to expect that the answer is "none." And any infrastructure improvements are built in.
You know, this is just a a random suggestion, but something the Krafts could do that might be a nice way to boost enthusiasm for their stadium efforts would be to release a possible rendering of what a future Revolution stadium might look like. It probably doesn't make sense until they're committed to a site and have that squared away, but it would give supporters something more to look forward to... it would give them something positive to think about and visualize as they look forward.
The suggestion that the Revs belong in the same breath as the "big four" is so detached from reality that it's hard to believe anyone's still making it.
You're right, we after all support a minor league club in a sport no one's heard of. Let's keep it that way and not progress or want to grow the club in the eyes of the Boston sports market. Healthy perspective especially from the fans of the team . Dan Shaughnessy, is that you? When exactly can we cross the sacred threshhold? Sure the Revolution don't have the length of history of the other 4 clubs. The only thing that will change that is time and unless one of the big 4 fold or move, the Revs ain't catching up, ever. However, being around longer should not -for that reason alone- put a team on some sort of untouchable pedestal that does not allow new pro teams. Up til the mid-90s the Patriots were mostly not good. Tradition? To put it bluntly the modern Patriots have had a little more than 15 years of continuous success on and off the field (this is speaking from a lifelong Pats fan). The Revs have been around 15 years and we're still waiting to be embraced en masse because of the prevalence of people with your mentality. Treating the Revolution differently from the big 4 is a lousy perspective to have if you are a fan of this club and want it to grow and flourish in this region. I'm not suggesting it's greater than any of those teams but as a fan, to suggest there should not be more coverage of this team in the city's hallmark newspaper "because we're not part of the big 4", that is apparently one of the best MLS-covering newspapers in the country, to me IS odd and detached from reality. If this parochial mentality is ever going to change, the team's local advocates - the supporters themselves - need to first change how they themselves think of the club otherwise we'll be small time forever.
Does poker really count as a sport? As I said, let's get on our hands and knees people. Our owner actually acknowledged he has another team! Woohoooo! That would be kinda like me saying "shouldn't you move onto the next thing the Krafts haven't ever done wrong" list? But hey, let me know ruin your fun with facts. That would be phenomenal. Something to look forward to. Kinda like waiting to hear an ad for tomorrow's game.
I'm a former season-ticket holder who also spent the better part of the last decade covering the Revs, so I know both sides of the fans/media landscape. This has nothing to do with a "parochial mentality." It has everything to do with the fact that the Revs are much closer to the Cannons, Breakers and Blazers than the Sox, Pats, C's and B's when it comes to fan interest. The Revs' fan base is clearly, demonstrably not large enough to justify added coverage (do I have to bring up the '08 and '09 playoff attendances again?). The Patriots were lousy, but then they won and became wildly popular. The Bruins went a decade without winning a playoff series, but then they had a little success and started selling out regularly again. Hell, you could have had an entire section at Fenway all to yourself in 1966, but then '67 happened, and voila! It's a baseball town again. In stark contrast, the Revs had a run in which they reached four MLS Cup finals in six years, and had one of the best strikers in league history in his prime. Yet attendance didn't spike. The '05 team -- I'd say the best in team history -- averaged 12,525 fans.
The story lays out all the potential reasons for the stadium to locate in Somerville. To a degree, this puts the issue back on the front burner. Can't complain about that. What we don't know and probably won't know anytime soon is whether the Kraft folks are going to be realistic about what they can get from public entities (which will be very little). The upside of Somerville is they can glom onto an infrastructure project and the location is dynamite. Yet it still will cost money and the "show me" portion of this project will be whether financing really isn't an issue.
Comparing the Globe's Revs/soccer coverage to that of other local newspaper's is funny. Local coverage for the Revs is next to non existent. I have never understood what the point of this arguement is? This is like arguing the order of the power rankings for the bottom ten teams in the FIFA rankings. Does it really matter... those teams are awful.
The point is the Globe covers the Revs quite professionally and quite well considering how tiny the fan base and brand recognition for the Revs is. The Boston Lobsters are playing tonight in Danvers, is Globe 10.0 required to do a segment on it? The Revs are basically irrelevant in this region - due in no small part to mismanagement and poor marketing (see: pretty much any other thread) - and it's the job of the Revs, not the media, to fix that.
The Globe dosent let team owners influence their writing at all... I wont get into their relationship with the Red Sox, but let's just say I find it a little fishy that after years of nothing about the SSS or the Revs in general, they write an article about the SSS a few days after Kraft's comments and his obvious realization that the fanbase is beyond angry right now.
Fair point. I'll add that one thing the Revs can do to make themselves more relevant, and gain more of the media focus, is buid a stadium in the Boston urban core. This is how they get the Globe, the Herald and the local TV stations to pay attention.
Actually, as judged by the industry itself, the Globe has an outstanding record on sports coverage, among the very best in the nation. Just say no to stadium porn. Every time I am critical of the team (like in the post that you replied to), you act like it's the first time. I've always said they make plenty of mistakes, I just don't think everything they do is wrong and I do try to recognize things they do right (and try to differentiate between things that really matter and those that don't).