OK, here are my list of "positives" going into the 2012 season: Diego Fagundez a year older, wiser and stronger. Beef him up a bit, let him play in some winter league in Florida or Arizona or Latin America. He may not be ready for prime time next year, but I can see him having an increased role and gradually evolving into a star. Benny Feilhaber - a US Interantional and a key component to the team. With Joseph perhaps moving on, he should wear the armband next year. AJ Soares looks like he can be a very good player in this league. Maybe not at the level of Parkhurst, but pretty good... Which leads us to the idea that we could get Parkhurst back if the Revs lose to Toronto and we get the #2 pick. Or we could get another US Nat who certainly should be a good addition, regardless. Zerka and Caraglio - good mid-season pickups,and from what I've seen, they can be good players in this league if used correctly. For the first time in many years, the second keeper actually got some games. I thoguht Shuttleworth played well enough to keep, although it is hard to not look bad with that bunch playing in front of him. Then there are a bunch of other question marks. Guys who we might keep or let go, guys who could get replaced if we end up using the massive pile of salary cap/allocation money that we should have available. The big question, like it always is, if we can make wise choices in the new players we bring in. It seems fairly certain that there will be some new faces next year, guys who we will feel good about having. Whether they will be here by the first game and whether they will work out as well as we all hope are another matter, but there are still some silver linings.
I'm happy that we're at least trialing players now (even though they're not up to snuff IMO), at least we're actively looking to add players. I hope that this is the first year in a long time that we're not still rushing around to make major player signings at the last minute.
My top 5, in no particular order. New Kits - Sorry, but the Adidas shoulder patch (in silver no less) looks terrible on every team they tried it on. A full preseason for Zerka, Caraglio, Guy, Feilhaber, and Lekic - No, I'm not going to let you all drink, but working together in simulated games will only help AJ Soares - Easily the rookie of the year. One of the bright spots on the back line (with Alston-Brighton) #2 Allocation Order - I don't know what returning Yanks are coming into the fold, but any of them could easily walk into our starting XI Fagundez - I still don't want to subject him to 90' of MLS defending every game, but I think he can add quite a spark in the SuperSub role.
I suppose I should have listed new uniforms next year as a positive as well. I absolutely hate the silver patches on the sleeve! Maybe next year's kits will actually use, y'know, the actual team colors....
Well, I think of silver not so much as a color but as an accentuation. It's neutral, so, I don't feel that it changes our color scheme so much. That said I still hate the shoulder pads. But next year, we will get predominantly red shirts with the old Pat Patriot on it! After all, he was a revolutionary!
Um, silver is a color. Especially since it is one of the Patriots' colors, it particularly grates on a lot of us. As if we need even more reminders of being Pats Junior. What if it was an "old gold" color, like the Onions had last year? Now when they had black and white numbers a few years ago, like every team in the league, I thought it was silly, but that wasn't really a "color" as part of the uniform. Billelo or someone should have kicked back those jerseys to Adidias and told them to make that patch any of the 3 actual colors, red, white or blue. Any of those would have been better than a Patriots color. Then again, those tools probably thought associating it with the Pats as a good thing....
Silver as an accent wouldn't bother me, if I was being honest. It works well with the deep navy and the bright red we wear. If I was starting a Revs in '96, I'd prefer Blue, Red, Silver to the White (we can fix our songs). The problem is that those shoulder pads are no more an 'accent' than ManUtd's black chest V from a few years back. It's prominent and unsightly, and relegates red to a simple role of piping. Now, nothing's going to get me to like the Blank Shoulders (I hate them on Liverpool's jerseys too) but someone over at FootballShirtCulture.com mocked up a jersey where the red and silver were switched, and it looked 10,000x better. I'm not going to join the 'Red and Navy forever, Silver never' movement, but I'll gladly head up the "Red and Navy prominent, Silver accented' committee.
I think the Patriot's colors are also mostly regarded to be red white and blue as well. We can agree to disagree but I still maintain silver is an accent more than a color. Black, White and Grey can be both a primary team color and an accent color. Some teams not having those as a primary colors, have from time slipped those in. PS: What bugs me even more is all the pink. I understand it's for a good cause, but they are getting carried away with the whole month thing. It used to be just one game. Also, all the circus colors of the cleats drives me nuts. At least the No Fun League insists on team colors for the cleats. PPS: Aren't you the one trying to introduce green and grey to the NE scheme? LOL.
On behalf of anyone and everyone who religiously reads uni-watch, I can tell you that the 'slipping in' of unrelated accent colors (specifically black) is one of the worst things that has happened to North American sports uniforms since the inagural MLS jerseys. Teams have colors, and they build a brand, and clear message. Adding blacks and greys where they don't belong only muddles that. You end up looking more like the Oregon Ducks then anything resembling 'cool'
Saw the title of the thread. Also that it had reached four pages! So I figured it was either a fiction writing contest or that Soccer Doc had gone off on a rose-coloured tangent. Instead, it is something the morphed into a discussion about the colour of uniform patches. Classic Revolution forum.
OK, I don't want to hijack this into a uniform design/color thread, but in the Patriots case, they have silver helmets and pants, just like the Dallas Cowboys and a lot of other teams with matching helmets/pants. That is a primary color if you axe me, with red being much more sparingly used. I have less of a problem if it really was just an accent - a little touch here, a stripe there. Or if silver was our actual color and not white - an all-silver away kit would actually be pretty cool instead of the boring all-whites that everyone seems to wear. Anyway, as a "positive" I look forward to seeing a new jersey that I might actually want to wear next year....
Big Frank! Great to have you back on board. I'm sure you, of all people, have a ton of positive things to fill this thread up with! PS - Sorry I blamed you for letting the dogs out. Those idiots wouldn't stop asking, so I ratted you out because, well, you were standing right next to the open door.... I was just hoping they would stop if I gave them a name, any name
I actually agree with this thought too. I was simply mentioning what they did. I should have been clearer that it annoys me too.
Good pernt, there, Edith. It should just be an accent that goes not very noticeable. Also, I too am looking forward to a fresh start.... New uniforms, new coach new announcements. Let's hope. The silver shoulder pads hopefully will someday symbolize the low point in Rev-lore.
I hope this isn't the precursor of a "is the kit designer a bust?" thread in a couple of months. The current kit isn't even that bad. Keeping the positive attitude of this thread, perhaps some form of communication with the FO could be established to 1) have a competition for fans to design the new kit, or 2) allow fans to vote for the kit design.
Have them go to Seattle, KC, Portland, or Philly instead. Let them see what teams in America are creating for atmosphere. I honestly feel the Krafts have no idea the steps the league has taken in terms of not only increasing but changing its core live audience.
Why does anyone care about the kit design right now? If you are thinking about putting money down for a jersey, for this pathetic franchise, you are the biggest sucker on earth. You might as well light your money on fire.
Do you think that marketing could attract the 18-35 year old male demographic to Foxboro, or is relocation of the team with a SSS the only hope? Also, consider that Jeld-Wen Field had the assistance of $31 million from the City of Portland for renovations and PPL Park received at least $70 million in public financing. In Massachusetts, no municipality or the state is in a position to offer public financing for a new stadium. It doesn't make economic sense for Kraft to build a new stadium. Is he going to spend $100 million+ just to change the composition of the fan base from youth soccer kids to young males? Even if the new stadium attracts more attendees, you have to consider how many years it would take to recoup the investment. The overall league average is still under 18,000 and that includes the Seattle Sounders as an outlier. Also, it is the new teams like Philly, Portland, Toronto, Vancouver, that are supporting that average. So, why would Kraft spend $100 million+ just to increase the attendance from 13,000 to 16,000 or 17,000. At that rate, 4,000 more attendees per game x 17 games per season = 68,000 additional tickets sold. Now, I don't know what the average ticket price is for Revs games, but I will estimate it at a generous $40. 68,000 x $40 = $2,720,000. In other words, all that investment just to recoup under $3 million per year. To be fair, the additional bodies should also increase merchandise sales and concession revenue, but that also means additional costs in extra staff and investment in creating more merchandise. Meanwhile, he would also pay more taxes, explain the move to the Patriot Place leaseholders why he is decreasing foot traffic in Foxboro, etc.
Obviously you missed the part of business finance class about liquid assets. You also seem to have missed a lot of marketing classes about market footprint and brand growth. I'm not going to waste my time explaining, as you seem to be completely clueless to business strategy.
That's funny because I am on the same side as the billionaire. Perhaps you know more about business than Robert Kraft.
The billionaire that married into money? and who is to say you are on the same side as him? You? You sit in on KSG meetings? Your reply is pathetic.