Review: Why a fan protest & boycott would be for the good of the USMNT

Discussion in 'USA Men: News & Analysis' started by appoo, Nov 12, 2019.

  1. SamsArmySam

    SamsArmySam Member+

    Apr 13, 2001
    Minneapolis, MN
    Oh, FFS. This is not about the absence of Klinsmann.
     
  2. Baysider

    Baysider Member+

    Jul 16, 2004
    Santa Monica
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy

    There's all of those things. In fact, back in the day when the US went to the world cup, there was even less oversight. As said above, Earnie was hired to provide some oversight.

    The problem with the USSF is that the power is diffuse and there are too many stakeholders, each with their own interests and power. In most countries, the power is much more concentrated, typically around the professional league. And for all the complaining around here about SUM and MLS, youth soccer has exceptional power in the US compared with the rest of the world. In fact, it was the driver of the USSF for a long time.

    The other problem is the lack of people employed in soccer administration at a high level. You know who the most qualified person was to be president of the USSF this last election? Kathy Carter from SUM. She was the one with serious management experience. And she had good ideas too. Whatever you think of Earnie, adding a GM was a good idea. And she wanted to bring in a "blue ribbon" committee of outsiders to look at the USSF and player development.

    I was still against her because the USSF needs to get past its conflict of interest problems. But the US doesn't have a lot of people with the right kind of experience and are willing to work for free. So we end up with who we end up with.
     
  3. pirozhok

    pirozhok Member+

    United States
    Jul 20, 2007
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    USSF bozos have emails, fans can bombard them with complaints.
     
  4. ttrevett

    ttrevett Member+

    Apr 2, 2002
    Atlanta, GA
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I've posted about this many times but I'll reiterate. USSoccer doesn't give a rat's ass about the US fan. They don't have to. We are not where their revenue comes from. They get eyeballs and butts in the seats at games from Mexican fans and away fans of teams we play, as well as from many other sources which have nothing to do with US fans buying tickets to games or purchasing merch. ( It would be interesting to see the number of USMNT jerseys being sold over the past 2-3 years compared to previous years.)

    We are the last group that USSoccer would answer to. They have sold ~9000 tickets to this game on Friday according to WaPo the other day. We may actually be outattended by f'ing Canada this time. USSoccer is still going to post a profit from this game from TV revenue.

    The only way to make them listen is if we had some powerful people high up at Nike, Gatorade, Chevy, etc, who threatened them with loss of sponsorships if the current cabal is not addressed.
     
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  5. GiallorossiYank

    GiallorossiYank Member+

    Jan 20, 2011
    NJ/Roma/Napoli
    Club:
    AS Roma
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    US Soccer respects them, they put them in the spotlight, and market the USMNT/USWNT games with AO making it a "Great Enviornment".

    Them calling out Gregg for not applauding the away fans prompted Gregg's apology letter.

    They have legit power. It's hard for them tho. Are we gonna boycott the games and not support players like Pulisic, Sargent, Wes? Hard decision. I have mad respect for those folks, you might think their chants are lame, but they showed up in France last summer, and all over the country for the Gold Cup. What would games be like without them?
     
  6. DHC1

    DHC1 Member+

    Jun 3, 2002
    NYC
    It would be ironic if it was SUM who pushed the USSF to abandon this quixotic quest to play attractive football as they're the ones who would take the financial hit if USMNT TV ratings were bad enough to lower their take. IIRC, the USSF gets a flat amount and any overage/loss is taken by MLS (note: there may be a purported revenue share but in reality, it doesn't really get split as I'm guessing the threshold number is not achievable).

    MLS is ruthlessly capitalistic. Let's see what they do if they are actually faced with less money.
     
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  7. wixson7

    wixson7 Member+

    May 12, 2009
    boulder
    My 2 cents. Disclaimer, I don’t buy into the conspiracy angles around nepotism or MLS/SUM, there will always be strawmen scapegoats. 3 years ago it was Sunil and JK, now it’s Jay/Gregg. Silly season if you ask me. Winning or at least major improvements is all most of us care about, right. If we destroyed Mex/CAN we would have Earnie/Gregg/Jay on our shoulders.

    ok, with that said....

    The ONLY way for big change with USSF is through AO. Soccer is a supporters culture and there is a massive reliance on AO to drive a fun and entertaining atmosphere that is tangible for marketing efforts. Can’t be understated how important that relationship is for both MNT and WNT. Sponsors even rely on AO (or the concept of AO), with some even using their images.

    USSF doesn’t need ticket sales alone to run the business, but public opinion/support by AO is critical. I like the direction and approach AO has taken the past few months. Think about this, one very critical tweet about Gregg not recognizing the away supporters in Toronto got a personal apology letter, that’s actually pretty mind blowing if you think about it.

    If AO takes this a few steps forward with a little stronger stance and demands, then change will happen. The question is what is the change they are demanding.

    Fan Council isn’t exactly what it sounds like. We represent the paid Insiders membership group, nothing to do with AO. It’s more of an extension of the marketing department about consumer engagement. The Insider members are made up of a wide range of USSoccer fans, half of them may not be focused on or care about Gregg/Jay/Earnie. We don’t have a unified voice, nor a mechanism to voice concerns.....unfortunately.
     
  8. DHC1

    DHC1 Member+

    Jun 3, 2002
    NYC
    thanks for a reasoned and well laid out take.

    If i could only get you to consider that 2/3rd of our pool should not be MLS across the board by age as it's been all year, I'd be thrilled.....I'll take this interesting post though!
     
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  9. TimB4Last

    TimB4Last Member+

    May 5, 2006
    Dystopia
    Well, it's nice to know there was an adult in the room. @wixson7 Know anything about foreign policy? (Asking for a friend, the country I live in.)
     
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  10. wixson7

    wixson7 Member+

    May 12, 2009
    boulder
    I did sleep in a Holiday Inn Express last night...

    disturbing side note: I will be in Orlando supporting the MNT, as I have done begrudgingly for the last 30 years. I hate myself.
     
  11. DHC1

    DHC1 Member+

    Jun 3, 2002
    NYC
    You are also a member of AO, correct? Are there discussions taking place beyond not visiting the travelers in Canada?
     
  12. wixson7

    wixson7 Member+

    May 12, 2009
    boulder
    i don’t get wrapped up by what league our players come from, shit barely care where they wore born or raised.
     
  13. DHC1

    DHC1 Member+

    Jun 3, 2002
    NYC
    I wish our coaches and federation didn't care what league our players come from either.

    Maybe I'm reading into it but are you saying that you do care where our players were born or raised? if so, why? they're all americans
     
  14. TimB4Last

    TimB4Last Member+

    May 5, 2006
    Dystopia
    Not disturbing and don't hate yourself, even in jest. I guess I'm bothered because the gulf between the actual and the possible seems greater than ever, when it should be closing (regardless of our talent level).
     
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  15. wixson7

    wixson7 Member+

    May 12, 2009
    boulder
    Proud AO and Sammers member here. I heavily consume the product (to borrow a USSF marketing phrase).

    Fan Council is having very basic, low level conversations. Gregg did a nice video for Insider members recently, nice touch IMO.

    Assuming you are following the recent AO tweets about USSF interactions, I don’t have much other insight outside of that.
     
  16. wixson7

    wixson7 Member+

    May 12, 2009
    boulder
    don’t read into it, and not getting sidetracked. (I try to keep mods happy by staying on thread topic).

    you misread my point. If you wear the US crest on the field, I don’t care what league or birth country, nor what brother is the coach.
     
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  17. smokarz

    smokarz Member+

    Aug 9, 2006
    Hartford, CT
    #42 smokarz, Nov 13, 2019
    Last edited: Nov 13, 2019
    Apoo, I wholeheartedly agreed with you support what you want/try to do.

    Are there boycott movements on Twitter, Instagram, etc.? We need to take this to social media. Tags the relevant people and group.

    Like you, the '94 WC changed everything for me. I still remember Klinsman playing, I remember Maradona got banned for doping, remember the fast and exciting Brazilians, Jones'd dreadlocks, and Lalas' red goatie, and sadly a Columbian player shot dead for an own goal.

    I want a better USSF, a better coach, our players deserve better and our fans deserve better.
     
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  18. smokarz

    smokarz Member+

    Aug 9, 2006
    Hartford, CT

    I believe this is very true, here are the 3 groups of people that can make a change.


    1) The players
    2) The sponsors
    3) The supporters

    Hastag #USSFBoycott #BehaltersOut #ErnieOut and tags all those people above in your tweets. Use social media, it's powerful enough to bring down CEOs of global corporations and powerful politicians. Should be good enough to the USSF cronies pay attention. We just every single fan to send out tweets.
     
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  19. DHC1

    DHC1 Member+

    Jun 3, 2002
    NYC
    I think wixson7’s suggestion is a good one: you should work via the American Outlaws - they can’t be happy...
     
  20. Bklyn Royals Fan

    United States
    Jan 17, 2008
    Club:
    New York Cosmos
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    LOL, look at how USSF is generating new revenue streams first from Mexican fans outnumbering US fans and now Canadian fans!
     
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  21. SamsArmySam

    SamsArmySam Member+

    Apr 13, 2001
    Minneapolis, MN
    As stated by Earnie, in fact.
     
  22. nobody

    nobody Member+

    Jun 20, 2000
    I'm a much bigger fan of protest than boycott since I've generally seen better results from getting in someone's face rather than sulking away. But yeah that was one real shit show of a conference call. Hard to see how they expected that to go over well. I'm all behind any protest but can't see myself boycotting the team just yet. Miss another World Cup and make Jay CEO and I'll put my several decades of caring about this team to bed. It's hard to drive off fans like many around here who have built a lifetime around caring about this team and this game. But somehow USSF seems pretty adept at doing exactly that.
     
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  23. appoo

    appoo Member+

    Jul 30, 2001
    USA
    For the record, I don't wish for ANYONE to feel bad about supporting this team and the MNT. I also don't expect anyone to do this either - not trying to make this partisan at all.
     
  24. bsky22

    bsky22 Member+

    Dec 8, 2003
    It isnt about Klinsmann. It is about the climate that he went out. Sunil stepping down set up an election that allowed for whoever won to align with the outstanding powers that be. Where we had a few power players in conflict (which given his messed up the fed it, it was actually a good thing), we now have Cordeiro, J Berhalter, and Garber on the same page and hires of have been made with that in mind. There is nobody inside the system challenging the status quo now.

    The best thing would have been for him stay on and pull off a miracle at the WC. This would have allowed for another outside coach to take over. I dont know why people think Gulati is so much worse than Cordeiro. Gulati was at least doing what he thought was right for the game.
     
  25. smokarz

    smokarz Member+

    Aug 9, 2006
    Hartford, CT
    The USSF is so f*cking strange and incompetent that they make the CEO report into the President.

    That's all you need to know about the people running USSF.
     

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