Just to bring this back around to Quakes content, people can have lots of interests and hobbies here. It raises the bar for what the team has to provide to move the needle. I don't think we'll ever gain a big following just making smart USL signings and eking into the playoffs. MLS as a whole needs to get big time.
What MLS teams are trying to "gain a big following by just making smart USL signings"? This is how MLS teams spent compared to teams in the big five leagues over this window... basically the Premier League is now the NFL / Super League and the rest of the big leagues are stagnating or in decline, while MLS continues to rise... How much money each club spent from Europe's top 5 leagues + MLS in the 2023 winter transfer window #MLS🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/htJTOSQdGj— US Soccer's Bot (@USSoccersBot) February 2, 2023
I wouldn't say year round in all of California. Where I am at, being outside when it is over 100 degrees for the majority of the day in the summer is not appealing what so ever.
I personally think theres more shit holes North of Brentwood where I was raised and around my area then a lot of southern california and i hate so cal. But living in Redding now... its a real shit show up here, Corning, Red Bluff, Cottonwood, Anderson, Chico, Sacramento, Elk Grove, Woodland, Williams, Antioch, Benica, Vellajo, Vacaville, Eureka, Yreka, Weed, Mt Shasta, Pittsburgh, Humbuldt all suck ass.
LOL. I'm moving my third son down to LA this weekend. He is going to live off Hollywood Blvd in Little Armenia Area. Oh, by way, Sunnvyale is the best place to live: https://www.siliconvalley.com/2023/...s-no-1-happiest-city-in-america-in-new-study/ San Jose was 9th on the list.
My point is that some claim the Earthquakes just need to make smart cheap domestic signings (ie double J). IF we are smart enough, we might be able to eke into the playoffs. That is not going to be good enough to draw in the Bay Area sports fan. We need to be perceived as big league, and big league is not just signing Augsburg castoffs (even if I like Gruezo). I take your point about transfer spending, we are preseason and everyone else is midseason. Let's check back in on the MLS spend during the summer window.
What does "castoff" mean here? It's not like Augsburg agreed to terminate Gruezo's contract, the Quakes had to pay a pretty significant transfer fee... the biggest they have ever paid actually. Seems almost like the polar opposite of smart USL signings... that would be Patino who is a trialist in preseason with the Quakes, and if they sign him would be one of the last roster spots filled alongside draft picks.
It's not just "smart cheap domestic signings", it's being smart in general, as the data shows that's still the biggest determiner of success in MLS. It's all about maximizing value. You can be smart and spend a lot of money too, but it's just not going to happen with Fish, so I don't waste my time wringing hands about that not happening. Besides, if we are smart about how we build our core roster with good value players, we can take bigger swings on a few intl players. Under the Jesse regime, we tended to sign a lot of say $600-$1 mil intl players like Hoesen, Hyka, Kashia, Fierro, Rios, ... the list goes on. And they didn't really move the needle. They generally turned out to be fairly middling players. If we have good value domestic (or intl) players instead, we can take bigger swings on a few intl players. Gruezo is a step in right direction I suppose, but what if we added an elite attacking player on top of that? Not sure that I buy the argument that we have to acquire big stars to get the Bay Area sports fan's attention, i.e. to be seen as "big". Unless those prospective fans are fairly hardcore soccer fans, we are then talking about the washed up big name underwear and shirt sales things again. And that's no recipe for success either, in terms of building a club with sustained success.
Exactly. The average sports fan has little knowledge of soccer, and certainly could only name a few players. We could spend $30 million on a player and no one would have heard of him. What resonates with sports fans is winning!
If you asked the average local sports fan to name a soccer player, I dunno, David Beckham? Or Pele? Most couldn't name a single person who played in the World Cup that just ended.
Maybe if you said "what about Gareth Bale?" they'd say "oh, yeah, sounds familiar -- is he that WWE guy?"
I think this is all about the europhile or the latinophile. How hard do we want to try to draw them in? If you sign some relative "stars" from that league will they start going to the games, or suddenly caring about the team, or will it be - that's nice, now where's my remote, Chelsea / Fulham is on!!