I like reading about it. I like chatting about it. I also like when people don't pull stuff out of their ass as the basis for conversation. There is nothing to suggest this is anything than a one-time thing. If it is more than a one-time thing, what's the real harm? So there are corporate names on the teams Will it still be 11v11? Will the ball still be round? Will the games still be 90 minutes? How do you know it harms things in the long run? What make syou think they will do it just because Red Bull did? Where does this notion that all these corporations are going to do the same thing as Red Bull come from? Oh, that's right - your imagination.
Oh, that changes it. One other team in Wales. Sure there are other examples. Not many though. It's not a trend. It's a blip. Admit it. Last year people were screaming that foreign teams were going to pull a Chivas and take over the league. Now the Chicken Littles forget about he foreign teams and want to make people believe that corporations are going to be standing outside MLS offices waiting to put their names on teams like this is some U-6 league.
Wow, i am gone for 6 days and this shite happens. Houston renamed the Dynamo? Red Bulls in New York? Both MLS sides sucking ass in the CCC (as expected really) Oh, and by the way if you ever go one vacation without internet you find out very very quickly how insignifigant soccer is in america. I found out about all this breaking news tonoght when i got home from that secluded retreat known as South Florida. But thats the best news guys, no matter how upset you are and how much you think people are going to laugh..remember one thing...no one really cares and no one has any idea any of this crap just happened.
Tell you what if we got 100 million bucks for it and my team got to field Ronaldinho because of the investment they could call us the Chicago lesbians for all I cared. Oh and FYI maybe if your team had actually won a bunch of championships and a chamionps Cup like DC UNited did and put some POSITIVE history in the name, I would be willing to bet this would be called the RedBull Metros. See when DC UNited plays in a MLS CUp final they packed 55,000 on a rainy crappy day so there fans can watch them win. You guys get to the open Cup Championship which 15,000 people showed up to in CHicago and you get 5k if that. Your market doesnt care about you. Ours does. Its a simple AEG said they sucked you can change it.
i don't know what it will do in the long run. i am just interested in sustaining the league for years and years and not having it go the way of the nasl. honestly, and maybe this is a bit childish of me, the thought of potentially watching teams that are corporate billboards, more so than they already are, bothers me. perhaps it is just a personal thing, but it does. the reason why i think that this will open a small door is because of marketing. companies want your money, this is why there are billboards, this is why they pay entertainers to drop their products name on talk shows, this is why there is so much product placement in movies and tv. budweiser now sponsors the music guests of snl. if a company wants to go the extra, extra mile and buy a sports team, why wouldn't they? that's a fantastic opportunity. every post match sports report is like a mini advertisement. that is if they even get coverage. so do you think if companies could buy naming rights to football and baseball teams they would or wouldn't and why?
Is this logo corporate or cartoonish? The only difference between the two is tradition. At least with Red Bull, the product isn't actually in the logo. This deal is great for MLS.
Yep, I think your being a bit too sensitive. If you support the league so much, put Fire in front of Chelsea. Or, could you just drop the Fire all together if continue to post? Thanks.
This deal is fantastic for MLS. Did anyone here really think 10 years ago that we wouldn't have to change anything about MLS to become a stronger and more financially attractive league? Anyone? Really? This is progress, we're actually becoming "MAJOR" league. $50 million bucks folks . . .$50 million. Don't miss the forest from the trees people, this is good . . . real good for MLS.
From this post, it doesn't seem like you can read or reason altogether well. I presented a comparable scenario to a non-NY fan. I did not state that this was necessarily going to happen to the Fire. Try to grasp the difference. Keep grasping. ENRON is one of the most recognizeable brands in the country. Oh -- and everybody's doing it so it must be good? Brilliant, Monster, just brill. Got a problem with performance enhancing drug abuse? I read your rep comment - and that made me laugh! This post however just makes me want to call you a ********wad. But I won't. I'll just leave it at "you're a serious turd."
Honore: I really respect you as a poster. I really do. I look forward to reading your posts, as they are informative, incisive and always provide a point of view that I find interesting and challenging. But I think you're allowing your disdain for AEG and an AEG-plagued MLS cloud your perspective at times. Respectfully, uclacarlos
Not needed. MLB & NFL are already advertisement friendly. NFL games are 60:00 on the clock. But most telecasts last 4 hrs. For every minute on the gridiron you have 3 mins of TV ads. MLB is in the same ballpark. MLS on the other hand has 0.001 of the TV ratings an NFL game has (just a reasonable guses don't quote me on it). Yet, one thing MLS has is a low investment - controlled costs - group ownership - and growing demographics in its fans. NOW FOR MY REAL POINT Let's not kid ourselves, while Red Bull is taking out 10 yrs. of history - MLS needs money from soccer friendly owners. The fact that Metro fans are in the #'s they are is b/c GM's like the infamous Nick... destroyed what potential following Metro might have had. Honestly, Red Bull may not be ideal. But ... Ultimately, MLS needs sponsors. Sure do we want a Nascar style advertisement? Prob. not. But MLS at one time had various sponsors. In the US. MLS is competing with MLB, NFL, NBA and the NHL, for young athletes who are in high school right now. With more money, MLS will be able to attract the better athletes. Tim Howard played basketball, chose soccer b/c getting into the NBA looked harder to him. Eddie Lewis was a serious tennis player, chose soccer. MLS nees more money better sponsors. for better TV productions, nicer stadiums, and above all bigger payscales/salary caps. Will Johnson (Canadian) should have NOT LEFT MLS!!! He would have been close to Canada, and instead of playing for the Toronto team in 08' he'll prob. be playing in Europe. (good for Johnson - bad for MLS) Now being named for a soda can. Sure yeah, its cheesy alright. But reading the report from Logan's Revenge (blog) and another nyc blog (in dcu's 1st sticky - posted by Knave) I think its important we slowly move away from the fan atmosphere created by St. Phil & Hunt. Sure, i'll always be thankful they saved the league by taking humongous losses to thier pocketbooks, at a time when I knew the leauge exsisted but b4 my bigsoccer days, but that said, the whole "family / soccer mom" atmoshpere thing HAS TO END! The only 2 stadiums that brought the excitement consistently have been DCU & the Fire. LA's fans despite outselling tickets, are often no-shows at the HDC, they are fair-weather fans, and of course when the team is winning they show up. Chicago b/c of Wilt and DCU b/c of KP had a very unique relationship with the fans. One last thing - if MLS really is gonna be stronger - imagine having the likes of in prime of their careers Reyna, Keller, Gooch, B. McBride, John O'Brien.... I know the play is better overseas - but imagine if the pay was better in MLS. We could def. get foriegn quality players like Ruiz & Moreno more often, then the aging dinasours MLS ussually can afford. No offesne to the veteran players b/c they rarely perform like Djorkaff's and instead perform like _____(insert any over the hill player MLS paid for). Sure would NYC Barcelona FC been better? Possibly. But, for being such a key market - MLS has dropped the ball way too much on Metro. A change is needed. I mean Metro Playoff Fever? Come on, now.
I appeciate your cutting me slack if I'm being an idiot, but this is a big deal. It just is. For ten years there were MetroStars, now they're a soda can. There are many implications - among them an erosion of credibility for American soccer (very debateable I know because that 50 mil is gonna look very credible) and certainly an erosion of affinity and trust between the league and its fans. You can't point to examples of mistakes and transgressions elsewhere to excuse this kind of move. I think AEG's interests are not always the same as American soccer's - yet there seems to be no check to their power within MLS or US Soccer. (Nobody make a check joke.)
So what you're saying Saltenya, is that sponsorship is critical. so... we should blame Chivas for this "travesty" b/c of their sponsorship success?
Exactly. A year ago all the anti-Chivas USA ppl were saying this was the 1st of the invasion. And sure enough they were 100% correct. Yet, MLS needs strong savy 'soccer' buisness ppl. AEG was forced to do a Houston in San Jose with their budget. Many of us are right to be critical of AEG's soccer stadium construction, but if we want an attractive, hypnotic, soccer crazy nation - we need to diversify our owners and diversify the approaches of making MLS into an attractive buisness to future owners, future athletes (right now in high school deciding between basketball or soccer) and make the bang worth the $ for the fans.
K-league Hallelujah (1983-1985) Busan I'Park (1983-present) (I'park construction) Bucheon SK (1983-present) Pohang Steelers (Pohang Iron and Steel Company) Kookmin Bank FC (1983-1984) FC Seoul (1984-present) Hanil Bank (1984-1986) Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i (1984-present) Gwangju Sangmu Phoenix (Korea Military) Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma (1989-present) Chonbuk Buffalo (1994) Cheonbuk Hyundai Motors (1995-present) Chunnam Dragons (1995-present) Suwon Samsung Bluewings (1996-present) Daejeon Citizen (1997-present) Daegu FC (2003-present) Incheon United (2004-present) Gyeongnam FC (2006-) Japanese baseball and Korean soccer are notorious for naming the team after corporations. Wouldn't be surprised if Red Bull goes to Korea next.
Also, in case anyone didn't know, Red Bull is an extremely popular drink in NYC. And not just as a cool vodka mixer. It's sold everywhere. So, just as the Steelers represented the industrial American middle class worker, perhaps the Red Bulls will represent the 120 hour work week investment bankers.
Alright it's not the end of the world, but let's not try jerking ourselves off into thinking this is a great name either.
I du no if its a cartoon league but that for 10 years they hvent done much right , thats a fact. Look how many teams have been dropped or moved? Who was selecting these cities in the first place that they had to be dropped? Especially the Miami Fusion which lasted what 2 or 3 years? In 10 years these dopes have: Switched the SJ Earthquakes to Houston. Created the Houston 1836 just to change that name in 1 month to Dynamo. Closed the Miami Fusion. Closed the Mutiny. Named teams like Burn, Wiz only to change them later (good thing too) Gone from a crappy name like Clash to a crappier name like Earthquakes. Named a team Real Salt Lake (are you kidding me!) Changed team colors and uniforms due to horrible original choices. Changed the MetroStars to a Soft Drink name. Some changes were good, like elimination of Overtime and Clock counting up..but others showed that they created this league without a freaking clue as to what they were doing. The league might not be a cartoon but unfortunetly with all this city/team/name swapping nobody can take it seriously and if you do...well...goodluck with that.
this league has been around for only 10 years, what did you expect good god, what was being posted on bigbaseball.com when owners took their NY teams and moved them to california, or when NY got its new team to replace the two that left the MPLS Lakers boards must of been filled with posts like "i'm never going to watch basketball again" i heard people jumped out of building in buffalo when the bills switched helmet colors What ever happened to the buffalo braves? do browns fans have a dirty feeling because their browns are not really the browns but the ravens? ABA it's fantastic! So St Louis loses a team to Arizona and gets the team from Los Angeles which was originally from where again? no not the one that was in one city, then another, and then back in the original city. Some people in Sacramento think the Kings have been there since the NBA started. whatcha goin do huh? give up sports? how much do any of the other major leagues look like their early incarnations?