A message to all the "fans" who call the team "Red Donkeys"...

I didn't want to do this, but fine. The five stages of grief (note that they don't always go in this order; some stages are just flat out skipped, some are merged, but this is the general order in which they occur):
1. Denial-- This could be what some would consider being "stuck in the past", still calling them Metros, etc. I'm sure most people are starting to move past this or have already moved on.
2. Anger-- The stage in which most people are probably in, myself included, I'll admit. This could include taking potshots, but for me it's just a giant ball of confusion. It's the team I fell in love with, but at the same time, it's not. Come on, three coaches in one season? I'm sorry, but I think that's a little a$$-backwards.
3. Bargaining-- Calling the team "Metro Reds" for example. Trying to merge the past with the present. Petitions for the team to be call "Red Bull Metros".
4. Depression-- With the way the team had been playing lately, I have a hard time believing anyone who said that all was well in Red Bull land.
5. Acceptance-- Good for all of the people that have reached this stage. The war within themselves is over, had it ever occurred in the first place.

I would say that anyone calling them "Red Donkeys" is stuck in anger. Maybe they tried to bargain, as Dan did, and it just didn't feel right. I don't think that doesn't make him or anyone else who calls the team the Donkeys a fan; I don't even think it makes them bad fans, just confused fans. Their team is dead, but at the same time, it's not.

I'm a stubborn psych major, so this is how I'm going to view it. Call me a bad fan, or whatever, but I still love the team, I still support it, just in my own little way while I go through the stages.

 

Absolutely, totally wrong. Outside of Cruz Azul, which is a special case, your Mexican League jersey might have ten thousand ads on it - but it's still a jersey for Toluca, or Chivas, or America, or whoever. There's no Club Deportivo de Telemex, or FC Bimbo there, because its a line that Mexican fans would revolt at before crossing. And good for them; let's hope they keep it that way. Sponsor patches and so on are nothing, compared to offering up your whole team identity to corporate sponsorship.

Once again, you're completely barking up the wrong tree with your depiction of RB critics as somehow oblivious to the commercialism of it all. We - well, I can only speak for myself - know it all too well. Much more than your broad and rather off-key characterization gives credit for.

 

That's fine, but I don't think any of us have this authority to say who is and who isn't a real fan. Not in so many words. It's pretty grating to hear from people who think they have the right.

 

Stick around to continue insulting those of us who support the Red Bulls - for supporting the Red Bulls? Why is it "nuts" to expect a mod on the NY Red Bulls boards to support the NY Red Bulls?

 

The fact that you reflexively equate pointed criticism of the RB soccer project with personal criticism is a little telling.

I've responded with vitriol when I've been vitriol-ed against; probably should just let it go, but its not always easy, y'know.

 

Latest insulting name calling I've received from you was "clown," a few hours ago. Don't care to recall the others I've received from you in the past four months... I've never called you any such names. That kind of thing strikes me as personal.

If you don't support the NY Red Bulls (and I do respect your reasons), then you shouldn't moderate a NY Red Bulls discussion board.

 

Great. Guess none of you have access to NYC hydro.

And to date, I may have chanted "Red Bull" once or twice, but I still sing out "METRO" every chance I get. And every chance I get is in the middle of 101, loud and proud, just a couple of rows behind Corey. And not too long ago, several rows behind Michael K.

We all have our differences, and we voice them ad nauseum here, but game time, you will chant and sing. That's why we f***in' show up in the first place.

[/shakes head uncontrollably]

 

I get a bit perturbed when people tell me - or anyone, for that matter - in overbearing tones what they should do/what terms they should use when it comes to things like supporting this team. That's wholly out of place as far as I'm concerned, and a little silly. You've given as well as you've gotten over the past few months, too.

 

Excuse me what is Chivas named after? Chivas Regal?

 

Amen!

 

I get a bit perturbed when someone calls Red Bulls supporters "hypocrites" or says that the Scum have more "integrity" than we do. From a mod? Unacceptable. But I haven't called you any names, Michael; you know that. Well, at least I haven't posted them.

 

FWIW, a data point.

I find critical analysis supportive. I find blind cheerleading unsupportive (but oddly suspenseful, when it involves actual blind cheerleaders).

And I like shorthand and code words.

When the MetroStars were playing poorly, I enjoyed supporting them through their diffuculties by calling them Mutts. (Get it? They had the dog suit guy, the bandana dogs spreading MPF, etc.) I still have my season tickets since Game 1, and I still came.

When Red Bull New York plays poorly, I enjoy supporting them through their difficulties by calling them Donks. (Who knows, after a while maybe another code word will replace it, but for now it gives me images of the Keystone Kops, the 3 Stooges bonking each other over the head, donkey basketball fund raisers from high school.) Your basic comedy of errors.

If they keep playing like the last half, then Halleluia. Go Bulls. But if the Productive Space Formerly Wasted By Henderson goes unexploited, then, well, this supporter's gonna call them on that.

Anyway, your mileage will vary, obviously. I don't expect anyone to know the motivations going around in my little head, and I don't try to pretend I know anyone else's.

Keeps my blood pressure down, you know.

 

Seems logical to me Doctor K... Michael why would you want to continue as a Red Bulls mod.. You have not bothered to discuss the team's recent performance, or if Conway should start over Meola or how the Bulls can get into the playoffs for example...you just stick to the same solipsistic bitter outlook.. I am not asking you to change your point of view ...I just don't think you should not have any authority over us as a mod who have accepted the change...

 

go red donkeys !

 

Not all supporters enthusiastic about Red Bull. Just the ones who, in the days and weeks after the takeover, sought to justify RB's move by saying (paraphrasing slightly) "let's face it, the Metro tradition was total shit and we're lucky to be rid of it." Such statements (I don't have links, but you can go trawl through those interminable threads if you like - you'll find them) are the same as spitting in the face of all the people who spent years to make supporting Metro worthwhile, even though we didn't win a thing. Amazingly, a few of the people saying such things were long-time regulars, who had been a part of it. If everything about Metro, down to the colors we sang about was "such shit", were you lying when you stood in some godforsaken bleachers at Foxboro or Mitchell Field cheering for Metro, or are you lying now and making a dishonest argument?

That's related to the DC statement, I think. If it was DC getting bought and re-branded so rudely, do you think their fans would be as quick to abandon their own history and identity, making such weak arguments about why it's a good thing? Would they hell. They'd be disgusted, because they'd be giving up something meaningful. "But they've won championships. We haven't," you might say. So what? If we believe ourselves to be on their level as supporters, that means supporting our team like champions, too - as if our team and history were every bit the equal, in every way. Instead, a sizable number of Metro fans immediately prostrated themselves for RB. Uncomfortable as it might be to acknowledge, I don't know what's to argue about that.

I DID say that DC people were obnoxious, vermin-ridden sonsabitches, or something to that effect, to compensate.

 

Yawn!! Thread is making me very... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

Nobody wants a cheeleader, just someone who doesn't ridicule a team he supposedly supports for reasons other than what has transpired on the field. Also, the argument that irishapple made, and I quote:

"People need to decide if they are with this team or against it"

is a perfectly legitimate one. No need to equate it with the policies of a madman. Let's face it, people around these parts are either Giants or Jets fans, Yankees or Mets fans, Devils or Rangers or Islanders fans, Knicks or Nets fans. It is not unreasonable to ask a someone to search his/her inner sould and determine if he/she is going to support team x or not. If a member of this forum (and not just a member, a Moderator) keeps insulting the team he supposedly supports and personally attacks members of the rank & file who don't share his view, then I feel that it is not unreasonable for said rank & file to ask the member in question to step down as a Moderator.

 

I never said any such thing, and I know a few others on here who've been enthusiastic about RB from day one who never did, either. You're trying to squirm your way out of this corner, and it won't do.

No, on the contrary, there were several of us who were concerned that RB would wipe away the Metro legacy, but when they didn't, we took that as a sign of good faith. Perhaps you'd prefer that RB relinquish rights to the Metros' history (like the NFL's Ravens did for the Cleveland Browns), but don't hold your breath. Several of us had a great time last night trying to think back over the ten and a half years for a more decisive win in this team's history (and couldn't!).

Some of us simply aren't anywhere near as upset as you are that we metamorphosed. You see it as nothing more than a crass rebranding. Oh well. I feel bad for you. Move on and support some other side, wait for another one to come along that suits your needs, or just stop following the sport, I don't care. But don't continue to insult those of us who have been able to handle the change. That's what our enemies do.

 

I've been to DC, NE and Mitchell field several times (not to mention Kean, Rutgers - and I'm sure I'm forgetting other places) to cheer for Metro. I've held season tickets for several seasons, planned vacations around matches, and must have watched at least 90% of all away matches that were available on tv. My voice is alway hoarse after every friggin match. That said, I think this Red Bull takeover was the best thing that ever happened to this team. Even Dan will tell you (at least he's told me) that, besides the name change, he's doesn't have anything against what Red Bull has done. The fact that the name has changed and there is a huge corporate logo on the front of my team's jersey does not negate (to me) the joy and pain (mostly pain, really) that my team has brought me throughout the years. I would not trade it for anything. If you believe that accepting this means that we are somehow traitors and are "spitting in your face", then leave your post here on bigsoccer and seek counseling.

 

Cute celebration of me in your sig. But sigging yourself is tack-tack-tacky.

That said, I think this Red Bull takeover was the best thing that ever happened to this team.

We'll see where you are on that after a couple years of them actually making moves and doing things that get under people's skin. I'm thoroughly unconvinced it won't be more of the same old, same old - a distant, megacorporate overlord with the team's on-field success as a secondary or tertiary priority. And on top of that, they're going to give me the privilege of shouting their gross product's name and wearing its logo (in the BADGE, not the sponsorship, which I could care less about) in order to be a "supporter"? Wow, thanks.

If you believe that accepting this means that we are somehow traitors and are "spitting in your face", then leave your post here on bigsoccer and seek counseling.

If you weren't one of those I described quite specifically in the post above, let me suggest you leave "your post" as a bigsoccer poster (my "post" can do quite well without my attention) and seek remedial reading comprehension classes.


I apologize, DoctorK. Viper was the charming one calling me a "retard" a couple weeks ago.

 

irish, I think we all admire your enthusiasm, in different ways, lets call a truce, love the Bruce, and go to sleep.

 

I never said any such thing, and I know a few others on here who've been enthusiastic about RB from day one who never did, either. You're trying to squirm your way out of this corner, and it won't do.

I never said you did specifically, but at least a few did.

Several of us had a great time last night trying to think back over the ten and a half years for a more decisive win in this team's history (and couldn't!).

It was fun and you'll remember being there for sure, but a laugher over a pretty bad team with a man sent off, which completely shut down around 4-0? That's not my definition of "best win ever," just a nice stomping. There's been a number of them.

Move on and support some other side....

If it were so blissfully easy. Are you one of those people who really believe that picking a team to follow is so straightforward? A moot question until New York II, CT MLS or USL, or Red Bull bailing out gives me something to think about on that score. So I'm probably here for another five years, at least.