Borough Boys Issue Statement RE: MLS Expansion

Made me think about the Man City takeover, at that day 2008 I had people I know standing outside the stadium celebrating with tea-towels on their heads like an improvised arab headdress in front of the TV-cameras..The idea that a Premier League club was a kind of taken over by the guy in control of Al-Jazira FC in Abu Dhabi was regarded as totally irrelevant.
What mattered was City and City only.
Forward to 2013 and fans of Manchester City are somewhat concerned about this New York venture. The Chairman himself had to state that "We will keep the eye on the ball" in regards to MCFC while some people in NY itself regard it as a cheap (cheap?) branding exercise.

No doubts speculations will continue but myself I have no doubt that Abu Dhabi want NYC to stand on its own legs, and to be (to use a popular word on these forums) relevant in New York.
There´s an almost unlimited supply of money available to work with, there´s a savy and powerful partner in Yankees.
Martin Edelman himself will no doubt devote his time on the stadium situation while Reyna will try to create a team as soon as possible.
There are reasons to be optimistic.

 

I agree with you to the extent that England is a nation of self-absorbed whinerbabies and American anglophiles are phony self-absorbed whinerbabies.

But the connection between Arsenal and the Rapids is only financial.* The implied connection between New York and Manchester, that NYCFC will be the Chivas USA for City, is a very different, and potentially degrading relationship. I personally don't really care about the owner very much with a few exceptions; the relationship (implied or otherwise) between the two clubs is what scares me.




*Ironically, I wish there was a bit MORE of a connection between Colorado and Arsenal. If Colorado used some of Arsenal's vaunted scouting network maybe they wouldn't suck so terrifically.

 

If we are talking potentially or implied relationships I might counter with the actual fact that there´s a very pro New York cliques at the highest level of Manchester City..Starting with the Chairman Khaldoon himself who as a student at Tufts learned to love places like Boston and New York.
We also got this hot-shot NY attorney on the board of City, Martin edelman

Martin Edelman specializes in international real estate transactions involving large, complex negotiations, acquisitions, dispositions and financing. He has broad international experience in all asset classes, having done extensive work in Europe, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Japan, China and the Middle East. Mr. Edelman is a director of Avis/Budget Corp., Capital Trust, and Ashford Hospitality Trust. He is a senior advisor to Mubadala, the strategic investment vehicle of the government of Abu Dhabi, and a member of the board of Aldar Property Group
Perhaps we ought to mention Tom Glicks as well?
From New Jersey actually.
Citys chief commercial and operating officer that is, used to work with NBA side the New Jersey Nets, and two minor league baseball teams the Sacramento River Cats and the Lansing Lugnuts.

 

That's about as tenuous to relevance as is possible.

Blueintent, there are a couple of things which you may or may not be familiar with that taint many NY soccer fans' views towards this deal.

Chivas USA is a walking, talking 9-year old abortion. Their business plan appears more than reminiscent of City's and, for me, is the thing that makes City USA so very scary. Our little league simply couldn't handle another Chivas USA, not in New York.

RBNY is a walking, talking marketing and branding exercise who exist to turn soccer fans into soda consumers. The idea is so distasteful to so many people that it colors every conversation of soccer in NY. Now we have the potential of a new team that exists to turn people into consumers of some other multi-national corporation. This is the main complaint I've heard from others.

Lots of soccer fans, 99% of soccer fans, don't root for City UK and don't want to. Lots of baseball fans, at least 50% of NY baseball fans, despise the Yankees.

Our curious little league has made unbelievable strides since its founding in 1996. Those strides have been premised on slow, sustainable growth. City and the Yankees aren't exactly management consultants for slow, sustainable growth.

Agree or disagree, there are reasons why people would be reluctant to sign up to be City USA fans.

 

Pejoratives are for those that don't have any facts to back up their arguments.

 

I fail to see the problem, you assume that existing soccer fans might not embrace NYC, might being the key-word there.
Try growing a fanbase in places where you are surrounded by fans of a multitude of clubs, a place where everyone is more or less spoken for, where loyalty is handed down from father to son and you know it´s going to be an uphill struggle. But it can be done, have been done before.
The existing MLS fanbase in NY is yet diminutive and not something to write home about.
This will be an exercise in creating a brand new club, a club that will be given all the tools needed to constantly improve and become "relevant" in due time.

 

Well said. I don't know much about the B Boys, but reading a lot of the posts from some of the Cosmos apologists on this webpage reminds me that "desperation is a stinky colonge."

Yup, the entire city is going to beat a path to Hempstead because the Cosmos are authentic. oy vey

 

The most interesting thing is that there is no proof that a NY team in the boroughs will draw well. Has there been a team in the city or boroughs since the 70's that has done well. Cosmos were in NJ, when apparently people did not mind leaving NYC to see soccer.

 

You're comparing apples to oranges.

The Cosmos moved to Giants Stadium before the boom took place. If they had stayed at Yankee Stadium they would have drawn huge crowds there too.

I was only a teenager back then, but I don't recall encountering any poseurs to the extent you see today. Nobody was worried about proper football pitches, kits or culture.

If they were still in the Bronx when Warner decided to open the vaults they would have packed the stadium despite it not be "authentic"

People didn't mind going to Giants Stadium because it was easily accessible by any number of modes of transportation. That cannot be said for Hofstra.

People didn't mind making the trek to NJ, because the Cosmos fielded a team people wanted to see. What are the Cosmos going to field in August that are going to make them attractive?

Cosmos fans can bandy about all the buzz words they want, but I'll stand by what I said. Nobody is going out to LI to watch them.

 

I'll leave some of your other strange statements aside for the moment and defer to you on what people are talking about in soccer circles in New York. I'll even let alone the thought that the name DC United was nothing more than a marketing exercise at the time it was created.

Instead let's talk about the Borough Boys again. If you are for the statement of slow, sustainable growth in MLS then wouldn't the Cosmos be the absolute worst possible inclusion in the league? Did the current owners of the Cosmos not demand they not be part of single-entity, that they own their own club, make their own deals with clothing makers, etc.?
It seems to me ceding to those demands would have done way more damage to the structure of the league then letting in one more super-rich guy who wanted to join the club of other super-rich guys who already support the current structure.
The Borough Boys are just wrong on this one, plain and simple. They can support whomever they want, but in terms of the future of the MLS this was clearly the much, much better option.

 

Whatever, beardface.

AFAIK, it's only been done successfully in the modern era by outspending the opposition. Have you seen MLS' TV ratings? Our curious little league couldn't sustain that at all for the foreseeable future.

I take it you don't know what marketing is?

I agree that the Bethpage Boys seem deluded. And I'm not taking a stand for or against the Cosmos. The whole idea of a free-spending American soccer league is completely preposterous. Those of us from a certain generation who grew up without a professional league hold MLS more dearly than many people can imagine and any threat, be it from over-spending Cosmos teams or over-spending City USA teams (or indeed over-spending Red Bull teams) is a threat that needs to be nipped in the bud pronto.

 

Yeah, my last job title, "marketing project manager," probably suggests that.

 

This is mostly true. However, SGs can influence owners with public displays. But ultimately it comes down to rich people. I realized this months ago and decided to be patient and wait out the competing bids (at the time, Cosmos v. Man City). Because of this, I felt ostracized from groups for not being completely attached to the Cosmos of LI.

Some people forget how powerful money is.

 

But surely TV-ratings are also an effect of having something to show the public?
Call it the Beckham effect or whatever but surely all sports nowadays are more or less part of the entertainment industry.

 

What could possibly go wrong? (Except for total league collapse, like the last time we tried it.)

 

I thought overexpansion combined with owners lacking financial staying power made NASL collapse?
I can´t really see that happening with MLS actually, so far they have moved very cautiously.
But anyway..What was NASL really missing apart from really rich owners?
Stadiums of course! The focus for soccer went from TV-ratings to stadiums their teams actually could call their own and now that situation is much better.
And lately we have seen some serious money men coming into MLS. Wanting to build stadiums or owning them outright.
Next step might, just might be to try to pimp the league a bit I guess..But still in a rather cautious way

 

What is everyone's problem with the Borough Boys? How is sticking with a second division side they've fought together with for years to finally put a team on the field not an admirable thing to do? Yea, they wanted an MLS team in NYC, but they at one point decided to pledge their loyalties to the Cosmos organization, and that's that, for better or worse. How are they expected, just months away from being able to support their club in relevant competition for the first time, to just immediately jump ship when another club comes to town. Is that not the most dishonorable thing for any sports fan to do? How could you take them seriously ever again if that press release had said they are officially ending formal ties with the Cosmos and working on the opening stages of NYCFC preparations? And then the Cosmos take the field in a few months without them? Jesus. And you know what? Maybe they are counting on the Cosmos failing soon. However, it's a much more honorable thing to allow the BBs to die with the club they support and regroup as a new club with NYCFC down the line.

 

I think people give them some lighthearted stick because they wanted a vintage Ferrari and sulk because their parents got them a brand new one instead, IN THE WRONG COLOUR !!!

So now they have hired a garage where they intend to build the car of their dreams instead.

 

And don't forget the other absurd story about their support to the FCNY and Petersen before of the Cosmos 2 ( Kemsley ) and now Cosmos 3 ( Sela ?? ) !!!

Forza NYCFC and thanks Mr Garber !!

 

I would say that most of the difficulty stems from an organization calling itself the Borough Boys, whose main original goal was to have a team playing in one of the five boroughs - a true New York City team.
It's fine that they changed their focus at some point to just supporting Cosmos no matter what. But when it became obvious the Cosmos weren't going to play in the boroughs they should have clearly changed their statement about their goals of getting a team in the city - and possibly considered changing their name as well.
Now with their statement they are trying to sell their Cosmos support as some sort of statement of protest about who owns the actual NYCFC team - just like their original complaint was a protest that the "New York" team did not play in the city
They should just come out and say "look, our priorities as an organization have changed since our original charter. This has nothing to do with who owns an actual team in New York City. We just like the Cosmos, no matter where they play."

 

The BBs should realize that the Cosmos are going nowhere with Div 2, while NYCFC will eventually be the crown jewel of the league with ownership that will spend the dollars to make them number one in MLS.

 

It´s a bit odd how everyone think that we will target existing hardcore soccerfans who already got their loyalties elsewhere.
So much easier to build from scratch really..all it takes is time and money and that we got in spades.

 

Man City branding ambitions?

 

Honestly, when a bunch of soccer fans sit around and think 'I don't want to support a team because of branding ambitions' I have to wonder what they hell they are talking about.

Branding ambitions or no, if you have a local team to support, why not support it? Are US soccer fans so fairweather that they only support a team if the meet a list of demands? No wonder we can't fill all the stadiums regularly.