Second, congratulations are in order for a few Revs front office types. Mike Burns has been promoted from Director of Soccer to Vice President of Player Personnel. Additionally, Craig Tornberg is now our General Manager and Vice President of Business Development. Both new roles are well-deserved as both Mike and Craig work tirelessly to better the team away from the spotlight. http://revolutionsoccer.wordpress.com/2008/07/07/monday-musings-2/ Not sure if/how this is going to change anything, however.
I saw the thread title and thought Burns & Tornberg was an obscure English side that won promotion to the Blue Square Premier Division or some such thing.
----and more money. It will be interesting to see if the Revs back fill their current named positions.
That's more of what I was unsure about. Will their roles stay the same? Will they have new roles? Are their old positions going to be filled in the coming weeks? That sort of stuff.
Since they appear to be adding titles to their current ones instead of changing them, I would guess they will probably still be doing the same stuff. Maybe with broader responsibilities but who knows what exactly they do now?
Maybe this will relieve Craig of his security tape reviewing responsibilities, so he can focus on the team.
I'm betting Burns will have more autonomy in decision making with regard to players and this may also signal part of the larger role with youth a development being expanded. I'm betting torenberg will deal with less day to day stuff and working on more bigger picture items like sponsors, stadium, etc. (and if a stadium deal is in the works, there will be a lot of work in securing sponsors and advertising) Safe to say they wouldn't be treating CT's role at a VP of development if there wasn't some big plans on the horizon. I think these moves are probably very significant and probably signal a new era in the FO. I don't think these are just pat on the back acknowledgements.
I think it at least clarifies what their jobs are, especially Tornberg. Since "General Manager" doesn't mean the same thing in soccer as it does in other sports, this title makes it clear he's responsible for off-the-field stuff.
So is Tornberg going to sell new cars now? What about the midget Indian economist from Manhattan is he still doing anything?
Burns & Tornberg - Sounds like a good name for a pub. Like Burns could ever sign a player without SN pulling his strings
In a literal sense, no, but this promotion would make a lot of sense if it was influenced by movement or potential for movement on a new stadium. Craig is the most experienced member of the Revolution's front office and would be in good position to serve as a point person of sorts in working with whatever community might be likely to host a stadium facility. He knows the team, he knows the organization, he knows the New England area and the club's supporters, he's pretty damn good at working a crowd, and should be able gani support from leaders in the various local ethnic communities. I may have some disagreements with Craig, but this seems a perfect position for him and at just the right time; I wish him the best of luck.
Last I saw him, he was selling lamb kebabs and curry from a stand at 125th street and Amsterdam Avenue.
VP of player personnel seems a bit redundant. Just like Burns himself. And who exactly is replacing him as director of soccer? Is anyone replacing him?
It's all the same pot of Kraft money at this point. Only a small portion of the money the Revs got for Clint could be used to bring in new players. The remainder was to be used by the franchise of various soccer related endeavors. IMO, that means anything from the youth programs to staff salaries.
If that's the case, then this is one area where MLS has it totally ass-backwards. If a club sells a player anywhere else on this planet, it is pretty much expected that they are going to take the money and buy a replacement of some kind. If MLS is telling them they have to spend it on "club infrastrucure," that's pretty vague. OK, it seems like the youth acadamey program was funded through this money, and this was probably a good use of it, given the limitations. Hopefully it will pay dividends down the road. But looking at historical trends in other sports, there have been plenty of examples of teams that sold players and did nothing to improve the on-field product. This is not something MLS should encourage, nor even make it easy to do. Maybe that's the real reason they didn't want to let Twellman go to Preston. They already had a guy who, at the end of his career, will be regarded as one of the greatest players in MLS history. If they sold him for a wheelbarrow full of money that's all well and good, but not if you can't go out and buy another "Twellman."
Agreed that they have it backward in terms of buying quality to replace quality lost... I don't think that we would have problems with the situation if we KNEW what the Dempsey money went for... you seem to think that (some/all?) went to the academy... leaving aside, for a minute, the fact that it would be one hell of an expensive academy program, we don't know that is where the money went... the reluctance of this organization to share information that is relevant to the product that they wish us to support is staggering... it borders on the paranoia of the Kremlin... what would it hurt to say that "we are spending about half on the academy, a quarter on improved scouting and about a quarter on salary cap relief" (oops... I forgot... we are under the salary cap)... at least such a statement would avoid the impression that they are doing nothing with the returns from losing our best player and that they are simply pissing it away... just another example of the global lack of meaningful communication between the organization and supporters... I think that we all understand that there are things that can't be discussed until the right time in order to avoid fouling up active negotiations... when that reason is gone, there should be full disclosure... (BTW, in case you can't tell, I'm agreeing with you Tom)
Yeah, but the last time anyone tried to ask specific questions like did we or did we not lose the McBride allocation on May 15, we just got the old "jobsworth" line that "I'm not the person who handles this sort of thing," and that was the end of it. These fancy-schmatzy titles are all well and good, but what I would like to know is what the various people at Rev Central actually do. It's just a wild-ass guess about them spending the money on the academy, for all we know, it could have just been spent on a marble replica of Michaelangelo's David for the garden of the Kraft estate. Right next to the Eusebio statue.
If I remember correctly that is the case. Teams can spend no more the $500K of their take on a replacement player. The Leagues argument as to why this is their policy was discussed on the Board at length and consensus was their reasoning made little sense. Discussion aside---it is what it is. To suggest that the Krafts have spent the money on other than their Soccer Franchise is irrational. The Krafts are in business and their books are a private business matter. The Revs are not a publically held company and we fans may want to know what they do with their money but they have every right to keep that info close to the vest and only disclose their fiscal dealings with the League To