Get rid of him. I fine it extremely hard to except the fact that he couldnt find a venue in the United States for the Revs to play their home match of the CCC. Anybody agree?
this from the boston herald - ``We looked at a lot of venues here in the United States,'' Sunil Gulati, the director of Kraft Soccer Properties, said. ``We considered holding a game in Fort Lauderdale, Charleston, S.C., doing a doubleheader in Los Angeles with the Galaxy. But, in the end, none of the options seemed to work out for one reason or another.'' Gulati suggested that holding the game at Gillette Stadium wasn't strongly considered. He did say the Revolution looked at smaller sites like Brown, Harvard and a venue in New Bedford." sounds like they tried really hard. fire his @ss
it ain't Sunil Fans- I remember a thread asking what effect will Lou Imbriano have on the Revs. Well, may I present exhibit A - both games in Costa Rica. Do you think Stevie Nicks wanted this? Capobianco?, Sunil? These are all core soccer guys! Think for a moment they want to give a good team both games of a tournament? Absolutely no way! Sweet Lou is about one thing...money. Hosting a game in march v. Alajuela was going to lose money, period. Sometimes the answer is as obvious as the nose on your face.
Re: it ain't Sunil Clearblue has hit the nail on the head. Lou is all about making sure he makes a buck... which isn't a bad thing. But what he's going doing is so blatantly at the expense of team operations and the 'product' put on the field, it makes me ill. (And I can get into more specifics if need be...but this episode with Alajuela crystalizes it perfectly). After the great season last year, it pains me to think of what the he is doing to handicap us this year. All I can say for the outside observers is, hold on and wait for the blood to start flying. And remember, its not Sunil, Renato, Steve or Craig, but this is all Lou!
Re: Re: it ain't Sunil I think the Revs "soccer" brass is trying to make the best of this. They are having the team go down 10 days prior to make this another preseason warm weather camp and, as a result, have cancelled the Portugal trip. I think the "soccer" brass is not happy with this choice either but is making lemonade out of the lemons. One other point...if we win the series, this becomes a blip on the radar screen. If we lose then the bitching/moaning will seem appropriate.
Next big development in the pipeline is to get rid of Reebok as the Rev's main equipment provider and secure the services of Franklin sporting goods. Brother, this just keeps getting darker and darker... You can only guess what this does to the morale of the team, and yet it seems to explain why so many deals have fallen through because players didn't want to come to New England (aside from the climate and cost-of-living that is).
It is the oblong management setup NO WAY, Doctor Jose! We are all too forgiving, but we won't forget. Don't think for a moment that the players and coaches won't either. The Revolution are being run as an afterthought. Now even more than ever before. This is just another slap in the face at soccer fans. Oblong management doesn't care. Soccer fans don't rate. Their message is very clear for anyone that will even remotely keep their eyes open. The sky may not be falling, quite yet. But the breathing space is shrinking with every anti-soccer move made by our "soccer" management.
Re: It is the oblong management setup Maybe, but only 10 cities in the whole US even get that privilege, at a minimum!
You haven't been paying attention. According to Danizinho, Gillette is in horrible shape and there is no way it is playable in March. But, what the heck, continue casting blame around ...
Hosting the game is the first step to hoisting the cup! If the club seriously wants to advance in this tournament they need to provide the Revs the best opportunity to win--that means hosting one of the legs. Are they that bold as to expect that they will handle the hostile crowd for two games? Vasco da Gama elected not to host the home leg of the 1998 Interamerican Cup and lost to DC United (however, Miami was far more partial to Vasco than DC--and DC had come to Miami after losing the opening leg at home). This is NE first time representing US soccer in a major tournament. If the Revolution wants to follow in the path set by DC United and the LA Galaxy, then hosting the game is the first step to hoisting the cup!
"Next big development in the pipeline is to get rid of Reebok as the Rev's main equipment provider... Unless you're being sarcastic and I missed the joke, the Revolution haven't had Reebok as a supplier for a number of years now, U.K.- based Umbro being the primary supplier. Just FYI, The Magpie
Nope, not sarcastic, just woefully misinformed (although the two are often confused). I will say however that Umbro seems to provide the same quality and level of service we grew to expect form Reebok. BTW, Spaulding Equipment is another name in soccer that the management might want to consider. Every little bit helps (that is, take care of those pennies, and, well, you know...).
I am sick and tired of all the lame excuses some of you are coming up with . Read my lips : there is no way in hell that this is ok, no matter what the reasons are. There were other options, trust me, and you know it they just didn't try hard enough. Stop making excuses for them, stop thinking of any excuses, ok. What you should all focus on is how to prevent this from ever happening again.
Sad fact is, there ain't a damn thing we can do about it. As much as people may complain about Kraft ownership, they are one of only 3 sets of owner-investors this league has. Complain as we might (and with ample justification), the alternative is no soccer franchise in New England. Can you imagine what the Revs would shell out to use Gillete Stadium if the outfit weren't owned by the Krafts? So we'll get nothing and like it, or A) start rooting for another team, B) give up the idea of a New England soccer franchise altogether. Some pretty swarmy options there, but that's where we stand. Unfortunately, I don't see it doing wonders for the on-field performance of this team either.
Talk to Lou. I would suggest talking to the guy actually making these poor decisions... Lou Imbriano.... from everything I'm hearing, it doesn't really matter what Renato, Craig, Sunil, or Stevie want... Lou is making decisions to cut corners per Krafts, and if he starts hearing that their most important asset (the fans) are not happy with his decision making he might gain some perspective (ie.. that he's not dealing with oval-ball fans). And then he can go back to the Krafts and say 'the fans are really unhappy'. Out of that group, we all know Craig has been extremely approachable, past and present, but the influence he used to have is gone. He's a great guy, but he's powerless now. Demand to talk to Lou. .. word of advice though... be diplomatic.
Re: Talk to Lou. I would think that it might be better to talk to the Krafts, and let them talk to Lou. Lou's in the business of dollars and cents - fan opinion is not likely a big factor in his day-to-day. If you give Jonathan or Bob an earful though, they might point out to Lou that some apparent short-term (say, selling out to Costa Rican clubs) gains may actually be long-term losses in disguise. Granted, it's probably easier to get a hold of Lou, but I'd expect he'd be as receptive as a brick wall, whereas the Krafts have to at least give the appearance of caring about the fans.
US based soccer needs more creativity. It was mentioned that a nice tact of having a benefit played in R.I. for fire victims may have been appropriate. Texas Stadium will now host Mexico vs. Bolivia in a friendly (may be a self agrandizing maneuver on Jerry Jones' part). Now, why can't we come up with venues like; a double-header of an MLS squad playing an international opponent, and a headline with a Euro team or such. Benefit? Under the marketing campaign of, say... "Proceeds to go to the local chapter of Make-A-Wish foundation"... or something similar. Even if there are NO proceeds, it lays the groundwork for 'endearing soccer unto the US sports fan'. And, it actually 'could' be beneficial for the local charity, AND promote MLS/US soccer. Since MLS inception, the numbers have not allowed 'owners' to 'immediately profit' - even if the 'growing pains/expenses/losses were properly anticipated. So, when Joe Owner finally gets sick of seeing his bottom line go 'ever lower', he may hire a 'numbers guy' who really doesn't give a rat's azz about the game - and is brought in strictly to 'cut costs'. This is exactly what I hope is NOT happening with the Krafts. I do hope, however, that MLS can instill necessary creative marketing campaigns that can keep these 'numbers guys' away from The Beautiful Game.
When it comes down to it, the benefits that the Kraft organization gets from the Revs are not sufficient for them to want to underwrite a loss of the size of this game. So, even if brought to the attention of Bob Kraft (who I don't believe really meddles in the operation of the Revs), I think he'd probably support Imbriano's decision (if it indeed was his decision). Around the league, we have a reputation for being great fans, but a couple of facts can't be denied. 1. Crowds are small in early spring and fall. 2. If there's a possibility of bad weather, fans don't buy in advance and don't come if the weather doesn't hold up. 3. Fans don't show up in big numbers for weeknight games. 4. Fans don't show up in even modest numbers for non-MLS, Revolution games w/o a big name opponent (i.e., U.S. Open Cup). Supposing the game could be held at Nickerson (and I still maintain that any NE grass field would be destroyed by using it in March), with the Revs paying a rental fee and game-day expenses. They'd lose control of any parking or concession revenue. And, realistically, how many people would show up, in an unfamiliar venue, on what would highly, likely be a cold, wet evening? 1000, at best? We didn't get that many for US Open Cup matches when the weather was nice! So, if it came down to losing tens of thousands of $$, as opposed to accepting $25K to switch, considering the fact that the Revs are still a money pit every year, it seems like a no-brainer for "bottom-line" people in the organization. Until the day when the Revs run a profit, or fans demonstrate that they will show up in adverse conditions for a game like this, then the organization is probably not going to be willing to swallow the loss for events like this. And although many people think that Kraft has bottomless pockets, he may be rich, but he's not RICH - like, for instance, Anschutz and Hunt. They could buy him with their lunch money. Anschutz and Hunt would probably subsidize soccer losses the rest of their lives, since they "can't take it with them" anyway, but Kraft isn't in that class, not to mention he doesn't see US Soccer as his major contribution to the country, as Anschutz probably does. None of us fans like losing this game, but the best thing to do to prevent it from happening again is for people to show up for games, good weather or bad, Mid-Michigan Bucks or L.A. Galaxy, Wednesday night or Saturday afternoon!
Just one major MLS team purchase could make a difference. Imagine Turner as an owner. Rock solid, LARGE media concern, with advertising dollars to-boot. Ted gave a billion dollars to the U.N. ... one BILLION dollars!!! I don't know if Jane was ever a soccer mom, but Ted might be able to date a few of them with a cool billion. Could MLS use a few Mark Cuban's??... oh yeah. It is sometimes hard to remember that this country has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to soccer. But if any country has the pockets and gonads for it...