Columbus’ loyal, devoted soccer fans deserve much, much better than this. They have for the last eight years... ...This kind of support and loyalty should be rewarded, and despite promises of several coaches, general managers and players, it hasn’t happened... ...When MLS has had a chance to acquire top players, it has stretched the rules, bent its budget and found ways to get them into its "more important" markets. Small-market Columbus has never been one of its major concerns and the fans’ continuing loyalty probably has kept it that way.. http://www.1460thefan.com/tf.php?story=dispatch/2003/10/22/20031022-G1-00.html
You know, I've sort of thought that myself. It's almost as if they are overlooked because they have traditionally never been an attendance problem. Look at San Jose, in the first year of MLS they averaged 17,000, yet years or futility has pissed that away. Same goes for New England. It would be a shame for that to happen to Columbus. In a league with many problems, Columbus has rarely been a reason for any. They certainly deserve a reward for that at least.
Columbus is not fighting for the last playoff spot because MLS has minimized their importance (and I'm not saying that they have or haven't). They are fighting for the last playoff spot because a team that is chock full of talent, in spite of Bob Hunter's perception of the league's treatment of the Crew, and tipped to win it all has consistently underachieved this entire season. Not that MLS returning the favor will help anyways. The perception is that the league gives the MetroStars every opportunity and look at what that has gotten us.
Doesn´t Columbus have McBride... who has performed well on the US nats and also showed a great deal of talent when on overseas loan? You guys also have Cunningham, Hedjuk and other noted players. Chicago last year with Stoitchkov, Wolff, Beasley, Novak and others needed to win their season finale just to make the playoffs and then they got toasted in the first round. Yet this year´s team, with a bunch of "unknowns" and "building blocks" has acceled. Maybe there´s something to be said for lesser known talent in this league.
What perception? Of course, your club is stuck with Nick the Sack and a lazy, overweight Georgian with a bad haircut.
Of those 3 guys you mentioned, only 1 (Hejduk) was "given" to us by the league, and that was only after no one else wanted him. Guys like McBride, Cunningham, Martino, etc. were all guys we went and found.
Absolutely true. The first year, after we got hosed on the "Marquee Allocation" (Who? Doctor Khumalo? But I thought everybody was gonna get a BIG STAR - nobody's ever heard of him. Hey, I know - send him to Columbus!) they then held a drawing and CBus won and got the first draft pick, which was BMB. Cunny was the 9th pick in the 98 draft. Martino was the 8th pick in 2002.
No doubt we have underachieved. But. When Garber took over, he specifically stated that MLS needs to "fix what's wrong with the major markets, New York and Los Angeles". When Los Angeles built their stadium, Columbus Crew stadium was "dissed" a couple of times in the process. Crew fans like myself won't forget that. Hunter simply echoed some of the statements I have made here in the past, most importantly the fact that since Columbus has a soccer specific stadium and a dedicated fan base, it doesn't need "fixed" like all the other major markets. I'm sure others can do a better job of tracking all the allocations and "gifts" and "rule adjustments" for players and such. I seem to remember this Lothar guy, though. Buy hey, this season y'all have Bradley as coach and players equally capable. You made it pretty far in the Open Cup and will probably earn second place in the East. You are equally capable of going to MLS finals. Enjoy.
There is some truth to this article. Yes, our fans our loyal. Yes, we haven't recieved the treatment from time to time that NY or LA or Chi has. Yes, it woulda been nice to get Corey Gibbs. But you know what, I hate the article. I hate the timing of the article. I hate the excuses that the article brings to light whether they are true or not. Let's look at NY for instance. With all the "help" they have got from the league over the past 7 years who would you rather be a fan of? Which is the prouder franchise? Chicago was said to have got salary releif last year from the league, yet if our boys took care of business in Naperville the final weekend they wouldn't have even made the playoffs. LA has been a well coached team throughout their history who won their only MLS Cup last year essentially with one forward against the whole league, that won't be duplicated very often, if at all. Bottom line is that year in and year out this team has had the talent to match up with and be better than any team in the league and for one reason or another it hasn't happened. Dallas, KC and probably even Revs columnists can make less strong, but somewhat simlar arguments to what Hunter made. But bottom line is that it comes down to the performance on the field and unfortunately ours, despite having the talent just has not been good enough.
Most important comment: "But this team needs an off-season makeover and Smith needs to start banging on MLS doors, asking for help. With a new Arena Football League coming and a new stadium possible for the Clippers, the Crew eventually might find itself losing fans it could keep with a better product." The Crew may have some competition in the summer now.
Ye and behold! The thunderous crash of mediocrity is about to split the heavens asunder. The curse of mediocrity is real. We have been allowed some advantages, and then been ignored for other advantages. MLS has given the city of Columbus one thing, and somedays I wish to God they would take it back --- a team that will always be mired in the pits of mediocrity.
I can't tell if you are joking or not, but I disagree with the fatalist attitude. MLS hasn't held the Crew back from winning silverware, only the Crew themselves have.Whether it was poor coaching decisions, poor player personel decisions, or just choking on the field. The team has been good enough numerous times.
We tried to get Gibbs this season but, according to various reports, MLS wouldn't let us have him. He sure would have helped our back line. Part of this has to do with Mr. Hunt. I love the guy for what he's done for MLS and the Crew, but it is time for his organization to step up and get a good coach in here and turn this ship around. The Chiefs are 7-0 with a good coach and their attendance is up as well as merchandise sales and the like, I'm sure. Maybe the Hunt clan will see the same potential with a new Crew coach. Another mediocre season will only further alienate fans. I know my dad won't be going to another match after sitting through three losses where the Crew scored exactly 0 goals.
They have already lost a huge chunk of media coverage. The Crew win over DC last Sunday wasn't even mentioned Monday morning on television or radio, buried by a Bengal win and the Buckeyes ranking in the BCS and coaches polls. Heck, check out the up-to-date coverage at NBC4 http://www.nbc4columbus.com/crew/ ... With the exception being Newscenter (ABC6/FOX28), most sports segments seem completely uninterested with the Crew. A new Clippers stadium won't hurt the Crew, they don't have the advertising and market promotional power. Arena football (with Buckeye tie-ins) most likely will; it will be funded and nationally broadcasted with heavy doses of hype and promotion. Unfortunately, I firmly believe MLS does not realize this and won't until it is too late. Also, MLS has not held us back from winning anything. We have had our share of talent that was either wasted, never amounted to anything, or left for Europe - but I would like to see an argument to prove MLS does not have their priorities placed elsewhere and not on Columbus.
Want to be noticed by the MLS? Then ask to become a race base, language base , religious base or some other PC base team in Columbus, and then MLS will kiss your behinds.
Was Frankie Hedjuk just found on the side of the road. HELLO!!!! One of the most accomplished national team players in US history and his name is conveniently left out of this article? "Here's your problem Mikey, you don't look at the things you have, you look at the things you don't have." Did the league force Columbus to hire Big Greg? Did the league tackle Martino is France or hurt Jeff Cunningham? Columbus was the de facto pick out of the east at the beginning of the year. How can a team that is in that position feel slighted by the league? Can I help it if the writer continues to slight the Open Cup? Weak teams don't exactly win tournaments with 164 teams in them.
Hmm... What's left? Rednecks? Columbus Crew - supporting your white anglo, conservative, baptist rednecks.
So we don't want the league HQ to meddle in team affairs except when it's convinient, eh? Even if it does, it doesn't guarantee success. NY has yet to win any silverware. And LA has racked up more losses this year than pounds of fermenting big macs in sigi's belly. And one of the very teams that was hit hard with losses (Bradley, Wolf, Nowak, etc) just won the open cup and has the 2nd best record in the league. Meddling won't bring anything. The Crew had a lot of talent and little player turnover this year. Yet they've struggled all year long to string together wins. To me, that's a matter of getting in a better coach, not a major tinkering process. Heck, just look at what Yallop did with San Jose to show how much a coach can turn things around.
The "Beast of the East" goes nowhere and what do we hear.... lets blame MLS.... Give me a break. Its called having a bad season.
Absolutely correct. On paper, many, including myself, had picked Columbus for the Supporter's Shield, and certainly a sure thing for getting deep into the playoffs. Man for man they were/are as talented as any squad in the league. Four current national team players, one former nat trying to make a comeback, one of the more promising young strikers, solid keeping, maybe suspect at left back, if you had to point to a weakness. MLS didn't squandered all that.
If it wasn't for the fact that "redneck" is a slur just as much as "fagggot" or "greaser" or "wop", I'd point out that "rednecks" are not conservatives. Being a conservative requires a complicated view of the relationship between government and the governed which, in any case, they do not share. For, if you carry your stereotype through, what you're really talking about are unemployed, welfare-sucking government cheese trailer folk and, frankly, they vote virtually 100% Democrat. As an example, the State of West Virginia, the world capital of "rednecks" is completely dominated, politically, by Democrats, including US Senator Bob Byrd, the former KKK officer. What you're talking about here is "bigots" not "conservatives" and, despite what Bill Klintoon of Dogpatch Arkansas told you, theose are not one in the same thing.
hey, dick. I don't agree with most the article either, but read up a little bit and you will realize NOBODY else wanted Hejduk, and thats how we got him. He wasn't exactly a league gift like your "salary help" last year. Granted most of this is Columbus's own doing, but if you are gonna come over here huffing and puffing at least get all your facts straight. Kapeesh?
Columbus has four field players who have recently had playing time with the USMNT: McBride, Hejduk, Buddle, and Martino. That's almost half the guys on the field. Plus Cunningham has been in and out of camp. The only other team that can match that is probably Chicago (Boca, Razov, DMB and Armas) and Damani Ralph would get a call if he weren't tied to Jamaica. Yet Chicago has won the Open Cup and Supporters Shield this year. I don't think the Crew gets shafted by MLS. I think your poor coaching (and some bad luck with injuries) has shafted you.
Poor coaching is part of it. But look at the standings and find Columbus. We have season ticket holders outside Ohio that regularly come to Crew games. At one point, we had season ticket holders in California and Oregon. So the league says, "Ok, they have all these ticket holders, a top-notch training facility, and a stadium. Why should we have to bend our backs or stretch the salary cap?" We don't need their "help". Give Colorado their 60,000 attendance games where less than half of that will continually come back. Give Chicago their Polish players to draw in that population. Give us a new coach to bring his own team in and we'll make the playoffs in the last month, not the last day.