My review: - On the field: This team doesn't lack much for being pretty good and very entertaining. They need one forward to relegate Matt Taylor to the bench, one defender to relegate Hendrickson or Perez, and a GK to relegate Guzan. Their midfield seems pretty good to me (the forwards tend to get chances every week), the GK is already on their roster, and if they only get the forward, at least they'll win a few and entertain. - Off the field. I think the ticket price thing is on target. If it's an AEG thing, they'll have to get creative. I suggested in the MLS attendance thread that they: * offer deeper ChivaSocio discounts * consider the corners to be part of the sidelines * offer deeply discounted 4-packs (meaning either 4 tickets to the same game or one ticket to four games) for the sidelines (say, for the price of 2.5 or 3) I am impressed to inspired by how much passion the fans bring. Reward them! But in general, I don't think it's 'off the rails.' I just think, to use DC Metro-speak, there are single-tracking delays.
The brass tacks here are economics and generations. I do not think that any national franchise can be extremly successful by specifically focusing on a culutral demographic of people who have recently (one generation) established ties to America. This is not to say Chivas USA will not be financially successful, but it won't catering by spotlighting specific fans who have loyalty to both their heritage and their adopted country. Because as time moves on and they are forced to make alterations to compete by accessing the larger talent pool, and via dimishing returns from natural American citizens of Mexican descent, they'll need something else to draw fans to the matches. I think what we are seeing, is that is is happening quicker then the Vergara and MLS expected.
I find it hysterical that RSL was the team with the huge opening day turnout and not Chivas, after all the talk. I think things they should have considered before agreeing to bring in Chivas have all come to play a part. I've said this before on these boards but I'm not gonna go back and search through nearly 300 posts to find them, so I'll summarize: 01.) Assuming that merely because the team was Mexican, Mexicans would come out. If the Yankees put a team in the Japanese Central League, do you think ex-pat Red Sox fans would come out merely because it's an "American" team? 02.) Assuming that merely because the name of the team is Chivas, the fans would come out. They have not provided any reason to draw attention away from the real Chivas, who's still playing, to themselves. The name is turning into a double-edged sword. 03.) Woefully misunderestimating the level of play in MLS. 04.) Failing to bring in the stars from the home club the fans were promised. Having trouble with the one they did bring it didn't help. As was said before I don't think the Chivas train is derailing because it's never gotten out of the station.
At first I was a little worried (as much as a Galaxy fan can worry about the Tcheebas) about the 2 lame home attendance figures, but after learning of the steep HDC prices, i'm really not surprised. I think the thus-far poor attendance is related solely to the prices. If there were other issues, the sections of cheaper seats would be proportionally empty - from what I could see on the internet feeds, they were packed. I don't live in LA (overseas for the past 9 years) and have never been to the HDC but I wouldn't pay 50 DOLLARS! to watch the Galaxy play (let alone a first year expansion side) and i'm a huge Galaxy/MLS fan, have been since day 1. The only MLS game i've ever been to was NJ x LA in Joisey back in 98 and I paid 20 dollars for a very decent seat. I had no idea prices had risen so dramatically. Vergara and Cue are seemingly good businessmen and i'm sure they'll find a way for AEG to allow them to bump these prices down a few (dozen) dollars.
Point #4 is true (I have some debates about the others), but note the cheap seats behind the goals are still relatively full.
FIFTHY DOLLARS????? Is that an average price ?? I know that they need to make money but they need to use their Brain and sign if for some common sense and math classes of lets see Stadium capacity.....30000 people Best seat locations 10000 tickets x 50........500.000.00 average seat location15000 tickets x25 ......375.000.00 El cheapo seats 5000 tickets x15...... 75.000.00
What I am seeing with the Goats on the off the field side of things , is exactly what I thought I was going to see.. The product on the field is not what was promised, thus the attendence is hurting.. They are charging GALAXY prices for a completly different market. (I ALSO have big beefs with the GALAXY price structure, but thats a different thread) The Goats need to hold several side line sections, prob. on the press box side for the big $ or season tickets. Then the rest of the lower bowl needs the corners lowered in price to match the end zones, then lower far side mids brought down a notch and if need be for right now, not even sell the upper deck except for the GALAXY darby. Basically, if they are not going to upgrade the team rather quickly, they need to lower the prices. They promised too much and didn't deliver. I agree with some of the other posts, this could galvanize the rest of the soccer community in LA to root against the Goats. The Galaxy has a very international flavor and should The Galaxy have a strong year , they could really set the Goats 5 year plan in a big hold considering the restrictions the Goats place on themselves for being who they are. At what point does the owner upgrade, or in a worse case scenario, would he give it a certain number of years and fold or sell? Crazy thought, but I never really thought the league would fold 2 teams and they did. And although teams have never been relocated, KC & SJ have come up in these type of discussions.. Who knows what will happen with that 5 year plan..
So...since I'll be watching your team play my team this Saturday on my $50 ticket...does this make me a better FC Dallas fan than you?
You've all seen two home games. Both of those home games have produced crowds bigger than almost every other team in the league. Please shut the ******** up now.
Hey, everything in perspective. If you can pay a million bucks in LA for a house with no lawn, suddenly $50 for a soccer ticket doesn't seem so bad.
Hopefully ChivasLite will draw some decent numbers when they take their "futbol" (an entire hemisphere cringes!) on the road to Dallas and Chicago. Then again, I was expecting many more fans in San Jose... With ticket prices where they are, you'd think they'd shell out a few dollars for a temporary, second-string kepper (didn't MLS teams procure the services of A-Leaguers last season because of accumulated squad injuries?) until Zuniga's ready for action - i'm worried that the continuous bad results are going to be devastating for Guzan's once-promissing development into the next Tony Meola .
im only going to say a few words: -I hate chivas..my best friends are chivas and is the most important team in Mexico and in Guadalajara, but Chivas is about passion,and in the MLS you wont find a chivas with passion, and the wont entertain, Chivas is about Mexico and love for Mexico, i can hardly see them winning and becoming a big succes in USA
It's good to see at least one of the expansion teams is doing well (at the box office, not so much in the standings), and capturing the sporting public's attention. The other expansion team? Ugh. The Chivas USA experiment may be a collossal flop. That game Saturday in Chicago was a disaster. It's obvious to anyone with a conscious that Chivas greatly underestimated the talent in MLS.
That's funny, b/c I watch the broadcast t.v. all the time, and the ONLY MLS team that I hear mentioned is Chivas USA. Ergo, no other MLS team capture's the public's attention. My point is that Chivas is marketing to the Latino community. They've got their attention. It's quite ethno-centric of you to say that they haven't captured the public's attention. Are Latinos not "public"? Chivas is AHEAD of the following teams at the box office: Dallas San Jose New England Kansas City Columbus Denver Chivas will prove to be Freddy Factor of 2005, raising away attendance between 2-5K. How many other teams in MLS can say that? In fact, I can't wait to see RSL's final away numbers. Chivas will blow them away.
Not according to the newspaper La Reforma: for several years running, CA has proven more popular than Chivas nationwide. CA averages 60K+/game. Chivas Guadalajara: 31K Let's just read between the lines here. This is a truly fascinating statement that I believe is at the heart of the "arrogance" of Chivas that led Vergara and Cue to underestimate MLS. "Chivas is about Mexico and love for Mexico". (And if you're not living in Mexico, you can't love Mexico. You're a pocho. You're not a "real" Mexican. You don't speak "real" Spanish [my favorite: so do they speak "fake" Spanish?] I'm sorry, I've encountered this attitude so many times in my life when I've traveled back to my parents' countries. B/c cultures in diaspora (Africans in the Americas, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Dominicans, etc. in the US) are by nature hybrid versions of the home country, that which makes the diaspora different from the home country becomes pathologized, illegitimate, inferior. It doesn't surprise me that ppl in Mexico are appalled by the Chivas USA project. Despite warm familial relations, constant contact, constant migration, etc., they look at their brothers as "not as Mexican"; inferior. They blame crime on delincuents that have returned from the US (totally false, btw), they resent the wide-spread social, cultural and political change that having such a vast number of their countrymen outside the country. So they pathologize the Mexican in the US. US Mexicans get crap here. And they get crap when they go home. Plus, they , like all Mexicans, still suffer from the legacy of the Conquest. It's truly a screwed up existence. But that's the existence that Chivas USA must mirror, to give their targeted demographic something that they can relate to.
Do not mind the CHUNTARISMO (IGNORANCE) There are some thing that are too far from the average white collar soccer poster here in the board I have work all over this great country because my profession require it and I can assure you that Mexicans and many other people from Latin America country are still astounded of the performance that the USA had in Korea and they are not confidend any more if their home country have to play the USA there is that uncertanty about the end and they can't forgive that....
as I understand it, chivas never lived to its original concept, to have a different style, not necesarily to be better than the MLS, but to have a latin american style of play. I'll confess that I was a big snob and didnt attend or even watched MLS games on TV until they brought Chivas and what they were supposed to do. Im still one of the few thousands that go to Chivas games and I can tell that the fans are not happy but they seem to enjoy the games, because the games are entertaining, and thats what football is supposed to be, anybody who had been to the Home Depot Center may agree with me, on the other hand, I read on the LA times that Galaxy fans booed their own team because they were just kicking the ball around on the last (?) home game, Galaxy of course is a winning team, should'n the fan be happy if they dont lose the game? probably I still go to the games because they remaind me when I was a kid playing football in Mexico, all the games were open and on the offense, as are the chivas games. although Im still waiting to be dazzled as Vergara promised. the chivas forum is full with rumors about Paco Palencia and other big name players, if its true, hope its not to late to save the season of a complete embarrasment. Im now a MLS convert, the level of play its a lot better than I thought
Indeed, i bet Rongen failed to tell Vergara and Cue that the talent level of MLS latino players sucks.. i have never been impresed by the US latino player, Chivas USA just proves that the "talent" of said player is weak. However i am sure that there are better players but it will take Chivas a lot longer than expected to build the type of squad that many of us expected to see. I think Vergaras biggest mistake was not being able to properly replace Palencia and Alonso Sandoval. These two players would have certainly made a diffrence. Now they must wait until August and even then Palencia and the rumored JP Garcia, a creative mid from Atlas, are not guaranteed to join the club.
As a galaxy fan, I say this with much reluctance -- I like watching Chivas USA play. I agree the fans' enthusiasm is unique in the MLS and the style, as opposed to the quality, is also unique. This can only be good for the MLS and for the players who now play against Chivas on a regular basis. It doesn't matter if Chivas is everyone's bitch this year, because the diversity of style takes time to assert on the MLS and will benefit the play in the MLS. Let's put it this way - records aside, I would watch Chivas play before I would watch Real Salt Lake.