Now that Mark McCullers is not the Crew GM, the question becomes...

From what I understand, they can get away with *temporary* signage, which the banners are. It's the permanent stuff they've had problems with the politicos on. And it's not just the Crew. I know there was a big political fight over the new LED signage on I-71 for Atlas Butler (on the old Max and Erma's Building where the giant hamburger once was).

 

Bingo. I believe to make matters even more fun, it was for a US Open Cup game and there were maybe 5,000 people there.

 

I was sitting with my daughter at a USOC game last year, midfield, half way up, east side, no one within 20 seats of us, when some guy came up to us and said we were in his seats

They seem to be more strict when there are fewer people in the stadium which seems to defy logic.

 

This really needs to be looked at. In theory, the stage is open to everyone, but if you need a ticket to go into the sections on either side of the stage, then you really do need a ticket for a neighboring stage section to go to the stage...and if one CSC guy lets you down into the 134/135 area to get to the stage, then why isn't the CSC guy on the stage letting you back in to 135?

Here's how I'd do it. Put up a few bike racks (I know...) at the northeast side of the stage and have people use those stairs to access the stage if they don't have a ticket for the Nordecke or 134/135. CSC is already posted at those two points, so what's the harm in adding a few bike racks?

If you want to access the stage without a ticket for the Nordecke or 134/135, you should be able to. It's that simple.

 

And I thought CSC didn't care about those things in the case of USOC games? Or did the policy change last year? I can't remember if I got checked for the Nordecke or not.

What about the USWNT game vs NZ when they weren't letting people stand in the impromptu AO section without a ticket, despite the fact there were ~150 empty seats right there?

To be fair, this is when you move two seats to the right and it's no big deal.

It sounds like they need a consistent policy along with the same CSC at each point each game. Because there's different CSC each game, I can only assume that CSC needs to go on a hiring spree.

 

...and are annoyingly up at the buttcrack of dawn no matter how much you drank the night before.

 

"Dad? Dad? Daddy? Daddy? DAD!...are you sleeping?"

"What gave it away?"

 

Once my son was about 2 and old enough to play computer learning games, we simply let the computer sleep at night. Once morning rolled around he would get up and wake the computer all by himself and start playing. Bought us an extra hour or so each Sat. morning.

Now i'm counting the days until our 1 year old can do the same.

 

I'm not sure the tower was actually given final approval. My guess is that there will be still be a process after the sponsor comes on board for the final design (and I have some experience with this from serving on some local community boards). If you've got something that shows otherwise, I'd like to see a link (and you may well be correct--not trying to call you out here). But it's amazing the hoops that this stuff goes through before approval. The LED sign for Atlas Butler was in the works for quite a few months (checked--they started about this time last year with getting approval--and they did *not* get all that they wanted)--and that one was just city and possibly state (due to being on 1-71). I think they've owned the building for a couple of years now.

With the city/state/fair board talking about major site improvements for the Quarter Horse Congress, this might be the time to get things in writing for the Crew as well and do it all at once. Wonder of the Quarter Horse folks woul dbe a sponsor. But it's probbaly not MLM enough for MLS.

 

I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on the things that McCullers has done to help grow the Crew as a brand and/or business. I'll be disappointed if he is still sitting in that office on match day 1. No confidence.
(And being "OK" may be alright for public schools but it doesn't get it done in the real world.)

 

IMO, I don't think he's done as much as people want, but he's done more than what they realize. The brand and business certainly has grown since the Jim Smith era, but every business always has room for improvement. The day a business doesn't grow and chooses to sit idle is the day its competitors pass it by.

 

Problem is, as I see it, MM's had to have a fire lit under his ass to get him going properly. Sigi came in and forced him to take action with ambitious squad signings. After that, he coasted until the attendance drop after Black Monday. When that happened, not only HSG, but the Don came down hard and forced him to move. MM's two biggest issues are small vision and proactive action. Pretty damning attributes in the sports industry.

 

For every good, there's something that isn't so good. Maybe he only does what needs to be done? He may kick it up a gear for a while, then go "Oh, that's good...let me rest on my laurels for a bit."

Just from the past few years:

Accomplishments
1) Sold out field-level seats and added more on at least one occasion. Based on what I saw last year, they could probably add more.
2) Upgraded east midfield seats. I assume that not too many people relocated due to the increase in price (which happened in time for the 2013 season, IIRC.) It sounds like they may lose some seats due to the new exits, but that is more of government saying "this needs to happen, or else" than anything else.
3) Papa John's sponsorship. True, we lost Donato's, so some people may call it a wash, but at the same time, when was the last time we saw a Crew-themed Donato's commercial or promotion under their sponsorship?
4) White Castle sponsorship and related promotion.
5) Coupons and bonuses for season-ticket holders. Ok, some from 2013 weren't thought out too well like the "admit into autograph alley" or the "$5 off your food" when you have two tickets per booklet and only one coupon, but this could easily be improved upon.

To-Do List:
1) Goal 10K. Not quite there, but getting there.
2) Advertising Tower
2a) Naming Rights to stadium. -- Maybe there's a "wait and see what the stadium sponsor wants in way of an advertising tower" approach.
3) Improve the regular stuff around the stadium like HDTVs on the concourses, minor fixes around the bathrooms, etc.

I don't know if you can chalk the "Brand Ambassador Frankie Hejduk" thing up to him as maybe it wasn't his decision to hire him in that role, but that is most certainly a huge win for the organization.

 

I will add the Center Circle seats are sold out, and that this year that they had only 2 suites left.

 

You are also leaving out what was going on with the economy at that time. I mean wasn't Nationwide trying to get out from the arena downtown, too. It would have been hard and damn near impossible for anyone to expand and sell a sports team in this town around that time.

With that said.... I think if there are not significant improvements this season he'll be gone in late summer early fall

 

I think MM will be around for the whole 2014 season. Does Scott DeBolt or whoever is in charge of CCS report to McCullers or are they a parallel operation reporting to HSG, now PSV separately? Didn't we have a stadium naming rights deal some years ago that league HQ vetoed due to setting a low precedent for other stadiums?

McCullers probably deserves some of the blame for extending Warzycha in 2011. He deserves blame for not having a plan for basic upgrades to the stadium in the A/V dept. Perhaps that would make him a little responsible for the scoreboard fire.

 

I'll be disappointed if MM is gone within the next 12 months, and it has very little to do with his performance. While starting from scratch may have its advantages, I would prefer that AP and GB have someone around that knows the lay of the land, like what's important to our supporter's groups and Mayor Coleman's phone number, for instance.

 

Umm.... Hasn't DeBolt been gone for awhile now?

 

He may well be gone. I have no idea who is in charge of the stadium nowdays but HSG made a big point of separating the business of the stadium from the team who occupies it. I'd imagine PSV will preserve the distinction too as it related to MLS loss sharing.

 

yeah, I just checked crew.com. Ryan Smith is now listed as the Stadium GM. No idea on the actual reporting structure though....