I know this has probably been asked before, so pardon my curiosity. Which team in MLS do Rapids fans consider to be your arch rivals??? I know everyone hates LA, but when I heard about the news of expansion, I was hoping for a city that would easily have a regional rivalry with another MLS team. For example, Philly would have a natrual rivalry with Metroscum, DC, and perhaps the Revs as well. That might help attendance for regular season games. Or with all the talk about Tulsa or Oklahoma City getting a team, surely that would help create a rivalry with the Rainbow Warrior Wiz....(Ben OReilly seems to be obsessed with the Galaxy so I'll assume he doesn't truly represent the Wiz fans). WHich brings me back to my question...do you guys consider one of the teams in the Western Conference to be your "rival"? And if not, what city around Denver (or Colorado) would you consider a rival city? Thanks for any answers.
I like to think KC is a good rival for the team. Aside from geography, we've eliminated each other from the playoffs over the years and have a number of players on our rosters that have played for both sides. Not to mention, they're boring as spit to watch, which is good enough reason for me to hate them.
This season I have developed a complete dislike for Dallas (I never really like them in the first place) and that dislike grew considerably during the playoffs. Their fans don't like us either, so it makes it all the better rivalry. Kansas City is a natural geographic rivalry and maybe we can get some bad blood going there. All we need to get going are some KC fans trolling our threads defending their teams right to play breathtakingly boring soccer and maybe bringing up Columbine. I also think the Rapids' lack of success the last couple of years has hampered our ability to get a good rivalry sustained. I have lived here just five years but think the main sports rivals of Colorado come from Football, both college and pro. The teams the Broncos seem to have impassioned games with are Oakland and KC. For the Buffs it is Nebraska then everyone else. So KC or an expansion team from Oklahoma (Big Eight Country) could, with a few great games, get the juices flowing. But Denver is the only major population for quite a distance in any direction, unlike the East Coast where probably one third of the US population lives between Boston and DC. So there are not a lot of close by rival cities. (I am not dissing CSU, its just that their big rivalry is with Wyoming, and that state has fewer people than the city of Denver.)
Any nearby city/state that you guys feel you have a rivalry with (or am I assuming that the NFL rivalries with Oakland, Kansas City, etc. work okay with ya guys??)
Rivalries aren't always geographic, look at the Avalanche and Detroit. I could see Dallas developing into a good rivalry, with the bad blood from this year and Colorado knocking the Burn out of the playoffs, but it has to happen over a period of time, with some bizarre incidents to fuel the fire. The Broncos and Raiders weren't rivals until the Broncos finally beat them in the playoffs in 1977, when Tom Jackson (ESPN guy) ran by the Raiders' bench and yelled to John Madden "It's all over fat man!!". The Avs and Wings weren't rivals until Claude Lemieux boarded Chris Draper scraping his face off in the process. Incidents like what happened with the Valderrama boot in the first match of the Burn-Rapids playoff series is the stuff of rivalries. Besides, and ask any Colorado native who, besides Californians, are moving into Colorado and overunning the state. Before the '90's Highlands Ranch wave of Californians, they would almost always say Texans. Dallas is a good rivalry, I hope it develops. KC is a good second choice.
I think KC is a good choice, esp. because so many former Rapids have gone on to play for the Wizards.
Rivalry reasons in no particular order for Dallas 1. Good chant - "It's not gonorrhea. It's the Burn. 2. It's easy to hate Bobby Rhine 3. They beat us constantly and by wide margins. (Playoffs excluded) 4. Dallas is in Texas and Texas is a miserable state. 5. The Pablo riding the pine poster. 6. Kansas City 1. Tony Meola 2. Preki is a prick. 3. The Broncos-Chiefs history 4. The history of them taking our players. 5. Kansas City is part in Missouri and part in Kansas and both are miserable states. 6. Their style of play gives soccer a bad name. "Boring as spit to watch" - Greenie 7. I think a case can be made for us to hate both of them.
If Salt Lake were to ever get a team, that could be a rivalry. Basically, Denver is superior to KC, Dallas, Alb/Santa Fe, Boise, and Salt Lake. So they may feel like we're a rival for them, but the inverse isn't true. Only city rivalries I can think of are LA, Chicago, and maybe Vega$. As far as football is concerned, there is no rivalry. KC maybe. But with the only choices being KC, Dallas, LA, and SJ, the distance kills any chance for a real rivalry (11+ hours in a car 1 way). In my book, to have a real rivalry, the opponents need to be within 4-5 hrs travel distance by car. Even if Salt Lake were to get a team, it'd still be over that limit. And none of the other Colorado cities are big enough to ever get a team for themselves.
i think KC is a good rivalry as far as soccer goes. whenever the two play each other it seems to be a real heated match for the players. as for fans, i would say anyone except Metrostars and Fire. for one, the Fire Ultras never say anything about us, neither do Metrostars fans. there's never been any tention, or atleast there hasn't been for me between those teams. i've never gotten any negative or positive talk from them. but i think the Dallas fans are a bunch of idiots, they make stupid chants and they live in crappy place, and the same goes for Los Angeles. i think they're bad winners, if you know what i mean...
I'll cut you some slack since you're not exactly the world's biggest Bronco fan, but if you don't think the donkeys have a heavy rivalry going with the Raiders you are sorely mistaken. More than a few helmets would say the same thing about KC. Close proximity is not at all a requirement for establishing a rivalry. Former players (and coaches), history in the playoffs, and tense physical games are the biggest factors of all. KC holds the edge in those categories because of former players, but having knocked Dallas out of the playoffs both times we've faced 'em (despite their having home-field) makes for excellent potential there as well. The coming seasons will help show whether these develop into a true, nasty rivalry.
It's definitely got to be Dallas. Their fans are inbred sister lovers and that alone makes them enough to hate. KC is so mundane and boring, just like their team, that doesnt make for a good rivalry. I think if Omaha were to get a team we could develop quite a bit of hate for them as Nebraskans are the scum of the earth and Nebraska should be turned in a trash dump. Denvers football rival is the Raiders, but people in Oakland see their rival as the Chiefs, go figure? I dont see any rivalry with the Chiefs at all, no more than I see there being a rivlary with the Chargers. It's REALLY easy to hate the Wings because Detroit is a SCUMMY city and so are their shitty players.