I don't see contraction happening. A league takeover of operations might happen. Most likely Kroenke will get together with the other owners and be shamed into rebooting the RFO.
I haven't been tracking its development. There's probably other posters here who can better speak to that. Ftom my uninformed point of view, I'd say it's obvious that we haven't created La Masia II here in Colorado, given most of our youth on the roster comes from the draft, and the relatively slow progress of Homegrowns like Serna, Armstrong and O'Neill. But I don't think La Masia is a fair comparison, and having two guys in the system who became occasional first-team starters is pretty good. Given the academy started in '07, I'll defer to someone more knowledgeable of Serna's and O'Neill's backgrounds to know if they should be counted as feathers in Bravo's cap, or were in the system before Bravo came here.
0% chance of contraction, relocation, or league take over. The first two would kill the stadium deals in other cities. Removing a team that built its own SSS is a black eye the league doesn't need when negotiating with DC, Miami, At. Paul, Sacremento, and whomever'a next on the list. As for a league takeover there's no reason to. Financially the Rapids (by all reports) are in the best shape in their history and there's no federal investigation going on like Chivas. As long as the Rapids aren't a financial drain or and off-field embarrassment like Chiva was the league isn't going to step over KSE to force anything. Now I know there will be pressure behind the scenes (there was back in the Jeff Plush days) to do better with ticket sales and such but nothing public.
That list of player acquisitions by Fort collins last page just highlights how dumbfounding this season was. What happened to the One Club plan of building around youth. They've just completely reversed course and have a motley collection of young players whose major virtue is being young w/some flashes of talent, and then a bunch of older guys who were never stars to begin with, with the old guys getting the playing time. You have a guy like Hairston, who's supposedly converting to right back, yet he comes back off his loan and spends most of the time outside the 18. There were some rumblings (Pablo quotes) about how they want to teach him stuff in practice, which made one sceptical, as you'd think actually playing right back in competitive games would be a necessary, if not sufficient condition for developing. Then when he actually plays in the last couple games after mathematical elimination, he looks like he knows nothing about playing right back. I don't know what to say anymore. Is there a reason to expect anything to change? I'm sure they'll make player moves, but I have no expectation that it will improve the roster. They'll just be changing names.
Well to be fair, after 2014, the team quite clearly looked like it needed a) leadership on the pitch and b) at least 1-3 more veterans to provide some consistency. Pablo even commented as much. Problem is, instead of balancing the acquisitions, basically everyone but Solignac and Pittinari were 28 years old or older. And we got 7 vets in that age range, instead of just 1-3. Any youth we got were projects from the draft. Basically nobody was acquired in the prime of their careers, and the roster before all those moves had no one in the prime of their careers, either, save for Torres. And that's just from an age point of view - that's before we even talk about form and how many of those players had already peaked, were stagnant, or were already on a downhill slide.
Toronto has had Plan A and not much greatness. Seattle should have won an MLS Cup or at least got there a couple times for their investment and attendance. The Rapids acquired Doyle for little of this season, so no 2015 ROI expected. A lot expected in 2016. Oh and the Rapids count Ramirez and Torres as DP's. The last MLS Cup winning teams with Plan B....Rapids, & Dynamo had no DP's. Not sure for RSL in 2009. I do *not* think Plan B will work in the future, at least with the current set up. Most coaches in MLS are similar, many played together in the league. LA is the classic 'both.' I always feel that MLS favotizes them. Watch, they will let them acquire anyone they want. Most recent list that I can find: http://pressbox.mlssoccer.com/content/designated-players R
True, and the offseason acquisitions make some sense there--they bolstered the central midfield with Cronin, Sarvas, and a 22-yr old Pittinari, and brought in Burling as an experienced defender. That did look good--in the first few games of the season they came out pressing and active. They went 4 games without scoring of course, but that seemed like it had more to do with not making moves for strikers than the pressing game. And while the team kept defensive formations the rest of the season, they seemed to move away from that pressing game which had seemed effective. The aging of the lineup accelerated as the season went on. Doyle came on board, Sanchez started playing more, Figueroa and St. Ledger entered the starting lineup. Most of these moves are not bad in isolation, but when added together, it's not so helpful.
Torres lost the DP designation this year as the max salary cap went up. I'm of two minds on this one. I think MLS changes the rules to allow LA to get (almost) anyone they want, but they then apply those rules equally to every team. But LA tends to be the team that goes out and gets deals done that challenges the league rules so that they have to consider changing them. If the Rapids were to do something like that maybe we would get the rule changed.
Well Last yeat LAG traded (decent CB who started for DC United Playoff game) to get atop the allocation order to get Sacha Kljestan but league office stepped in and it never happened and LAG just ate the allocation slot. But I agree, LAG generally get what they want.
They are still the spoiled child of the MLS. Most blame their loss last week on Sarvas trade and no "good" D-Mid to protect Defense.