Wonder what the chances are that they pursue any of these? http://redbulls.american-soccer-news.com/?p=736
1. Hire a head coach before summer 2. Sell more than 5000 tickets to the home opener 3. sign a player people have heard of to save our franchise 4. Make sure the head coach we hire in the summer doesn't suck 5. Make sure the players we sign don't suck 6. Keep Agoos as far away from things as possible 7. Win more than 4 games 8 Sell tons and tons of Red Bull!!!Woot!!
I would argue that with the immigrant population in the NYC area whose favorite sport is soccer, you would not need to pander to US nationals by signing a US player as a DP. You can certainly sign a national team player for an MLS salary if you want to pander, and you'd probably get more fans overall by signing a famous FIFA top 10 national (like a brazilian, spaniard, or even an englishman.) Seriously, Beckham and Henry each would bring in more fans than Donovan or Michael Bradley.
Over the short term, yes. But over the long term, to build a following, and success on the field I think you need the next Donovan, not Beckham or Henry. And a FIFA top 10 player is completely out of the question for any MLS side.
I bet you could sell out the stadium long term by signing Carlos Vela, Gillermo Franco, or Rafael Marquez. My point is that you keep looking for a "national" connection only if you want to control the nationality of a fanbase. If we signed one of those three, we'd have a very large Mexican fanbase. My opinion is to sign the best player you can for one of the most critical positions you have a need, not to pander to any nationality.
Right. But you want to target the audience with the highest potential of sustained growth. Yes Mexican fans will flock to the stadium if you sign Rafa Marquez. But they'll also disappear just as quickly once he leaves. In the U.S., the future of the sport is with U.S. players and U.S. fans. Those are the ones you should be targeting (or if you prefer, pandering to)
Yeah but a lot of US fans and US players are immigrants and keep their culture very close to their hearts so which group of US fans do you target? The 1 with European ties (pretty much everyone), Latin American, Asians, Africans? I think most people just want to see the best (most exciting) players the team can have. So I completely with j1mbr0wn that no one cares about nationality and just wants a winner.
Dude, you totally missed my point. I'm saying nationality should not play into it (other than compliance to the MLS rules, of course.) The highest potential growth is soccer fans, no matter where they come from. Especially in this melting pot of a metro area. Just target them with quality soccer. That's all that's needed.
Any action of this class don't will help the USA soccer, because is just temporary, this player will go tomorrow and we will be in the same or worst cituation, saying that I don't say that don't we have to look at that perspective, but if we go that way, we have to rationalized that in New York/New jersey area are: 300K hondurenas, 300K Salvadoreans, 300k Mexicans, 300k brazilians, 300k I-Italians and so and so, what is the right move we have to do, sign a Mexican or other from some other place, one thing for sure, we have the best adored player from Honduras and they never came to the stadium, what make you think that signing Marquez the Mexican will come....