http://metrofanatic.com/story.jsp?ID=5120 I don't think Red Bull would want to sell this quickly. I thought they were waiting for RBA to open and then try to recoup some money. But maybe they realized that buying an MLS team to sell cans of Red Bull was a stupid idea. I'm a bit skeptical about this rumour but you never know.
I wonder if this should come to pass if the moral outrage and hysteria will match what took place 3 years ago? I'm staking out a prime spot and stocking up on refreshments just in case.
so the link thinks RedBull is gonna shell out over 200 million for a brand new stadium and then SELL the team??? right...........whatever u say
IF THIS IS TRUE I WILL RETURN TO THE ESC FOLD 101 AND SUPPORT THE "NEW" Club Identity as long as it is just that a proper club identity not a drink not a food item not named after a a software company or any of that.... I would like the return of the Name "Metros" not metrostars... Metro would be perfect considering this is the METROPOLITAN areas club side NJ NY and those that are okay with that idea.....how ever a new football (soccer to you yanks) identity started up from scratch would be just fine with me as well..... HOW EVER due to the Individual who posted the "rumor" its a safe bet that its a made up fantasy from mr.lad. while I find his humor when it come to ragging on the energy drink perfect for my taste mr.lads post over on metrofanatic (a fine site I have been banned from) have been from day 1 pretty much anti energy drink and constant ragging on this "club" to get all the 101ers and every one on metrofanatic all up and riled up fueld with anger... I find mr lad to be very amusing but put no value in his made up delusion..while I wish his rumor was true in every way paving the way to my glorious return to 101 i'm afraid it is a lie... UNHEALTHY Energy drink aint selling any thing this is their free marketing ad campaign in MLS with their drink logo money shot every time they score a goal and 101 opens their WORTHLESS banner...no way they are going to sell and their brand erased from the club identity or give up the mention of their drink name in media during games and so on that is free ad space they dont have to pay for.... so Mr harraby lad is not the person you want to be taking serious and only with a grain of salt.....if you are anti drink like I am then you are amused by his posts... I'm sorry to tell yous red nasty heart attack causing drink WILL NOT SELL and I will remain in my self emposed exile from MLS in the US Soccer scene phantom zone.... but one day YOU WILL BOW DOWN B-4 ME JOR EL!!! BOTH YOU AND ONE DAY YOUR HAIRS!!!!!
He was the one who broke the news, if you will, of RB buying the franchise back in 2006 a few days before the sale went public and apparently his source has a bit of credibility behind it. So it might behoove the RB brown-nose set to prepare themselves for a dose of sudden impact.
What do you mean by "RB snobs"? Do you mean the people who didn't cry their eyes out about AEG selling the team and decided to just roll with the punches and accept the inevitable and support their team? Get real. If RB sells the club and it gets renamed again, no one is going to cry bitter tears over the team no longer being named the "Red Bulls." I doubt the emotional attachment to the name is very big for anyone. That being said: I hope the team is not sold just because we need some stability in this club. Being sold and rebranded repeatedly is not the way to accomplish that.
Even if it's true, who in their right mind would be interested in buying the team? Even with a new stadium, it's not like the team is going to pack them in like in Seatle or Toronto. In addition, any "real" soccer owner is probably going to stay away due to salary cap limitations of MLS, so we'd be back to where we started anyway, with another renaming of the team another turnover of the team and no real results.
Also, the only way this would make sense is if the new owner also bought the stadium. Otherwise the team will be in the same spot it is now paying rent. With the MLS salary cap being what it is and knowing the problems that presents with trying to get the euro fans in the area to come out, I can't imagine anything that would too enticing about buying the team.
The only positive to come out of a change of ownership other then being bought by a billonaire(not happening) is the re-branding of the team. But really it the lack of continutiy would be detrimental to the team. At the end of the day a name is just a name and its about the guys on the pitch winning or losing. i really don't see anyone wanting to invest in this team at this moment in time. i also can't redbull wanting to sell when the stadium is about to be completed and all
Selling in a down market makes absolutely no sense. Better to hang on for a while and sell when the economy starts to improve. Especially when you consider that the costs of opening GS on game days was a predictable cost and just when you're about to get out from under that burden sell before the team actually accrues any value. Whether true or not, this would be a bad business decision as it doesn't maximize potential returns.
not necessarily true, there are a lot of people who dont want to support the RB because of the fact that its all one big marketing campaign. Half of RB's problems would never exist if they didnt REBRAND the ********ing team, they did the same thing in Austria and guess what..half of the fans disappeared and new team was created.
fingers crossed the rumor is true and its a billionaire sheik who wants to bring back the metro name!
Well said! And again, well said! Ah yes, because MetroStars was just a fine, fine name. Granted, it was a bit better than Clash or Fusion, but whatever. Seriously, if this rumor turns out to be true, I couldn't care less what the team is called and will support no matter what. Still, here's hoping the team comes back as the Cosmos. Hopefully that billionaire sheik can offer Pinton a million or two for the rights to the name.
I'm not saying I believe the rumor, but the one part of this that sounded like someone thought about it was the reported insistence that the name of the stadium would remain Red Bull Arena. Recall that when it was constructed, Home Depot payed $70 million for the naming rights to the HDC over a 10 year period -- that actually covered much of the cost of the stadium portion of the facility. Since then, MLS naming rights deals for DSG Park and Pizza Hut Park have gone out 20 years, and Rio Tinto went 15, although none of the approached the $7 million annual fee Home Depot paid. So what are the naming rights to Red Bull Arena worth over, say 20 years? Is ten million a year really all that unrealistic, especially if shirt sponsorship rights are part of the deal too? That would just about cover the cost of the stadium itself. The point is, Red Bull doesn't have to get someone to pay them $200 million cash for the stadium to get its value out of the deal, the naming rights alone probably are worth that over a long enough period of time. Beyond that, RB can pull out perhaps $40 million cash for the team itself by selling now, and it doesn't have to cover any losses the team suffers going forward. Again, I have no ideal if the rumor is true, but economically it makes some sense to me. Indeed, if they don't really want to operate the team, it is pretty smart.
Besides working the brand name into any media exposure of the team purchasing this franchise was a means to an end - having an open air venue in the NYC area. Did you really think they were building that snazzy joint just showcase a soccer team 3 or 4 days a month between March and October? Bidding against NJSEA for events shouldn't pose much of a problem for the boys from Austria, not to mention giving them a place to showcase their own in-house events. RedBull GmbH may be foolish but they aren't stupid. You don't make gazillions on caffinated sugar water by accident, do you?
we draw the same crowds now we did when the team name was the metrostars. The people not coming out now didnt come out before the name change either. To them its because they don't think the product on the field is good enough and has nothing to do with the name.
That's an interesting scenario. That would make sense financially for them and the potential new owner as well.
That's a really dubious statement. I don't recall any 20k plus average seasons under RB, or seasons under the energy drink in which there were numerous home games north of 25k. Both of which happened as the Metros - not to say that the name was the cause of that, only that your argument here don't work.
hey MORON, the metrostars were named after the company that owned them, METROMEDIA. so, in reality, this club was named after a company from day 1. do some research before you post idiotic bullsh*t.
They got nowhere near 20k fans a game during the last 3 or 4 years of the metrostars. I go to almost every game and the fanbase has been stagnant for probably the last 6-7 years. The Nick Sack fantasy numbers were just that. I've gone ever since Bradley was the coach and its always been like 12-16k on Saturday nights and like 8-11k any other time of the week.
sure the team had "Metro" in its name and so did Metromedia, but the team wasnt called Metromedia FC ! ..big difference. Red Bull brand and Red Bull drink, we have the ********ing Red Bulls LOGO as the crest we wear over our hearts...wake up man.
Not the same situation, RB took over the Salzburg club and killed it, RB Salzburg is a new team that did not carry over the history, of course fans are going to leave if you kill their club and start a new team with no history. RB never killed the Metro's history, as pathetic as our past history, at least its still there. If the source (http://soccer-source.blogspot.com/2007/10/sizing-up-ny-red-bulls-2007-attendance.html) is correct then we only had 2 years over 20k average attendance. As for the games over 25k, how many were double headers? I dont think RB has scheduled any doubleheaders featuring countries from SA to boost numbers. 1996 23,898 1997 16,893 1998 16,520 1999 14,706 2000 17,621 2001 20,806 2002 18,155 2003 15,822 2004 17,195 2005 15,077 2006 14,570 2007 16,530
and who were the metromedias?a moron calling others moron..hilarious...anyhow,i havnt been to a game since the metrostar days,was at every game in the begining.dont think it has anything to do with the actual name even though i really hated it at 1st.it has to with having a totaly diffrent team year after year,even the star players it was like musical chairs ,no stabilty wat so ever,with most the clubs in this league.add the stupid name and more unstableness and the intrest has gone for me and my fam..i still watch 3/4 off the games but the passion i had ,or growing passion is gone.
Well this is interesting. I always knew Red Bull would eventually sell, but I never thought the possibility would come so soon. First off, if they do sell, we damn sure better not be going back to "Metrostars". If that's the case I'll go root for FC New York. If we re-brand. it needs to be to a traditional name. Now when you look at it, Red Bull doesn't seem to be great at running a football club, so if they can line up a buyer and maintain the stadium naming rights and stay as our kit sponsor - isn't that all the publicity they need? They get to cut out the headache of running this underperforming club and maintain almost all the publicity. I buy the possibility. I do think we should try and keep them as our long term kit sponsor if this does happen, and keep the same colors. Of course what I'd like even better, is if they stayed the owners and re-branded the team themselves. Billionaire owners just don't fall out of trees.
Probably nothing, but I've been meaning to post about the uniforms this year. I thought the red shorts were part of the Red Bull universal soccer identity plan and like Saltzburg would always be worn with the base home uniform. The first thing that came to mind as I've watched the team in all white this season was that the team was looking more like the greatest team in NY/NJ metro area history. I've frankly been wondering if Red Bull was talking to Pepe Pinton and whether a Cosmos rebranding was in the cards for the opening of the Arena??? Lets Go Red Bulls! NY/NJ/LI/West/Conn!