Revolution Stadium Groundbreaking "12-24 months" Part XIII

you must be confusing me with someone else. I don't know why you keep harping on this evidence thing. I never once said there was any evidence that they intended to build a training facility. I said I hoped they would build one, not that I think they ever intend to.

I think they are more than willing to build a stadium as long as they "check every box" which is likely why it is taking so long to even start the process and may never happen unless they are willing to compromise on what ever the specific hold up is, whether it is location or total expense (I think it is likely both that is causing no progress to occur).

 

This is a good point. Too many people are focusing on current results, not acknowledging that they were based on relatively common infrastructure across the league.

As other teams mature their infrastructure, it will have affects years from now. If we don't at least try and keep up a little, I don't think it is outrageous to fear that we could have a more difficult time in the future fielding a competitive team than we have had when the infrastructures were mostly equal.

I think there is a massive difference between wanting something new and shiny and wanting to just keep up with the mid point of the league in terms of infrastructure. We are probably never going to have what RSL has in terms of a stadium and world class training facility, but that does not mean we should automatically expect zero improvement either.

 

This is an interesting point. I went to a game last year, that had our rough median type of attendance of around 16k or so. You know, the normal type crowd we get for most games.

When I was driving home, the wife asked me to pick up some Chinese food. When I got there two guys were sitting at the bar watching some sports highlights of which a quick Revs highlight was played. They immediately picked up on the horrible looking crowd (and to be fair it did look awful from the camera angle that happened to be with the highlight) and came to the conclusion that no one cares about soccer around here.

16k is just lost in that place, and yet it is a number that no one would ever question for a Celtics or Bruins game.

 

This was posted Dec of 2010. This was probably the strongest statement ever made from a team official which is what kicked off the almost 6 year ongoing thread.

I was skeptical but still hopeful at the time. Now I just feel like I have tried to kick the ball Lucy has put down too many time over and yet I know the next tiny bit of rumor that comes out I will be lining up again to kick.


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On Friday night, Revolution Investor/Operator Jonathan Kraft called in to the D.A. Show on 98.5 The Sports Hub, hosted by Revs sideline reporter Damon Amendolara, to talk about the Revs and the World Cup bids, among other topics as part of DA’s “12 DAs of Christmas” series – the 12 biggest sports stories in the Hub.
You can listen to the full interview here (starting at the 39:00 mark), but some of the talk about a soccer stadium for the Revs begins at the 50:00 mark.
Some excerpts from Kraft about a potential soccer stadium for the Revs:
“We continue to stay focused on it. It’s the highest off-the-field priority for the team.”
“From our perspective, we would hope in the next 12-24 months we would have something we would be breaking ground on … ”
“Our fan base is awesome. They deserve it.”

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“We continue to stay focused on it. It’s the highest off-the-field priority for the team.”
“From our perspective, we would hope in the next 12-24 months we would have something we would be breaking ground on … ”
“Our fan base is awesome. They deserve it.”


I still believe it

 

Maybe Bob and Jonathan will let you hitch a ride in their DeLorean once they have the issues with its flux capacitor ironed out. That way, you can join them in hitting their soccer-specific stadium target date of some time between December 2011 and December 2012.



Seriously though, Doc. You keep singing along to Journey at the top of your lungs.

 

No need to disrespect Doc with Journey!

 

I have a long history of experiences that shows me what works and what doesn't. I've learned that negative thinking tis to get negative results. One of the truisms I live by it "What one holds in minds tends to materialize". In the matter of a Rev SSS I have little doubt that the Krafts are committed to building a stadium and that it will happen. Yes, I believe what the Krafts have said and are saying on this matter.

 

The Revs must be having some animal problems on their practice field behind Gillette. Yesterday I noticed they had statues of what looked like coyotes spread across the field, maybe like 8 of them.

 

Doesn't Dempsey credit playing pick-up against older Mexican immigrants as something that helped develop his toughness and flair? Either way, similar concept.

 

Maybe we should have them train on a vacant lot, with broken glass and rusty metal things sticking up from the ground. That will toughen them up! None of this namby-pamby upper-middle-class suburban kids who are looking for a college scholarship stuff, we neither want, nor need those kids in our academy. No one from that kind of background has ever made it as an MLS player. We need to harken back to the days of the coal miners' sons in smokestack towns in Lancashire. Now those guys were tough! And while we're at it, let's make them walk barefoot through the snow, uphill both ways!

That will help us recruit players. Which is important, because, well, we certainly aren't the kind of team who puts a lot of emphasis on signing established pros from other leagues.


“We continue to stay focused on it. It’s the highest off-the-field priority for the team.”
“From our perspective, we would hope in the next 12-24 months we would have something we would be breaking ground on … ”
“Our fan base is awesome. They deserve it.”

And meanwhile, 6 years later...

I admire Doc's power of positive thinking, but wishing for things to be better than they are without putting any of the effort in doesn't make it happen. We can wish for a competent ref, we can wish for the lucky bounces to go our way, we can wish that the team meshes together and plays as a unit, and we can wish that all the players remain injury free, because those are the things no one has any control over.

Wishing that Ebeneezer Kraft would do something he hasn't been inclined to do, despite all the talk, that I'm not too sure about....

 

I was building off of you talking about a lack of evidence for a stadium:

If you're going to discount a stadium getting built due to lack of evidence, then you have to apply the same regarding getting a training facility.

 

I think those might be "dog decoys," which are cardboard cutouts of German Shepherds on a spring (so they move in the wind). Those are designed to scare geese away, but in my experience, they didn't work, as evidenced by huge goose turds right next to one of them!

 

What a fantastic idea! People always ask why the US has never produced a world class player, but I'm sure you've finally solved the puzzle. It's just like that scene in the old Bad News Bears movie, where the Bears team that went on to become champions, albeit only champions when playing on nice fields, but they couldn't beat a group of kids who knew how to play on a bad field. Once the Revs put your idea into practice, the academy will be producing more Peles, Cruyffs, Maradonas, and Messis than we'll know what to do with.

One minor point, probably not worth mentioning, I don't know about the rest of you here who might have grown up in other parts of the country, but as I grew up around here playing youth and high school soccer through the 70's and 80's, I don't remember seeing very many nice fields. My memory is more of lots of dirt, fields with tufts of grass or grass that was way too long, the odd manhole cover, keepers being told to check for rocks they might dive on (I remember hearing of a keeper at my high school who was a few years behind me somehow got a bolt stuck in his leg landing on it after making a save), not to mention baseball infields which which could form a special kid of mud in the rain. Thinking of that, it's odd that my generation didn't create loads of world class players... . Eh, never mind, it's most likely just some anomaly due to something else, forget about it, and let's get the Revs to have their academy kids play on the worst possible fields they can find right away, we'll be producing world champions in no time!

 

for the last time I have never said I think they will build a training facility. I said I hope they build one.

That is the same difference between hoping they sign a world class striker and not thinking they will.

 

oh, ok well then yeah they were not working, I did notice a ton of geese near the field.

That sounds awful for a training environment to have to deal with. Hopefully they have a grounds crew that can clean up the crap before practice each day.

 

I get that, and I'll do my best to never mention it again, but you asked where I got the word "evidence" from, and I answered by pointing out that I only used it in reply to your usage of it. I don't see why you're so bothered by my applying the same criteria you used for your argument as part of my argument. When you brought it up, should I have just said that I had not previously used the "e" word, so it was therefore wrong for you to do so?

 

I give up. If you can't grasp the simple difference between hoping something might happen and thinking something might happen the conversation is useless.

Lets drop it.

 

You're probably not old enough to remember, but Bobby Fischer was probably the best chess prodigy ever and arguably the greatest player of all time. That said, your point that dogmatic teaching begets dogmatic players (in chess and soccer) is still valid -- Fischer was just a freak of nature.

 

they should just hire a guy with a rifle

 

I realize your response is dripping with sarcasm but if a hard surface helps them maintain possession by balancing against a defender without going down, why not? Being able to do the fundamentals right seems to help players in the rest of the world beat us in major tournaments, so why not try it? Not glass sticking up but hard surface? Yep, I'm serious.

Just 'thinking outside the $10million training facility', that's all.

 

"Hope is not a strategy."
-President Obama

 

Yeah, no new news lately. Just depressing and desultory griping on this thread. When is season ticket renewal time anyway? Is it near? I'm starved for some more SSS talk from the F.O.!

 

For the "top off field priority" the silence is deafening.