I'm cool with one practice field being called Kirk Urso Field and the other Tom Fitzgerald Field. It would be great to memorialize them into club history this way. Their legacies are part of our folklore and future players should know their stories. Its part of what make playing in Columbus special. HEY IM, get this awesome (mostly because I just thought of it) idea in front of your sources so powers that be give it some consideration.
I plan on suggesting the second (Kirk Urso) tomorrow to those I know.... More about that later--if it happens....
Alright, let's make one thing clear about Indy (why are we arguing about this?) when it comes to the Olympic sports or whatever you want to call them. Indy is a city completely developed around hosting large events and conventions. Whether that's the Super Bowl, the Final 4, or indoor cycling in the 1986 Pan-Am games, it is completely set up to host these events. This is very obvious if you've spent any amount of time in the city. The reason these events are hosted in Indy is not because the people there have some crazy drive to watch indoor cycling that the rest of the country doesn't have. It's because the city is designed specifically to host people coming in to the city for a specific event.
Can confirm. As a drum corps alumnus and former band nerd I can speak to this on some level. DCI (drum corps) and BOA (marching band) are all up in Indy for their finals competitions every year.
Like it or not, MLS 3.0 is a full blown arms race. You have to either spend like never before on DPs, big names, and facilities, or have a coach/TD smart enough to win in spite of low investments in those things (see: Berhalter, Greggggg). Casual fringe fans ultimately care about two things: winning and name brand signings. There's no argument that the Crew leadership needs to honor the team's history, but fringe fans aren't going to care about what Bruce Arena did at DC. They'll care if he puts together a championship-caliber roster that wins matches. Different sport, but Michigan pointyball has been caught up in overvaluing "Michigan Man" coaches and doing things "the Michigan Way" the last two decades. You have to respect the past, but there's a limit. You also have to be willing to evolve and do what's necessary to win, even if it's not the most palatable option. There's a balance. Winning the right way is ideal, but if the goal is to pack a downtown stadium and be mentioned with the likes of Kansas City and Portland as "small market" and "business metric" success stories, we'll likely need to pinch our noses and swallow the medicine every now and then. With that said....fvck Bruce Arena.
Kirk Urso played in six games for Columbus. His legend stems only from the fact that he died unexpectedly at a young age. It is a terribly tragic event and my heart aches for his parents and family. I am glad he is memorialized at the stadium but I do not understand why he is constantly being brought up again and again. I'm sorry. I am not trying to be a garbage monster human being here, I just don't really understand it.
TBF, wasn't RichRod their attempt to go away from that? That went really well! (I know, I know, but it sure is fun to remind Meatchicken people of that particularly sad chapter)
Untimely death sure does seem to crowd out reason and good sense an awful lot, and seems to permanently install a neverending halo around the deceased. It's actually kind of unfair to the memory of the actual human being.
I have some issues with the above. First, the either/or statement is, I think, vastly oversimplified. Team's that spend wildly on DPs often lose, and lose repeatedly. There's been no history in MLS of rich, poorly run clubs simply buying hardware. TFC, last year and the year before, were very good teams with a huge payroll. They managed to win one MLS Cup, and didn't even make the playoffs this season. Atlanta seems like world beaters right now, but they won squat last year, and are about to lose some big talent in the transfer window, and their coach, of course. I've seen nothing of MLS 3.0 that convinces me that teams with smaller budgets, that are really well run, can't compete - and win - against the big spenders. And a lot of evidence that big spending teams that are poorly run will be unmitigated disasters.
One of the Realist Fans at tonight’s dinner. He was commenting on how the section does not do that chant that much anymore. God the apple does not fall far.
Yeah, but I like Porter and argued that Arena wasn't the end of the world as several (including you) have characterized it.
There are still douchebags who have a problem with those guys. They are the same people who want pro sports to be Buckeyes++. Those who understand pro sport are not a member of that group. I can also have the opinion that I don't want Arena here, and it has nothing to do with him being involved with DC United. DC United is the cherry on top of no.
Yes, I remember all those SIERRA MIST HEINEKEN HOT CHEETOS BROUGHT TO YOU BY FREDDY ADU and ANDREW SHUE MLS RIVALRY WEEK matchups between Columbus Crew and LA Galaxy. It's completely comparable to Bruce Arena's tenure with DC United. They were both coaches.
You can be wrong on that and right on Urso. You contain multitudes. You are an onion with may layers of wrong, but sometimes combined with other ingredients (like zip and mine's opinions) and sautéed into a lovely mirepoix.
When I go, I would prefer the halo around me...my actual memory may need a halo. Tough day today, Chris Bradley passes, and one of my trial mates just had the shit show up in his liver. Really unnerving.
For another fun Texas/Ohio connection, the Bluecoats started their slow ascent to the top of DCI back in 2000 when they began holding secondary auditions in the Austin metro area (Cedar Park). I actually attended an audition camp in 2002, but ultimately ended up marching with the Cavaliers from 2003 to 2005. It's not uncommon at all for drum corps to hold auditions in Texas (Cadets, BD, Bluecoats, Cavaliers, Vanguard, BK all do still, AFAIK) since basically half of the members in all of DCI come from here. That said, looks like the Austin-area auditions moved to DFW a few years back. Figured I might find one drum corps nerd out there, so thanks!