Wow. If they can't at least make a representative showing of support, with all those things going for them, then the argument that there really aren't many repercussions for media outlets that decide to give short shrift or no coverage to soccer gains some weight. That being said, I wonder if they've said "We're no longer going to print the words 'Minnesota Thunder' in our newspaper in any way, shape or form,' or if they just decided to stop staffing home games. That's kind of vague. Newspapers print all sorts of things that people send them that you'd think relatively few people actually care about - but at least they're in there. But cutbacks in staff (especially among certain newspaper chains, I have no idea who owns the P-P) mean newspapers devote the bulk of their resources to the obvious things like the NFL and only print the bare minimum of many other things they would have covered in the past. I guess this cancels out the Seattle Times, who were pressured by someone with big bucks to step up their coverage of the Sounders in preparation for Seattle getting an MLS team. Some other rich guy must have gotten to the Pioneer-Press.
Well, this sucker ended up on the USA SUPPORTERS list as well, god knows how. But we have some activist types, here's a response Brandon got: "We are not eliminating coverage of the Minnesota Thunder from the Sports section. We will continue to publish results and a short summary of the games. We also will continue to publish the Thunder's schedule in our Page 2 calendar. When there are compelling issues, human interest, news and trends stories concerning the Thunder, we will cover those stories. However, because of limited staffing, we can no longer have a reporter at every game. Fans of the team will still be able to get results and news on the team in the Pioneer Press. Sincerely, Catherine Straight, Managing Editor Features/Sports Mike Bass, Senior Editor/Sports"