This week we sat down to speak with Seth, the Senior Editor of the Bent Musket, a New England Revolution blog part of the SB Nation network, about just what exactly is going on with the New England Revolution. Seth and the rest of the Bent Musket, cover all of the things going on with the Revs, from game recaps to editorial pieces, to sometimes also breaking news that they found out first. We discussed the current New England Revolution team, head coach Brad Friedel, the culture surrounding not only the players and staff but also the culture surrounding the supporters. We spoke about the future soccer specific stadium for the Rev’s somewhere in Boston, as well as what The Rev’s need to do to become relevant in Boston Sports Media. This episode was jam packed with good insight from Seth and we were amped up after interviewing him. Getting to dive deep into the Culture of the New England Revolution was really fun and insightful. We hope it was as entertaining and insightful for you as it was for us. The Bent Musket: http://www.thebentmusket.com
It seems odd to me how dismissive seth is of providence as a potential landing spot. It is by no means a minor metro area, and it doesnt currently have a major professional sports organization to call its own. Many markets react favorably to having their one big pro team, often with more fervor than markets with an assortment of previously established teams. At the same time, choosing providence it wouldnt be like fans in the GBO would be abandoned. Heck the train ride from south station to providence is about an hour, and the city is very walkable. Another take away was that he is adamant that having a stadiun is the aolution to invigorating the fandom, when later he mentions that bostonians are notorious for backing winners. Think of fenway during the bobby valentine years, when a team is bad fans dont come out even if it is in downtown boston. The solution is to have a good team, and even better a marketable star a la jj.
Providence is a cool city but I don't think it passes the sniff test. It is not a major league sports market, right? It doesn't seem like one to me. Also looking specifically at fans in the GBO area (say, inside of 128), they already have to make a longish trek to Foxboro. No one is going to want to drive another 25 minutes down 95. The train ride from South Station to Mansfield/Walpole + uber to stadium may be a wash compared to taking the train to Provi then walk to a stadium. But the heavy train is not the key to boosting attendance. The light rail is. It doesn't make sense to abandon the Boston proper market and the league likely would push very strongly to not let this happen.
Providence is a non-starter. If the Revs want to be "major league" in the same class as the other sports teams in town, they can't be in Providence. That's for the PawSox and P-Bruins. Who would you rather roll with? The other thing mentioned in the interview was how Seth is convinced that a stadium in Boston will happen. I hope he's right, but I have my doubts. The other interesting note is that the Revs haven't done anything to honor great players of the past, and are "waiting to do this in the new stadium." makes no sense. You can do the right thing anytime and anywhere. An old-timers game would be fun and there is nothing to stop them from doing creative things to get the team in the public eye now. The other thing is Seth waffled about how the Revs never followed up on the success of Jermaine Jones. I forgot about the "game changer" Boston Magazine cover, but they never did anything after that. The "casual" fan isn't going to come out to see some Central Americans no one (not even us geeks) has ever heard of, no matter how good Penilla is, but they need to do more to create excitement around the team.
Looking around the mls: san jose has a team but san francisco does not. The difference in population density mirrors that of boston and providence Salt lake city, which is 2/3 as big as providence, has a team which is successful. I think people over estimate the influence boston has on the team being successful. I agree with you that whether or not boston isnt better location (i agree that it is) it remains unclear that there is any way to actually achieve having a stadium there. Thats my primary reason for bringing up providence, it is achievable and could be done within 2 years time. I can easily forsee a future where in 5 years the revs are still in gilette, and are still a league laughing stock. If you think the league will bristle at being centered in providence, imagine how much of a wart gilette's turf is on their public image. I also agree with your non-boston related points. His tone throughout was one where he didnt want to paint with too much black for fear of losting his source. He let people do a lot of reading between the lines.
San Jose is a MUCH bigger economic market than Providence is - and it's a much bigger factor in relation to SF than Pro is to Bos.
Not to mention that San Jose has had soccer teams going back about 45 years. I think the NASL tried in SF briefly, but it was a bust and SJ was a success. You really can't compare SJ/SF/Oak to ours. SJ is only slightly smaller and has been the tech engine for many years. Providence and Worcester (and Hartford and Portland and Springfield and Manchester) are great mid-sized cities, but nothing like a relationship between two more equal cities like, say Orlando and Tampa, who between them, have top-flight teams in all 5 sports.
SF is 4.7M. Boston is 4.8M. SJ is 1.9M. Providence is 1.6M. I wouldn't call that any less slightly smaller. If you want to make an economic argument then thats fine, but size wise it is a very apt comparisson
Well, there is the perception. San Jose and silicon valley are considered a "major" city/region. No one outside of Rhode Island thinks of Providence that way. Sometimes perception = reality, fair or not.
I think Providence would be a great location for a team. I have no doubt you could pack a 20-25k stadium there and have a deeply committed fan base. Fact is we've got a weird concept about what constitutes a pro city in this country because, unlike international football, all we've ever had are artificially constrained leagues. There's 100+ metro areas in the U.S. that are more than big enough to support an EPL team. Providence fits comfortably in there. I suspect games in Providence would be great. The problem with the Revs going to Providence is that it opens the door to another team someday locating in Boston. BTW, I think it's the same problem with staying in Foxborough. No one's claimed the big city and nature abhors a vacuum. It will happen one of these decades.
The SJ region, which is Silicon Valley, has close to 4M people - close to 4x the population of all of RI. And, looking at the population of the city of SJ doesn't mean much, since city lines in the valley mean very little - the tech sprawl extends throughout the region w/o pausing at municipal boundaries. I'd be surprised if the Kraft org. doesn't own rights over the Boston area and that probable would still exist if they moved a few miles down the road to PRO. To me, the bigger problem is that it would be a statement that the Revs are going minor league and would be a minor franchise going forward. I know that the replies will be that they already are, but I think they believe a move into Boston will move them up a tier in market size, not down.
I used the metro populations listed on wikipedia. Sj was #35 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_statistical_areas
A) Rights to a market can evaporate in the wave of a hand from the USSF. And technically speaking, a USL team could locate in Boston now, though it would have no way to move up in the current system. B) Moving to Boston would make them a true big market team (and they'd be fools to build a stadium with less than 30K seats). Yet moving to Providence would move them up from what they are in Foxborough. I don't think soccer in the U.S. will ever successfully implement a MLB/NHL affiliate type of system, largely because I doubt fans in the supposed "minor league" cities would put up with that crap. The only real danger is the system changes one of these decades and then somebody else figures out Boston.