Much to Don Garbage's dismay Red Bulls are by far the worst franchise in MLS on a multitude of levels.
Hey Quakes supporter, an NFL Stadium may not be ideal, but at least it's not a high school stadium and we haven't lost our franchise a la the Cleveland Browns.
I think their Voyageurs Cup trophy actually hurts them. For the first three years, all they had to do to win was beat two minor league teams in a round robin--and they couldn't even do that consistently. They were gifted a Champions League spot, and they cut themselves on the wrapping paper. And to add insult to injury, minor-league Montreal did better in the 08-09 CCL than Toronto did in either of the next two tournaments. Toronto's all-time Canadian Championships record against MLS teams is: Two wins and two draws against first-year MLS expansion teams One win and one draw against a second-year MLS expansion teams Two, I believe. Including the much-vaunted La Manga Cup. Which they didn't win until they'd been in the league longer than Chivas USA has existed so far.
My point is that Miami was not folded because it was a failed franchise. And it certainly doesn't deserve mention as being among the league's "worst" franchises. Those suggesting that the folding or moving of a MLS franchise is someone a commentary on its quality are misguided.
Yet, the owners of RBNY built a snazzy stadium, spend quite a lot on their roster, and have missed the playoffs once since 2003. They're trying............................... In a battle between RBNY and Chivas, I think Chivas wins as the worst franchise. They don't seem to have a plan. And when they do come up with a plan, they change it a year later anyway.
I thought I was going to stay away from this thread, but then I didn't. If we're talking about original teams, New England has turned in the poorest collective record with 177 wins, 136 draws, and 214 losses over 527 games, averaging 1.266 points per game. 4 time MLS cup appearences without a win. Conversely, NE has an Open Cup win in 2007. 2008 SuperLiga winners (remember that!?!). If we're talking all time it has to be Toronto FC. Seattle has won 14 more games than them in 60 less matches. They're sitting on 1.011 points per game all time and have never finished higher than 11th in six seasons. I guess if you wanted to be a jerk you could say in 37 years of history all Portland has done is won the Comissioner's Cup in 2009 in the USL (and I guess runners up in the 1975 NASL Championship). But I don't want to be a jerk.
Don't forget the 2004 A-League regular season championship... As far as the worst MLS franchise of all time (I will only include time as an MLS franchise): I would say Toronto and Chivas are a tie. If forced to pick one, I'd probably go with Chivas because they don't even have the benefit of being the only soccer team in town. Toronto: has the slightly better fan-base and support over their time, though their management seems to be trying to get rid of that ASAP. Chivas: (surprisingly) has the slightly better on-field performance over their time (1.17 PPG to Toronto's 1.01), though their management seems to be trying to get rid of that ASAP. New York: The team that no matter how much money they put into it, and seem to make the playoffs with some regularity. They just can't seem to do anything right in the playoffs. In my mind, they are like the Cubs. While they may be laughably bad at times, they are rarely embarrasingly bad like the Royals or the Pirates. Dallas: Their management seems to be on the right track for off-field stuff. They are building a fan base slowly, but steadily year in and year out. On field, they may not always have been the best, but they have rarely been horribly bad. Similar to New York, they just aren't consistently bad enough to be the worst of all time. Portland, Vancouver, Philadelphia, and Montreal: All of these teams have the potential to be in the running for this list. However, they are all too new to say for sure, and assuredly at least one or two of them will make it off of this list, probably even in the next year or two. Miami and Tampa Bay: These both deserve honorable mentions for their ownership being horrible enough that the team folded.
I knew they were league-run for some time (including leading up to their demise), but I didn't know they were always that were always that way. In any matter, not having an owner is a pretty bad ownership situation...
Those are some good points, but when you have been named the best team in Canada for that...hard for me to accept that they are the worst club in MLS.
I would say Chivas just because the franchise has a hard time drawing fans to its games. They cannot really connect to their fans with their current name and location. They either need to rebrand, or relocate to a city where they are not rivaled by a more popular club like the galaxy.
Memories short enough, in fact, that you could not recall my earlier post when I said that I consider "worst team" and "worst club" two different things. Remember the sparse crowds at Arrowhead? Remember gridiron lines? Remember the "Move KC!" threads? The state of that club during that time was very different from the state that club now.
Seattle. They play on turf. They play on a football field. Their fans are like a bunch of drunken wannabe hipsters auditioning for a Nazi chant choir. Their players are all overrated (except for Brad Davis and Alonso) because their fans are too myopic to see outside of their own team. They are part of the origination of the "we need a British announcer to make it seem like real soccer" bit. Their uniforms are butt ugly and use the color scheme of a video game manufacturer rather than a sports franchise. They play on turf. There ya go, Seattle fans. Have fun with that.
FCD has had some real enduring streaks of success. Winning titles isn't easy, but FCD have been competitive for most of its history. FCD has been to the MLS playoffs 12 out of 17 seasons, including one trip to the finals and 3 trips to the conference finals. They have finished top of their league and won an Open Cup. FCD has had some significant MLS players come through: Hugo Sanchez, Jason Kreis, Alain Sutter, Dante Washington, Leonel Alvarez, Ronnie O'Brien, Eddie Johnson, Clarence Goodson, Drew Moor, Greg Vanney, Carlos Ruiz, Kenny Cooper, Juan Toja, Jeff Cunningham, David Fereirra, Brek Shea, Kevin Hartmann, etc. There are a lot of guys there who have done quite a lot for MLS.
The 2011 Chivas marketing campaign "Come to the Home Depot Center dressed in all green -- like an empty seat" was an amazing success... which led to the 2012 campaign "Look at all our pretty seating section covers!" YIKES!!!
Your neutrally-stated observation pays a huge compliment to the league... unless by league-run, you meant "run into the ground."
Dude, seriously? The Revs moved into the New Razor and what happened to attendance? How about the trending on-field performance? Your club has gone from one of the top dogs (how many times were they MLS Cup runners-up?) to a bottom feeder in more ways than one... Meanwhile, Quakes 2.0 have rocked Buck Shaw (considerably better on-field performance than other recent expansion teams), just set a record for a promotion on the groundbreaking of their NEW SOCCER SPECIFIC STADIUM, and their following appears to be GROWING... not exactly a fair comparison to the Browns.
Snapshot of the Poll at about halfway point of the polling period: New York - 36 vote(s) - 27.9% Toronto - 45 vote(s) - 34.9% Dallas - 6 vote(s) - 4.7% Chivas - 42 vote(s) - 32.6%
Thanks for shining this light into the dark tunnel of the last season and a half. Though many of FC Dallas Burn's playoff appearances happened when just about everyone got into the playoffs, we have had some good runs. Something else to be thankful for this Thanksgiving Day.