MLS 2018 Thread: Soccer in the Garden of Good and Evil

[Yachtzee]

So the 2018 Season has started. Admittedly I haven't been as fired up about the upcoming season as I have in the past, what with the ongoing saga whereby Lord Voldemort and Wormtail try to move our beloved Crew to Austin, TX. But the Crew's win in Toronto and today's news that Mike DeWine has filed suit against Precourt and MLS under the Modell Law has given me hope.

Here's the news on the lawsuit: http://nbc4i.com/2018/03/05/ohio-att...llow-ohio-law/

#SaveTheCrew issues aside, this season should be interesting, with "Los Angeles Football Craft" coming into the league and a number of teams having added a number of young, up-and-coming players from South America.

[M2]

I watched the Revs and Phunion play some of the worst football ever on Saturday. Looked like a 3rd division U-12 game.

[IslandRed]

I'm curious to see how the near-complete overhaul of Orlando City will go. Through three seasons, the team never got any better than it was the first day. So now Kaka's gone, Larin's gone, Rivas is gone. Lots of new talent came in, though, and the team should be better. Clawing back to a draw down a man against D.C. was encouraging, I don't think last year's squad would have done that.

[Redsfaithful]

Rumors circulating that the Crew situation will have some sort of resolution before April, although I don't know if the lawsuit yesterday will have an effect there.

[15fan]

72,035 in attendance at the ATL United home opener today vs. DC.

That's not a typo.

[Caveat Emperor]

72,035 in attendance at the ATL United home opener today vs. DC.

That's not a typo.

What they’ve done is incredible down there. I’m in awe continuously.

BTW — amazing thread title

[M2]

72,035 in attendance at the ATL United home opener today vs. DC.

That's not a typo.

I was in a stadium yesterday with less than 1/5 of that. I am highly jealous of what's going on in Atlanta.

[Redsfaithful]

I realize anytime a team gets moved it's an incredibly cynical process, but good god Anthony Precourt is a terrible human being, and I can't believe MLS is letting this happen.

[Yachtzee]

I was in a stadium yesterday with less than 1/5 of that. I am highly jealous of what's going on in Atlanta.

On the one hand, Atlanta has done a lot of things right. On the other, my concern is that it's creating a lot of unrealistic expectations out there. Arthur Blank has done a lot of things right and the people of Atlanta have shown support for the team. However, he's coming in at a time when soccer has never been more popular in the US and in a city where the MLS team is the bright, shiny, new object. Columbus is getting trashed by the owner of the Crew and by Don Garber himself for not showing the support of the Crew that other cities have shown, and people look at Chicago, Colorado, Dallas, Philly, and New England as other underperforming franchises in the support department. Yet there seems to be a willful ignorance of the long history that fans in those cities have had (well, maybe not Philly, but the others have been around since the '90s). People in these cities came out to support soccer when many American sports fans were outright hostile to the sport. They continued supporting soccer and MLS and watched as Don Garber used league resources to help the Galaxy land Beckham without considering how the league might help the other teams in the league bring in better talent. They've seen how Garber has outright changed the roster, allocation, and salary cap rules to benefit marquee teams in LA, NY, Seattle and Toronto, but forced other teams to abide by byzantine discovery and allocation rules requiring them to give up money and/or talented players just to have the right to sign a foreign player or a midlevel USMNT player. They've had to sit by as MLS has kicked in an alleged $6 million for Clint Dempsey's transfer fees and who knows how much of Michael Bradley's $10 million transfer fee. And they wonder, "When is MLS going to give my club $6 million?" They may not buy a Clint Dempsey with it, but they could sure get quite a few talented players with that money. And now they have to watch as MLS gives every advantage to new expansion franchises to build a team quickly while their teams have to make due with trying to get their development academies to bear fruit too early and scrounging Africa, Central and South America for untapped talent. I feel like MLS under Don Garber has become this "haves vs. have nots league," where owners with big pockets in certain preferred cities are praised and revered when they pull in big attendance numbers in a short period of time, but owners who have neglected their supporters and sat idly by as Garber give money and advantages to those preferred cities are given a free pass. Meanwhile, when MLS wants to criticize a city for low attendance, the league places blame on "lack of community support," ignoring all the BS fans in those cities have had to put up with.

I'm not jealous of Atlanta. I'm pissed off that MLS has treated my club as some kind of red-headed stepchild pretty much since its inception and now wants to let a selfish man-child move the team because he thinks SXSW is cool and really likes queso. I'm angry because Columbus was THE city that first gave the USMNT a true home field advantage against Mexico and sold out USMNT matches to US supporters every time they played there, but MLS and US Soccer can't find a way to help fund an upgraded stadium in downtown Columbus. I'm frustrated because the team wants to act like a "single entity" when it's beneficial to whatever the league wants to do, but then act like individual franchises to avoid not treating each team in the "single entity" equitably. I'm torn, because I want to support my team to let MLS know that it shouldn't be moved, but I hate the idea of these bastards getting my money because I know they're just going to do what they want anyway. 70,000 in Atlanta is great, but can we please stop talking about them like they're some kind of super soccer supporter when they haven't had to deal with the massive amounts of bull crap that supporters in original MLS cities have had to deal with?

[M2]

70,000 in Atlanta is great, but can we please stop talking about them like they're some kind of super soccer supporter when they haven't had to deal with the massive amounts of bull crap that supporters in original MLS cities have had to deal with?

Except in my team's case, Bob Kraft is the source of the bull crap. The single game attendance record Atlanta broke used to belong to the Revs. NE should be a monster market team, but it operates like the most penurious club in MLS. I don't think they've ever even used all their roster spots. Think about that. Imagine if the Reds never once had 40 men on the 40-man roster. Boston's a sports-crazy market loaded with soccer fans, but it barely recognizes there's an MLS team here.

So, when I see Atlanta, there's no good reason NE isn't in that class. Columbus is a completely different situation. You're getting screwed. Yet the guy Precourt supplanted as the worst owner in MLS is Kraft. Atlanta's what my team could be if it wasn't for neglect.

[15fan]

While I certainly understand the point about AU fans not being jaded by sins of previous MLS regimes in other cities, I will point out that Atlanta sports fans have been justifiably jaded (and repeatedly knifed in the back) by plenty of the other local teams over the past 50+ years. See:

The NFL Falcons while owned by Rankin Smith
The NHL Flames and Thrashers
The NBA Hawks
The MLB Braves in the Time Warner / Liberty Media eras.

On a good day, those groups were on par with the Mike Brown Bengals. On a bad day, they were borderline Jeff Loria. Outside of the Braves when owned by Ted Turner and the current iteration of the Falcons (coincidentally, also owned by Arther Blank), all of the local ownership groups have ranged from distant to dysfunctional to abusive. Winning was an afterthought. Occasionally it got some lip service, but even a novice observer could see that pieces were never in place for any of those franchises to be successful in the short term, let alone the long haul.

There's nothing magical about the AU formula. Great facility, affordable tickets, affordable concessions, family friendly entertainment, and a commitment to a good product on the field.

(Not much different than the formula that Blank and Bernie Marcus used to build Home Depot.)

To M2's point, it's something that almost every other owner in every other market can deliver if they so choose. And what AU has done in a short period of time is elevate the bar to a place where it's not just "great attendance by MLS standards", but "attendance on par with any club on the planet".

https://www.ajc.com/sports/atlanta-u...M6LY2kpPHcUSP/

Every other MLS owner should have walked into the office on Monday morning and after seeing the AU attendance figures, lined up everyone in the front office and asked a very pointed question: If Atlanta can do it, why the ____ can't we do it?!?!"

[Redsfaithful]

If I get time I'll post some stuff about how lazy the Crew is with marketing compared to a class franchise like Atlanta.

It's honestly amazing and clearly an intentional tank job to sink attendance.

[M2]

It's not getting a lot of attention, but Toronto and the Red Bulls last night beat two top Mexican teams in the CONCACAF Champions League. Seattle's got a shot at ousting a third one tonight. MLS has got a serious chance at winning this tournament for the first time ever.

[paintmered]

If I get time I'll post some stuff about how lazy the Crew is with marketing compared to a class franchise like Atlanta.

It's honestly amazing and clearly an intentional tank job to sink attendance.

Absolutely. Anyone using the argument that the Crew seek to leave due to a lack of local support doesn't understand the situation here. Precourt is trying to be the owner from Major League in real life. Poison the well and then blame the fans for not drinking from it.

[Yachtzee]

Looks like Zlatan is coming to America.

http://www.espn.com/soccer/soccer-tr...galaxy-sources

Where did LA come up with all that TAM, Don Garber?