It’s Time For MLS To Get Serious About New England Revolution
Mention the word contraction in American sports circles and many fans will shudder. It was this word that was mentioned in the mid-90s by Major League Baseball in hopes of dissolving teams in markets that made little money. However, MLB never contracted a team; rather, they expanded the league in Tampa Bay and Arizona.
In Major League Soccer, contraction was put into action as the league dissolved two teams in the early part of the century. In 2001, after four seasons of play the league contracted the Miami Fusion and after six years of play the league contracted an MLS original in the Tampa Bay Mutiny.
Terrible names aside, the league was losing money each season and was attempting to shake things up. People weren’t coming out, and it wouldn’t be until the US Men’s National Team’s successful 2002 World Cup that attendances increased around the league.
One of the teams MLS didn’t contract, rather, than two Florida/southeast based clubs was the New England Revolution though they may have had reasons to dissolve them at the time. In their first six years of existence the club was quite poor performance wise, though they boasted the likes of Alexi Lalas, Joe-Max Moore and John Harkes, and never progressed past the first round of the MLS play-offs. This was a time that MLS fluctuated between 10 and 12 teams, a far cry from what the league is today. As a matter of fact, on the surface MLS today resembles very little of what it 11 years ago did.
In 2002, New England slowly turned into one of the better sides in MLS thanks in large parts to former manager Steve Nicol. It was Nicol whom transformed the club into a solid defensive team. Add in the likes of Taylor Twellman, Matt Reis, Andy Dorman, Clint Dempsey and Steve Ralston and the club produced a purple patch of results for several years. Though in the end, they only achieved heartache losing the MLS Cup Final four times; including being runners-up three consecutive seasons.
Since 2007, however, the club has been in a downward spiral. Consistently being the cheapest team in the league hasn’t helped as owner Robert Kraft instead prefers to put his money into his NFL team the New England Patriots. Many believed the Revolution turned the corner last season with the signing of Benny Feilhaber, but with the talent around him Feilhaber looked less like an US international and more like another run of the mill MLS player.
This is a franchise that has relied heavily on the MLS college draft to fill out its roster and find diamonds in the rough. Luckily, the Revolution had Nicol and one time assistant Paul Mariner to help sift through the duds and find some capable quality. Unfortunately for Revolution fans, Mariner left in 2009 and after a spell with Plymouth Argyle in England is now with Toronto FC. Nicol parted company with New England this off-season.
Former Revolution defender Jay Heaps has been given the responsibility of bringing the club back to the forefront of MLS. Many see Heaps’ hiring in a similar fashion to that of Real Salt Lake’s Jason Kreis and DC United’s Ben Olsen. However, unlike Kreis and Olsen who went from playing to managing, Heaps was working for a financial company and doing color commentating on the side following his retirement from the game.
Being overlooked in the criticism of Heaps’ hiring is whether or not he holds a relevant US coaching certificate. That same question could have been asked about Kreis and Olsen when they took over their respective clubs as well. Regardless of certificates it’s whether or not he can produce results on the pitch, and his hiring is most likely the cheapest club being even cheaper.
The New England Revolution is not a club in transition; rather, it is a club attempting to play in MLS as if it was still 1996. This is a club that is being left behind by the rest of the league. While teams such as Kansas City re-established itself with a new stadium, colors and name. The Revolution has stayed true to its origins; and not in a good way.
Perhaps, it’s time for MLS to make a decision on Robert Kraft and company. Get serious about your team, your stadium and change with the rest of the league or face the consequences: Contraction.
54 Responses to It’s Time For MLS To Get Serious About New England Revolution
Move New England Revolution down to Miami.
So they can have the opportunity to fail again?
No to St-Louis the birthplace of soccer in the US. Nobody cares
about soccer in New England, it will never work there
US soccer was born in Boston….
bullshit
The is f*cking retarded. Seriously, is there any editor here? The
Revs have issues but contraction isn’t a reasonable option.
Seriouly dude, get your f*cking facts straight. You are a
disgrace…
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=soccer&id=6515959
Agree. The comment above yours was bad.
Yes, neither Heaps nor Kreis had the requisite coaching certificate
when hired. But there’s a big different. Kreis was hired by a
management setup that was serious about turning the club into a
first class organization. Heaps was hired by a management setup
that’s never had any interest in putting the tiniest bit of effort
into becoming a first class organization. If New England were third
rate, it’d be a set up.
Contraction? Haha no. That’s one thing I don’t like about the
franchise model is that the quickest solution for these things is
relocation or contraction. I know that this was a ultimatum to
Kraft to renovate revolution but still. What needs to happen is
that mls pressure Kraft to sell because obviously he’s forgotten
about revolution for the past 16 years and since left the club in
the hands of sunil gulati who only finds time to manage the club
when he’s not teaching economics at whatever university he’s
teaching and occasionally performing his duties at ussf. Focus more
on Boston (birthplace of soccer mind you) . Im not in favor of a
name change however mickey mouse it is, its history. But what I do
want is a regime change. Lucky for me I’m not a revolution fan but
the club or franchise whatever its called now adays deserves
better. You can only rely on Joseph to carry you clubchise for so
long. See what I did there? Ima start using that
Would agree Kraft needs to step it up a bit. SSS would solve a lot
of issues…
A SSS would be great but if you have the same crap product and crap
management, it won’t matter. You can only shine a turd so much.
Hey guys, I appreciate all the comments (good or bad). Regarding
the average salary for 2011, the Rev’s number were bumped up due to
Benny Feilhaber earning a base of $300,000 for the year and Lekic
earned $275,000. I believe both salaries bumped up there ave.
massively. Still didn’t make them any better. Also, I would hate to
see another MLS contracted, however, the Boston area needs a
competitive team. Home of US soccer? Maybe. Regardless, MLS needs
to find ways of getting Kraft and co. serious. Thanks guys.
Dude you are just making a bigger fool of yourself. Stop
talking…..
http://content.usatoday.com/sportsdata/soccer/mls/salaries/team
Ridiculous revisionist history. Miami and Tampa weren’t the only
stinkers in 2002. The whole league was going into the toilet. San
Jose, Dallas, their were other useless targets. But when the
Saviors of MLS decided to pick teams to save, AEG and Hunt picked
SJ and Dallas. Miami with its absentee owner and Tampa, never
having a owner, were easy easy targets. Please stop spreading the
garbage that no one went to Mutiny and Fusion games (and “bad names
aside”… Burn? Clash? Revolution? Seriously). FL teams had decent
attendance, just as good or better than certain CA or TX teams at
the time. Its all about ownership. Sorta like the useless ones in
Foxboro.
Rumor at the time was that none other than George Steinbrenner
considered saving the Mutiny, but took one look at their lease for
Raymond James Stadium and immediately halted further due diligence.
San Jose actually were briefly operated by the Krafts (for about a
year or so). They actually made the name change from Clash to
Earthquakes. I think they then transferred the franchise to the
owners of the San Jose Sharks, who only held it for about a year or
two before AEG ended up taking it off their hands during the
contraction.
The attendance was crap down in Florida, thus the contraction.Tampa
peaked at 13k in their 6 years of existence and Miami peaked at
11k. Crap attendance = see ya. Scroll down to “Historic average
attendance”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Soccer_attendance
Miami Fusion, in their final season, finally got their sh*t together — both on and off the field for the first time. THe first few years were a disaster. But during their final season, the fans started pouring back and the club was on a high, ready to finally crack the South Florida market. And then the rug was pulled from right under them.
That final season, there were three other clubs who had average attendances lower than the Fusion. If the Fusion had stayed, they would have increased their average attendance the following season from ~11,000 to 15,000+.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
the krafts and the hunt boys are boat anchors. they all need to be
kicked out and kicked in the balls.
Give them fruit baskets, name a trophy after Kraft, thank them for
their service and get serious about bring CBus, the Revs and FC
Dallas about. Just look at what happened when the Hunts ceased
control of KC, 5 years later, KC has a strong base and a beautiful
stadium.
None of these op-eds mean anything if Kraft NEVER receives a
written demand from the fans. Unless he gets an envelope along with
the rest of his bills, he will never really know what the Boston
soccer fan thinks. He’s too insulated.
I agree with you in theory, but he really doesn’t care what we
think regardless if it’s in an envelope, on a silver platter, or
dropped in by helicopter. The Krafts have other, far more important
priorities to look after like Tom Brady’s deep tissue massage. The
only way to get his attention is to stop going to games and stop
paying attention to the team. Don’t renew your season tickets,
things like that.
To give everyone context of how poorly run this club is – we have
been losing quality players every season and not replacing the
talent. When the front office does sign someone good, like Perovic
or Caraglio, they simply fail to re-sign them. I hope they contract
this team and start over fresh.
We just let Perovic go. I am going to give Heaps the benefit of the
doubt. He went after this position hard rather than the Krafts just
giving it to him being cheap. Kraft’s issue is thathewants Foxboro
to become the center of the universe. The last two years not
withstanding, the Revs on field product has been pretty damn good.
“The last two years notwithstanding” is like saying everything was
fine in Fukushima before that pesky earthquake and tsunami came
along. The team has been headed south for longer than 2 years. It’s
2012. The last halfway decent season was 2008. That’s on the field.
Off the field they’ve been a disaster for a decade. They have the
same miniscule local profile they’ve always had. They’re ignored by
the media and the team relies on group sales and the Beckham game
for attendance numbers. They’ve driven off thousands of fans, and
have a pathetic season’s ticket holder base for a 16 year old team
(roughly 5K). Portland and Seattle have more people on their
waiting list.
Teams going through rebuilding periods, what can I say. It happens.
I have no love for Kraft but I am willing to get behind Heaps. I
know the sort of guy he is. I honestly believe getting the team
into Boston would increase attendance by at least 3000, probably
more.
how many years does it take for it not to be a rebuilding period
anymore?
What bugs me most about this piece is that this guy is basically
telling the League to come take our team away. What gives you the
right to do that? Do you even live in the area?
As a Revs fan, I’m not completely happy at all, but this is a very
badly written piece, full of opinion and conjecture.
PS: Contraction? How do you figure? The Rev’s, as poorly attended
to by the owners as they are, are in the the black, actually. Being
profitable seems to be the owner’s #1 priority and it’s working at
least in that regard. Even if they lost money, Kraft has the
resources to float them forever, not saying he would, but he could.
So, please tell me how they would contract, when they are making
money, the franchise’s equity is growing and also, the team is owed
by one of the wealthiest owners in MLS.
I’d favor contraction for Real Salt Lake and Seattle.
NE does not need to be contracted. Kraft just needs a kick in the
nuts. Miami and Tampa fan support was fine, only problem with them
was poor/nonexistent ownership. They deserve another shot with
MLS#20. NE fans should not boycott season tickets. This will not
get krafts attention. It will just encourage him to spend less and
encourage MLS to contract or move the team. Keep supporting your
club but make your voices heard… giant anti-ownership tifo’s and
chants should be happening at every home game in the Fort.
Colorado makes less money than Seattle makes on cotton candy sales
alone. Bye-bye Rapids. In all seriousness, I agree that a writer
throwing out contraction for his reader’s teams is a little
rediculous and would tick me off too. I would forget about it
around the same time as I watch my first NBA basketball game. For
once I agree with Alex, the downside of having franchises is they
CAN be moved. New England should NOT be, except to maybe a new
stadium……This is a parity league and it is VERY hard to win the
league. New England came close many times, very recently.
Colorado is also owed by a billionaire and thus are built for the
long haul!
I was jusr messing around with OTom there definitely NOT serious.
Why would MLS contract in any city right now? When they have
investors lining up.
Kraft is the source of all problems at the Revs. Stevie failed
because he was forced to gamble on finding draft picks like
Shalrie, Taylor, Parkhurst, Dempsey… the list goes on. I mean
lets be honest, Clint is probably the best US player right now and
he went 8th in the draft! But you can’t depend the draft forever.
And here’s the kicker (no pun intended Kraft, you football minded
whore), when a coach does poorly he gets fired and who ever is
paying the bills makes sure someone qualified steps in. Kraft
couldn’t care less about the Revs so without any pressure from
management or budget to find someone better, the Revs management
went and put one of their good ole pals a job. Hey, why get someone
who can bring change when you know a guy you’re already buddies
with. I’ll give heaps a chance but I’m a firm believer that until
Kraft starts investing more interest and cash in the Revs, the
little money he is investing will go wasted.
I disagree your point about Heaps. He loves this team and will give
more to it than anybody else out there. On board with comments
about Kraft.
Contraction shouldn’t be an option. Yes they’ve been struggling in attendance, but the Patriots also struggled mightily for years,and might still to this day if not for their surge in results.
The part that sucks for the Revolution is that they are bound to use an NFL style stadium. The difference between Seattle’s CenturyLink Field and Gillette Stadium is simple – one is located in downtown, one is located in a remote suburb. If the Revolution put together a good team with good results, people will return. But there is no reason to support a poor team when you’re going to a cavern way out of your way.
For people who claim to have a real commitment to US Soccer (Kraft and Gulati), they don’t seem to have a forward thought to their own legacy in the Northeast. They have a lot of land around Gillette, they really need to construct a 20,000 seat stadium that gives fans a reason to celebrate the team. Finding a tract closer to Beantown would be an even better option. But I really don’t see contraction as a good move (not outside of getting into this whole argument of promotion/relegation, which is another ball of wax).
That is most likely the only difference between the Clink (
Sounders ) and Gillette ( Revs )………………….One, they
don’t erase the lines for the Revs games, small thing yes, but
symbolic of the bigger picture for sure………………..Two, the
Sounder’s stadium was built for…..the Sounders. It was what we
voted on, it was built for them. Shared with the Seahawks, and
others, but it was built primarily for football of BOTH kinds. This
was true to the point that grass was to be used instead of turf.
That didn’t happen in the end, but they are still violating the
law. The Sounders played there when there were less than 10k of us
attending and they always will.
They actually DO erase the lines for the Revs game, just not when
there is a Pats game the next day.
Yeah! They totally erase the lines … except when they don’t!
should read…Most likely NOT
Any coments about the relationship between NE and Sunil Gulatis,
President off the USSF? Nothing? Nada? Zip?
Yeah, go take a team from the guy on the cover of this week’s SI.
Best we in New England can hope for is someone to buy minority
ownership in the team and take over all the soccer-related
decisions.
I don’t know if contraction is the answer. But trying a new city
can be a plus. As messed up as it was for San Jose (they didn’t
deserve it); Houston has turned out to be a winner with great fan
support. There was a nice little sea of orange at the past Cup
Final in my team’s home. In my opinion, what’s worse than the Kraft
situation, is the D.C. United issue. Our league’s most storied team
in terms of championships; can’t even get a new stadium and they
have the fan support in cavernous RFK!!!! Get with it D.C. you put
up with horrible Orioles team (I know it’s Baltimore, but close
enough) who haven’t been relevant since the 1970′s/early 80′s. The
Wizards are one of the worst teams in basketball and Redskins
haven’t been good in a while. Treat your winning franchise with
some respect!!
RFK Stadium is rife for demolition and redevelopment as a
soccer/football specific stadium. Make it large enough (30K or so)
to accommodate the few football games that are still played there.
Keep the RFK name. The whole thing could be accomplished for less
than $100 million and would be a boon for the area and the
aesthetic of DC. The likelihood is that the annual bowl game played
at RFK is going to end up abolished anyway once the NCAA
reevaluates the bowl system this year. There is really nothing to
lose by redeveloping the site. So why won’t they do it? My personal
conspiracy theory is that the DC City leadership is holding out
hope that, with the increasingly shorter lifespans of NFL stadiums,
they can hold onto the site for another 10-20 years and lure the
Redskins back to the city proper with a redevelopment on the same
site.
Two things would have to happen to the Revs that would make me care
about them: 1) The Krafts would have to sell the club and 2) They
would have to move to Connecticut. Otherwise I could careless if
they floundered in mediocrity ’til the end of days.
PROMOTION AND RELEGATION will get all management serious about the
game
Robert, who doesn’t watch MLS, fails to realize that New England
made the MLS Cup 4 times in the last 9 years. Nice, seriously Wiki
these things before you post, or you kill your really bad arguments
before they start.
When you have imposed parity, any team can win. The institution of
pro/rel will have to be necessarily accompained by the disolution
of “single entity”. ……….. The disolution of “single entity”
will not happen without getting rid of “the cartel” that controls
our game in the US……………So , your point that “…….New
England made the MLS Cup 4 times in the last 9 years”, is
irrelevant to the point that Robert made, because on a competitive
Pro/rel system, teams managed like NE is, do not go up the ranks,
they go down……………Remember how you guys used to use
Portmouth as an example against pro/rel? Where is Portmouth now?
It seems like MLS Cup results have zero correlation for fan
support. Sounders 0 MLS Cups and record attendance
Soccer in this country is not at the point where promotion and
relegation is a realistic option. The current lower leagues are not
nearly good enough. Also, this country has a long history of
franchised teams within a league rather than privately owned clubs
who are members of a league system. Some form of
promotion/relegation is a concept to put in something like a 10 or
12-year plan for MLS. For instance, grow the league to a strong
28-30 teams and then split into two leagues. MLS “Premier” with 15
teams and regular MLS with 15 teams (or something like that). This
would maintain the franchises within the MLS brand and make sure
there were adequate facilities to promote a truly professional
league in both tiers of competition. I realize there are
complications with this, but it’s one fairly simple idea in my
opinion.
How would the lower league teams get ready for promotion and
relegation? By playing year after year on meaningless leagues? Or
by having a substantial incentive like promotion? Did it take
Seattle, Portland and Vancouver 14 years to be MLS ready?
….Puerto Rico can make the transition in 1 year, but big USA can
not?……………..Have in consideration that pro/rel could be
implemented in many diferent ways. It does not have to be automatic
pro/rel, it could be play off pro/rel so that if the best lower
league clubs CAN NOT beat the worst MLS team, it will not be
promoted…………………………..the only hurdle for pro/rel
in the US is “single entity” everything else is smoke thrown on our
faces……………..single entity was IMPOSED without any
consideration of the fans, by a small group that has kidnapped the
game from us in the US……..as long as we dont get rid of them,
our club soccer is stuck in neutral, and you MLS cheerleaders can
keep enjoying your 10 team, single game playoff finals, with all
players signed by the same entity, and dress by the same kit
maker………….aaahhh don’t forget the All Stars game , and the
Summer Supergalactic Stratosferic Series brought to you by Chuck
ECheese,…….I know , I know , you guys can’t wait!
Relocate them to New York city and rebrand as the NY Cosmos after
“The Don” gets the green light on buildind a SSS in Queens or even
Manhattan.