Colorado Gets New Players And New President

Busy day in Commerce City as the organization has a new face, a returning face, and a promoted face.

Let's start with the roster moves. In today's re-entry draft the Rapids selected Chicago midfielder Baggio Husidic and Houston defender Hunter Freeman. Husidic is a 24 year old former Generation Adidas player who's been with Chicago since leaving college 3 years ago. He's made 50 appearances with the Fire, scoring 5 goals.

Long-time Rapids fans will remember Hunter Freeman. He was drafted by Colorado as a Generation Adidas player in 2005 and made 47 appearances with the team. In early 2007 he was traded to NY for draft picks, then went to Toronto and IK Start in Norway before ending up with Houston last year. Colorado has 7 days to reach a contract agreement with the players.

This afternoon the Rapids announced that Chief Marketing Officer Tim Hinchey has been promoted to Team President, filling the role left by Jeff Plush last week. Hinchey has been Rapids CMO for the last year and before that he spent 3 years as Vice President of Commercial Operations for Derby County in England. He's also worked for the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats and New Orleans Hornets.

I'm of mixed feeling about this move. His history shows him to be much more of a sports guy than Jeff Plush was before he took the job, something I would hope to be a positive. At the same time this is the guy who Gary Smith butted heads with over player moves, an odd position for a CMO to be in. He's also the same person that said, at two different times this season, we would have a jersey sponsor very shortly and yet the Rapids still don't have one. Not what you want to see from your CMO. I think the only move is to take a wait and see position on this one. He's got a big decision to start off on in picking a head coach. How he handles the relationships that Jeff Plush made with the Supporters Groups will also be something to watch.

I've got holiday family obligations starting later this week, so I may be slow to react to any news that comes out. I'll try to keep everyone updated as much as possible though.