Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Anyone Home In Commerce City?

Two and a half weeks ago I posted about how it was time for a change in leadership.  Since then the Rapids beat Colorado Springs in the USOC, drew Dallas 1-1, lost to Orlando and KC 2-0, and lost to Houston in the USOC last night 1-0.  In 6 games in June we scored 5 goals, 4 of them against the USL Switchbacks, with 1 win (again the Switchbacks), 2 draws, and 3 losses.  Things aren't getting better.

Yet not only in June but essentially all season we've heard nothing from the Front Office.  While this team sets records for futility and is on pace for the worst season in team history the only public comments are the ridiculous post-game platitudes from Pablo.  This is a noticeable change from prior years where both Paul Bravo and Tim Hinchey made efforts to interact with the fans and media.

MLS front offices are generally pretty good about at least making public comments, even if they don't really amount to much.  You've got Merritt Paulson in Portland, Robb Heineman in KC, and de Grandpre in NY to name a few.  They don't always communicate well but they know the importance of showing that there's an effort being made to improve.  Meanwhile we get nothing out of the Front Office during the lowest point Rapids fans have been at in years.

In October we heard a lot from the Front Office about how things were going to be different this year.  One of the things Tim Hinchey was specifically asked about in that Q&A at the Celtic was the communication from the Front Office, something he said they were working on and that they would invest in.  Apparently it still needs work.  And quoting Tim again:
 We aim to be a well run club that competes in every competition and has the success we want
If this is a "well run club that competes in every competition"" I'd hate to see a poorly run club.  Things are certainly different this year, they're worse.  We're out of the USOC and essentially out of the playoff race at the midpoint of the season.

With season ticket renewals starting in 6 weeks or so the Front Office needs to give us a reason to keep buying tickets.  Right now it appears that they're satisfied with the awful results which makes me wonder why I should bother investing in this team.

I know my posts are read in Commerce City (Hi Tim!) so this is a call to them.  Show us you're paying attention and care about this team.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What are they going to say? the same idiotic, repetitious and ridiculous pap they've been putting out for three of the last four years? attentive fans are furious and fed up with talk. FO knows that and are all holed up in their little rabbit hutches praying for a win and dreading the phone call from KSE that its time to grab their stuff and clear out. They are also in "batten the hatches down" mode, like most crisis teams and doing their utmost not to lose their own jobs by saying something stupid off the field. Tim, Bravo, Pablo, none of them know which is going to happen first, the win to turn the tides or the phone call. And I would care if they had respect for the paying fans and not be in the mind set that they can throw another Widepread Panic show to make up the shortfall if attendance flags. Pretty atrocious leadership either way you cut it.

Unknown said...

At his point I don't think it would matter what the front office stated publicly about the state of the Rapids on the pitch. IN the past, it hasn't meant much, why would it now? What I want, as a fan and season ticket holder, is action that leads to regular results on the pitch.

In stating the above, I am doubtful that anything of substance will happen this season. By this I mean a coaching and/or front office change combined with player acquisitions/changes.

Let's be honest, as long as KSE's definition of success it breaking even financially how much of a substantial commitment are we going to see to getting results on the pitch? It seems this can be done without a lot of winning. If that's the case then with this ownership we won't get consistent what we all want on the pitch.