The Badge, The Players, The Fans Deserve Better. Still.

In September of 2023 Centennial 38 staged the protest above and released a statement about it.  I reviewed the statement and KSE's response in March of 2024 and my conclusion at that point was:

To answer the question I asked in the title of the piece, no, we haven't gotten better yet.  While we have some shiny new pieces on the field (that haven't yet changed any results), the rest of the organization is still far behind even a midlevel Major League Soccer team. This isn't an org that can expect to compete year in and year out, which is the bar Padraig Smith has stated on multiple occasions.

Now 10 months later has anything changed?

C38 wanted, above anything else, more investment from KSE.  Both in terms of $$ but also in terms of interest.  I noted in March that we had invested heavily in the roster during the 2023-24 offseason.  Of course since then we haven't.  We did bring Navarro in on a transfer but beyond that its been free agent signings (Cannon), draftees, and trades.  None of which cost KSE anything.

But I hear you saying, we did invest in Navarro, Mihailovic, Vines, and Steffen.  Yes, we did.  And that counted for something last year.  But since we did that we sold Moise Bombito for $7.7m, which escalators up to $10.7m.  Meanwhile we reportedly spent $3.5m on Rafa, $3m on Djordje, nothing on Steffen, and an unknown amount on Vines.  And there's been no other significant transfer fee paid since the protest.  So somewhere between $6.5 and $7.5m total (there's no way we spent over $1m on Vines, and we probably spent less).

In other words KSE didn't invest, they just pre-spent the transfer fee they were going to get from Bombito (a player they got for free in the draft) and at this point they're at least $1M in the black on player movements in the last 15 months.

Moving beyond the roster another area of focus was the facilities.  This weekend the Denver Post launched a series of articles about the stadium situation of Denver's teams.  Their article about the Dick was not kind.  Nor should it have been.  We have seen no notable investment in the stadium.  The scoreboard is still a joke, the lack of game day features are still lacking, and even the rollout of the new food options last season seemed to end before the play did (by the last game of the season none of the new food options were available anymore).

There were some rumors flying at the end of the season that some sort of construction project was going to start at the Dick this offseason.  There was a report that Phish will not be back for Labor Day (now confirmed) due to the stadium not being available for a construction project (not confirmed).  Paired with the season-ticket holders lot going away which is on the north end and it seemed to suggest that something was going to be going on at that end of the field.  Yet nothing happened.  Now I've heard multiple reports that something was planned, but KSE has since cancelled it and there will be no renovations.  I know the Front Office is working with the supporters to do what they can around the stadium, but that's a far cry from the full court press the stadium needs.

KSE itself (above Padraig Smith) seems to have continued to ignore the Rapids.  We had a couple of big, yet uninformed, statements from the new President of Team and Media Operations when he took the role in March but since then I haven't heard anything of note about the Rapids from anyone at KSE who doesn't work in Commerce City.

Going back to KSE's response to the C38 statement:

On the field, we are focused on returning the team to the level of competitiveness we expect and have seen in recent years

Well, to be fair, we're back to being a one-and-done playoff team so I guess that's an improvement?  Yes, great Leagues Cup run they should get credit for.  The next step is to become a team that can be dangerous in the playoffs though.

Over the next few months, we will be finalizing the master plan for our exciting Victory Crossing Project. When this is ready in early 2024, we will be hosting several open forums with supporters and members of the community to gather feedback on our plans for the club, stadium and entire project.

That was written in September of 2023.  Its January of 2025 and no plans have been shared with supporters.  So needless to say they badly missed their "early 2024" date.  Dave Wegner, speaking for C38 in the Post article above (and also a personal friend, just to be transparent) confirms we've seen nothing from KSE.

So KSE has shown no new investment in the 15 months since the article.  They haven't met their own stated deadlines for planning.  If rumors are to be believed they in fact cancelled plans to invest in the facilities.  And their well received investment in the team last offseason turned out to just be an advance on their upcoming transfer fee windfall.  So to answer the question I asked in the opening, in the last 10 months has anything changed?  Yes.  Its gotten worse.

The Badge, The Players, The Fans Deserve Better