Worst. Season. Ever.

The Rapids drew Dallas on Saturday night "clinching" the record for worst season ever on PPG, regardless of what happens against FSL this weekend.  To credit the team they did look better than their average this year but really there's not much to talk about other than setting that record so like with the game preview we're going to move on to three other pieces of Rapids news.

We'll start with the Rapids 2 game last night.  I haven't covered Rapids 2 much this season here, which is my bad as they've had a really good season.  I blame the first-team being so bad that it sapped my will to blog about much.  Anyway Los Rapidos made the Western Conference Final of the MLS Next Pro playoffs and hosted Austin 2 at the Dick yesterday.  Sadly after a scoreless 120 minutes the home side lost in PKS 4-1.  Still a great season for the young guys, winning the conference and having the second best record overall. Hopefully we'll see some of them rewarded with playing time on Saturday against FSL.

Two pieces of info on the coaching search hit today.  First Arsenal correspondent Charles Watts urges Jack Wilshere  not to take the Rapids head coaching job.  He says there's lots of fan unrest at the club (true, see below) as well as a lack of support from ownership (ditto).  An article about his comments is here, while the video of him making them is on YouTube.

Secondly a rumor surfaced from TUDN tonight that Efrain Juarez is a finalist for the head coaching role.  Juarez is a 35-year old former Mexican national team player (d-mid & right back) and has spent the last 4+ seasons as an assistant coach at NYCFC (3 seasons), Standard Liege (one season), and Brugge (started this season).  I know nothing about his coaching style but combined with the Wilshere report its clear that the Front Office is looking for somebody young to lead this team.

As I was writing this another piece of news just broke, reportedly FIFA has removed SoFi Stadium from the hosting list for World Cup 2026 after KSE and FIFA had a disagreement last month over the costs and logistics of hosting.  The biggest newest stadium in the country will be dark and quiet during the world's biggest event.  Seems like KSE overplayed their hand here.

Speaking of, yesterday's Denver Post had a front page article about Victory Crossing and the lack of movement in almost 20 years in building up around DSG Park.  There's lots to digest here but the one thing that stood out to me was this:

On Monday night, Commerce City will once again try to move things forward, this time with an unconventional idea involving a contest for Colorado college students. The City Council will be asked to pay $25,000 to co-sponsor the contest organized by the national Commercial Real Estate Development Association, asking students to design plans for the site.

... 

If picked, six teams from the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Denver will be paired with professional financiers, developers, architects and engineers to come up with workable plans for Victory Crossing, Aiken said. Those teams will figure out what density level is appropriate, the zoning and environmental hurdles the property faces, and what businesses could be successful at the site. 

Ideas would be presented in April, and the two sides could reach an agreement on what Victory Crossing ultimately will be, Aiken said.

To put this in context, here's what Josh Kroenke said in his response to Centennial 38's letter a month ago:

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.

KSE must think we, as Rapids fans, are stupid.  Its only been a month since they had to respond to a letter from the team's biggest supporters group and their most substantial promise made in the response is to unveil plans for Victory Crossing in early 2024.  Now we find out KSE's big plan is to pay half of a $50K sponsorship to get college students to work on a design.  Does that sound like a project that's ready to be rolled out for "open forums with supporters" to gather feedback in "early 2024"?  Does KSE not think we can connect the dots between what they said on September 14th and what the Denver Post reported on October 15th and see they don't add up?

Even if they have bigger plans and this college competition is just a small part of it, their willingness to not engage with the Denver Post and allow this to be the story is almost as bad for an organization that was recently called out for their lack of communication.  Once again we see KSE is all talk and doesn't really care about the Rapids.

The badge, the fans, the players deserve better.  Make Rapids fun again.