Hinchey Steps Down

Before we get to the big news of the day just a scheduling note.  The Rapids will play the USL OKC Energy in their first Open Cup game.  The game will be at the Dick on June 13th, kickoff at 7pm.

Now for the surprise news.  Tim Hinchey is stepping down as Managing Director (aka, club President) to become President &CEO of USA Swimming.  He'll leave the club on July 1st.

I don't think anyone saw this coming.  Obviously this is a big opportunity for Hinchey and I can't blame him for taking the chance.  My history and relationship with him is no secret so I'm sure some of you think I've very happy about this.  While I am excited to see what new leadership can do with the on-field product I'm not blind to the success Tim has had off the field, especially after he stepped back as the "face" of the Front Office and really seemed to focus on the business side more than the sporting side.  The numerous sponsorships (Westerra, AB/InBev, Transamerica, etc.), the increase in ticket sales, and the general positive financial direction of the club in recent seasons should be credited to him.

With Bravo having left in preseason that leaves Padraig Smith as really the only "leader" on the soccer side in the Front Office.  It will be very interesting to see how the summer transfer window goes now.  We'll also have to see what kind of candidate is selected to fill the open position.  Will it be a hands on soccer guy or more of a business guy who's content to let Smith and others run the soccer side?  How much experience will they have?  Will they come from inside MLS, inside KSE, or be a complete outsider?

I. Told. You. So.

The Denver Post had an article today about Pablo's tenuous position.  Included was a paraphrase from Tim Hinchey that made my eyes roll back so far I could see inside my head.

Hinchey reiterated that Mastroeni was thrown into a tough situation last year, being officially named coach a week before the first match. 

Let us turn our attention back to February 20th, 2014 when I got an unsolicited email from Tim Hinchey after pointing out a couple of days earlier that we were 4 weeks from opening day and didn't have a coach yet.

However, we are not “killing time” on our coach search nor do you have any clue how to run a professional sports organization and any such complications when hire a head coach.

Your email response asking and suggesting whether "I realize" we need a coach is offensive.  I have worked in professional sports for over 20 years and I doubt I would be in my current position if I was so clueless. 

These business metrics clearly indicate our fans are supporting the club and our efforts to find the absolute right coach for this club.  Simply appointing any candidate to satisfy any minority outside pressure would be foolish. 

Yeah, this would be the point where I would take a victory lap if it weren't on the back of two of the worst seasons in  club history.  instead I'm just going to say I told you so.  Its ridiculous to see Hinchey reported as using the late naming of Pablo as coach as an excuse when he slammed me for pointing out how bad of an idea that was and assured me that I had no idea what I was talking about (and then somebody in the Rapids leaked the emails).

The article goes on.  Hinchey says it won't be fair to do an evaluation until the season is over.  for all practical purposes it is though, so I'd love to know what the bar is for Pablo for the next 9 games.  5 wins?  That's the only thing that should get him close to keeping his job.  That would be 10 wins in the second half of the season which would be impressive.

At the end of the article Hinchey addresses the KSEOut movement (which I'll be addressing next week):

The green movement, he said, points to growth among the Rapids' support.

"I think four years ago, I'm not sure we would've heard this kind of noise," Hinchey said. "I think it's actually a positive that we hear this noise. We just need to get results and do better for them."

4 years ago would be just about the time Gary Smith was talking to the Denver Post about how he couldn't work with Paul Bravo and how he didn't understand how the CMO got to have a say in player decisions.  In case you forgot, the CMO at that time was Tim Hinchey.  Oh, and the Rapids were just 9 months removed from lifting MLS Cup.

Excuse me Tim, but is that really the parallel you want to draw right now?  Really?  Because that's really not going to come out in your favor.

At this point I'm just shaking my head.  When you're in a hole, stop digging!

In unrelated news the Rapids recalled Badji from Charlotte today.  This is probably due to Serna being named to the pre-qualifer U-23 camp (and likely to the qualifying team) and the rumor that Doyle might e in the plans for Ireland soon.  In order to make room they've loaned Eloundou to Colorado Springs.  That's a bit surprising after some of the talk from both sides on how they didn't want to partner together.  Maybe a thawing of that relationship?

First News Of 2015

The Rapids posted the newest episode of their official podcast today, which included an interview with Tim Hinchey.  The biggest news to me was the first (as far as I know) official statement that we're looking for a new jersey sponsor.  I don't think this is a surprise after the Ciao debacle but now we know for sure.  There was a pretty strong report that OtterBox up in Fort Collins had made a bid to be a jersey sponsor before the Rapids went with Ciao.  I'm not a huge fan of their cases (too bulky for what I want) but I'd jump all over a Rapids case if they became the jersey sponsor.  Heck, maybe we could get them to do a limited edition Centennial 38 case run in this scenario. :D

Here are the cliff notes of the rest of the Hinchey interview.  No real news in here, most of it other than the jersey sponsor talk is what we heard at the Celtic in October, but it appears the plans haven't changed so that's something.

• They're getting a lot of interest in the shirt sponsorship (Gee, where have I heard that before)
• Season ticket renewals are near 85%
• The two key off the field areas are the shirt sponsor including finding the "right partner" (again, heard this before) and making the Dick a fortress
• The team has tripled its season tickets in the last 3 years
• A second Designated Player is "absolutely going to happen"
• Scouting on 3 different continents
• They've added talent to the front office/technical staff, now its time to add talent on the field
• Success in 2015 on the field is Progress, doing better than 2014, making the playoffs, doing better against rival clubs like FSL and KC (when did KC become a rival?), consistency.  Off the field its growing the supporter base had having fans who are happy.

Again it was mainly a rehash of the same topics from the C38 Town Hall in October.  My opinion hasn't changed.  Talk is cheap, its time, especially now that we're through the holidays, for actions.  Time to sign some of those "difference-makers" Hinchey and Bravo have talked about (Burling/Calvert/Harrington aren't difference-makers).

Mwanga Loaned To Cosmos, Hinchey Speaks

• Today the Rapids announced that Danny Mwanga has been loaned to the Cosmos until the end of the 2014 season, but the Rapids can recall him up to the roster freeze date on Sept. 15th.

Probably a good move for all involved.  Mwanga clearly isn't working out in Colorado and I'm not sure he has MLS talent anymore.  There's no reason to give him playing time here, so maybe he can get some in NY.

• Also this week Tim Hinchey sat down with Benjamin Kowalsky of Burgundy Wave for a discussion.

There's some interesting comments there but its the same level of talk we've heard from the Rapids FO for a while now.  At this point talk is cheap, actions is what important.  Hinchey doesn't make me believe any less that the team decided a few weeks ago to punt until 2015.  He talks about finding "difference-makers" this offseason and seems to suggest we don't have the right mix of players now (though that may just be some lack of clarity in the author's transcription) but we had an open transfer window a month ago when we were still in the hunt and made no moves to fix those problems.  Why not?  Its another public indicator of being satisfied with whatever the current roster could do in the rest of 2014 and it appears this roster can't do much.

I do find the comments about a USL-Pro partnership being announced hopefully next month interesting.  Given the multiple flat rejections to the idea of partnering with the Switchbacks in the Springs I'm assuming they won't be the partner.  Who will be?  Plus the long term plan of having a PDL, USL-Pro, Women's (in whatever league), and MLS team playing out of the Dick would be great if they can make it happen.

Finally his comments about a second DP confirm something I heard from a secondhand source last week, the Rapids have a specific player in mind and authorization to sign another DP.  No more information than that but it will be interesting to see who this might be.  Though the fact that Hinchey calls Torres a core member of the squad and Chris Bianchi reports he's not real happy at the moment makes me wonder if this DP will end up replacing our current one.

Comments From The Front Office

I was going to keep these private, but somebody has already shared them from the Rapids end and had them posted on BigSoccer, so I can share them here.

Yesterday I received the following email directly from Rapids President Tim Hinchey in response to my post on Saturday:

Jason,

Perhaps it might be worth your energy to at some point actually investigate your “concerns or claims”  with our club prior to your blogging.  Or perhaps not, clearly you’re call.  Every “fan” has their right to criticize their home club even if completely unsubstantiated or inaccurate.

However, we are not “killing time” on our coach search nor do you have any clue how to run a professional sports organization and any such complications when hire a head coach.  Therefore, if you value actually learning more, give me call as like I did with SI last week, I’m happy to fully and honestly explain our efforts.  If not, I find your blog completely ridiculous and nothing more than your own personal venting tool.

Respectfully,

Tim

This morning I sent the following response:

Tim, I appreciate the interest in my blog.  My writing is from the point of view of a dedicated Rapids fan, its not meant as reporting.  My points in the article about our coaching situation were based on conversations Rapids fans are having this off-season.  While I'm sure you have valid reasons for the decisions you are making you must realize that a major professional sports team not having a head coach a month after training camp opened and less than 4 weeks until the start of the season is highly unusual.  Particularly since this isn't a new situation, Pareja left the team at the beginning of January.  The fans are wondering what's going on and are understandably concerned about the effect the missing role will have on our season and on the players.

I appreciate the offer to talk, but honestly I'm not interested in being a reporter.  That type of media requires more work and focus than I can give it, and I wouldn't want to do a halfway job.  If it helps you to look at my blog as "ridiculous" and "my own personal venting tool" then so be it, though I would hope that having fans interested enough in the team to go through the trouble of setting up a blog would be something welcomed by the Front Office, not belittled.  I want nothing more than the Rapids to succeed and win another MLS Cup along with their first Supporters Shield and U.S. Open Cup as well as retain the Rocky Mountain Cup.  

If I can answer any more questions for you I'd be happy to, otherwise thank you for the feedback and good luck to the team in 2014.  Please keep reading View From the Couch if you want the fans view from outside the organization.

I then received the following from Tim Hinchey:

If you make personal attacks and criticize me or staff in an ignorant fashion than simply expect my direct response.  I choose not to do this to embarrass you publicly.  Whereas that's how you chose to communicate your points, which is your right.  As evidenced over my entire tenure, I rarely feel compelled to seek out our fan bloggers in any challenging way.  However your comments where totally ridicuolus.  Your email response asking and suggesting whether "I realize" we need a coach is offensive.  I have worked in professional sports for over 20 years and I doubt I would be in my current position if I was so clueless. 

Bottom line is that blogs are public.  If I feel any public comments about our club or my staff are offensive I will respond directly to the author.  If the author or fan would like to have a true better understanding of how professional teams actually operate, then as always, I offer my accessibility to educate.  

As for what the fans think, I actively engage and respectfully respond daily.  I also feel the majority of our growing fan base, including C38, feel more supportive and less critical of our current status. In fact, we've set a club renewal record for season tickets and have sold more than a 1000 new full season tickets thus far.  These business metrics clearly indicate our fans are supporting the club and our efforts to find the absolute right coach for this club.  Simply appointing any candidate to satisfy any minority outside pressure would be foolish. 

I have always read and supported all our fan blogs.  We work hard to provide all of our bloggers as much access to this club as they need or want.  I would match our front office against any in any sport for this access and interest. 

Sorry for my rant but like you, I have tremendous passion for this club and when I feel it has been unfairly harmed, I will fight for it. 

Respectfully,

Tim

90 minutes after my email to Tim, excerpts of it were posted on BigSoccer.

Comments welcome

Tim Hinchey AMA

Tim Hinchey had a reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) this afternoon with a number of interesting notes.  In no particular order and my reactions to the information:

Number of coaching candidates interviewed:

None thus far. Since the transition was so late, we didn't want to rush. We have a solid infastructure in our Soccer Ops group that can take us forward while we start the formal search.

Um, what?!?  Just over 6 weeks to the start of the season and we haven't even started interviewing coaches?  Ridiculous.  Somebody has to lead this team.

Asked why Pablo hasn't just been named coach:

Appreicate the Pablo comment, clearly I'm a fan, however we will be reaching out to several other candidates before we make any final decision.

When pushed as to why they're screwing around with this and not just naming Pablo since that's clearly what they're going to do:

 We will talk with other candidates, and that has begun this week. I think Pablo is great and clearly could be the most important person ever to work for this club.  

So there's really some other candidates that would be interested in taking over a team weeks before the season starts?  Really?  Consider me skeptical.

Plans for the new home kit reveal:

New kit will be home so new Burgundy and will be launched just before the opener

Good that we're staying burgundy, but I'd prefer to see it before we're a week into the season (we'll wear the Colorado flag blues for our season opener in NY).

Status of a jersey sponsor:

this continues to be my biggest challenge thus far, we've been very active and have engaged a third party firm to help us secure the shirt deal. It keeps my up at night and I'm personally disappointed I haven't delivered this yet.

Wait, haven't we heard that before in 2010...and 2011...and 2012...and 2013?  Should I just schedule this statement for January of 2015?

Status of the relationship with Arsenal:

We are actually making some decent progress here. They have a much bigger club to run with bigger challenges, etc, so we need to earn this partnership. Paul and I have had more access then ever in the last six months and I'm truly confident it will grow. Have Galindo here is a great step and he could become our first loan.

I only put this in as it confirms that Galindo would be a loan, not a signing.  The rest is what you would expect.

On what happened with Eloundou last year:

 Not more that has been reported really. To me, he was being held unfairly by clubs and some agents trying to cash in on the young man. working between federations is tough and way too political. We decided it was worth holding out for him as we think he's an amazing talent and deserves a safe enviornment to grow his craft and score a few goals for the Rapids! Thus far, he has truly impressed and is a great young man.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what Eloundou can bring.  Glad to see the faith in him from the FO.

Updates on Martin Rivero and Hendry Thomas

 we will not be bringing Martin back to the club at this time. He's a great pro and we wish him nothing but success. I'm 50/50 on Hendry. He too has been brilliant here for the Rapids, but we need to find middle ground financially.

So that makes it official with Rivero, no surprise.  I don't expect Thomas back either, especially if they're pursuing Galindo.

On the split of duties between Hinchey and Bravo, and KSE's support of the team:

Paul and I work very closely together. I am responsible for all aspects of our club, however I entrust Paul to run all over our soccer operations. I invest the majority of my time on the commercial business of the club and working to get our business to a break even or better. Stan's support has been amazing during my tenure and he's very supportive of the Rapids. 

Pretty much what they've made known for the last two years.  It also fits the "coach as the cook" idea, Bravo buys the ingredients (players) and the coach makes the meal (lineups and tactics).

On the rumor that Arsenal will be making a U.S. tour this summer:

 I think Arsenal is considering a one match visit as part of a larger tournament, not here at DSGP.

That would be incredibly lame if Kroenke couldn't get his EPL team to come to Denver while they were in the States.

On friendlies in general this summer:

No friendlies planned this summer thus far. We break for World Cup and then the World LAX Championships are here at DSGP for all of July. Make's it too tough.

I can appreciate the difficulties this summer, but it is a step down from Swansea City two years ago and the WCQ last year.  They need to raise the bar again in 2015 if nothing happens this summer.

On partnering with the new USL team in the Springs:

We will not be partnering that USL team.

And when asked what they had to do with the establishment of the team:

we had zero to do what that club. 

Well, that's pretty cut and dried.  Seems odd to pass up the opportunity but the blanket statements makes it seem tehre's something about the team they don't like.  I know the owners of the new team have some question marks around them, maybe that has something to do with it?

On the often floated idea of going to a Fall-to-Spring schedule:

Hate it. we've established 18 years of this time of year. Also, did you read recently that some clubs/league overseas want to consider changing to ours?

Good.  Its a stupid idea.

So some interesting bits of knowledge there.  Disappointed in the lack of a coaching search so far though.  They need to step it up on that front.

Meeting the Don

Commissioner Garber, accepting a Class VI scarf at the DSG Park Opening

Today I was invited by the Rapids to a media lunch with MLS Commissioner Don Garber and Rapids President Tim Hinchey.  Also included were media from Goal.com, MileHighSports, the Denver Post, and Centennial 38, among others.  There were 7 of us total.  We only had 45 minutes or so of the Commissioner's schedule but it was a chance to have a round table and ask him questions.  Most of the discussion focused on growing the league and youth development.  If you follow the league closely you'll have heard everything Garber had to say on those issues before, but he mentioned the new partnership with the French Football Federation to train our coaches, the supporters culture in Seattle and Portland and how it relates to the newly combined C38, and where the league needs to go to meet its 2022 goal of being one of the top leagues in the world.

I did get to ask him a couple of questions that relate to Colorado.  The first question I asked him was the status of the trademark dispute between C10 and MLS over the Rocky Mountain Cup.

I haven't mentioned this issue here before, so for a quick backstory over the offseason MLS filed U.S. trademarks on all the supporter cups in the league (the RMC, Cascadia Cup, Trillum Cup, etc.).  The only groups to really object were the Cascadia Cup between the 3 pacific NW teams and C10 to protect the Rocky Mountain Cup.  Last summer, after the Subaru sponsorship mess, C10 filed state trademarks on Rocky Mountain Cup in Utah and Colorado but MLS filed for a federal trademark.

Garber admitted to not being up to date on the status of the RMC dispute, being more focused on the more public (and as such, the bigger black eye for the league) Cascadia Cup dispute.  He did say that their goal in filing these trademarks is not to commercialize the cups, but to protect them from being picked up by other groups that would put the league in an awkward position.  The example he used was what if Sports Authority stepped in and trademarked the RMC to sponsor it.  The inference being that Dick's Sporting Goods might have an issue if the Sports Authority Rocky Mountain Cup was being played in Dick's Sporting Goods Park.  I was hoping for a more complete answer than that, but I wasn't expecting one. ;)

The other question I was able to ask him was about the push by a number of vocal fans that MLS should be playing the traditional Western Europe Fall-to-Spring schedule to reach the top level.  Given the forecast for Saturday's home opener calls for blizzard conditions and 6-12 inches of snow I asked him if MLS sees that at all realistic.  He essentially said no, and that the schedule isn't what's holding back the league from growing its fanbase.  Eventually, maybe its possible, but no time soon.

Afterwards I was able to talk to Hinchey one-on-one to ask him to follow up on the media hour last August where he "put his stake in the ground" and declared we would start 2013 with a jersey sponsor.  Clearly that didn't happen and he admitted it and took the blame.  He said its been harder than he expected and referred back to something he said in August, where they had a deal lined up and signed off on, only for the CEO of the company to kill it at the last moment (a source has said the deal was with Molson Coors and it was killed in a bit of political maneuvering between execs of the two former companies).  Because of their ongoing failure he said that they've hired an outside company to help them find a sponsor, and they're widening their scope to beyond Colorado-based companies to national companies that have something to offer Colorado.  He also said that the Western Union team sponsorship, which will be officially announced next week, came out of their attempts to sign them as a jersey sponsor and will amount to the 4th largest sponsorship deal in team history.

He does admit that at this point its almost less about the money and more a credibility issues, which I was happy to hear.  This carrot has been held out there under Hinchey long enough that its starting to become hard to believe that everything else is going as well as they say when they can't get this done.  You can't get up in front of the media and "put your stake in the ground" and then fail to follow through on that without taking a hit.  I don't really care about walking around with a corporate sponsor on my jersey but for me its a bit of the "canary in the coal mine".  If the FO can't get this done, what other opportunities to advance the club are they missing or failing to take advantage of?

Bravo and Hinchey Interviews Shed Light On The Off-Season

Two interviews with the Rapids leadership were published today.  Let's start with Chris Bianchi's interview of Paul Bravo for MLSSoccer.com.

“What people fail to realize is I’ve been around this club for a long time as a player, as an assistant coach, and now as a technical director,” Bravo told MLSsoccer.com last week. “We don’t make decisions here for our own personal good. We’re here to do what’s best for the club.

I think this is fair. There have been some unfair things said about Bravo over the last year from fans on BigSoccer and Facebook. There was even one fan who accused bravo of taking kickbacks from agents for signing their players (commonly referred to in soccer as a 'bung'). I don't doubt Bravo is doing what he thinks is best for the team and he's not intentionally tearing things down for the sake of his ego. That said, passion and best intentions isn't enough. You also have to be good at your job. The team made it fairly clear in the preseason that Bravo holds final responsibility for the roster makeup. He made some good moves this year (Rivero, Thomas) but also some poor ones (Edu, not having a backup for Pablo).

“We don’t make personal decisions,” Bravo said. “Now, what [the Kimura] deal netted us is Hendry Thomas [due to the allocation money acquired], at the end of the day is the way I look at it.”

Interesting note that we did use the allocation money we got in the Kimura trade, and used it to sign Thomas. Because the details of that stuff is never revealed to the public we don't know if the Rapids could have gotten the Thomas deal done without the Kimura allocation money, so we'll have to take Paul's word for it. That makes the Kimura trade a solid move for the team, even if it meant losing a fan favorite like Koz.

Moving on there was a more in-depth interview with Tim Hinchey at isportconnect.com.

What’s the latest regarding the shirt sponsor?We’ve been engaged with a particular company for the last couple of months....After having success delivering one for Derby County, I thought we could come in, take the same best practices and get it done, but it’s not gone as fast as I thought.

Good to hear that negotiations are proceeding for a jersey sponsor. Earlier this year Hinchey said that it wasn't an absolute requirement to sign a DP, but it would go a long way to making it possible. He also stated that we would start the 2013 season with a sponsor, so the clock is ticking.

How important is that the ‘fan experience’ to your success? Any plans to expand it?The ‘driveway to driveway experience’ is critical to the success of our club. That fan experience journey – when they’re putting on their kits at home and when their getting excited about it – that’s something unique about our sport. It’s a good day out at the park; our key supporters’ base come early, parking is free, they tailgate, they barbecue, they have their flags out.

I'm glad to see Hinchey appears to recognize the value of the supporters groups.  I know there's work to be done this off-season between the club and SG's, so lets hope things continue in the direction they've been going the last 3 years.

You had your first international friendly in years versus Swansea City. Do you have any more plans to bring in any more events to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park?We’re going to look at that every year. We purposely wanted to illustrate to our fan base that we were prepared to invest and bring quality clubs back into Dick Sporting Goods Park.... It was a fantastic day out and we got fantastic feedback, but when it came down to the matchday, 8000 people came versus our average crowd now is about 15,000. We get a lot of request for this, but the turnout was a bit disappointing.

The answer also talks about the success of the women's National Team game at the Dick and that they want to bring more of these events to the Dick.  Last week the Rapids announced they would be bidding for one of the 6 home World Cup Qualifiers in 2013.  I had similar concerns about the success of the Swansea friendly as Tim seems to have.  Its hard to justify that expense if you're only going to draw 8K.

What would it take for Mr Kroenke to allow you to sign a marquee name?First and foremost, I am never going to recommend that we bring over a marquee player over 30. I’m not interested in retiring a player in our league and paying that kind of potential salary on someone who may have one or two good years – that’s just not what our philosophy is going to be. If we can illustrate to our fan base that we’re authentically investing in a quality product, that’s going to mean more to me than bringing in a name that we think might marginally increase our commercial output.

Of course this is the $64,000 question for Rapids fans.  I like the fact that they;re more interested in signing a young player than an older name.  Of course, as I said last week, I'll believe it when I see it.

Fascinating Happy Hour With Rapids Executives

Tonight I was invited along with other bloggers and press to a happy hour with Rapids President Tim Hinchey, Rapids General Manager Paul Bravo, Rapids Head Coach Oscar Pareja.  Rapids Director of Media Relations David Lindholm organized the event and was also present.  There were 8-10 of us talking with the Rapids leadership trio.  Some of the other blogs and press included the Denver Post, Goal.com, ColoradoRapidsfan.com, and Burgundy Wave.

Most of this is going to be just a random set of impressions and information I got out of the gathering but I wanted to mention how interesting it was to listen to Coach Pareja speak.  I don't know if he's the long-term answer in Colorado yet but he is certainly passionate about his plans.  He talked about his time with the Colombian National Team in the 90's, the fact that parts of the game are "in his blood", and the mentality of players he wants playing for him.  I don't know what the result of his time in Colorado will be, but I'm glad I got the chance to listen to him talk.

Otherwise here's some of the random information and impressions I got out of the evening:

• Hinchey stated that he's put his stake in the ground, that there will be a shirt sponsor by the beginning of the 2013 season.
• The shirt sponsorship will probably make the Rapids profitable.  The average sponsorship in the league is 2.5 million a year, and the Rapids lost 2.2 million last year.
• The shirt sponsorship is not a requirement to sign a DP but it would go a long, long way to making it possible.
• Bravo's trip to Africa last month turned up two players they're working on getting visas for, a 17-18 year old striker and a 20-21 year old central midfielder.  It was unclear if they're just coming over for trials or the Rapids are actually signing them.
• It sounds like one of these players was on one of the Olympic teams eliminated before the semis, but Bravo may have been referring to a 3rd player they're pursuing.
• Pareja's system isn't just his system.  The whole club, from the 8/9/10 year olds up to the first-team, are using the same playing style and system.  This started even before Papi was hired when Bravo first showed up in 2009.
• The team has had to work hard to make in-roads into the Colorado youth system, but its finally starting to pay off.  They have to do very little recruiting now, the success of the youth teams is starting to drive talent to them.
• The biggest obstacle right now seems to be inertia.  Players who have played with Rush/Real/Storm teams since they were 6 years old tend to want to stay with their friends and club instead of moving into the Rapids system.
• OP seemed to be willing to go down with his system.  He's learned about the team and made tweaks, but the foundation of the system won't change.
• One of the tweaks started with the Swansea game, where he flipped the midfield triangle from one holding mid and two attackers in front of him to two holding mids and one attacker.
• Mullan playing right back in the second half last week after Nane's injury may not be a one-off thing.  It sounds like he spent some time training there this week.
• The door is open anywhere in the club for whatever Pablo wants to do.  If he wants to come back and play, coach, announce, get involved on the business side, whatever.
• All three of them admitted places where they had been wrong this season, and they weren't minor things.

I can't say my perception of where the team is or my opinion of any of the three leaders was changed significantly by spending time with them, but it was interesting to get their take on things.   When push comes to shove though, its still going to come down to results.  The one thing I realized is that this system that the team is using is coming from all the leadership, not just Pareja.  So if the system is the problem just changing Pareja isn't going to be enough, its going to take a complete change of leadership.  If the system is right though, the club's development is going to feed right into it for years.

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.