The Badge, the Players, and the Fans Deserve Better

 

This morning Centennial 38 released the first statement above, calling on KSE to invest in the Colorado Rapids in a way befitting a professional MLS team.  Early this afternoon KSE released the second statement in response.

To be very up front I helped draft C38's statement and I stand behind everything we said in it.  It was a group effort, so it was never going to match 100% what anyone of us wanted to say, but as a whole it accurately reflects the state of the club and the fan's frustration with it.

My thoughts on KSE's response is that there wasn't much they could say after 4 hours that was going to be convincing, but leading with your real estate plans kind of draws a line under the problem.  The main reason they led with that is because they are already working on it, so its something they could put a reasonable date on in a short period of time, but that in and of itself shows the issue.  As bad as this team is, on and off the field, there are no current plans in the works to fix it.  Instead the organization is focused on a retail development outside the stadium.

Centennial 38 is following this statement up with a protest at Saturday's game.  Fans who wish to participate are being asked to wear black instead of burgundy & blue and a large number of C38 members will be staging a walkout in the 20th minute.  The plan is to go back to the tailgate lot and continue the tailgate part for the rest of the game there (though I'm guessing some people will retreat to the bar to watch the CU-CSU game instead).

We Are Who We Thought We Were

Today's press conference with Padraig Smith to discuss the state of the club after firing Fraser went just about as you expect it would, which is to say not well.  The whole thing (1 h 11m) is on YouTube and if you can spare the time I'd watch it, just so you can fully understand where Smith thinks the club is and where he thinks it should go.

The one thing that was clear to me is that KSE has no plans to significantly increase their investment in the club anytime soon.  We're going to have to figure out how to succeed with the resources we have.  You won't actually hear that in the press conference, but the way Smith avoided mentioning any type of new investment and actively discouraged the idea whenever it came up made it clear we shouldn't expect any.  This would be the time to announce it if KSE had plans.

Smith also kept bringing the idea of investment back to "buying players" but there's a lot more to investment than spending money on the first team.  First of all investment isn't just money.  Its also interest and care about the team, which KSE has never shown.  But its also investment in the stadium, training facilities, staff, and all the other pieces that go into running an organization like this.  They all need help, but Padraig's answers today make me question if he even knows how far behind the team is in those areas.

The rest of the press conference was Padraig doubling-down on everything he's said between 'The Rapids Way' and yesterday's letter to season ticket holders about how he thinks the club should be run.  Every reason that we're in this situation was some version of deviating from that plan, every answer to how we get back on track was some reference to that plan.  Of course there was very little to explain why we got off that plan other than some version of "Fraser made the decision" and no explanation as to why he's hired two coaches (Hudson and Fraser) who decided to deviate from the plan.

Even if the plan is the right one, which I'm not convinced of, I'm pretty sure Smith can't lead this club to execute it.  Its no help to have the right answer if you can't present it in a way to get everyone else on board and pulling in the same direction.  He couldn't prevent Hudson from deviating (apparently), he couldn't prevent Fraser from doing the same (again, apparently).  Why should we believe he can find a coach who will stay on plan this time?

In the end I haven't seen a single fan on any social media or message boards who's reacted well to the last two days.  The Rapids are standing at the edge of a precipice and are planning to jump off with no parachute.  The number of dedicated fans, deeply involved in Centennial 38 or other similar things, who have told me this afternoon and evening that they're out or are seriously considering it should be setting off alarm bells in Commerce City.  Losing the few dedicated fans the team has combined with a club falling further and further behind the rest of the league is not a picture that ends well.  Chivas USA is not an unfair comparison when you have reports that the club was reported to the union for inadequate training facilities.  I don't see a light at the end of the tunnel that isn't an oncoming train anytime soon.

As for me, I don't know what I'm going to do.  There are 5 home games left, and I have conflicts with each of the next three.  I was planning to choose the Rapids for two of the three but now I'm rethinking that.  As far what happens after the season?  I'm not renewing my tickets as of right now.  Maybe thy knock it out of the park with the coaching hire and player signings and if so I may renew.  Short of that though I might find something else to do with my investment.  If KSE isn't going to spend money, why should i?

Rapids Lose RMC, Fraser Fired, Smith Throws Him Under The Bus

Ok, buckle in, there's a lot to cover and I have no idea how long this will end up being.  We're going to go in chronological order starting with Saturday's game and ending with Padraig Smith's letter to season ticket holders.

Not that there's much to talk about with Saturday's game.  A 2-0 loss that we were once again never really in.  With that result FSL wins the Rocky Mountain Cup again with a game to play.  That is now 1 win in our last 15 league games, 1 win in our last 18 games in all competitions, and we've been shutout in 9 of our last 10 league matches.  We've been shutout in 15 of our 26 league games this season.  At least Bassett apologized for the result.

Clearly something had to change, and as expected, the ax fell on Robin Fraser this morning.  He leaves the club 3rd in regular season games managed behind Mooch and Pablo and 3rd in pts/game for his Rapids career, behind Smith and Mooch.  It was actually just the last 3 losses that knocked him down from first to third in that stat, before the Leagues Cup break he was just barely ahead of Smith for the top spot still.

Assistant Coach Chris Little will manage the team as interim coach.  Reportedly the coaching search will start immediately, not wait for the offseason.  Still I think we can assume Little will get the last 8 games of the season.

Sadly Fraser had to go.  It was apparent watching the last three games that he had lost the locker room.  There was no drive or energy from this team, and it looked more like 11 individuals on the field than 1 team.  These are things that regardless of talent a coach should be able to implement, and we've seen Robin do this in the past.  Clearly something had soured and he wasn't going to be able to lead this team any longer.

That said, those are all symptoms of the bigger problem, the absolute trash fire that this organization has turned into.  We've covered off the field issues (stadium quality, communications, etc.) before so I'm not going to get into them tonight, but keep in mind everything I am going to talk about is in the context of the rest of the club being an absolute mess, with the only thing working being Rapids 2. There is no clearer example of this than the letter Club President Padraig Smith sent to season ticket holders today:

Excuse me?  This is throwing Fraser under the bus, running him over, stopping, and backing up over him again.  Its a ridiculous abdication of any sense of responsibility for Smith's part in this fiasco of a season and really causes me to lose a lot of respect for him.  Based on the reaction on social media, I'm hardly alone in this assessment.

Before we get into a detailed analysis of this letter I think its time I be open with anyone reading.  Over the last 4+ years going back to the 2019 preseason I've had multiple opportunities to sit down with Padraig Smith one on one and talk to him about the state of the team, his plans, and everything else.  I was always clear with him that I wasn't going to carry water for the FO, and he was always clear with me about what was on the record and what was off the record, and I've always respected that.  I will continue to respect that, as I gave my word.  The opinion I got of Padraig during those one on ones is not the same opinion I get of somebody who would write this letter.  It makes me think that he's a great talker, but doesn't back up his talk with actions.

Let's go through this.  First of all, the idea that "this isn't a decision we took lightly".  Isn't he the club President?  Doesn't the buck stop with him?  He's also the guy who hired Fraser and was operating as the GM until just a few months ago when the promotions happened.  I have a hard time believing that the final call was anyone's but Smith's, and he should step up and say he made the call.

The next paragraph is detailing the success Robin had, which amounts to the club record season in 2021 and one (1!) Rocky Mountain Cup.  Listen, as much work as I've put into the RMC I love to see it taken seriously, but a supporter-run rivalry trophy being the second best result in a coach's tenure is somewhat damming.  Its even more so when you realize that's the only RMC we've won since Padraig Smith and Wayne Brandt took over in 2017.   That 2021 season is also the only home playoff game we've had in that time period as well.  So its a bad look when you can only come up with two things to mention about a coach's tenure, but its a disastrous look when you realize that no other coach under the current leadership can claim even those minimal successes.

Smith then goes on to detail out the current situation and how poor it is, and why that led them to make the change.  Funny thing is, we just got done with a transfer window where it was clear we needed to make changes to avoid this situation, and the best that Smith and Fran Taylor could do is a solid left back and two loan-to-buy players, and they couldn't even get the latter two here in time to help in Leagues Cup.  This after an offseason window that netted us, if we're generous, one MLS quality starter in Maxso.  Gersbach was a waste of a signing, Ronan has potential but would be a backup anywhere else in the league, Cabral was a disaster move that will hurt us for years, and we wasted transfer fees and an international slot on a goalkeeper that can't parry a free kick to keep it out of our net against our rival.

Is any of that mentioned when detailing the current problems?  No, not a peep.  Instead Smith states that this team is capable of "much, much more" than they have shown so far.  Notably both this language and the language he used in that press availability a couple of weeks ago is identical to the language he used when he fired Hudson.  In that case he was proven correct as both Casey and then Fraser came in and took those players to much higher finishes than Hudson was able to.  But now he's suggesting that Fraser is incapable of doing that again?  Is it that Fraser changed, or is it that this group of players is not that group of players?

The next paragraph goes on to flog the success in 2021 again, talking about how they had a systemic approach to build on successes each year from 2018 through to 2021.  Given that Fraser wasn't even here until late 2019 there's some sell-promotion going on there.  The next line is actually admitting that they've deviated from that path since 2021, but then taking no responsibility for that, using a royal "we".  Smith talks about how we need to be a team that plays to its strengths.  I'm not sure this team has any strengths right now.  A team that emphasizes player development.  How many chances has Yapi had this year?  What happened to Toure?  How is Vallecilla's development going?  Where exactly is Abe Rodriguez and Adam Beaudry going to play now that you've signed Ilic?  The next one is a direct quite from the Rapids Way about approaching each game with urgency, boldness, etc. and a desire to win.  Well, I'm not seeing much f a desire to win out of the current players, so I don't know how a new coach is going to change that.

Smith's last line in this section is getting back to being a team that gets results and makes our supporters proud.  First of all, this team has never been a team that's gotten results in any sort of sustained way, and the one time we did, from 2019-2021, was under the coach that was just fired.  As far as being proud, well, its hard to be proud of an organization that won't take responsibility for their decisions, that runs a substandard game day operation, and who has to be reported to the players union for not keeping the facilities in a state that professional players feel comfortable using them.

The letter ends with typical meaningless niceties after that, but I think the point has been made.  As I said at the beginning it was time for Fraser to go, most of the supporters understood that even if we weren't happy about it.  But this letter was insulting in how it placed the blame on Robin, how it took no responsibility, and how it continues a pattern of this organization not understanding the fanbase.  Its more evidence that the Front Office lives in a bubble where they won't talk about bad things and they hope they can keep their heads down, celebrate the once-every-five-years successes, and keep drawing in the casual fan for their "fun night out" 2-3 times a season.  Until that attitude changes nothing else about this team will.

The Only Game Left That Matters

I'm not going to spend too long on this, because we all know what tomorrow is.  Rocky Mountain Cup part 2.  We lost the first game, at home 3-2 so a loss tomorrow means FSL keeps the Cup.  A draw means we need to win our home finale by two to claim it.  A win, which seems very unlikely, means all to play for in the home finale.  If the Rapids want this season to mean anything, to show the fans there's still something to root for here, they have to win this game.  A loss and I think Fraser is fired Monday morning.  Kickoff is at 7:30 on Apple TV.

Availability Report:

OUT: GK William Yarbrough (knee surgery), D Alex Gersbach (tendon surgery), Max (removed from team activities)

QUESTIONABLE: D Keegan Rosenberry (lower body injury), M Jonathan Lewis (lower body injury), , F Diego Rubio (lower body injury) 

I'm not even going to put out a lineup for this one.  Fraser needs to find the 11 players who actually want to try to win this game and put them out there.  As long as one of them isn't Priso.

Prediction: 2-0 loss.  Given how this team has played for the last two months you can't really expect anything but a shutout loss.  Hopefully they surprise us, but I doubt it.

Burn It All Down

Another game, another loss where the team was 3 down in the first 30 minutes.  Really, there's nothing to say at this point.  This club is broken on every level, on and off the field.  I don't think Fraser is the main problem, yet I don't see how he doesn't get fired on Monday if he doesn't win in Sandy on Saturday.  Things are that bad.  At this point I honestly believe a new expansion team starting in 2024 would have a better chance of rebuilding this offseason than the Rapids do.  The only real hope is to just take the club down to the studs.  There is no player, coach, or staff member that can't be replaced.

Moving on to some of the records we're chasing to immortalize our futility in 2023:

Colorado is on pace to match the 2013 DC United team for lowest goal total in a 34 game season with 22 (we currently have 16).  2013 DCU also holds the league record for lowest goals/game average  That's setting aside the COVID-disrupted 2020 season for both of those records.

We need 12 points in 9 to avoid the worst points/game average in club history.

The Rapids need 3 points in the last 9 games to avoid putting up one of the 10 worst point totals in league history.  Our 19 points we've avoided the top 5 at least.

If we don't beat FSL on Saturday, we'll have 1 win in the last 15 league games, matching the team's worst run in their history, from the end of the 2014 season.

Only three teams in MLS history (post-Shootout) have 1 or 2 home wins in a season.  The 2018 Earthquakes and the 2020 and 2021 Cincinnati teams.  There's a good chance the Rapids join them with only 1 home win so far and home games left against New England, Seattle, Austin, Vancouver, and FSL.  The first 4 of those all occur in a 15 day window at the end of September.

In 2018 San Jose fans in their stadium saw 66 goals scored between the home and visiting teams.  In 2021 Cinci fans saw 46 goals.  (2020 had no fans in the stadium due to COVID).  So far this season fans at the Dick have seen 17 goals scored in league games.  7 for the Burgundy Boys and 10 for their opposition.  You could easily argue that as of right now the Rapids fans have had the worst home viewing season in league history.

This team stinks on a historic level.  And that's before we get to all the off-field problems.  Burn it down and start over with whole new leadership, technical staff, and players.