Both Mohawk Blogger and The Global Game: Left Wing blogs comment on the disappearence of the MetroStars, a flagship franchise in the United States' first division Major League Soccer. The team hasn't disappeared, per se, but it was bought out by the Red Bull energy drink company and renamed the New York Red Bulls.
Apparently the authority that runs Giants Stadium, where the Red Bulls play, is peeved that the team's new name contains New York. Giants Stadium is located in New Jersey and the new stadium being built for the club is in Harrison, also in New Jersey.
There was talk that the new management would erase all of the team's records to start afresh, as they did when they bought out the hundred year old Austrian club SV Salzburg. This would've been a catastrophe for the team's (or should I call them the entity's) fans and for the entity's already fragile identity. Fortunately, that did not happen but it did create some ill feeling.
Tab Ramos, the best player in MetroStars history, slammed the move.
"How could I not be sad? I was part of the beginning of something and I was proud of that, and that whole thing has disappeared," Ramos said yesterday. "The identity has been lost. In Europe, there are plenty of teams that haven't won a championship in 100 years and they are still around with all their history. I wanted to win a championship here. We tried as hard as we could. You look at all the work that has been done for 10 years, and that's gone."
He added: "It's unfortunate, because whether the MetroStars have been a winning team or not, you have to remember there are thousands of people that have followed the team for 10 years, and it hurts them more than anyone else,"
And the $100 million investment by Red Bull will not have the same impact on the team on the field as it would in almost any other league around the world. MLS' structure and rules stipulates that all player acquisitions and contracts must be negotiated by the central league office. All teams are subject to the same salary cap restriction (well, in theory... MLS bends its rules more often than Pres. Bush bends the US Constitution). But no MLS team is going to be allowed to bring in a Zinedine Zidane or Thierry Henry. In fact, Red Bull won't actually own the franchise; MLS money men are called 'investor-operators.'
The lack of identity is something the MetroStars/Red Bulls have been fighting since MLS' debut in 1996. Giants Stadium is just sort of out there in the middle of suburbia. While they share a location with the Devils hockey team and Giants NFL football team, there is a difference. The Devils have been very successful for the last decade. And the Giants had a huge following before they moved to New Jersey.
The other problem the franchise faces is a microcosm of the challenge faced by MLS as a whole. The New York city metro area is home to probably the country’s most diverse immigrant population, which would make you think it a great recruiting ground for MLS fans. But as they come from other countries, they realize that the quality of MLS does not compare favorably to the top Western European leagues so they don’t bother to support the team in the middle of suburban New Jersey. They save their pennies for the one-off friendlies (exhibitions) between, say, Chelsea and AC Milan that come every summer and attract four times as many fans as the biggest stand-alone Metros game despite high ticket prices.
Identity and tradition are something that are important to build loyalty in sport, loyalty that can withstand the normal ups and downs of success (or not) on the field. You can't build tradition overnight, but Red Bull has demonstrated that you can dismantle tradition overnight.
The team's management essentially has to start from scratch again. MLS is notorious for this. The Dallas Burn became FC Dallas. The Kansas City Wiz became the Kansas City Wizards. The New York/New Jersey MetroStars became just the MetroStars became the New York Red Bulls. The San Jose Clash became the San Jose Earthquakes became Houston 1836 became Houston Dynamo. The Colorado Rapids changed their colors from green and black to blue and black. The Tampa Bay Mutiny and Miami Fusion were contracted out of existence. All this in a league that's only ten years old. Tradition? Stability? Pft!
MLS teams need to follow the model of its two teams that have been most successful both on and off the pitch: DC United and Los Angeles Galaxy. The two key elements those two clubs both have are:
-A winning tradition. DC United has won 11 major trophies in 10 years while Los Angeles has won 7. I don't think any other team has half that. They are also the only two teams to win the CONCACAF Champions Cup as the best team in all of North America.
-A great stadium atmosphere. LA's Home Depot Center is the best stadium in the league. It's relatively small by American outdoor sports standards (seats about 27,000) but perfect for soccer. The crowd is loud and boisterous and right on top of the field. DCU's RFK Stadium isn't the ideal venue but it does hold in noise very well and their raucous fans are the best in the game.
MLS needs to worry about improving the quality of play and the stadium experience for its other clubs instead of obsessing about stupid marketing gimmicks and changing things every year. Has the league ever had the same playoff structure for three consecutive seasons?
Sports Illustrated opines, optimistically I suspect, that renaming an entire team after a corporate sponsor is not likely to be followed.
On a related note, the team's general manager Alexi Lalas was bullish (sorry couldn't resist the pun) about the potential involvement of German great and former New York Cosmos Franz Beckenbauer. "He's an idol of mine and a gentleman and a wonderful bridge between what happened with the Cosmos and what's happening here.
Lalas was more cool on the possibility of working with another former Cosmo, Giorgio Chinaglia. Chinaglia is quite possibly the only soccer person next to whom former US international and current television analyst Eric Wynalda comes across as a sympathetic figure. Says Lalas, "Giorgio thinks we should fire the front-office staff, the players, and the coaches. So as far as I'm concerned, he can kiss my ass."
Indeed.
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