September 18, 2007
Jumping To Conclusions
Our Grand Poobah has been reading again...
We've been trying to bridge the gap that has been growing between the Rapids Front Office and Rapids Fans. Initiated by Chili of C-Firm fame, the RFO has been holding meetings between the leadership of CVI, C-Firm, & the RFO. The RFO host was none other than Managing Director, Jeff Plush.
Background: We fans love the Rapids, MLS, and Soccer, but let's not fool ourselves - it's not considered one of the big sports in the United States. Subsequently, the coverage by the main stream media severely sucks. In a sense, that's okay. Most of us don't even bother to get the newspaper anymore, and TV news is nothing more than the nightly police report.
Internet news has replaced all that old school crap with news that means something to each of us. Google knows everything, right? Yes, except when it comes to the Rapids.
The CIA could learn a thing or three about keeping secrets from the infamously close-mouthed Kroenke Sports. Even in the NHL world, Kroenke's Avalanche are known for being tighter than a turtle's ass.
This has a big impact on the relationship between the fans of MLS and the league itself. I can't speak to all markets, but certainly the coverage of the Rapids in Denver isn't stellar by any means.
What is particularly lacking is the investigative journalism that other sports get. If a fight breaks out in the NHL between two teammates, you will hear the exact details of what happened shortly after. If a Manager in Baseball has a blowout with one of his stars and is traded soon after, you'll find out the exact reasons why. This isn't the case with MLS.
(ed note: That goes double for the Rapids. I (BilFish) covered the Rapids for over a season, and was stymied at every turn from reporting anything interesting or controversial about the team. In fact, the team finally threatened to pull my press access if I didn't stop speaking with players directly as I was getting too much information the team didn't want public. Staff members were threatened with their jobs.)
Without all the detail, People often think the worst!
Anyway, that's why BigSoccer is electronic crack to Rapids fans! BS is where the rumors are spread and the fanatics are able to share anything from inside secrets, to rumors, to just blatantly imagined events. It is, in fact, BS.
So.... what kind of stuff are we talking about?
Take the game this weekend against Chivas USA (which we tied, way to stay in the game guys!). It was seen on the sidelines that Jovan Kirovski & Terry Cooke had a heated exchange of words. This was reported on Big Soccer. One person even commented that it looked like it could have turned into a physical confrontation between the two. Will we EVER know the truth of what happened? Nope. And in that vacuum of information, people will start jumping to conclusions.
In the absence of reliable information, I've no doubt that Jovan Kirovski will be deemed to be at fault or the asshole. Why? Because there's much unhappiness among fans about what he brings to the team, whereas Terry Cooke is very much loved for his skills and contributions (and Englishness).
So what does this have to do with meeting the Rapids Front Office? Patience, grasshoppers, patience.
The trade of Kyle Beckerman was one of the topics discussed. The perceived notion of why Kyle was traded away was that he and Fernando butted heads. In the complete absence of information, this seems reasonable.
There was even the slightly critical comments made by Kyle in the mainstream media to support that theory. FOF (Friends of Fernando) supported the same rift and suggested it was forced on the coach. The team press release laughably suggested that Ballouchy was "younger" and this somehow counted as a reason to trade.
But did any journalist find out the real story?
Here's what Jeff has offered to help fill in the non-existent explanations given so far about Beckerman's departure: There absolutely was no animosity between Kyle and Fernando nor the RFO. In fact, they love the kid so much, they made him the center of their marketing campaign. Jeff stated that it was a difficult decision to trade away such a good person. They had even turned down the exact same trade that was proposed at the very beginning of the season.
But Jeff states that Kyle was in fact deemed a luxury. They already had the best defensive midfielder in MLS, and Kyle is seen as another holding midfielder. Disagree that Kyle could be the center of attack? Jeff also states that in the National Team picture, that's the role Bob Bradley has Kyle defined for as well.
Thus the trade was made as most trades are made, trading a position of depth for a position of need. Now, did we get a fair trade in a straight swap? Dunno.
In coming days we'll talk about more communication items to see how we can help with this massive deficit of information.
What do you think? Discuss this Post
Posted by mark at September 18, 2007 12:10 AM