by Mark Bodmer
This piece is the opinion of the author only and doesn’t reflect Class VI, the Pid Army, or anyone else in any way.
The news has become official. Jeff Plush’s tenure at running the club has come to an end.
I want to keep this completely on the positive as we say farewell to a major part of Rapids history. Before we move on to the next chapter I’d like to acknowledge the past accomplishments of Jeff Plush.
First of all, Jeff Plush got entirely too much crap from Rapids fans. Do I agree with the criticisms of many Rapids faithful in how the club was being run? You bet. The difference is, I don’t put the responsibility fully on Jeff’s shoulders. The man was put into a very difficult position. Your distaste should be mainly directed at Stan Kronke and KSE Inc.
Jeff has taken the Colorado Rapids into the next level of American Soccer football culture. He oversaw the construction of DSG Park and he deserves major kudos for that. I’ve visited a good number of new soccer stadiums in this country and DSG Park is a fine place to watch the game. The surrounding fields have played a very important part in building youth soccer in this state. The launch of the stadium was fantastic and it took a savy business man to handle the enormity of that task while at the same time rebranding the team. When the Rapids were green and black/blue, you didn’t see the number of fans sporting the colors the way you see today.
It did take a while for him to change the marketing focus of the Rapids from group sales family types to start selling the team as a real football club. If you put that blame fully on his shoulders, you’re being too simple placing your anger toward the only face you know and recognize. When the team launched, he was instructed to model the team after FC Dallas. Ask anyone in Dallas how successful that has been.
But contrary to popular belief, he heard each and every fan out there. We hated the cheerleaders – gone. We hated the stupid half time entertainment and the gimmicks to sell the team like having a crappy band play after the game – wacked. When a Class VIer wrote me with a list of complaints of why they weren’t renewing a season ticket – I sent it on to Jeff because it was laid out better then I’ve seen most complaints. Jeff personally contacted this person to discuss the issues. And this is NOT the only time he did this.
Jeff spoke personally with many of the clubs true fans himself instead of sending someone to appease the customer. In fact, I’ve always been amazed at how accessible Jeff was to the fans – especially in the face of constant criticism. He came out to just about every tailgate we had over the years to speak with supporters.
When die hard Rapids fans and the dwindling number of supporters expressed the desire to improve the atmosphere into a true football match – he took the leap of faith in Supporters and built the Terraces. Let’s be clear: We approached him to move the standing supporters section to the existing north bleachers to isolate the supporters and free them up to support the team without getting the “dipping dots” as they are affectionately known upset. It was Jeff that purposed the construction of MLS’s first standing terrace. That’s not an insignificant decision he made. I was laughed at when I called it a historic day in Rapids history, but historic it was. It has changed going to a game at DSG Park for everyone.
Jeff Plush played a MAJOR role is getting the atmosphere at DSG Park to where we are today. It’s too bad he doesn’t get enough pats on the back for taking that first major step in supporting his team’s supporters. From there, he’s been nothing but supportive of the efforts we’ve put forth.
Does the marketing suck for the Rapids? I think so. I believe with the resources he has it hasn’t been too bad. The Rapids are well known to have the smallest operating budget in the league and money set aside for marketing is no where near what other team’s owners spend. I puny resources that Jeff had to work with were a major reason the results were so poor. It’s the real reason for many of the complaints fans have of the Rapids Front Office. They all work very hard with the little they have. This is not going to be solved by replacing Jeff Plush.
One thing that always was ridiculous to me is when people claim that Jeff Plush didn’t want to win. It’s certainly not his fault we don’t have a designated player. It’s an unfair criticism, especially after coming off MLS Cup 2010 as champions! It was Jeff that hired Gary Smith. If you’re going to place the blame on his shoulders for the losing seasons, you need to give credit for the championship. You think the team did it in spite of Jeff Plush? I say Jeff did it in spite KSE.
The Rapids are just another division of KSE Inc. If you had problems with how security treated you and your reaction is to be angry at the Rapids, then you’re a bit misguided. DSG Park is it’s own entity and are the ones that place many of the rules we have. Jeff helped bridge the gap between the stadium people who hire and direct Argus security, but in the end, the Rapids had about as much control over them as they do over Altitude TV. Think of it this way, when Altitude sucked – Jeff took the Rapids to another station. It’s too bad he couldn’t take the Rapids to a different stadium!!
He, like his successor, have to deal with years of disgruntled fans that are jaded by how the team has been run. AEG understandably put little attention to the Rapids as they worked to save MLS (and in fact saved the Rapids from folding along with the Florida teams) and now we move to an owner that has attended two Rapids games in history – the stadium opener and MLS Cup 2010. He’s driven all his teams except Arsenal into the ground, but we soccer fans seem to be more vocal and passionate then Avs or Nuggets fans. That’s a credit to Jeff Plush too since he’s grown the die hard fan base since KSE took the reigns. Don’t believe me? If you ever attended a playoff game before Gary Smith was coaching, you’d know the attendance has grown tremendously!
Over the years, I’ve come to know and respect Jeff Plush and wish him all the best. He’s been nothing but honest and supportive to me and all the efforts of the supporters leadership since the terraces were put in place. He’s brought the beginnings of what I hope will become a supporters atmosphere to DSG Park that is known throughout MLS. I thank him for all he’s done to help supporters get to where we are today. In 2007 there were about thirty or forty people in the old standing supporters group and Class VI had about seventy five. Today the two groups number about five hundred combined and breaking new ground each season. That wouldn’t have been possible without the support Jeff Plush gave to us.
