2014 Vancouver Whitecaps

[dezza]

Lost in Translation, made more sense in my mind in Portuguese.
AFIK, they were to be relegated last season but escaped the funny way that only teams in Mexico, Brazil and similar leagues seem to be able to pull.

BTW, nice job of nit picking about this while ignoring the idea behind the post...,

Ah yes, the old buy a club in a higher division and move/rename it to keep your relegated club up trick.

The reality is the Caps could not have got Ronaldinho at this time due to the fact that they already have 3 Designated Players (Morales + Rosales + Laba)

What will be interesting to see is if they can keep Rosales here next year on a non-DP contract, and then use that 3rd DP spot to get a real striker.

 

[Regs]

Wait, what? Rosales is a DP?

 

[dezza]

Just double checked. He's actually not anymore, but he was the 2 previous years. My mistake.

 

[STD]

Were there even 16K last night? Looked closer to 13,526 to me

actually 13,525 I could't make it last night. Boy what a great sports town this is. If only they would open the whole stadium.

 

[STD]

Just double checked. He's actually not anymore, but he was the 2 previous years. My mistake.

Rosales was a DP I believe with Chivas but the whitecaps had allocation money to bring him down to non DP level the same way they did for Reo Coker. Got to love this league with all its crazy rules.

 

[STD]

But you are right that cap room would be an issue and the fact that we play on the worst turf field in the league means it limits what player we can bring in.

 

[Regs]

The cap room shrinks even further every year Laba stays alive up to the age of 24 or something like that, no?

Agreed 100% on the crazy rules AND the worst turf (good luck with that ever being changed via government funding, thanks a lot you fcuking greedy teachers out there!)

 

[dezza]

There should be an updated salary list published by MLS next week, but the most obvious one that needs to be cleared is Mattock $232K.

 

[Bronco]

The cap room shrinks even further every year Laba stays alive up to the age of 24 or something like that, no?

Agreed 100% on the crazy rules AND the worst turf (good luck with that ever being changed via government funding, thanks a lot you fcuking greedy teachers out there!)

If only we had an owner who would build a 25K seat stadium with natural grass downtown somewhere.....wait a minute.

 

[Regs]

Yeah but then management would cap attendance at 15,000 to create an intimate atmosphere for "the best fan experience in Vancouver"

 

[Bronco]

Yes, but the tarp making industry would flourish!

 

[Regs]

LOL, great point!

 

[Mr Base]

Branco what is that orange thing on the side. Its not like Slavs to use viagra. I think Dasa needed it after that game vs Caps. He and Watson better look for new jobs before the end of a year.They are be-and terrible.
New stadium needs to be in Burnaby, New West area. You might see Quins Park be It. Down town is not possible with the coast of the land and cost of building of new stadium. Quins Park sounds better than some down town name.

 

[RL RCD]

Here we go again with the story about a new stadium! FFS, why would they need a new stadium? Get rid of the turf at BC Place (they'd have to talk first, of course, with BC Lions who apparently insist playing on turf) and that is it! Rich owners can pay for that; city or Province do not have to spend a single dollar!

Any organization that has a stadium with 55,000 seats should have a goal to put 55,000 butts in those seats and to do that takes certain skills: marketing (which neither, Whitecaps and BC Lions, have), a good, exciting product, and, of course, very, very cheap season tickets (single games, logically, can be more expensive but the goal should be to build huge fan base; soccer teams all around the World build their fan base based on the loyal fans, not on the corporate sponsorship - corporate sponsorship comes later when you can bill those with deep pockets higher prices for some additional services).
Whitecaps (and BC Lions) have all that wrong (at least BC Lions did not cap the number of seats). They set the prices, went after corporations (who are mostly focused on Canucks), and hoped those would bring fans! No, you have to create your own loyal fans and those are people who buy tickets with their own money so make sure you offer them a great deal so one guy can easily buy at least 4 season tickets for him and his family.

FFS, does anyone look at the atmosphere at Canucks games? It is often like you are at the cemetery, not at a hockey game! Why? Corporations buy extremely expensive tickets and give them all the time to different people who are not often even interested in hockey. The company I work for used to be a season ticket holder but not anymore after seeing how many tickets got wasted. Tried to do it with Whitecaps, Giants, BC Lions too and it did not work. So, when is the focus going to be on a creation of a loyal fun? Yes, it is a longer way but worth at the end.

Whitecaps will never get that; it takes a lot of work to do what I explained above. Why then would anyone (especially rich owners) be so stupid to spend at least $100 million for a new stadium with lower capacity!? Why? To make Bobaduzzi's life easier so he does not have to think how to fill the stadium!? And, what's even worse, as somebody already mentioned, they would cap the number of seats even in a stadium with 20,000 seats just to enforce higher ticket prices. Just unbelievable! I said before and I'll repeat again: I'd rather have 55,000 with average ticket price of $10 than 27,500 with average ticket price of $20 or 13,750 with average ticket price of $40. That is how you build a "soccer only" fan base. That is a recipe that worked all around the World but here, in Vancouver, it is easier to deal with the smaller number of corporations and cap the number of available seats to create "intimate atmosphere". Really?

 

[Dude]

I'm sure if they focused a more directed marketing campaign around Russell Tiebert they would draw more.

~Wind-up.

 

[Dude]

Seriously, though...I happen to agree with this line of thinking, and have been saying that ever since they came back. The product at BC Place is pretty good value, actually. Get as many asses into the stands as possible, and build loyalty.

So far as the shout about grass, how can I not agree? Will never happen, not with the trade show business that comes through town, etc. Can't see it. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't know how the two would co-exist. I do think football and footy could co-exist, since the roof does afford a certain amount of maintenance control on grass (i.e.: shutting the roof on rainy game days and preserving pitch integrity). Crazy, you think the Lions would be all over it, especially if the Cap's pick-up a large part of the bill.

Would love to sit in on some board meetings at the Cap's and hear what is said about stuff like this...

 

[STD]

 

[Tactically Inept]

Other developments likely....?
(couldn't be arsed to set up another thread for this one post).

While goal-line technology debuted for both World Cup and English Premier League action this year, Major League Soccer is looking to take video assistance one step further. MLS commissioner Don Garber told Sports Illustrated that the league wants to be the first to test a replay system that would allow officials to review calls on the pitch after a coach's challenge.​

Just in case the conversation slows down about the turf.......

 

[STD]

I am willing to bet if you made the tickets free for all the games next year a midweek game against Chivas you would still be lucky if you could get over 20,000 and big games you would maybe get 35,000 tops. The guy I go to the game with could not give away my ticket to last Wednesdays game and that included an email to everyone on his soccer team.

 

[TheRob]

The solution: put the grass on a moving slab. Take it out for trade shows and Lions games. Room around the stadium may be an issue, but that's what engineers are for. To sort out problems like that.

Grass = better DP's.

Better DP's = more butts in seats.

More butts in seats = more money.