Comments on: The Sweeper: Is Red Bull Arena the Perfect Major League Soccer Stadium?

By: The Sweeper: Will Fans Fill Red Bull Arena? | Pitch Invasion

The Sweeper: Will Fans Fill Red Bull Arena? | Pitch Invasion — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 13:35:10 +0000

[...] amidst the orgy of exuberant articles about the opening of Red Bull Arena for the 2010 MLS season was much serious consideration of whether and why fans would actually come to fill it to watch Red [...]

By: Joseph D'Hippolito

Joseph D'Hippolito — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 00:05:25 +0000

Someone should tell Grant Wahl (and I love his book, “The Beckham Experiment,” btw) the reason RBA doesn’t have a stage: It doesn’t need one. All the other soccer-specific stadia in this country are owned either by groups that need to make extra money off their stadia or by groups (specifically, AEG) that want to gouge the consumer for every last red cent available. Red Bull’s enterprises are successful enough not to warrant turning a soccer stadium into an all-purpose venue. Besides, Metropolitan NYC has so many venues for so many events that another all-purpose venue would be superfluous.

In addition, Red Bull is perhaps the only ownership group in MLS that has a specifically European idea about what a stadium should look like (and I don’t count poseurs like Leiweke at AEG).

By: Lee

Lee — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:59:08 +0000

I’m also getting tired of people bashing the name. Do people forget that Metrostars was a corporate name as well?

If you don’t like the change and refuse to support the team, that’s cool. All good. But every time there is any news about RBNY (the Giants and Jets play in NJ.. are they the NJ Giants or NJ Jets?) there are tons of posters who do not really add anything to the conversation and instead just complain about the same old thing.

It’s your right and your option not to support a team, for whatever reason. But please stop posting the same old thing over and over. It’s getting to be really tiring and really monotonous. You’re not going to convince anyone anymore.

Personally, I thought that RBNY should have not changed their names to Red Bulls, but I also hated the name Metrostars (reminded me too much of the Mets, who suck). I’m just happy that RB the company is investing to make the team better.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:30:06 +0000

@Matt and his ilk: though New Yorkers (and New York fans) love to believe the rest of the world thinks about New York as much as you do, that just ain’t the case. The topic may have been discussed ad nauseam on some message boards over the years, but not all of us frequent New York message boards or click on NY-specific threads on general message boards. This is not a NY-specific site, and its audience is larger than message-board junkies.

Nice piece, Tom. Thanks.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:58:12 +0000

The thing is that most current supporters of the club couldn’t care less if some people abandoned the team as a result of the ownership change. It’s the people who decided to leave who can’t stop going on about it. They never tire of letting everyone know that they are morally pure and the rest of us are sellouts. Whatever.

By: Tommy Miles

Tommy Miles — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:42:20 +0000

Steve Hoff: I do in fact hope you enjoy Red Bull New Jersey. But I’m not a fan or supporter of them.

Sorry if this angers or offends you, but that’s your problem. And if you knew me as you presume to, you would know I’m not waiting for something “pure” or the Cosmos. I dragged my arse out to Downing stadium for every damn NY Centaurs game back in 95, hocking fanzines, for a club that won ONE match. I literally bought the first block of ESC tickets, showing up by bus from Brooklyn the one rainy night a week before the first Metro match ever played, wandering around a corporate office park in Rutherford. I’ve paid my dues and I don’t need attitude from you.

But if a club some of us spent years building up (literally: sewing banners, booking buses, spending hours commuting to the middle of nowhere) just decides it wants to dump the identity we invested in, I think we have a right — at very least — to say no thanks.

To pretend that the club doesn’t have a badly fractured history that turned off permanently a portion of their already small fan base, or that “Red Bull New Jersey” doesn’t still look like a sad joke to many other soccer fans, is as mystifying in the article cited above as is your assumption that you can insult other into supporting you. That’s at very least a counterproductive advertisement for US soccer.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:37:38 +0000

Yes, it says that some people can’t move on. I really don’t see the point in discussing this over and over when it’s clear as day that RB is not selling the team anytime soon. So ponder on it all you want I guess but I’ve got better things to do.

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:33:43 +0000

Some points I’ve reflected upon:

1. An MLS team in NYC will not and should not happen.
2. We can all agree that a team called the “Red Bulls” is stupid and almost embarrassing. (I have season tickets and am part of the ESC…I, along with many other supporters, have the right to criticize my club.)
3a. Many do not understand why Red Bull had to brand EVERYTHING (crest/colors/name/etc) by owning the club.
3b. Why couldn’t they at least name the club ‘RB Metro’ or something… Keep the name the same – more people would have been OK with the change. Clubs around the world go by their CITY (Obviously there are many more sports teams here in each city) and not by a NICKNAME. This could have been a nice alternative in so many ways.
4. We can all agree that RBA is amazing.
5. We can all hope that RED BULL is not plastered in every square inch of this stadium. In the end, we came for soccer.

Four years have passed, and this issue hasn’t really died down … says something doesn’t it?

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:22:07 +0000

Tommy Miles,
Spare me. You have fun waiting around for the second NY market team, or some bizarre resurrection of the Cosmos. In the meantime, I’ll be happily going to Red Bull Arena and cheering on my team in a world class stadium.

This is all so much BS. The Metros were what they were, and Red Bulls are what they are. Either you support your local team or you don’t. But to sit around wishing for something more pure to come along while quality soccer is being played in a quality stadium within spitting distance is cutting your nose off to spite your face.

By: Tommy Miles

Tommy Miles — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:39:55 +0000

As one of those ESC founders who “chose to lump it” (I would argue that the team lumped me by changing their colors, name, emblem, and putative location) I wish the New Jersey Red Bulls supporters joy and luck in this beautiful new home. It’s a beautiful site as well, midst Harrison and the Ironbound of Newark. But folks can’t pretend that rupture isn’t one of the defining elements of their club and this stadium. I still have the glossy gatefold prospectus for “Metro Park” somewhere in my New York City home. More importantly, it’s also a dream still to be realized for literally thousands of New York soccer fans. NJ fans should enjoy their club, but we’re still waiting for ours. US fans elsewhere should take this as a cautionary tale of how quickly “your” club can be taken away.

BTW pitchinvasion, keep up you great reporting on African football!