Todays News,Saturday,Sep.29

[denime]

Mornin'



Game Day!


TFC TV (http://www.torontofc.ca/video)



Toronto FC’s Facebook ticket promotion riles season-ticket holders (http://www.thestar.com/sports/soccer/mls/article/1264206--toronto-fc-s-facebook-ticket-promotion-riles-season-ticket-holders):hump:


Reds limp into Red Bull Arena (http://www.torontosun.com/2012/09/29/toronto-fc-limps-into-red-bull-arena)


Toronto FC looks to end dismal season on winning streak (http://www.newsnow.co.uk/A/601402031?-19896)


Nothing to Lose (http://www.newsnow.co.uk/A/601393646?-19896)


Henry: Red Bulls can't overlook Toronto in 'must-win' game (http://www.newsnow.co.uk/A/601384943?-19896)


Preview: Red Bulls host hapless TFC with playoffs in sight (http://www.newsnow.co.uk/A/601391463?-19896)


Must-win for the Red Bulls (http://www.newsnow.co.uk/A/601454110?-19896)


Voyageurs Cup Schedule Released (http://www.torontofc.ca/news/2012/09/voyageurs-cup-schedule-released)


Health scare helped shape Canada's Haber (http://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/2012/09/28/daniel_haber_feature/)








TFC Related Blogs !!



(http://redpatchboys.ca/forums/showthread.php?29582-TFC-MLS-blogs-thread)


SUNSHINE (http://www.torontosun.com/sunshine-girl)
(http://www.torontofc.ca/news/2012/09/missed-opportunities)

[denime]

Toronto FC’s Facebook ticket promotion riles season-ticket holders (http://www.thestar.com/sports/soccer/mls/article/1264206--toronto-fc-s-facebook-ticket-promotion-riles-season-ticket-holders)


TFC’s Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/torontofc)



Boys and girls,let ML$E know how you feel about their latest marketing scheme to screw up STH and loyal supporters.

I know some already did.



“I seriously think (team owner) ML$E does things to piss their fans off, they want a love/hate relationship,” read another angry comment. “They need to revamp the entire upper management across ML$E. We need to stay away until that happens. Spend your well earned money elsewhere.”


But don't worry TFC Fans our PB feels for us:


“It’s the cumulative effect of a really difficult season,” Beirne said of the fan comments. “The people who are participating in the conversation online are upset. They’ve had a difficult year and I can empathize.”


Hey Paul,
If you really empitize with us and STH,


Why don't you,Anslemi,Cochrane and that bouncy clown on the sideline who likes to call his players idiots all resign,just leave,let someone who know how to run Football Club take over,believe we all will be happy and ready to renew the ST for upcoming year.

[scooter]

mornin d

[Gazza]

Ask yourself, would you resign from a job where you are never held accountable? You can be inept and in over your head. Quality control does not matter and yet you're paid extremely well and most likely have great benefits for you and your family?

I'm pretty sure MLSE exec's win/loss record won't be on their resumes.

[Eastend]

I don't have a problem with the discounts, a last push by a "business" to fill seats. Not everything is an attempt to piss off supporters.

Sorry to say.


Dom

[TorCanSoc]

Anselmi is there to turn a profit. He's done it, he's got a promotion for it. Anselmi's problems are far more severe with the Leafs and the lockout.

Anselmi there from day 1, turned a super mega risky situation (soccer in Toronto) into a golden goose. Not sure how much of it was his vision prior to 2007. Meaning who proposed TFC circa 2005? I remember the forecasts, they needed about 8,000 season seats sold to be on a path to breaking even in 5 years. We know what's happened since then.

On field we went from darling super sweet new born baby, to cute growing toddler, to now a petulant teenager nobody likes.

Off field the FO continues to make steps to ensure profitability, and consider financial sustainability over "hard core fans" feelings. Look we're the heart and soul of this team when it comes to love of soccer, love the CMNT, and love of the game. Financially we carry some weight, of course. But there is a larger contingent of season seat holders that MLSE is more concerned with. My $0.02 on season seat holders.

3000 crazy hard core fans like us (we bought tickets every year regardless)
5000 corporate tickets used as useless giveaways to clients
5000 season seat holder that group up meaning 8 guys in an office buying 2 tickets
3000 soccer'ish fans call them casual SSH

I think in the recent past the hard core and the corporates blindly renewed. MLSE catered to the "grouped" SSHs, and the casual SSH. Now each of the groups are in question. I think the corporates will renew regardless. To them its a reward for employees, or promotional items like a logo'd laptop bag or something. I really think the renewals will be single digit meaning 9 thousand or lower. My opinion 7000 will renew....unless MLSE does something uncharacteristically generous.

Anselmi's job is secure. PB has a ridiculous amount of experience running an FO. Mariner is the only one on the line. Its my opinion.

[tfcleeds]

I don't have a problem with the discounts, a last push by a "business" to fill seats. Not everything is an attempt to piss off supporters.

Sorry to say.


Dom

I'm sure it wasn't done to piss off supporters, but MLSE clearly have their heads up their asses if they think this "discount" will do anything to fill empty seats for the last games of the season. The funny thing is, it really isn't a discount of any kind. The base price of any ticket still stays the same, and you can get any ticket without service charges by picking up one from the box office on gameday. And to make matters even more amusing, people who have tried to purchase via Ticketmaster have discovered that despite the regular Ticketmaster "convenience charge" being waived, they are still stung with an "order processing fee"!

[Canada72]

re: Voyageurs Cup

They really don't want us to play Edmonton do they?

"Canada’s three MLS clubs will be ranked first, second and third based on the league’s 2012 regular-season standings."

You would think we get top seed as the holders.

[Beach_Red]

Do you think Bierne really thinks this is the "cumulative effects of a difficult season'" and not the cumulative effects of six bad seasons? Do they really think the problem has just been this one season and not six seasons of consistently poor decision making from the top down?

[Eastend]

I'm sure he knows and understands that, but do you really expect him or anyone in the FO to say or admit that publicly?

Dom

[Richard]

re: Voyageurs Cup

They really don't want us to play Edmonton do they?

"Canada’s three MLS clubs will be ranked first, second and third based on the league’s 2012 regular-season standings."

You would think we get top seed as the holders.


To be honest in a 4 team tournament seeding doesnt matter, I dont think its that big a deal.

However it is wierd the holder doesnt get preference.

[Beach_Red]

I'm sure he knows and understands that, but do you really expect him or anyone in the FO to say or admit that publicly?

Dom

No, I think they still think their early success was the result of their own good work and not something that just fell in their laps. Until they realize, and admit that, there's really no going forward.

[ag futbol]

Anselmi is there to turn a profit. He's done it, he's got a promotion for it. Anselmi's problems are far more severe with the Leafs and the lockout.

More aptly put, he's there to maximize results, if they were paying attention they'd realize he hasn't done that, and is actually a huge screwup.

A strong market can hide a lot of sins, which is actually the case here.

[narduch]

No, I think they still think their early success was the result of their own good work and not something that just fell in their laps. Until they realize, and admit that, there's really no going forward.

Agreed.

And simply winning will cure all their problems.

[Eastend]

No, I think they still think their early success was the result of their own good work and not something that just fell in their laps. Until they realize, and admit that, there's really no going forward.

I don't agree and I really think people here underestimate them. These are not stupid people.

Dom

[Beach_Red]

I don't agree and I really think people here underestimate them. These are not stupid people.

Dom

Okay, but for some reason they run the worst MLS team after six years. So maybe they aren't stupid, but they clearly can't compete with the rest of this league. And it isn't just this year, it's been this way every year.

[Eastend]

That I agree with and I have no answer as to why that is the case.

AND, it's all their teams, not just TFC.

Dom

[jloome]

That I agree with and I have no answer as to why that is the case.

AND, it's all their teams, not just TFC.

Dom

It's quite hard to judge someone's intelligence without talking to them at length. Frankly, corporate achievement simply doesn't equate to it; I've known guys who owned multimillion companies, who were incredibly hardworking specialists at one thing, and who couldn't identify a sack of hammers with a bag of nails.

As Ensco has pointed out MSLE has a long history of accepting mediocrity not just on the field but corporately; Peddie, who was revered, returned less than 6% over his tenure. So I wouldn't assume these people are particularly intelligent.

Most of all, whether they're smart or not, they're embroiled in a corporate culture, where everyone gets along to get along. As such, the nice-but-oblivious ones are prone to being preyed upon by the ones who want to get ahead, and usually those people are singularly self-confident even if they offer very poor advice and work ethic indeed.

They need a football culture, guys with a background in the game, a GM with serious pro experience, a coach with serious MLS experience. One reason this works elsewhere is it gets rid of the corporate decision-making culture and replaces it with people who know what they're talking about.

[Alonso]

No, I think they still think their early success was the result of their own good work and not something that just fell in their laps. Until they realize, and admit that, there's really no going forward.


This is exaclty it.

Bottom line is they took 16,000 SSH as a marketing and strategic success that they created to justify cut throat tactics later on, to players, coaches and fans.

They took it all for granted as something they built. When in reality they didn't build the success, it was given to them by 25,000 rabid fans of the game. Their resulting arrogance in marketing, pricing, handling of players and coaches and overall goodwill towards the club is a direct result of their heads being to big because they still think this was mostly their creation alone.

Most people who've attended games at BMO over the last 6 years understand that 80% of this was created by the fans in the stadium, not the other way around.

[Alonso]

More aptly put, he's there to maximize results, if they were paying attention they'd realize he hasn't done that, and is actually a huge screwup.

A strong market can hide a lot of sins, which is actually the case here.


Yup, oh what could have been.....

If he actually maximized this thing, I see 30,000 + at games with a middle of the road type of team no problem.

I don't think a 35-45 point season every year should be this difficult in this type of a league with legions of fans and one of the only 3 or so franchises that turns in a healthy profit year over year.

I really hope that they reap what they've sown over the last 6 years at renewal time and Belogers sees this and makes changes at the top.

But I'm admittedly a dreamer.

[Parkdale]

No, I think they still think their early success was the result of their own good work and not something that just fell in their laps. Until they realize, and admit that, there's really no going forward.

that sounds familiar.


These are not stupid people.

Dom

then why do they consistently do stupid things? Maybe their are smart people in the organization, but there are too many novice mistakes for me to think that they are running the day-to-day at TFC.

remember that "hey girls, come to BMO field to meat soccer boys" video they did? By the time that came out, it wasn't even surprising how stupid it was.

and how the hell could they ever think waiving the ticket service charge was an acceptable promotion?

oh right... these are the same people that consider having an online account manager as a 'perk' of being a season seat holder. Not like every other team in the modern world doesn't do something similar.

[ag futbol]

Yup, oh what could have been.....

If he actually maximized this thing, I see 30,000 + at games with a middle of the road type of team no problem.

I don't think a 35-45 point season every year should be this difficult in this type of a league with legions of fans and one of the only 3 or so franchises that turns in a healthy profit year over year.

I really hope that they reap what they've sown over the last 6 years at renewal time and Belogers sees this and makes changes at the top.

But I'm admittedly a dreamer.
I totally agree. If we were a borderline playoff squad year-after-year, we'd be a 30k a game team. It doesn't take much, give us some glimmer of hope and it can be ramped up beyond belief.

They've somehow found a way to be consistently bad in a league that has more measures of central tendency than pretty much any other in pro sports. Hell, if you want to argue the opposite POV, you could even say we were the 6'ft tall kid playing midget basketball and we couldn't even put up decent numbers. We had money to spend on DPs that other teams didn't, a fan base that would make a lot of squads jealous, and did absolutely nothing with it.