Letter to Mr. Lieweke

[Prof]

Dear Mr. Lieweke,

I was at the meet the President breakfast on Saturday but unfortunately I was not able to get my question/comment in to you. I have been a supporter from day one and will always be a supporter because it is the sport I love in the city I love. I applaud you for telling us that winning is your primary goal, but may I suggest with the clout that MLSE has I would also focus on changing the culture of the media in this city. Our baseball team has sucked for over 20 years, spends tons of money and still suck, yet get 40,000 plus fans to a meaningless game. In fact all of their games have been meaningless since July. Why?? because the sports writers in this city are also fans and they promote the team constantly in their reports, headlines etc. We have very minimal coverage and when we do get it is always extremely negative. If I was the President I would not let Cathal Kelly anywhere near TFC, he is the worst thing for this club. We need daily coverage of the team, player profiles, reports of all other MLS games going and big news items constantly in the papers, on TV and on the radio. Rogers/Bell own too many television, radio, and print media outlets for this not to happen. If they can sell hope for a hockey team that hasn't done anything for 50 years, a baseball team for 20 years and a basketball for 15 years surely they can promote, write an encouraging article when they win such as on Saturday and stop bashing our beloved TFC.

Thank you

[jimiv]

Hear hear!!!

It drives me nuts hearing the Fan590's constant bashing of soccer in general and any chance they get to talk about how awful TFC is they jump at. Yet, no matter what time of year it is, if a Leaf player takes a dump we get round the clock coverage.

[Shakes McQueen]

Change the team's "culture" with the media, by running a more professional organization, and interacting with more transparency. Don't change it by flexing your muscles to get more astroturfers in the media, and by shutting out prominent critics - even if you think their criticism is unfair.

Negative press isn't the problem - it's a symptom.

- Scott

[Shakes McQueen]

Hear hear!!!

It drives me nuts hearing the Fan590's constant bashing of soccer in general and any chance they get to talk about how awful TFC is they jump at. Yet, no matter what time of year it is, if a Leaf player takes a dump we get round the clock coverage.

You get round the clock coverage, because hockey is the #1 sport in this country, and MLS soccer is a distant 4th or 5th. The Leafs also get ample negative attention every year, in the form of fair (and unfair) criticism.

Also, no one except Bob McCown "bashes" soccer routinely on the FAN 590, and he does it with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek most of the time.

- Scott

[Red CB Toronto]

Kurt Larson and the Toronto Sun have given the Reds great coverage through the season.

[pdubs]

Kurt Larson and the Toronto Sun have given the Reds great coverage through the season.

agreed. he doesn't seem to bash them endlessly and is providing good coverage despite the roller coaster this team is on.

[OgtheDim]

Neil Davidson is doing a good job too.


Kelly will not be shut up from his cynicism until TFC wins the title.


On another note, I think John Malinaro is done with TFC, after his twitter tirades against Nelsen. Objectivity seems to have gone out the window. He might as well be one of the bots that keeps tweeting the whole #firepayneandnelsen schtick that somebody is paying for.

[Auzzy]

I hope you spelled Tim Leiweke's name correctly in you actual letter!

[flatpicker]

A roof will fix everything.

[__wowza]

Kurt Larson and the Toronto Sun have given the Reds great coverage through the season.

larson is one of the better sports writers i've seen, we're actually pretty lucky to have him covering the team. no insult intended, but his writing is more akin to a professional blog than it is to a sports writer for a major paper. it's raw, but polished. he's able to provide a new take on the same consistent problems every time i read one of his recaps. the flip side of this is kelly, who routinely stresses "and here i thought it couldn't get worse.." before breaking out a thesaurus and rehashing something he'd written a week/month prior.

i think it just depends on your perspective.

larson's articles always contain a tinge of hope, something that resonates with a lot of us here.
kelly's articles are more of the view of the cynical supporter, if they sound the same, it's because the club hasn't changed.

reading the latter just reminds me of all the supporters who complain about the team all the time. it comes from a place of love, but it gets a tad repetitive. i think the major thing that puts me off about reading cathal kelly's articles is that for the most part, he just doesn't sound like he cares anymore, which again, is more in line with a lot of the cynical supporters.

[Hitcho]

Dear Tim:

Please also start listening to the voices saying we don't want or need retiring mega stars to come in and fix this team for a year or two. It won't work. This is not LA. And can you really see Ryan Nelsen, a coach with all of 6 months' experience in the dugout behind him, being taken seriously by such players or fairly expect Ryan to know how to handle them? We are not a fame hungry city drunk on celebrity status. Beckham was jeered, not cheered, when he came here. Know your environment and know your target market.

Instead, please focus on building a solid, stable squad with strength in depth and a sprinkling of key players rather than an unbalanced side with one or two alleged DP stars and a dearth of talent and cover in other areas as the inevitable result.

Many fans (genuine fans, not occasional day trip families that may come to the first couple of games to see some big name DPs and then never show up again) are on their last legs with this franchise. Please don't kill it off completely by bringing in players on astronomical DP wages that MLSe will expect the fans to pay for the following year by implementing massive hikes in ticket pricing. That may well be the final straw for a lot of people.

Please wake up to the city you are in and the fan base you have inherited.

Thank you.

[inheavensince07]

Neil Davidson is doing a good job too.


Kelly will not be shut up from his cynicism until TFC wins the title.


On another note, I think John Malinaro is done with TFC, after his twitter tirades against Nelsen. Objectivity seems to have gone out the window. He might as well be one of the bots that keeps tweeting the whole #firepayneandnelsen schtick that somebody is paying for.

correct me if I am wrong but isn't what Molinaro did inexcusable for a journalist ??

[Super]

correct me if I am wrong but isn't what Molinaro did inexcusable for a journalist ??

I certainly don't think so. Nelsen still has a lot to prove, and personally I think it's the media's job to ask the right questions. Why we keep hiring newbies and expect different results is a puzzle to me, and I'm for one thankful that we have a bit of honesty in the media through Molinaro who puts the club to task over its strategy - and why they decided to hang on to a coach who honestly haven't proven anything this season. We're not really improved. We're only considered better because we managed to get rid of some bad contracts - and this was actually done by Payne who got sacked.

Having said that, Nelsen MAY prove to be a success down the line, but to say it was not risky to sign a rookie coach is dishonest. It's a HUGE risk. And after 7 years of failure I'm not sure we need to be taking more risks on unproven rookie coaches. Leiweke chose to risk the house on a second season of Nelsen - even though he did nothing to deserve the chance. However, Leiweke will look brilliant if Nelsen manages to turn this club around, but if Nelsen fails, well, then that says a lot about Leiweke, and quite frankly he'll be put in the same category as any of the other failed managers of this club (Anselmi, etc).

[Super]

A roof will fix everything.

It will fix the atmosphere.

[Pint]

Molinaros comment of "i would rather be reporting on the impact" has really turned me against him. I believe he made it on twitter when montreal had a CCL game at home but he was in toronto covering one of our games.

Well john if you would rather be reporting on them then please GTFO.

[Richard]

Molinaros comment of "i would rather be reporting on the impact" has really turned me against him. I believe he made it on twitter when montreal had a CCL game at home but he was in toronto covering one of our games.

Well john if you would rather be reporting on them then please GTFO.

I dont know what was said but i wouldnt hold the comment against him.

How would you feel as a journo covering a shit team like tfc for 7 years?

Sure you can write more about the bad stuff but it really does take a toll on someone.

[Pint]

I dont know what was said but i wouldnt hold the comment against him.

How would you feel as a journo covering a shit team like tfc for 7 years?

Sure you can write more about the bad stuff but it really does take a toll on someone.

I don't doubt it is hard covering a team like us for 7 years but I expect professionalism. If you don't want to cover TFC anymore twitter is not the place to be saying you want to cover our rival instead, go to your manager and hand in your resignation and then make the move if you can. Getting paid to cover training and games and then writting up a column is not a bad way to making a good living... if he doesn't like it i'm sure many other would take his job from him.

[Suds]

Dear Tim:

Please also start listening to the voices saying we don't want or need retiring mega stars to come in and fix this team for a year or two. It won't work. This is not LA. And can you really see Ryan Nelsen, a coach with all of 6 months' experience in the dugout behind him, being taken seriously by such players or fairly expect Ryan to know how to handle them? We are not a fame hungry city drunk on celebrity status. Beckham was jeered, not cheered, when he came here. Know your environment and know your target market.

Instead, please focus on building a solid, stable squad with strength in depth and a sprinkling of key players rather than an unbalanced side with one or two alleged DP stars and a dearth of talent and cover in other areas as the inevitable result.

Many fans (genuine fans, not occasional day trip families that may come to the first couple of games to see some big name DPs and then never show up again) are on their last legs with this franchise. Please don't kill it off completely by bringing in players on astronomical DP wages that MLSe will expect the fans to pay for the following year by implementing massive hikes in ticket pricing. That may well be the final straw for a lot of people.

Please wake up to the city you are in and the fan base you have inherited.

Thank you.

Amen, brother. I don't need TFC to sign a big name underwear model who can kick a ball to get me out to the games ...

unless she is seated in Sec 131 F Row 2 Seat 15 :-)

Seriously though. I think the fans in this town are more about substance than flash. Put out a team that wins, even if it's ugly, and Torontonians will get behind it. This is not LA. The fans are already here. What they want is a winner to support - not a brand name.

Start selling this to casuals and soccer moms and you have to sell each seat 18 times. Get back to the supporters and you'll only have to sell that seat once. They'll buy the season seat.

[cmonyoureds]

Dear Tim,

I hope you take a good, long, look at the game day pics posted in other threads. I hope you realize just exactly where the fan base is that pays the bills through the tough times.

I also hope that you realize there were many, many, others that held out for 4, 5, and 6 years before throwing in the towel, for various reasons. Winning them back will be difficult given the legacy of customer abuse you need to address. I wonder if you have the guts and effort to do so.

Lastly, winning may fill many of those seats again. You need to ask yourself, however, how confident you are of being able to build a perennial winner to keep those seats full. If you submit to a moment of reality, I would urge you to consider my first point.

Sincerely,

A former ticket package holder.

[Ivy]

Molinaro is slowly burning his bridges - don't think the club isn't hearing what he's saying. I mentioned this earlier this year, that it seems to me that Molinaro has lost his sources at TFC and is not providing any new info, only slowly turning into Rollins.

[Phil]

I cant make this stuff up...

MLS Transfers ‏@MLSTransfers 9m Source also says offer for #Klose this summer wasn't from Montreal but "another Canadian team". #TFC #MLS

[Yohan]

I cant make this stuff up...

MLS Transfers ‏@MLSTransfers 9m Source also says offer for #Klose this summer wasn't from Montreal but "another Canadian team". #TFC #MLS

so... Vancouver

[ensco]

This cannot be true. Anybody who thinks Klose was coming to MLS this season isn't even bothering to read the newspapers.

Germany has a serious lack of depth at striker, and it's a big opportunity for Klose. Had a look at the top 10 strikers in the Bundesliga last year? 8 or 9 of them were non-Germans.

Klose would never have agreed to play non-top-flight football this year, no matter what he was paid. He's not just going to Brazil, he is going to get serious minutes. Maybe even start.

[Phil]

sorry to derail this one, it just made me laugh reading the name and linking it to the DP 'plan'.

Apparently post 2014 world cup is the target time.

[ag futbol]

I certainly don't think so. Nelsen still has a lot to prove, and personally I think it's the media's job to ask the right questions. Why we keep hiring newbies and expect different results is a puzzle to me, and I'm for one thankful that we have a bit of honesty in the media through Molinaro who puts the club to task over its strategy - and why they decided to hang on to a coach who honestly haven't proven anything this season. We're not really improved. We're only considered better because we managed to get rid of some bad contracts - and this was actually done by Payne who got sacked.

Having said that, Nelsen MAY prove to be a success down the line, but to say it was not risky to sign a rookie coach is dishonest. It's a HUGE risk. And after 7 years of failure I'm not sure we need to be taking more risks on unproven rookie coaches. Leiweke chose to risk the house on a second season of Nelsen - even though he did nothing to deserve the chance. However, Leiweke will look brilliant if Nelsen manages to turn this club around, but if Nelsen fails, well, then that says a lot about Leiweke, and quite frankly he'll be put in the same category as any of the other failed managers of this club (Anselmi, etc).

I haven't seen any of the tirades, but his criticism of Nelsen has been very blunt. Probably not making him much of a popular figure with the TFC staff.

For the record I agree with almost all of what I've seen him write on the subject.

[Phil]

Molinaro is slowly burning his bridges - don't think the club isn't hearing what he's saying. I mentioned this earlier this year, that it seems to me that Molinaro has lost his sources at TFC and is not providing any new info, only slowly turning into Rollins.

Everyone lost sources with the last cleanse. Hence why some of the stories that were kept burried are bubling to the surface.

[Super]

I haven't seen any of the tirades, but his criticism of Nelsen has been very blunt. Probably not making him much of a popular figure with the TFC staff.

For the record I agree with almost all of what I've seen him write on the subject.

Yup - I agree with him as well. Get used to it! Payne may be gone, but we still have management with ZERO respect for the journos or the fans. Simple as that. If it were up to TFC the only reporters following TFC would be on MLSE's payroll.

[Ivy]

Yup - I agree with him as well. Get used to it! Payne may be gone, but we still have management with ZERO respect for the journos or the fans. Simple as that. If it were up to TFC the only reporters following TFC would be on MLSE's payroll.

Why do you say that? As a fan, I feel like I've been treated good by TFC - other than the on field product.

[inheavensince07]

Yup - I agree with him as well. Get used to it! Payne may be gone, but we still have management with ZERO respect for the journos or the fans. Simple as that. If it were up to TFC the only reporters following TFC would be on MLSE's payroll.

I couldn't agree with you more .. Gol tv allday everyday lol

[v00d00daddy]

Why do you say that? As a fan, I feel like I've been treated good by TFC - other than the on field product.

It bothers you that Molinaro is sick of TFC but it doesn't bother you that Nelsen comes out and says that people who have given up seasons tickets should be made to pay double if they ever want them back?

That's a pure fuckhead comment. That he even has the balls to say something like that and still gets supported is shocking. I've lost almost all interest in TFC and I'm going to chalk it up to years of futility first and foremost.

But Ryan Nelsen and his garbage "pedigree"......love for shitty football and absolute disregard for fans is probably the straw that broke this camels back.

He's an embarrassment to the entire club...and that's a hard thing to be with this clubs past.