The New England Revolution are going back to the MLS Cup final for the first time since 2007. Having defeated the New York Red Bulls 4-3 on aggregate in the Eastern Conference Championship, the Revs are a win away from their first-ever Cup.
Despite the result this coming Sunday, the Revolution are a club on the up both on and off the field. But in order to keep their place at the big club lunch table, New England has to “Embrace the Revolution” and keep building on an upward trajectory.
How do they do that? It’s as easy as 1-2-3.
1. Spend Money
Robert Kraft, the owner of the Revolution as well as the NFL’s New England Patriots. Anybody who can lay claim to a professional sports franchise is rich. Anybody who has a stake in the “I thought everybody was using $10 bills as napkins these days” society that is the National Football league is what Sheldon Cooper would call “Richie Rich rich”. Kraft, who in October had a net worth of over $4 billion according to Forbes, is no exception.
But what matters is where one puts their money. For the most part, Robert Kraft is stuck in the past, where he was the third wheel behind Philip Anschutz and Lamar Hunt in terms of spending money to keep MLS alive. The fact that MLS is beyond surviving is as well-documented as the sky being blue. Now that the new goal, to thrive, is higher, spending has to be raised to keep up with expectations.
Had thriving been the goal back in the day, the onus would have most certainly been on Kraft to lead by example. Anschutz and Hunt would have had to divide their time (and their money) among six and three clubs, respectively, which was enough of an investment.
In today’s MLS, there are a growing number of rich owners coming into MLS. Like Kraft, many of them have multiple sporting ventures on their hands, each one of varying priorities. Having each of these owners come in just to pull a Kraft, or a Chivas, or a Jorge Vergara, or whatever we’re calling it now, and go all laissez-faire on MLS is not an option.
If Kraft wants to see why spending money on his investment makes sense, he should take a look at his Patriots. He won’t leave his Pats cash-strapped by shelling out a bit more on the Revs. He won’t be pulled away from his football team either; his son Jonathan has proven capable of dealing with the soccer side of the family business.
If Kraft can provide an example for others to follow, maybe there’s hope that expansion projects in New York and Atlanta won’t go up in flames as Revolution legend Taylor Twellman has often predicted.
2. Keep This Side (Relatively) Intact
The term “parity” is to MLS officials as the term “new jobs” is to politicians: an overused buzzword. Bad sides don’t win MLS Cups. It took a little while (2011 was the first time a Designated Player won MLS Cup, the rule has been in place since 2007), but Cinderella stories are now a thing of the past.
The New England Revolution have been stockpiling young talent over the past few seasons and they were due for a breakout at some point. Throwing in an out-of-the-blue MVP-caliber season from Lee Nguyen and the addition of Jermaine Jones accelerated the process.
But now the attention has shifted from getting to the “nobody wants to play us” zone to staying there. And that doesn’t just mean making sure Jones continues playing brilliantly. There’s interest from Serie A for Diego Fagundez, the Bundesliga has been keeping tabs on Kelyn Rowe, and Nguyen has been linked to Fulham and Southampton over in England. Losing any one of those three guys would hurt. If all three leave, the Revs are in serious trouble.
Sporting Kansas City managed to keep their important players while still shooting themselves in the foot. Though it’s impossible under the current CBA to give DP contracts to Fagundez, Rowe, and Nguyen, New England still need to be careful and avoid overpaying. Fagundez and Rowe are each making roughly $100,000 in base salary, while Nguyen is at $175,000. Is that an accurate reflection of each player’s value to the club? Of course not, but ever since the DP rule came into place that argument works for about 90 per cent of non-DPs.
My gut tells me that Nguyen is positioned for a Mike Magee-esque drop off in 2015. Or if that doesn’t hold up, at least a decline from his gaudy 2014 performance. Fagundez and Rowe are only going to improve with age, making a raise more justifiable. But it can’t be a DP-level raise, because according to the unwritten sporting ideology of “well, you gave HIM the money, so what’s your excuse for ME?!?!” Andrew Farrell and Jose Goncalves might do as Aurelien Collin seems set to do in Kansas City and walk away.
So, suggestions then? Give Nguyen as many bonuses as possible, but don’t give him a raise. Give Fagundez and Rowe a raise and reason to believe DP contracts will come down the road. Bring in another DP and hope his performance is on the Jones half of the spectrum instead of the Jerry Bengtson half.
3. Figure Out the Stadium Situation
At the bottom of this Boston Globe article is a brilliantly simple infographic depicting how far away each MLS club’s stadium is from their city’s downtown core.
Gillette Stadium, located in suburban Foxborough, is a whopping 27.5 miles away from downtown Boston. That’s the second-farthest distance away from the downtown in the league, and the only stadium farther away (FC Dallas Stadium, 28 miles away from Dallas in Frisco, TX) is at least soccer-specific.
Since first opened up in 2006, the soccer stadium discussion in New England has been nothing more than scattered whispering. In D.C., whose stadium situation is just as bad as New England’s, there is at least some movement as a proposal for a soccer-specific stadium is making its way to city council.
But in the last month, the Revolution have made their intentions of moving out of Gillette Stadium much clearer. An ideal stadium location has been found at the intersections of the I-90 and I-93 highways in downtown Boston. It’s the type of location that David Beckham has been longing for in Miami. It’s a 10/10 on paper. Now it just needs to become a 10/10 in practice.
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