[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t has not been a great start to 2015 for the New York franchises.
NYCFC announced that Designated Player Frank Lampard would not be joining the club at the start of the season and, instead, will finish out the Barclay’s Premier League season with Manchester City as they attempt to win their third title in four seasons.
After Ali Curtis took over as Sporting Director of the New York Red Bulls, he decided to fire head coach Mike Petke, who had seen two years of success with the club. Photo/Wikimedia
Apparently, New York Red Bulls felt left out in finding ways to upset their fans and made a couple of rather baffling moves that shows they may very well have lost their minds.
NYRB announced on December 23 that they had a new Sporting Director in the form of Ali Curtis, who cut his teeth in various ways in the MLS offices. Before that, he was a player for the now defunct Tampa Bay Mutiny, and then for D.C. United and FC Dallas (known at the time as the Dallas Burn).
This seemed harmless enough as NYRB needed a new sporting director at the time. However, fans of the club had no clue what that hiring would result in.
Curtis decided that he needed to fire head coach Mike Petke, who enjoyed a successful two years at the helm that included the 2013 Supporters Shield for best record in the league, the club’s only trophy in their existence.
In 2014, NYRB was in the conference final, only to lose out to the New England Revolution. This success was not enough in the eyes of Curtis, who canned Petke in favor of Jesse Marsch, who had a 12-16-6 in his single season with the Montreal Impact.
NYRB fans have taken to Reddit, Wikipedia, and various other outlets to express their anger. If one could sum up their thoughts, it really comes down to a question that I want to ask Mr. Curtis:
What in the world are you thinking?
Petke had something going with NYRB. Yes, Thierry Henry retired and Tim Cahill is 35 years old, but with the explosion of Bradley Wright-Phillips and rumors of the club wanting to bring in Jozy Altidore from Sunderland, Petke was expected to be retained.
New York Red Bulls Sporting Director Ali Curtis named Jesse Marsch, pictured, the new head coach of the club following the firing of Mike Petke. Photo/NYRB
Instead, Curtis fires him for Marsch, making him the 15th coach at the club in just 20 seasons. That statistic alone is mind boggling. Petke had seemingly jammed a wedge in the revolving door, but Curtis attempted to explain his actions in a conference call:
“At the end of the day, it was my decision. I own it, and it was very difficult. But this decision, it wasn’t about getting rid of Mike. It was more about bringing in Jesse Marsch.”
While Curtis can spin this however he wants, the fact of the matter remains that fans of the club are livid about this decision.
Several threads on Reddit’s /r/mls sub-reddit appeared and almost every NYRB supporter wanted to vent their frustrations, and rightfully so. Below are some of the comments taken from a thread that linked to the confirmation of Petke’s firing:
_stoked: ….and that might be the last straw
BigGigantic: First time buying season tickets and I fully regret it
MSGuyute: I was seriously considering buying season tickets for the first time this season. So much for those plans. While I won’t stop supporting the club, Red Bull had better be prepared for some serious fan backlash. EDIT: If there is one game I go to this season, it will be the season opener to join in with the South Ward in whatever they have planned as a response to this debacle.
tk423: I’m done. I am not setting foot in the stadium till they sell. I am so tired of this.
In another thread, simply titled “Red Bulls refusing to give refunds to STHs in wake of Petke firing”, plenty of talk of refunding season tickets occurred, only to find that the common ground was that the club refused to do so and gave rather flimsy excuses as to why.
NYRB’s actions make absolutely no sense. Petke was an extremely popular coach, yet it didn’t matter to Curtis. It will be interesting to see what happens regarding season ticket holders as the days progress, but the home support will probably have some type of response for their club in the near future and, as eluded to in the threads, in the home opener.
When a single move upsets that many fans to the point that they no longer want anything to do with your club, perhaps you’ve made one too many bad decisions and need to do some evaluation.
