Friday, April 4, 2008
Has United bitten the hand that feeds them?
When I'm coaching, and need a way to pick a player or a team that gets first dibs on something for a drill, etc.. instead of telling someone to "pick a number between 1 and 10", I usually ask a question about a recent pro or college game on TV, and the first player to answer correctly "wins".
On Wednesday night, I asked a group of U13 girls if anyone could tell me the score from the D.C. United game from the night before. They had no idea, but I got an instantaneous chorus of good guesses, with one girl obviously guessing the correct 2-0 without any real clue.
So, I DQ'd everyone on the grounds of poor support of the black and red, and gave them a follow up question. The results disturbing, and it really made me think about the risk of such a high player turn over undoing all the work United has done "branding" themselves to thousands of kids they literally depend on attending each game.
My question was "name five current D.C. United players". The answers were not guesses, but they were disturbing, and should make Dan Giffin and Scott Miller pretty nervous -
Player - "Freddy Adu!"
Coach - "ahhh, nope."
Player - "umm, umm, umm, ohhh Gomez - Christian Gomez, ha hah!"
Coach - "NOPE"
Player - "WHAT?"
Coach - "They traded him"
Player, "WHY!!!, He's awesome. That was stupid."
Coach - "Sorry, don't take it out on me"
Player - "oo oo, Gros, that Josh guy with the cast"
Coach - "nope, he retired"
Player - "darnnit!"
Player - "I know, Eleco"
Coach - "nope, common guys you've got know someone."
Player - "I loved Eleco! What's going on?"
Player - "Why'd they get rid of Gomez? That was really dumb"
Coach - "sorry, but they got someone better instead"
Player "nu ahh, Gomez was the best, that's dumb"
Player - "Oh yeah... Perkins baby!!"
Coach, "nope, he went to Europe"
Player - "ahhhh!"
You get the point right? These girls rattled off more names of players than most youth players could, thanks no doubt to all the games I've taken them to over the years and my regular use of United Trivia in practices.
The fact that all the D.C. United players they had come to know were not gone, created an immediate backlash. DCU had finally taken root with youth players, only to turn them off by selling/trading/losing all the players they've worked so hard to "brand" all this time. All of us "adults" perfectly understand trying to bring in new players that are "supposed" to improve the team, but it sure must drive the marketing staff crazy! And if the team doesn't perform, there surely will be a lot of "see, I told you so" around the office staff water cooler at RFK.
I'll close with this, then ask your thoughts:
The player that LOVES Gomez so much asked - "What team did he go play for?"
Coach - "Denver"
Player - "When they play Denver, that's who I'm rooting for - GO DENVER!"
Coach - "ouch. I might have to cut you now"Labels: d.c. united
On Wednesday night, I asked a group of U13 girls if anyone could tell me the score from the D.C. United game from the night before. They had no idea, but I got an instantaneous chorus of good guesses, with one girl obviously guessing the correct 2-0 without any real clue.
So, I DQ'd everyone on the grounds of poor support of the black and red, and gave them a follow up question. The results disturbing, and it really made me think about the risk of such a high player turn over undoing all the work United has done "branding" themselves to thousands of kids they literally depend on attending each game.
My question was "name five current D.C. United players". The answers were not guesses, but they were disturbing, and should make Dan Giffin and Scott Miller pretty nervous -
Player - "Freddy Adu!"
Coach - "ahhh, nope."
Player - "umm, umm, umm, ohhh Gomez - Christian Gomez, ha hah!"
Coach - "NOPE"
Player - "WHAT?"
Coach - "They traded him"
Player, "WHY!!!, He's awesome. That was stupid."
Coach - "Sorry, don't take it out on me"
Player - "oo oo, Gros, that Josh guy with the cast"
Coach - "nope, he retired"
Player - "darnnit!"
Player - "I know, Eleco"
Coach - "nope, common guys you've got know someone."
Player - "I loved Eleco! What's going on?"
Player - "Why'd they get rid of Gomez? That was really dumb"
Coach - "sorry, but they got someone better instead"
Player "nu ahh, Gomez was the best, that's dumb"
Player - "Oh yeah... Perkins baby!!"
Coach, "nope, he went to Europe"
Player - "ahhhh!"
You get the point right? These girls rattled off more names of players than most youth players could, thanks no doubt to all the games I've taken them to over the years and my regular use of United Trivia in practices.
The fact that all the D.C. United players they had come to know were not gone, created an immediate backlash. DCU had finally taken root with youth players, only to turn them off by selling/trading/losing all the players they've worked so hard to "brand" all this time. All of us "adults" perfectly understand trying to bring in new players that are "supposed" to improve the team, but it sure must drive the marketing staff crazy! And if the team doesn't perform, there surely will be a lot of "see, I told you so" around the office staff water cooler at RFK.
I'll close with this, then ask your thoughts:
The player that LOVES Gomez so much asked - "What team did he go play for?"
Coach - "Denver"
Player - "When they play Denver, that's who I'm rooting for - GO DENVER!"
Coach - "ouch. I might have to cut you now"
Labels: d.c. united
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