I had begun a post full of sweet venom, razor-sharp enmity, and uncouth but hilarious-cause-they're-true stereotypes before the little voice inside insisted "life's too short to hate." So let me just say: Good evening to all my new friends from the readership of DCenters!

Springboarding off something I wrote over the weekend, it seems they were a little - shall we say smugly? we shall say smugly - pleased with the discovery that "the hatred for DC in New York is much more about New York than it is about DC."

By gum, I think you've cracked it, Inspector Smarmsworth! Metro fan hates DC, but hates Red Bull even more. Lots of self-loathing there. Alert the press.

Without getting into a lengthy thesis here, we can all imagine there is some perfect ratio of positive/negative involved with being a fan. Ideally, I think that means a high amount of positive - Go us! - spiced up with a certain, smaller complementary amount of the nasty negative - Boo (or Fuck) you! If that ratio has always been a little volatile in Metroland, for this Metro fan, at least, it is now completely shot. Speaking for myself, there is virtually no positive side, hardly any "yay our side" left to go on. I like most of the players individually, and can't wait to see a few develop into stars. I like the game of soccer, especially when it's played by teams from places in my country. Other than that, it's currently all about seeing those you don't like go down. That's you, DC - but that's just the way it's supposed to be, isn't it? If it's any consolation to your poor feelings, at least I've got a little grudging respect (which is what that post was mainly about.) Respect for Red Bull, much less pride in what they're doing? None.

Now that is a sad situation, and not a lot of fun to be perfectly honest, but spare your pity for better things. Following MLS isn't a lot of fun, the way it was - that's why as much as I admire your Free Beer Movement (hey, I'll even plug it), you won't find me rushing to take anyone out to a game anytime soon. I figure MLS soccer is worth watching, but minus a team worth being passionate about, I can't be bothered to put myself or anyone else out for it right now. Good luck with that.


Other news n' notes:

Marc de Grandpre, just back from a spa in the Seychelles or something, Fires Back! just a week after Ives's story about the Red Bull New York's 14 million dollar loss last season. Determined to nip these stories in the bud and bringing the full force of his personality to bear on the Metro beat writers, he wrote an email with a lot of fluffy PR language, and cc:'ed it to Dyer and Michael Lewis. Stand-up guy, that Marc de Grandpre.

Funny from this: our spin, spin sugardaddy's man claims RB "deliberately shed off all our sponsors at the end of the year." Well, I thought it was a contest between stupidly arrogant and inept to explain why they lost those major sponsors; I hope you had your chips on "stupidly arrogant," at least if we're believing this line from MdG,
Funnier from this: the usual BS suspects taking it all at face value. Hold tight, Marc and Dieter have a vision! They said it themselves!
Absolute funniest from this: That Ives can not only respond on his blog, but feel free to come into open conflict with the team over this. What's at stake for Ives if he hammers them some more on it? Anything? Some access, perhaps - but RB is Kremlin-like in that regard anyway, so what's his big loss there? They're not going to tell Bruce and the boys not to talk to him, are they? That would be utterly dumb, and it wouldn't work anyway.
But here's the beautifully ironic twist; as much as we like to think journalists can say whatever they want without concern for the sales department, if Ives kept it up, then one imaginable (I'm not saying actual) pressure that could fall on him might be through the team's major sponsors. It's just slightly possible that say, St. Barnabas Health Care wouldn't like reading continual slams on RBNY, justified or not, if it was a major team sponsor AND a North Jersey News advertiser (again, hypothetical). Does it work that way? Who knows. I can imagine it working like that somewhere, sometime. Call it goodwill in the community, or lack of.
Would that RB had any big local sponsors left to aggravate. And it's not like RB is ever going to be buying ads in something so un-edgy and conventional as the local newspaper.
Well, late night thoughts.

And lastly, the jury remains completely out on Bruce Arena (only fair), which is to say that a lot of people are naturally expecting him to be Mr. F'ing Wizard, just 'cause. I'm skeptical, and I was going to get around to my reasons why sometime. Someone who knows a lot more about soccer and MLS beat me to it. Take those reasons, add in the fact that Arena won his MLS championships when three-quarters of the league couldn't play their way out of a wet paper bag and...we shall see, won't we?

Labels: de Grandpre spins like a top, Ives, we like Wilt