OK. So explain to me then please the detailed history and tradition behind NY/NJ Metrostars - a club that was in existence for barely over a decade, yet who's team colours and name still managed to go through a number of iterations. Or maybe it only takes a decade to deliver history and tradition these days.... :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by Poor Student
American soccer teams are franchises. Franchises get bought, sold and moved. This should be nothing new to followers of US sport, as there are plenty of high profile examples of this in indigenous sports there. So please explain to me how framnchises barely a decade old can't be knocked in terms of identity, roots to the local community etc ? The franchise system is intrinsically anathema to football's traditional philosophies of identity, community and roots - as those roots can be snipped at the whim of a greedy businessman. Franchise football creates tumble-weed clubs that blow in the wind of corporate and commercial self-interests, not ones with long-standing rooted identities in dedicated communities
If they don't like the franchise system, then they should push for an alternative - not just shriek with delight and pride when their area wins a franchise, and then howl with indignation when something happens to that franchise a short while later.
Regardless - i don't like what Red Bull is doing to football, as the game is the furthest thing from their mind. However - the diofference in reaction between when it happens to an American club, and when it inevitably happens to an English one, will reveal precisely the differences in history, support etc that I mentioned and that you seem keen to pretend don't exist.
