RBNY Hemorrhaging Money. But Still — Cute Kids!
By: Martha | March 14th, 2007
Soccer sage Ives Galarcep has some great blog entries (as well as a column) yesterday on the financial disaster that last year was for RBNY. For the full effect you should go read his work, but suffice to say the club lost a total of $14 million last season, $11 million more than the previous year and far surpassing the previous MLS record — all without, as Ives points out, really improving the product much at all. Among other things, the club is losing sponsors like crazy, in part because they’re no longer allowing anyone to be “The Official _______” of RBNY but insist upon charging the same prices for the honor of being a sponsor. Shocking that McDonald’s walked the other way, huh?
Rather than acknowledging any problems or trying to revise their practices, the team instead has chosen today to announce the fourth annual Youth Fantasy Camp. Woo hoo! Because what PR problems can’t be solved by a few pictures of adorable kids wearing the team logo? And if little Tommy has a huge trust fun and a generous heart, so much the better.
Actually, the camp sounds vaguely cool — it’s small and even features goalkeeper-specific training for those who choose such a thing. The thing is, though, that it’s open to the first 80 applicants, so the range of abilities is likely to be HUGELY broad, which could hamper the efficiency of the training. Plus, who’s coaching the rugrats? The RBNY folks will make “special appearances,” but there’s no word on who’s doing the actual teaching. As a parent, paying $500 to have some hack point while your kid dribbles around wouldn’t be overly cool.
[Image from RBNY]
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Category: Red Bulls
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