Red Bull U-16 Team Reps Brand in Spain

Over the past couple weeks, the Red Bull U-16 Youth Academy team was in Spain to compete in the U-17 Quixote tournament, with the likes of Juventus, Sevilla, PSV Eidenhoven, and Barcelona.

The Red Bull team failed to advance out of their group, but earned draws with Partizan Belgrade and Juventus, before bowing out to Sevilla.

Being the elite club academy in America, this was a great way to represent MLS, American soccer, and Red Bull New York in an important international tournament.

Not only does this signify the strength of the academy (even on a international level), but it promotes Red Bull New York well by showing the quality of soccer that is associated with the name, at least at the youth level for now.

Holding their own and being mentioned alongside these famous European clubs proves that Red Bull New York is continuing to grow on a grand stage.

Although we have to focus on the local side of things in the metro area, it is never too early to start the globalization of the club representing one of the most famous cities in the world, while proving the tremendous skill that is being produced at Red Bull New York.

The senior club needs to follow suit though, and my feeling is that sooner, rather than later, that Red Bull will take the safety off and prove (if there was any doubt) that they can run a first class professional soccer club.

Red Bull Bought Out AEG, A While Ago

The Red Bull buyout of AEG's stake in Red Bull Park is a done deal according to Ives.

"Red Bull buyout of AEG update?
The mayor of Harrison said it was in the works, how close is it?
IVES- It already happened. For some reason Red Bull is keeping mum about it but it's happened a while ago."

"With the Red Bulls buying out AEG, anything is possible as far as the stadium is concerned."

So apparently Red Bull didn't find it necessary to spread the word. Interesting to see the effects that come from this. One thing I am looking forward to is the effect this will probably have on Red Bull's bottom line, as they will now reap total benefits from all games and other events held at the Park I would imagine.

The AEG Red Bull Park website is still up, and there is no new, Red Bull's only site. I would imagine the brass will release a new timeline soon, as De Grandpre said he hoped would happen after he announced the delay to 2009.

Here Comes the Effect

The cause was a 66 thousand plus crowd witnessing the best game in MLS history in which the home club took home the victory.

Marc De Grandpre is hoping the effect shows big time in the last four home games, and I think he has reason to.

Thanks to a little bit of luck and Don Garber's scheduling, RBNY will have a great opportunity to carry over the attendance momentum from the instant classic Saturday night. The Red Bull's next home game falls on Sept. 1 when the Chicago Fire role into town with Mexican hero Blanco and Costa Rica hit man Paulo Wanchope.

The enormous Mexican and Costa Rican contingent in the Metro area should turn out in large numbers for this one. The much less recognized Blanco tour has been paying big dividends in the attendance department everywhere the Fire have gone.

Now role them into this area, after that game, and we could really start to see the beginning of an attendance revolution on the road to RBP in 2009. But it is only a start, and De Grandpre knows it needs to continue, even more next year.

The Brass wants, needs, to make constant and visible progress every year in every department on the road to Red Bull Park. That means attendance, results, promotion, buzz, players, everything. De Grandpre and the rest know what a huge year 2008 will be on the way to 2009, and they are hoping to get that ball rolling at the back end of this season and on into what will hopefully be a successful playoffs.

What we Learned from Beckham's Visit to Giants Stadium

One of the greatest games in MLS history played in front of 66,237 at Giants Stadium.

It was one of those sometimes rare moments in this country's soccer landscape when you think that this sport is going to make it big one day.

What did we learn from Saturday night at the Meadowlands?

- 66,237 people will come out for a game in an awful location such as the Meadowlands between simply two MLS teams. No doubleheader, no European super club.

- Although you had more than your fair share of primarily Beckham fans, a ton of the crowd supported the home team when all was said and done.

- There was a large portion of the "non-regular crowd" who were Red Bull fans. If you didn't know this all ready, there are a ton of supporters of the club who simply don't go to allot of matches for one reason or another. The event of Becks coming gave them the reason for this to be that one game to come out to.

- This crowd varied greatly from the one that showed up to pack the house about a year ago for Ronaldinho and Barcelona. The crowd at the Barca game had a much more Latin feel to it then this Saturday did. Becks seemed brought out more of those with European heritages. This was great to see the differing fan bases because it proves that the local club has two differing local soccer fan bases that it can draw from.

- There is no doubt that this game turned some first-timers as well as timid fans who only come out every now and then into fans of the Red Bulls and fans of MLS. You know this to be a fact if you were there.

- Now, the game obviously did not turn every one of the 66,000 + into Red Bull fans, but it proved that the people will come out, in very large quantities, if the club gives them that "in". For some that "in" is consistently winning, for others it is the new stadium. For many though, they won't get that "in" until there is a world soccer star suiting up for NY.

The fans are there, and it may not be as hard to convert them as we might have thought a year ago.

Red Bull Hoped to host Super Club Pre-Season Tournament

It appears that Red Bull was hoping for Becks not to be the only big crowd draw at Giants Stadium this summer.

An interesting piece of information from Ives Galarcep's preview of the Beckham game this Saturday night:

"Red Bull attempted to plan a tournament featuring the likes of Manchester United and Barcelona, but that didn't get very far."

A tournament like that would have done wonders for increased international visibility of the club and to draw more fans to Red Bull New York games and events. Not to mention that a tournament like this would have done alot of good for the Red Bull bottom line. It's nice to hear that Red Bull had plans for something like this, even if they didn't "get very far".

Hopefully Red Bull will be able to host something of the like in the future.

The Whirlwind of Becks and Possible Effects

This Saturday night at Giants Stadium, the Red Bulls will play the Galaxy in front of the largest crowd ever to witness a regular season New York game.

This will provide a unique oportunity for the club to leave an impression on the masses Beckham will draw to the swamp.

Obviously the ticket revenue from this game will go a long way towards pleasing the Red Bull overlords, but there are many other things that make this weekend important and interesting.

For starters, the Becks hype machine seems to be at the highest it has been since his debut against Chelsea, thanks in large part to a trmendous preformance in last night's SuperLiga semifinal against DC including a signature bending free kick goal as well as an assist to catapult LA into the final.

That preformance as well as his improving health will likely help drive ticket sales in the last couple days leading up to the fixture.

But this goes deeper than one night of ticket sales. Red Bull New York's visability will take a huge jump, especially in the local papers and news. In fact, Jozy Altidore, Juan Pablo Angel, and David Beckham will be hosting an invitation only soccer clinic in Harlem tommorow. This is a great opportunity to get the club out there linked with a name like David Beckham as well as help grow soccer in the community.

The overall hope for the game itself is that the enormous crowd is won over by the Red Bulls play and the electric soccer atmosphere created by the thousands and that they all become Red Bulls supporters themselves and come back to other regular season games. Now, that is sort of a pie in the sky type scenario, but part of it can come true. I have no doubt that at least a few of those just there to see Beckham will be won over and return for future games not including Becks, but as past history shows when a big crowd comes to GS the after effect will not be something spectacular. Check out a great piece on that at Metrofanatic.

As the article states, the team has not usually done its job in these situations, so I guess it cannot be that accuratley guaged.

The attendance woes of the club have been well documented in recent years. We all know there are thousands upon thousands of soccer fans in the area, but thr trouble has been for the club to get them out to games consistantly to form a larger, stronger fan base.

They came to see Ronaldinho and Barcelona last year, and they are comming to see David Beckham this year. Consistant sucess will help with attendance, but it is clear that what this area needs to get amped on MLS is a superstar. They need their in that they just can't refuse. They need that one thing that will undoubtedly take them all the way out to the swamp, and eventually to the much more conveniant Red Bull Park.

The ticket sales and attendance for this match has and will leave a big mark on the NYRB front office. If their original thought was that the masses would only come out for a friendly with a star studded Barcelona team, that has been proven totally wrong with an almost as large crowd comming simply to see another MLS team with that one superstar, David Beckham.

Rumors have been floating around in MLS and fan circles for months about the possible addition of a second dp slot for each team (thus giving NYRB a third). These rumors were put in the message board spotlight as the mlsrumors blog revealed that sources have indicated the possility of that. Now, no one knows the credibility of the source or anything, but this rumor has been out there for a bit and could happen. But also it could not, that's what a rumor is.

The question is, will this crowd leave such an effect on the club's brass that they make their push for an international superstar of their own that will drive the crowds to the stadium, or will they continue their holding pattern until Red Bull Park?

Now the third dp thing is just talk as of now, but the reality is that Reyna's contract will be over at the end of next year, earlier than Red Bull Park is set to open with the current delay. In the next few years Red Bull will have to decide if it wants to finally break the bank like everyone has heard they can and get that player that will give the soccer fans in the metro area their official "in".

The crowd will say "do it", and there is no doubt Red Bull will be listening.

Red Bull Park - Plans

In recent days, some plans for Red Bull Park have been leaked from a meeting that leaders of the Empire Supporters Club held with the members of the front office that represent the supporters club.

Thanks to Metrofanatic poster Onionbag for providing this info from the meeting with the FO.

Interesting tidbits:

- There is a plan for an "Empire End". This would be a compilation of all the supporters groups in one end of the stadium. A great idea if you ask me, just have to get everyone on the same page as there would be allot to iron out. If everyone is cooperative though it would be an amazing supporters section as well as create a tremendous atmosphere for the rest of the stadium to play off of.

- Flags will be allowed for supporters at RBP.

- "Red Bull Park in Harrison is not going to be a build it and come thing like AEG would have done. The FO is planning on marketing blitzing the Ironbound, and surrounding areas prior to opening." Great news as the Ironbound and other areas around RBP are full of soccer passion and are perfect areas to draw potential fans from.

- "They want to make RBP a true source of local pride". This is truly great to hear as the location of the stadium is one if its biggest pluses because of the soccer tradition and ethnic backgrounds in and around the site.

The quote about the "build it and come thing like AEG" can mean one of two things. Either the Red Bull buyout of AEG is imminent, or the FO just made a comparison to if AEG still owned the team. I am leaning towards the buyout is imminent, as plans for a stadium were never finalized without Red Bull.

Red Bull Park - Buyout

The opening of Red Bull Park was officially delayed last week, due to as many as six feet of concrete foundations under the site where the new home of RBNY is to be built. This caused the Park's open to be delayed to April or May 2009. If you have followed the construction cam at all for the new park, you could see this coming.

From the ashes of the delay announcement came some very interesting tidbits you may not know.

Let's start with Red Bull's possible purchase of AEG's remaining stake in Red Bull Park.

- In a midweek Michael Lewis article about the delay of Red Bull Park, the mayor of Harrison Ray McDonough revealed that Red Bull have been in talks with Anschutz Entertainment Group to buyout the remaining part of Red Bull Park.

""Red Bull wants to control their own destiny," he said."I'm very optimistic. Red Bull wants to have it."McDonough, however, said he was "not at liberty" to divulge the details of the negotiations."

the article goes on...

"The stadium's design and its capacity (25,000) will not change and the Red Bulls will allow concerts to be held at the stadium, according to one source familiar with the Red Bulls' plans.

That was one reason why the town and Hudson County supported the stadium in the first place was so they could hold other events at the stadium -- such as high school soccer and football games and concerts besides 16-20 dates for pro soccer to bring in revenue, sources said."

These quotes from the mayor proved to me that what I was hearing about the buyout was correct and that it would eventually go through if Red Bull had its way.

But then came these quotes from Red Bull Managing Director Mark de Grandpre in the press release about the new training facility...

""De Grandpre said the delay has nothing to do with the rumors that Red Bull is negotiating with Anschutz Entertainment Group, which was the former owner of the MetroStars, to be the sole owner of the stadium, which reportedly will cost $100 million. "

"The Austrian energy drink company bought the MetroStars from AEG for $100 million in March 2006 and renamed the team."We're moving on as planned with AEG," de Grandpre said. "Just like we've done since Day One."

At first read this seems like it dispels the rumor of the buyout, but read it again and consider the situation.

De Grandpre, at no point in this statement, denies the rumor that Red Bull is working on a buyout of AEG's stake. He simply says that the delays in RBP are not due to a possible buyout. The, "We are moving on as planned with AEG" part, simply says that construction is continuing with AEG on board. Well, of course they are not going to suspend all construction activity on the site until the buyout is complete, that would be stupid.

De Grandpre simply makes it known that the delays are due to the foundations on the construction site itself and not some financial buyout situation.

This is true.

It is also true that a buyout is in the works.

I'll side with the mayor of Harrison, even though that would not be siding against De Grandpre as he said nothing to dispel the rumor.

These things take time. They are dealing with millions and millions of dollars. Red Bull knows what it wants and I deffinatley expect them to get it.

Buyout or not, we can count on concerts and other events being held at Red Bull Park, as well as a possible expansion in the future. But they want to settle the stadium first, and if it is really a hit and they sign a huge DP, the stadium has the ability to be expanded.

I'll have a second Red Bull Park post with more interesting details from a fan and marketing perspective being leaked from a meeting with leaders of the ESC and the front office.

RBNY Training Facility in Hannover

RBNY announced this past week that their permanent training facility was too be built in Hanover New Jersey, 17 miles from the construction site of Red Bull Park.

The renderings of the facility reveal a tremendous state of the art soccer facility that will finally give the nomadic club a home.

Read about and take the video tour of the Red Bull's new home here.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to have the club have a permanent training facility, as well as a general home for all operations.

A few interesting quotes and elements from the official site...

"We looked at facilities throughout Europe to get the best model possible, including the one at Austria," de Grandpre said, referring to the Red Bulls' sister club in Salzburg. "In terms of MLS, we think this will be a unique training facility and the best in North America."

And de Grandpre said the New Jersey training facility will be even better than the one in Salzburg because it will be home to all of the New York Red Bulls operations.

"It's much bigger, but all the inside amenities will be similar," he said. "In Salzburg, we don't have the front office, first team and the academy under one roof. Hopefully it gives the academy players an incentive to make a right [into the first team locker room] instead of a left [into the academy teams locker rooms]."

Hearing that this site is going to be better than that of our sister Champions League squad is tremendous. I also agree with the proximity point that de Grandpre makes about the youth academy and the first team. Great stuff.

The location is also what makes this facility perfect for Red Bull New York.

MLS Youth Academy regulations state that an academy's players must be from RBNY's "Home Territory" which would be within 75 miles of the teams training facility.

This from de Grandpre:

"At the end of the day we felt Hanover was the right place to be," he said. "It's easily accessible to highways, there's 74 soccer clubs in Morris County and Harrison is just a 20-minute drive away."

That puts RBNY right in the hotbed of metro area soccer with an abundance of talented youth players to choose from to continue the progress of what is already the best youth academy in MLS.

Check back later for an update on whats going on with Red Bull Park.

Bob Montgomery to be Appointed as Youth Director

Bob Montgomery is going to be named as Red Bull New York's youth director in the coming days.

Montgomery resigned as longtime coach of Adelphi University's soccer team earlier today.

This looks to be the end of a long mess created by the Red Bulls front office at the youth director position.

First came the very controversial firing of former MetroStars legend Giovanni Saverse from the position in March. The removing of Gio from the director position outraged many of the fans who have been with the club from the beginning because the only apparent reason he was fired was because he was not Red Bull blood. He was seemingly a "left-over" from the MetroStars era in the mind of the brass.

Now we don't know if that is the only reason for his firing, but that is what it appeared to the hardcore supporters and did well to taint the front office in their eyes.

The stain on the FO's shirt only grew bigger when they appointed Armen Simoniants to the youth director position, only to learn less than three weeks later that he had lied on his resume. Simoniants was fired on May 22.

-----------------------------------------------

With all of the issues the brass has seemed to have with the youth director position, it seems they have finally got it right. Montgomery knows the area and has been head coach at Adelphi for almost thirty years. Saying this guy knows his youth soccer would be an understatement.

Montgomery will take over the best youth academy in the MLS and will have one of the richest talent pools in the country to choose from.

The fact that starting next year the Red Bulls can bring up players (2) from their youth academy makes this signing even more important towards the future. This has a direct effect on the future of the club. To put it bluntly; that is pretty cool and shows that RBNY and the league as a whole are becoming more sophisticated.

What Project RBNY is About

Project RBNY is a constant thing. It doesn't stop. I already have important things to write about, but I want to take some time to give you an idea about what this space is going to be filled with.

Project RBNY is going to take a unique focus towards the most over scrutinized club in MLS, Red Bull New York. This is not going to be a fan blog or a blog that simply follows the progress of the team, trying to re-write what so many other sites already cover. I don't want to do other peoples jobs, the metro area already has a ton of tremendous soccer writers who cover the team's every move with brilliance such as Ives and Michael Lewis.

I am going to focus this space to provide an in-depth view on the inner-workings of the club, the people who run the franchise, and the effect they and their decisions have on the team and the surrounding soccer culture and community. More or less a view from the club aspect of things.

I think the Red Bull brass is one of the most interesting front offices in all of sports. They have put themselves in the never ending project of trying to make professional American soccer in the metro area matter. The Cosmos came and went, and they mattered for a while, but who is going to make it stick?

It is constantly said that MLS needs a strong, successful club in the New York market to really mean something. Now, whether that is true or not is beside the point. The point is that this is the front office that is going to try to achieve that daunting goal. Never mind, not try to achieve, has to achieve. That alone makes for a great story, I just want to follow it.

Project RBNY

The New York/New Jersey MetroStars were created in the inauguration of Major League Soccer in 1996.

Over the course of the first decade of the franchise's existence, the at-first large fan base began to decline as the club was unable to produce successful soccer, never making it farther than the MLS Cup semifinals in the year 2000.

On March 9, 2006, the MetroStars were bought by Austrian energy drink company Red Bull and their billionaire founder Dietrich Mateschitz for a sum of 100 million dollars.

The clubs strongest supporter's group, the Empire Supporters Club, along with much of the teams fan base, was outraged at the fact that their club was to now be a promotion vehicle for an energy drink.

The club was re-branded to be called Red Bull New York, featuring the company’s logos prominently on everything in relation to the club.

Although the disgust at the ownership change, Red Bull used their renowned promotion skills for the clubs first home match as the Red Bulls in the 2006 season.

The attendance at Giants Stadium that day was 35,793. The game featured a pre-game ceremony featuring the Cosmo's legends Pele and Franz Beckenbaur, as well as a half time concert by Shakira and Wyclef Jean.

Marketing of the sort, or close to it, has not been seen to this day. The home opener was a blip on the radar; attendance has continued to be the most disappointing for the region in the league.

The Red Bull ownership group played a large part in securing the soccer specific stadium deal for Harrison New Jersey, said to be the savior of the club's recent attendance woes. The Red Bull Park's scheduled opening was recently officially delayed to 2009 due to foundation issues.

-------------------------------

When you put a billionaire owner with a promotional drive for his company with the local pride of a club in the soccer rich metro area in a league with only a reported 2.5 million dollar salary cap that is known for not being relevant in the American sports landscape, you create a perfect storm of money, questioned incentives, instability, pride, failure, success, and soccer.

We are in the midst of a project in the metropolitan area to make soccer matter, to make Red Bull New York matter. This is: Project RBNY.