From the Desk of the COO

Hey all, our communications staff told me that there were a number of questions that came up on the blog that I might be best suited to answer. Personally, I think this is a great forum for me to be able to communicate to our fans on issues such as the ones below so hopefully everyone finds these informative and helpful. Glad to take more questions as they come up so if there is interest, I’ll do this again in the future. Then again, I may not be too exciting as a blogger and might not get invited back.

Can you please describe what progress has been made regarding the Revs youth/academy program? What are the upcoming milestones to measure that progress?
We’ve certainly employed a very measured and careful approach starting our Revolution Youth Academy. We believe that the Youth Academy will be an important component to our future success and want to ensure we are building the most effective program. While there is certainly some downside risk to initializing the program one year later than some teams, there is much more downside risk in the future if our program is not effective from its outset.

That being said, we will have the first of our youth teams in place later this year. Given the seasonality of youth soccer in our region, our plan is to conduct tryouts in the June/July window. There will be more announcements between now and then as to the structure and organization of the program itself, but we confident that our current plans will put us in position to develop strong players going forward.

When will the new away kits be revealed/released?

I’ve just checked in with the ProShop and the away kits have already shipped from adidas, meaning we should have them on sale next week in the ProShop and www.revolutionsoccer.net. The new numbers and letters are not available quite yet, so if you want a customized jersey or a jersey with your favorite player’s name and number, you’ll need to wait  about two weeks more until that shipment arrives.

What are the on and off field goals for the Revs for the next five years? What are the Revs doing to make it happen? How are they tracking their progress?

This is a very interesting question given all that has been happening with the sport and our league in the past few years. We have recently developed a new vision, mission statement and set of core values for the organization and these are rolling out for the first time this year. Without getting into too much detail, we’re going to be focused primarily on attracting a much bigger core base of adult soccer fans and we are currently aligning our sales and marketing efforts to do just that.

Additionally, we will be working on initiatives to focus our fan touch-points (live games, website, advertising, etc.) on our competitions, rivalries and players. While we will still offer additional programs to appeal to youth and families, we don’t want that to be the primary focus of what our organization and team is about. Perhaps some of you have seen our new “Pride and Passion” collateral, which is one of the first (albeit somewhat minor) implementations of this initiative. We have also been adding staff in a number of departments so that we can better execute this new plan.

As far as our goals on the field, our number one goal has been – and will continue to be – winning MLS Cup. Of course, we will put our best efforts forward in other competitions as well, as we showed last year with our first ever U.S. Open Cup championship. But above all, we really covet that first MLS Cup Championship.

Should a soccer specific stadium for the Revolution be under consideration by the Krafts, would they be willing to actively engage and/or solicit longtime fans for input as to what they’d prefer in terms of in-stadium amenities, design, etc.? This was done by Peter Wilt and the Chicago Fire in the years leading up to the construction of Toyota Park, so would the Krafts be similarly inclined to hear what fans want?

First of all, I am comfortable saying that our organization is beyond the “under consideration” stage of building a soccer-specific stadium for the Revolution. We have been actively looking at various sites and options, and hope to be playing in a new stadium within a few years. That being said, it is certainly a long process with numerous stakeholders involved.

While I understand that the lack of updates can be frustrating to our fans, this type of project is often best worked on in relative privacy up to a certain stage. Once we are able to share more with our supporters, we certainly will.

During the last two years, I have traveled with the team to each of the new soccer stadiums as they’ve opened around the league – Chicago, Toronto, Colorado, Dallas – to see what each team did, how it works for the team and fans, how it’s received and what could be done similarly or differently in our own stadium project. Additionally, we do plan on soliciting input from our supporters on the stadium design and amenities, so we do recognize the importance of your opinions on this matter as this will not only the home of our team, but also our fans.