Whitecaps Update

So I’ve been a little lazy with my aspirations for this project, but I have been very busy with school and work so I will try to start pounding some stuff out soon.

I think it may be a good thing to wait until the end of the season too since this past week added a lot more material after such a dismal game.

FC St. Pauli Vancouver

I’m the manager of an indoor soccer team here in Vancouver and I have a lot of fun doing it. Our name is FC St. Pauli Vancouver which comes from FC St. Pauli in Hamburg, the first professional team I supported. The team is comprised of mainly my friends and now friends of friends who I only know because of soccer.

I really enjoy leading the team and we’re pretty good too. Last season we lost 8-7 in the semi finals to the eventual champions and last night was our first game of the new season with us coming away convincing 6-1 winners.

We’re thinking about getting new jerseys for the team and are looking for fundraising ideas, so if you’ve got any let me know. And as always, VIVA ST. PAULI!

Update: we’ve received donations from London Drugs ($40 giftcard) and Local Public Eatery ($50 giftcard). Both will be up for grabs as raffle prizes at an upcoming pub night with details coming soon.

Whitecaps Tickets

A few months ago, I posted a piece about Major League Soccer’s imminent arrival in Vancouver. I also mentioned how I had joined the Southsiders and how I have a season ticket deposit for next season too. Prices were finally released yesterday, November 4th, and needless to say, the Southsiders are not pleased with the prices. The group’s President, John Knox, posted the following on the Southsiders’ forum this afternoon, and expressed very well how almost all the members are currently feeling.

To all of Vancouver’s football fans and supporters:

The Vancouver Southsiders do not claim to be entitled to any discounts, kickbacks, obligations, special favours or prices. Our money is as good as anyone else’s when it comes to supporting the Whitecaps. We are not “owed” anything for supporting the club up to this point, nor are we claiming to be.

The current uproar within our membership is largely due to the Whitecaps’ failure to adequately manage the expectations of its new and existing supporters, and rightly so.

The Whitecaps’ entire marketing campaign to date has been centred around the $319 price point as the proverbial “cheap seats.”

When you look at EVERY team in MLS (and most football leagues in the UK and Europe, for that matter) the cheapest seats are nosebleeds and the seats behind the goal.

It’s an obstructed view for most down there, which makes it affordable, and that is why your most active supporters groups tend to congregate there. To those fans it’s not about the view, it’s about the experience.

It is therefore not at all surprising that members of the Southsiders (and others in Vancouver who are interested in “supporting” as opposed to “watching”) arrived at the conclusion that the cheap seats would be behind the net.

However, when taxes and fees are included, seats behind the net are **$200 more** than what the vast majority were anticipating as result of the marketing campaign. That’s quite a shock to the system, let alone the wallet.

Here’s the behind the net pricing for the big teams in MLS to illustrate a point:

Whitecaps $560
LA Galaxy $400
Seattle Sounders $400
Portland Timbers $369
Toronto FC $361
NY Red Bulls $272

The pricing for Toronto and Seatlle sparked chaos with their supporters this year… and here we are, set to play in a temporary tin-can venue (Empire Field) with no signings, charging $160 more than Seattle and $200 more than TFC.

The Galaxy have Beckham, and their package includes 3 – 5 major friendlies. Last year they hosted Real Madrid and Boca Juniors. We will be paying more than Galaxy fans just to see FC Edmonton and Montreal.

The Red Bulls are in the most expensive and most lucrative market in North America, with the league’s arguably highest profile signing in Thierry Henry. Those fans are paying exactly what I paid to stand at Burnaby’s Swangard Stadium last year for division two football.

Which brings me to this:

Last year, I paid $270 for the “privilege” of standing on metal bleachers, pissing in port-a-loos, waiting in line at substandard concessions and arriving 2.5 hrs early to ensure I could get a parking space.

Next year I will be at Empire, probably for the entire season. Once again, I will stand on metal bleachers, piss in a port-a-loo, tough it out in long lines for overpriced concessions and pay $30 for parking… and if I want the “privilege” of standing where I have since 1999, I have to pay $300 more more for my ticket than I did last year.

It is absolutely inconceivable that we should be forced to pay the same exorbitant prices for Empire Field as we will at BC Place. There is absolutely no justification for that, not even if we stocked our team with stars in their prime from the likes of Real Madrid.

Speaking of which…

Vancouverites will pay more for their seats behind the net than fans of Real Madrid do. And here’s a kick in the ass – we only get two Canadian Championship matches in our package. They pay less than we do, and they get three matches to the UEFA Champions League!

I’m not so daft as not to know that Canada and Spain’s economies are apples and oranges. I do however think there is an important lesson there though.

The Whitecaps have a stated goal of becoming a top-25 club on the global stage. Real Madrid has to rank in the top 3 on that list easily.

I would suggest that the Whitecaps should be looking to learn from the best before attempting to climb the ranks on the wallets of the supporters who kept them afloat through the dark days of the 1990s and 2000s.

Hell, they can even look at the bottom feeding dregs of the MLS for some wisdom.

DC United’s supporters group, the Screaming Eagles, are paying less than what Vancouverites will to stand behind the net.

In return, their club provides the supporters group with a financial kickback estimated at around $75 per member. This allows the Screaming Eagles to provide their members with a free jersey every year, and free beer at tailgate parties before every match.

On a price-per-match analysis, I will concede that the $560 “Aqua” supporters section isn’t too high, especially for the Vancouver’s vastly overpriced sports market. It certainly pales in comparison to prices for the Canucks.

Unfortunately, Vancouver’s fans don’t have the option of paying on a price-per-match basis. It’s an all or nothing deal, with half due in November, and half due in February…. that’s right before Christmas, and right after. The Whitecaps couldn’t have dropped this news at a worse time, although I acknowledge that the renovations at BC Place have played a role in this timing.

A more comprehensive and accessible payment plan would do wonders to quell this uproar. Almost every team in MLS has one, save for a few, and none of those exceptions are in markets as pricey as we are.

I also question this:

- Why do end zone seats for BC Lions games at BC Place cost 40% less than the corner seats… but at a Whitecaps match they will cost 55% more than the same corners?

- Why are the sections priced in a way so that two people with an aisle between them have a pricing differential of nearly $100 to $200?

It’s a Mickey Mouse pricing plan, plain and simple. The Vancouver Southsiders should have been the Whitecaps’ easiest customers to sell this experience to, and now we have several long-time members questioning whether this is a club worth supporting.

And that’s why we’re pissed off.

Welcome to “modern football,” Vancouver!

Sincerely.

John Knox

Thirty-two

My favorite number is thirty-two. I like thirty-two because it’s unique, few people likely have thirty-two as their favorite number and there have been a lot of times when the number has been in my life.

When I was in grade ten, I went on an exchange to Bremen, Germany. Bremen have a profesional soccer team, some of you may know, Werder Bremen. Back in 2003, there was a player named Aílton Gonçalves da Silva, better known as just “Ailton”, who played for Werder. To me, he was a lumbering striker, who looked more likely to be in a buffet line-up than a professional soccer team’s starting line-up. Nevertheless, Ailton was my favorite, and a phenomenal striker too, very prolific, as most Brazilians are.

Ailton’s number was thirty-two.

Thirty-two has appeared in other aspects of my life too.

I attended BCIT Aerospace and graduated from the Aircraft Gas Turbine Technician program; we were class thirty-two. Upon graduation I got a job with Pratt & Whitney Canada in Lethbridge, Alberta, working in their facility that is known as Plant thirty-two. Highway 99 is the nearest highway to my house, and to get home I have to take exit thirty-two. Zombieland Rule thirty-two: Enjoy the Little Things. Oh, and this week is my brother’s birthday, he turns thirty-two, happy birthday, Duncan!

Major League Soccer

The Vancouver Whitecaps are joining Major League Soccer next season, and I am going to be there. Not only do I have my deposit down for season’s tickets, but I have also joined the Southsiders, who are the Whitecaps’ only supporter’s group.

Although the season doesn’t begin until March, I am very excited for this to get going. I think back to the games I went to see in Bremen, standing in the “Ostkurve” with all the fanatical supporters and how much fun that was. The sort of rush you get, when your team scores and you’re in the stadium with all the hardcore fans around you, is unrivaled.

I’ve found it difficult to follow soccer in Vancouver, especially since the current Whitecaps play in Burnaby. With the lack of media attention for, what is, close to a semi-pro league, travel out to Burnaby and not many friends who want to go out to games, it’s been tough trying to support the Caps’. That’s why I’m so happy that they’re moving into BC Place eventually and Empire Stadium to start with. It’s going to make things a heck of a lot simpler to get to, and having the Caps’ in the top level of soccer in North America is bound to garner them more media attention.

I’m also very excited for road trips to Seattle, for games against the Sounders, and to Portland, for games against the other 2011 MLS entry, the Timbers. Those are going to be a lot of fun.

miCoach

Adidas recently released an app for the iPhone and BlackBerry called miCoach. It allows you to:

Turn your phone into a personal coach. miCoach uses GPS and real-time voice coaching in your ear to pace you through easy to understand workout zones as you run. Choose a training plan tuned for your sport to build speed and endurance. Track and share your achievements with the app or at miCoach.com. Be Faster with miCoach!

It’s a really great way to track what you’re doing and a good motivation for working out as you get to see really neat charts and stats on your workout that you wouldn’t normally get just running by yourself. There are a bunch of different regimes that you can pick and customize for yourself as to what level you’d like to start at and how often you want to work out. I’m currently in the middle of my soccer training program and I’m really enjoying it and finding it a really easy way to keep at it.

The Nations Cup

I love soccer. I am a soccer referee first and a player second. I have been a referee since I was 12, and I have never really be able to explain or really understand what makes me want to be a referee, it’s an entirely thankless job. The only reason I’ve kind of though of is that refereeing allows me to be involved with soccer at a much higher level than I could ever reach as a player.

The Nations Cup is a soccer tournament in Richmond every year where players play on teams that represent their ethnic backgrounds. This year’s installment is either the third or fourth tournament that I’ve refereed. I did two games Friday evening and three today. My first two games, the first, a women’s open game (Scotland versus Portugal) went off without a hitch as both teams, unfortunately for them, had already been eliminated, and the second a men’s over 30 match (Scotland versus India) also was a fairly smooth affair, but the third and final match went a little haywire.

The men’s open semi final went to penalty kicks and after a call that went against one of the teams involved that ultimately resulting in that team losing, the keeper came up to me a shoved his chest into me trying to knock me over, along with the usual tirade of verbal obscenities. Having been a referee for some many years, I have grown a tolerance for verbal abuse that would likely be considered worrying among people with other hobbies. Verbal abuse, although not liked, is much better that physical violence, and although it wasn’t a punch to the face, the intent was still there to intimidate me and cause harm. It worked. I’ve never had that sort of thing happen to me before and it really shook me up, but I’m thankful for the other referees that were watching and then comforted me as I came off the field. The only thing I have left is a feeling that maybe the call I made wasn’t in fact the correct call and that they were just consoling me to make me feel better, such as when a husband is asked by his wife whether she looks fat in the dress she’s wearing, she does, but in order to preserve her feelings (and his wellbeing), he says no.

(Not) World Cup Champions

Those who know me, know that I am a very passionate German soccer fan, and so I am still coming to terms with Germany being knocked out at the semi-final stage of the World Cup. Prior to the semi-final versus Spain, I made a video for a contest with the CBC, I didn’t win, and as you know neither did Germany, so the end of the video is relavent now to the next World Cup, four long years away.

2010 FIFA World Cup

The 2010 FIFA World Cup starts June 11th, in South Africa, and I couldn’t be more excited. I had so much fun in 2006 during the World Cup and can’t wait to feel that same excitement again. The passion that soccer fans have for a simple game is unrivalled and is hard to explain, I am looking forward to returning to the Alpen Club to watch Germany, hopefully win the whole thing, as I’m getting tired of seeing both Club and Country finishing 2nd or 3rd in tournaments. “Steht auf, wenn Ihr Deutsche seid!!”

Robert Enke

Robert Enke was a German national goalkeeper, he “lived the dream”, but it was too much for him. Tuesday night, he committed suicide after battling depression for the last few years. I am having a hard time to come to terms with his death, it doesn’t affect me personally, he didn’t play for the team I support (but he did play for the national team, which I do follow), but I just can’t understand how someone in his position could think that this was the only way out. He was slated to be playing, likely as the number one, next summer at the World Cup in South Africa, he was the starting keeper for Hannover 96, and he was also their captain. You always hear that an athlete’s/celebrity’s life isn’t as glamorous or great as it seems, but surely, if the pressures of the game and everything else was weighing on his so much, he could have just stopped playing and pack up his family and just move somewhere with the money he’s made and try to make things right they way he wants them. It’s really sad to see that this was the only way he thought he could deal with things, and I only hope the best for his family right now.