Red Bull: Good or Evil

Again, I apologize to my readers for the infrequency of posts this week, but there are other reasons why, besides apathy, I didn't post for over four months. That said, let's look at today's topic: The abrupt change in MLS' fans perspective of the Red Bull takeover of the team formerly known as the Metrostars.

It all started yesterday when a certain Jack Bell article from the New York Times began making its rounds around the internet. In that article, Bell says that, among other things, the team's name could be changing to "Red Bull Cosmos," the Harrison stadium project (the announcement of which was only the second post on this humble blog) could be scuttled in favor of staying at the Meadowlands, and none other than Giorgio Chinaglia could be given a top position within the club. Of course, when the story was posted, BigSoccer went nuts, some even taking back every good thing they ever said about the Red Bull sale. My title of the aforementioned second post was "Signs the Apocalypse is near," and you'd think that was the case now. But is all of this really serious?

Let's look closely at the claims Bell makes in the article, starting with the statement "the departure of Alexi Lalas as president and general manager of the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer will hasten change." This alone should set off a few alarm bells. For all we know, Lalas left of his own volition, and the Galaxy move was rumored as soon as Doug Hamilton passed away. Lalas seems to be a favorite son of the AEG corporation and has moved quickly up the corporate ladder. To say that his departure from the club was mutual is pure speculation, as is the idea that his departure will "hasten change." Perhaps Bell is more in the know than I (which I'd hope would be the case), but I have a hard time understanding how changes would hasten with Lalas' departure. Was he a force preventing change behind the scenes?

After this, the article delves into even more overt speculation. He makes a connection between Beckenbauer's involvement with the club (the extent to which Beckenbauer is involved is not known) and a practical Cosmos reunion. The "changes" that Bell expects, he ties to this quote of Red Bulls assistant general manager Chris Canetti, that the club was "working on plans for the restructuring of this organization, and that those plans will be available to us within the near future, possibly within the next seven days." But shouldn't we expect the restructuring of an organization that was run with practically no strategy for the last several years? Shouldn't we be happy that Red Bull is looking to restructure what was one of the most inefficient and incompetent organizations in MLS?

At this point, Bell goes off the deep end. He suggests that it's "likely" that Giorgio Chinaglia will be promoted to a position within the organization. Unless Bell is privy to some insider information, how is this likely? And why would any organization, especially one with as smart a business model as Red Bull, bring in a man with as poor of business credentials and experience as Chinaglia, a man who drove his own organization into the ground. Dare I suggest that Chinaglia helped Bell think this whole article up? At one point, Bell even quotes Chinaglia as saying: ""I don't think they need much time to think about this. It could be a week, it could be 10 days," regarding these supposed imminent changes which include splashing down money for new players. That, of course, would be in violation of the league's single-entity policy and would have to be approved by a majority of the league's owners. The fiscally conservative AEG and Hunt Sports Group would doubtless reject any idea to put down the kind of money that Red Bull wants to spend.

Finally, there is very little evidence to suggest that a name change is even "possible," nor is there much evidence suggesting that Red Bull is pulling out of the stadium deal. Bell writes: "It is possible the team name could again be changed — to Red Bull Cosmos — because G. Peppe Pinton, who holds the Cosmos trademark rights, said in a telephone interview that he was willing 'to give Franz whatever he wants.'" There is no evidence to suggest that the team is actually considering the name change, just that Pinton is willing to sell them to the club. Likewise, it's understandable that Red Bull would be willing to stay in the Meadowlands given its history with the New York Cosmos. However, according to an article in Big Apple Soccer, everyone's favorite former Metros GM, Nick Sakiewicz, said that this rumor of re-evaluation of the Harrison deal was "completely 100 percent untrue." For now, these wild rumors should be laid to rest, and we should all give Red Bull the benefit of the doubt. For now.

Update: According to USA Today, Mo Johnston expects to be fired tomorrow. I wonder if this has more to do with Red Bull's impatience with his results or confirmation of these supposed "imminent changes?"

Update 2: Apparently, Johnston will not be fired.