A Christmas Carol, TFC style.

I've just returned from vacation, during which I saw TFC games against Seattle and Chivas, two very different sides of the MLS experience, and seeing as how TFC was already out of contention for the playoffs, it really gave me a chance to focus less on the games and more on the overall atmosphere surrounding both clubs, and how it could relate to TFC and their future, and it all seems to have a very Scrooge like theme to me.  Think Tom Anselmi as Ebenezer Scrooge, Paul Beirne can be Bob Cratchett I suppose, and Tiny Tim? Young and permanently crocked, step up Emmanuel Gomez. 

Anyway, first up Seattle.

1.  We have grass, Seattle has plastic.
2.  Our kits are better.
3.  We don't have advertisements broadcast over the loudspeakers during the game.

That's it.  It's been over a week since we played in Seattle, and those are still the only ways I can think of that TFC and being a TFC supporter is better than what Seattle has, and one of those is merely a subjective matter of taste.

A list of ways that the Sounders are better than TFC would take a long long time, but it obviously all starts at the top.  Whereas MLSE is very much a business that is expected to make ever increasing profits, Seattle has owners in Drew Carey and Paul Allen that are a) independently wealthy and b) soccer fans, so their main motivation is winning, and profit (and with the size of the crowd and the way merchandise was flying off the shelf, there's got to be a ridiculous amount of profit there) is secondary. 

Unlike MLSE's cautious approach, starting with Mo Johnston, and deciding it wasn't worth spending money on a DP right away, right from the start they were committed to winning, illegally luring then coach of the year Sigi Schmid away from Columbus, and signing good players including DP Freddie Ljungberg.  The Ljungberg experiment went wrong earlier this year, but they reloaded, including signing striker Blaise Nkufo and Uruguayan world cup player Alvaro Fernandez, and have recovered from a slow start to work their way into a playoff spot again.

The difference in the quality and depth of squads was shown most effectively in the substitutes during the game, Seattle bringing on Fernandez and Nate Jacqua who scored 9 goals last year which is more than anyone except Dwayne De Rosario has managed in any TFC season.  TFC?  Well we got Nick Garcia, O'Brian White and recent academy call-up Nicholas Lindsay, and our DP striker?  Mista pulled himself out of the line-up pre game with a foot injury. 

All this ambition, winning, playoff appearances and US Open triumphs (Seattle won their second consecutive last wednesday, beating Columbus in the final) have kept the fans coming and involved, and made sure Qwest field remains a genuinely exciting place to watch a game.  With some very noisy supporters groups, joined occasionally in the more simple chants by the rest of the sold out 36,000+ crowd, and with a real anticipatory buzz throughout the stadium, it was a great experience.  This was Christmas past, a reminder of TFC's early days when the stadium was packed and fans were excited just to have a team, before 4 years of constant ineptitude sucked the life out of the more casual BMO field attendees.  Basically TFC crowd circa 2007 + winning = Sounders crowd.  I'm officially jealous, hopefully there's still a chance that sort of atmosphere can return if the right moves are made and we finally start winning.

If Seattle was a great experience, and an example of what TFC can hopefully be again if they do things right, then last Saturday's game against Chivas is the other side of the coin, TFC's depressing ghost of Christmas future, what will happen if TFC continues to stagnate and lose and the front office continues to alienate people with ticket price increases and their seeming indifference to supporter concerns.

It's not all bad there by any means, they do have a couple of supporters groups doing their best, the ones I met were very friendly, as well as amusingly contemptuous of Preki,  but they're fighting what right now seems to be a losing battle against a half empty stadium and a barely interested crowd who seemed most excited when the wave got going. 

The bit that really scares me, and what I really hope to never see at BMO field, is what the club does to try and get the crowd involved.  A mascot, cheerleaders, hundreds of people on the pitch involved with the pre-game stuff, all the usual North American razzmatazz that TFC refreshingly decided to avoid at first.  Even worse was loud music and "goooooooooooooooooooooolllll" after each goal, drowning out the crowd at the one time they actually do get excited.  Terrible.  If the crowds don't come back to BMO and they end up having to resort to that sort of thing to try and attract new fans, well, that might be the moment I decide to give up my season tickets.

So, TFC are clearly at a crossroads, about to start again, with a new management and coaching team to be hired and a squad to be rebuilt.  Hopefully this time they don't go cheap, but instead, Scrooge sends a boy to buy the biggest goose in the shop window, copying Seattle's plan and getting the best people, price and legalities be damned.  If not, well the future could well be a pretty bleak one.