Wednesday, October 29, 2008

New Cup

MLS has revealed its new cup design for MLS Cup.

New Cup


Pretty slick. Here is the whole press release from the league.

Twellman Out

Twellman will be sidelined for the remainder of the season, with concussion related complications. The Revs sent out a press release yesterday announcing that Twellman's season would be coming to an end.

It has been a tough year for the teams all-time leading goal scorer. He went through some personal issues in the off-season, and then missed the first half of the season with a knee injury. Twellman has only been a few goals away from reaching the 100 goal milestone, but will have to wait until next year possibly to join the elite group.

This latest set back will keep the star striker from trying to help his team reach a fourth straight MLS cup, and fifth in 7 years.

Taylor will be 29 next season, and questions of his return to the club will surely resurface again this off season, as they have in the recent past. With an injury plagued season, it may be hard for him to attract the interest he wants from European clubs. There is no doubting his quality in finishing here in this league still. He was still an effective goal scorer when on the field. We will follow his story to see if he will be back for an 8th season with the Revs.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Somerville Site News

Somerville News
by: Auditi Guha
11/22/08

“Right now the city is focusing on the maintenance facility, where it goes and whether we will have air rights over it,” [Monica] Lamboy [from mayors office] said. “Once we get past it, we can discuss all kinds of creative ideas like the stadium.”

The city of Somerville is currently trying to resolve an issue with a proposed Green Line maintenance that is planned for the Inner Belt area. Resolving this issue seems to be at the forefront of the development in this area, and would put plans for a stadium on hold until a solution is found.


Sunday, October 19, 2008

Revs Show Interest in Pauleta

According to this article bye ESPN writer Frank Dell'Apa, legendary Portuguese international Pauleta was offered a contract by the Revs.

Pauleta was in Fall River last week on a fundraising tour but could have been in the area for soccer reasons -- he was recruited by MLS teams and said he wanted to play for New England. Jose Silva, a television producer who is accompanying Pauleta, said both the Revolution and New York Red Bulls offered contracts. Pauleta and Silva agreed the money was not good enough.

The 35 year old Portuguese striker is all but retired at this point. However, it is interesting that the Revs have shown interest in a player of his stature. Even at his age, he would garner much support from the large Portuguese-American population of southern New England.

We will look further into this story to see if there will be any further offers from the Revs to try and sway Pauleta to come to play in New England.


Thursday, October 16, 2008

Somerville Stadium Gaining Traction?

This mornings Boston Globe website (www.boston.com) ran a new story about the potential new stadium which has been rumored in Somerville:

"They make no bones about the fact that they want to be in the urban core, which is a smart move on their part, and we're excited about it," Joseph A. Curtatone, Somerville's mayor, said.

While this potential project is still very much in its infancy, there seems to be a bit of momentum towards the potential Revolution stadium being built in Somerville. Curtatone seems encouraged, and even inviting in his comments about a potential stadium, as Somerville goes through a large redevelopment project.

The article points out one of the possible problems with the stadium location would be the extention of Bostons Green-Line Train that is being extended through that area. However:

That "conceptual possibility" of a stadium above a railyard has emerged from the ongoing study funded by the Krafts and led by planners Greenberg/CBT Architects, with input from pro bono consultants who have helped Somerville with sustainable, transit-oriented planning, such as former state development secretary Douglas I. Foy, city officials said.

There have been many stadiums around the country (and world) which have incorporated their buildings with local public transportation stations. One such building is only a few miles away. The TD Banknorth Garden is built on top of Boston's North Station.

Some Somerville city officials seem worried that the rail station may curtail the development of the area around it. However, a local attraction (like a stadium) may be exactly what the project needs to fullfill both the requirments of improving infrastructure, and at the same time help redevelopment of businesses.

This news is also met with a bit of skepticismas fears over the economy as whole continue to take hold. As we all know the credit markets have been all but frozen for a while now, and it may be very hard for a project such as a stadium, to secure proper financing. This article in the Wall Street Journal points out how sports may be effected in the near future. A potential Somerville stadium is not mentioned in the article, but it may shed some light onto the goings on in the sports business world in trying to get stadium projects moving. This could be a potential problem for the Revolution in trying to build a new stadium any time soon.

Kraft has already built a brand new stadium facility in Massachusetts (Gillette Stadium, the Revs current home). He is also in the middle of developing the area around the stadium in Foxboro, known as Patriot Place. The $350 million plus complex is still in the works, and seems to be Kraft's primary area of focus. With the world wide credit crunch, it seems a bit naive to assume that Kraft Sports Group could garner the support from creditors that so many developers are having a hard time doing at this time.

We are constantly digging for information about this story, and hope to bring you an in depth report of our own, which we have been trying to nail information about down.

Glory Glory Revolution

We're back

We are currently looking to upgrade our site a bit. Sorry for the lack of posts here. There hasn't been much news on the Revs front recently, except for the on field struggles.

There will be many more posts in the near future as we run up to the playoffs, and into the off season. We are hearing a lot of rumblings of exciting rumors. As we can confirm some of them, we will bring them to you. We have had a tough time nailing down some of these rumors however.

Stay tuned...