|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NEW YORK RED BULLS MEDIA CONFERENCEAugust 21, 2009Erik StoverANDY McGOWAN: Good afternoon, everyone, this is Andy McGowan. We have Erik Stover. We appreciate your time for joining us. We will start first with Erik making a brief opening statement, and then we will move into questions. ERIK STOVER: I met with Juan Carlos following training today and he informed me that he was going to resign effective immediately. We have been in constant communication over the last few weeks and few months, and it has been very difficult for him. He thought it was in the team's best interests to step aside. Practically speaking Richie Williams will take over the team for the rest of the season and we will begin the search for a head coach immediately with Richie being given all due consideration. Let me reiterate for our fans, our supporters, for everyone that follows our club that, we are extremely disappointed with the overall performance of the season, and our goal continues to create long-term stability for the club. We had hoped this season would have turned out differently, but we are committed to our goals moving forward. And at this point, I would turn it over for questions. Q. Do you think that the structure you had, the soccer structure you had with the sporting director of Jeff and Juan Carlos as coach seemed as odds with the coach, the sporting director wanted certain players, the coach wanted to sign off on certain players; is it inherently, was it inherently dysfunctional? ERIK STOVER: Well, I think that's sort of a two-part question. I think Juan Carlos and Jeff respect each other. I think there are plenty of examples of how they worked very well together. I would put the challenge -- some of the challenges we face this year in the category of the structure not being adequate. We sort of have a hybrid right now of what most of the clubs around the world have, either you have a manager that's in complete control, and player identification people work for him; or it's flipped around and you have the sporting director that's in complete control and the coach is sort of an employee. We have sort of a hybrid and I think that was part of the challenge, yes. Q. And so how are you going to address that? If you had your druthers, what's the structure that you would prefer, with the sporting director in control and the coach as an employee, or -- I mean, it seems that the hybrid has not worked, so where do you go from here? ERIK STOVER: Well, it's a little early for speculation. I think it's going to depend on who we talk to and who is interested in the organization. I think both structures can work. I have been in constant contact with Red Bull Soccer. I think we have a preference but at this point we don't want to speculate, because it's going to depend on what our opportunities are. Q. You said you had been in contact with Red Bull Soccer. Are they -- are you in accord with them on, I guess, your personal preference for that, or is that something that is still being worked through, both in terms of whether that structure would remain the same, and in accord with them on any preferences you might have on somebody considering either a coach having MLS or U.S. Soccer experience? ERIK STOVER: I would say the only thing I can say for sure is the structure as we have it now will not remain in place. But it's a very fluid process, and it's going to depend on what opportunities we have. As I said, we have our preferences, but it's going to depend on the personnel that we think we can bring in here. Q. If Juan Carlos didn't do this today, were you prepared to give him the rest of the season even if the losing continued? ERIK STOVER: Good question. The Red Bull philosophy is very clear. When we have challenges, we want very detailed solutions, and as an organization, we are never looking for short-term, interim solutions, and that's how we have approached the end of the season. I guess it's irrelevant at this point what we may have done, but we have confidence that Richie can help turn things around, change the culture and hopefully improve morale. Q. Given the fact that European coaches have not done well in MLS, why would the Red Bulls consider someone in that capacity, or even in a general manager role? ERIK STOVER: We would consider all names. We are not ruling anybody out now. There is a lot to be said for having MLS experience, whether it's on the sporting side or on the coaching side, absolutely. Everybody recognizes that, including all of the people in Red Bulls soccer. Q. I might have missed this because I joined in a little late, but did you have a conversation with Juan Carlos before he resigned and how did that conversation go? ERIK STOVER: We have had a lot of conversations, and they were personal conversations between the two of us. I don't really want to talk about that in any detail. But the decision was made today after training. Q. Okay. Was he at training today? ERIK STOVER: Yes. Q. Did you get any feeling from Juan Carlos that he decided to resign now, to perhaps give him a chance to pursue something, something somewhere else immediately? ERIK STOVER: I didn't get that feeling but that's a question you would have to ask Juan Carlos. Q. Many of the players that came in since Juan Carlos came in, I guess you could identify as his players, and you mentioned the goal for Red Bull for long-term continuity; what impact does this have again? Do fans have another season of roster churn to look forward to? ERIK STOVER: Well, I can't really speculate on that. I think the most important thing moving forward is we get our system resolved, and the people we bring in for that system will be making those decisions. Q. From your perspective, basically the two systems that you've elaborated on, in essence either a coach working for the the, whatever, general manager, sporting director, whatever, or vice versa, is it imperative in your mind that the one that has the most, I don't know, caché, have experience in MLS? In other words is that a sticking point for you or not? ERIK STOVER: Well, I don't know that we will necessarily go for caché or sex appeal in whatever name we pick. I think on both sides of this process -- Q. I should have said authority. I apologize. I don't mean hiring a name just because he's a famous player. I guess what I'm saying is, is it important to you that whichever one has the most authority, that they have MLS experience; is that personally important from your point of view? ERIK STOVER: You know, it's going to depend on what our opportunities are. I think there are probably people out there that on either side of this discussion, that are very intelligent when it comes to soccer, and the most important thing coming in is buying into the system. We can't have anybody coming in and two months later saying, what do you mean, salary cap; what do you mean, roster size. We can't have that situation. We could -- I don't want to speculate on how all of these things can kind of intertwine, but most important thing in my mind is that they understand it, fully understand it and accept it, before they sign on with us. Q. Was Juan Carlos's contract up after this season? ERIK STOVER: Yes. Q. So you guys had tried to renegotiate after last year; is that correct? And what happened, was he not interested in signing an extension then, or what transpired? ERIK STOVER: It was a slow process, and we didn't get very far with it. We didn't really get into serious numbers or discussions. We had actually started right before the season in that conversation, and then of course, we were in Argentina for camp and we were not really sitting at a table eye-to-eye, and then the season starts and it starts off poorly. We had some fits and starts, but we never really got traction. Q. So was it by mutual ascent, that it didn't get very far? Certainly after going to the Championship Game last season, the club must have thought, well, you know, this is our guy, let's try and lock him up. ERIK STOVER: That's what we thought. We recognize that there were -- there were holes. There were holes in the field. There were holes in our system. And we thought with the people we had, we could keep it moving forward, and fill the holes as we moved forward. And when the bad luck started, the red cards, the bad bounces, bad calls, and the holes were where we had issues and those were getting magnified. Q. How important is it for Angel to come back next year, and is he a player of such stature that if you wanted some input as to who would be coming in, the team would listen? ERIK STOVER: Well, we signed Juan Pablo to an extension because we believe in him and we haven't changed that position, at all. I talk to Juan regularly. In fact, I talked to him and a few of the other players today. We haven't talked about next season because we have a lot of games left to play and we obviously are faced with some challenges. But the organization remains completely committed to him and he is under contract through 2010. Q. Was this the first time that you specifically had that conversation with Juan Pablo? On several occasions, he's said: I like it here, I'm proud to play here, but we have to sit down, I don't know what their plans are for next season and I'm sure changes will be made and I don't know if I'll be back and even today I asked him, did you have a conversation with Erik, and did he, A, ask you about the way the team was going; did he seek any input on whatever direction they might go coaching-wise, or whether you were going to come back. Now this is obviously before you talked to him but he said no. Were those the things that you touched on with him, or was it just specifically Juan Carlos quit and that's it? ERIK STOVER: Today when we spoke? Q. Yes. ERIK STOVER: We talked about general structure things, as well. Q. Did you seek his advice on how it played out and whether he thought it was dysfunctional or was that not part of the conversation? ERIK STOVER: Not part of the conversation. Q. Where does this leave Jeff Agoos in this equation right now? ERIK STOVER: It's been hard for Jeff. It's been hard for all of us over the last few weeks. Jeff has stated publically already that he's very committed to the organization and he'll do whatever is asked of us moving forward, just as long as we have an opportunity to turn this around. As far as his future, I think there's potential there, but we have a lot of research we have to do yet and a lot of people we have to talk to. Q. How long is Jeff Agoos' contract through? ERIK STOVER: Jeff doesn't have a contract. Q. When you say Jeff is saying that he will do whatever is asked of him to do, turn this around, does that mean in another capacity, in another position next year possibly? ERIK STOVER: It's possible. Q. Fourth head coach of the club through the years -- (indiscernible) -- the structure that Red Bulls has isn't functioning and doesn't work well in MLS, or would you disagree with that or what can you say about that? ERIK STOVER: I think that goes back to a lot of what we have already talked about, maybe if I can sort of recap. I think especially for the people on this call that have followed the team for a long time, Red Bull has done a lot to change the culture. I'm sure you remember when the Metro Stars practiced in a parking lot, when they would get on a bus not knowing what field they would play on. We invested a lot of money in Montclair State as an interim solution. It may not be the best training facility in the world, but it's certainly a dramatic improvement over what the Metro Stars used to have, and we are still committed to a training facility. I think to answer the question a little more specifically, the structure of the organization certainly over the last couple of years, when this losing started this year, was not ideal, and we have recognized that, and we do need to restructure. And with a more clearly-designed chain of command, we believe that things will turn around. Q. How much of an impact does it take to take some excitement away from all of the talk of the new stadium opening next year? It has to leave a pretty bad taste in your mouth and the mouth of the whole organization in that you're targeting a new building and the team has performed so poorly, and the crowds have dwindled it seems like whatever lightning you captured last year has pretty much dissipated. ERIK STOVER: Right, well, going into this year, we thought the MLS Cup appearance, and the stadium moving along very quickly, that we were riding a wave of momentum. And you can look at the stands on game day and see that the losing has definitely impacted us. But, I think this moving forward, we have an opportunity to turn things around. If you think about it, our supporters have been with us a long time, and there have been a lot of ups and downs with this organization, and I think as we can turn the page on the season, the optimism will come back in. Q. Following up on something that you -- touching on that and something that you said earlier, mentioning that when you were asked whether if the losing were continued, you were prepared to give Juan Carlos the rest of the year and you said, in essence, it's kind of irrelevant because we believe in Richie and we think he can do a good job, etc. Following up on this last question, do you really believe that it's irrelevant to the fans and to your fan base if the losing had continued and you were the worst team in MLS history, etc., that it would be irrelevant to them that no move was made down the stretch of the season? Do you think they would have viewed it as irrelevant? ERIK STOVER: No, no, I didn't mean it that way. Practically speaking, the decision has been made and talking about would-ofs and could-ofs doesn't matter. Of course, if we had continued the way we had continued, it would have continued to be a problem. Q. How do you entice fans, especially the ones that have been turned off, to come back next season, even with the Red Bull Arena, how do you do that? ERIK STOVER: Well, first, I think the facility is more than what anybody has hoped for over the last 14 years. I think if you step back from the pain of this year and look objectively at what we have tried to do, and had some success, some misses, the organization is very clearly committed to winning. If you look at what Red Bull is trying to do with the sport around the world, you can't argue that it's something less than ambitious and not true to the sport. You've got academies in five countries, you've got four professional teams, and that takes enormous commitment, and you have to be very serious about what you're doing. You don't just go into this business with mild aspirations, and Red Bull certainly hasn't done that. I think as we can answer these questions a little better over the next two or three months, then the optimism and the hope will comeback into our supporters. Q. I'll follow-up on a report that came out today about the Red Bull at least discussing with Barcelona the prospect of selling the team, I just wanted to get your take on that. ERIK STOVER: Completely without merit. Brian (Lewis), you and I have talked about this before when this rumor came out, and it just doesn't make any sense. If you just stop and step back and look at this from a business point of view, everything that we have invested to date, it would be like buying high and selling low; it doesn't make any sense. Q. Particularly with you guys and selling the club -- ERIK STOVER: I don't know where this stuff comes from. Again, guys, I've got to go now. I've got to get back into another meeting. Thank you for your time. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|