Montreal Impact - Santos Laguna [R]

[Grizzly]

quote:Originally posted by Jeffrey S.

Are you paid by the Impact to be their official spokesperson on this board? Is that why you get so irate over these things? If you are not paid, what is your motivation for doing it on your own accord?

If you think they are so competent why don't you let them answer for themselves instead of taking the job on yourself and insulting other members of the board?

I am not paid by the Impact and, in fact, if you read my posts on them, I am often highly critical of decisions they make though I will also praise them when I think it is warranted. I have no problem with posts that have views opposite to my own though I will certainly argue for my point of view. What makes me irate are:

1) posts that are based on ignorance

2) posts that make baseless accusations and judgements about certain people

That is the reason I have a problem with many of your posts as well. As far as your claim that I made a personal insult there is no personal insult. He made a post falsely accusing someone of being useless and I stated that it was BS, a simple statement of fact. Posting personal insults seems to be your domain.

It is unfortunate you continue to try and be such a divisive and negative force on the Voyageurs. There is certainly no need for this since there are many areas in which you are quite knowledgeable and you have done some good work for the Voyageurs in the past. Yet you seem to think your knowledge in certain areas enables you to make wild posts about things you do not know anything about and are often quite insulting and abusive to other posters in the process. You seem more interested in being a s-hit disturber than in contributing to the positive development of the Voyageurs and Canadian soccer. Considering you are constantly accusing others of having a hidden agenda, I really wonder what your motivation and hidden agenda for this is.

[Mpenza]

quote:Originally posted by MediaGuy

Is there a reason that this game can't be held at Saputo? Other than that it's cold outside?

Frozen pitch.

This is one of the reasons why top flight games in Europe are sometimes postponed. You can't play on a frozen pitch, it's too dangerous.

[Mr.Impact]

quote:Originally posted by Grizzly

I don't think that someone who is making a baseless claim that another individual is "useless" is in any position to tell me to relax. You are entitled to post your opinion but if it is a crap opinion stemming from ignorance I am equally entitled to post that it is crap. I think the statement that you think a monkey could run the club just as well is pretty indicative of the quality of your OPINIONS.

I have never claimed to be the source for everything Impact. Many people post information and opinions here about the Impact who are not even Impact fans or Montrealais and I have no problem with that whether I agree with their opinions or not as long as they are not posting BS based on ignorance like your post on Legendre. And posting a link to an article that merely states what Legendre has done in the past, how happy he is to join the Impact and how happy the Impact are to have him provides absolutely no justification for your claim that he is useless.

I do not sit on Impact board meetings but I regularly talk to people who do. I also have a lot of informal, private conversations with them about how things are run at the club. Everyone I have talked to is very positive about Legendre and states that he is very competent. It is not a regular occurence that I hear people talk so positively about their boss so there must be something to it. Yes he was heavily involved in the MLS bid process but it was a bid in which they were only offering half of the required expansion fee so his hands were tied. Unless he was the one who made the decision to offer only a $20 million expansion fee instead of the required $40 million I don't think you can put any of the blame on him. I highly doubt he was the person who made this decision.

Contrary to your opinion that a monkey could run a club, I think it is very difficult to run a club. I think regardless of some criticisms I and others have of the Impact, very few people would claim that the Impact is not a well run club. I think the Impact staff including Legendre are doing an excellent job especially given that at this level of professional sports it is hard to hire an adequate number of staff and many of them are overworked. Even though I am often critical of some of Saputo's decisions, I would also include him in my appraisal that the club is well run. I think he screwed up the MLS bid but otherwise he runs the club very well.

If the Impact are not able to play this game at Olympic Stadium it is not through any lack of effort on the part of their staff, Legendre or Saputo. It is probably also not do to any lack of effort on the part of the RIO in whose absolute best interest it is that the game takes place in their stadium. For 10 years neither the engineers nor fire department have been able to determine why the roof collapsed nor to guarantee that it won't happen again. I can not comment on why this is or whether they have made adequate efforts to do so but believe me it is not an easy process to get this issue resolved.

If there is someone that is ignorant its's your dad for marrying his sister.

What exactly has he done for this club?

1) The stadium would have been built with or without him. You admitted yourself that it's not up to par, but then again you wanted them to build an "MLS" type stadium when they weren't even certain of being awarded a franchise, low bid or not.

2)The team was selling out before Legendre came on board, even during the Robillard era. The team also maintained all of their most important sponsors.

3)If you take the bacon from your eyes, you would be able to read why Legendre was hired 1)GET THIS CLUB INTO MLS 2)BE RESPONSABLE FOR THE DAY TO DAY RUNNING OF THE CLUB INCLUDING THE STADIUM.

So to recap, did absolutely nothing for the pitch when it was falling apart during the season, infact he allowed to get worse.

He obviously brought nothing to the MLS bid, as we don't have a team.

He is ultimately responsible for not allowing Fan paraphernalia into the stadium, doesn't seem to be a problem at BMO.

As far as marketing is concerned he didn't have much to do cause the branding was already existant. TV and Radio contracts were already in place, so was advertising.

So yeah Id say this guy is more then useless, heck he's fit to be your brother.

What facts can you provide to claim otherwise?

[Grizzly]

quote:Originally posted by MediaGuy

Is there a reason that this game can't be held at Saputo? Other than that it's cold outside?

In Toronto, we asked what the plan was if TFC were to ever host a quarterfinal game. Management didn't even hesitate to answer BMO. The bubble would come down and we'd put on our parkas.

So, with apologizes if this has been talked about and I missed it, why can't you hold the damn game in your actual stadium?

(Also, since TFC said it would have held the game at BMO if TFC was in it...has the possibility of Montreal playing that game there been considered. The three pro clubs did pledge to work together for the betterment of the game in Canada after all...)

The issue with Olympic stadium is that the roof collapsed during winter 10 years ago and the Montreal fire department has deemed it unsafe for spectators when there is snow accumulation on the roof. For 10 years noone has been able to determine why the roof collapsed so the fire department is unwilling to sanction the stadium as safe.

It is pretty easy to say you would play at BMO when you are not in the competition. Even if TFC staff wanted to play at BMO, this is a CONCACAF and FIFA approved tournament and I highly doubt either organization would approve of playing in an open outdoor stadium in such weather conditions as we have in February regardless of the turf. BMO is a completely open stadium and very subject to weather conditions not just snow but wind and even if they got it approved the chances of not being able to play the game due to a storm or wind would be very high. Such condition might not prevent the game being played that day, they could prevent the game being played for a week.

There are very few countries that have regular winter conditions similar to ours. Even the Scandanavian countries have milder winters. One may be able to find some examples of games that were played in extreme conditions in the past (the Dynamo Kiev-Shaktor match is often used) but these were not international FIFA approved tournaments and were probably mistakenly allowed to occur by the officials for whatever reason. The soccer country with most similar conditions to ours is Russia. In recent winter matches of European play, CSKA chose to play in the warm southern Russian city of Krasnodar despite having a roofed closed stadium with artificial pitch in Moscow available. Zenit did play a match at the end of February in St. Petersburg against Villareal last year. Petrovski stadium unlike BMO is fully closed though unlike Luzhniki it does not have a roof. It has a natural grass pitch that is heated and despite this conditions and the pitch were poor for the match.

The second thing that makes me sceptical of this claim by TFC is that they are owned by MLSE and noone likes to make money more than MLSE. I think for a Champion's League quarterfinal match with a Mexican team they could easily fill up Roger's Centre. It is hard for me to see MLSE deciding to sell 20000 tickets to game to play in BMO instead of selling 50000 in Rogers Centre.

[Grizzly]

quote:Originally posted by Mr.Impact

If there is someone that is ignorant its's your dad for marrying his sister.

That is real class, the type of comment that should get you banned by the moderators. You are a real internet tough guy! I think based on this and your other comments, other posters will be able judge who it is that suffers from ignorance and mental problems.

[Mr.Impact]

quote:Originally posted by piltdownman

I don't understand how it can be the Impacts fault if they can't play Olympic Stadium. It comes down to public safety, how can they be blamed for that?

We're in 2009, there has to be technology avilable out there to make the roof and the stadium safe for the public, during the winter months. The question is who will pay to make this happen? Its an embarassment for the city to have a venue to host the game, but it cant be used because of neglect and poor planning.

[Mr.Impact]

quote:Originally posted by Grizzly

That is real class, the type of comment that should get you banned by the moderators. You are a real internet tough guy! I think based on this and your other comments, other posters will be able judge who it is that suffers from ignorance and mental problems.

Still dont see any arguments as to why Mr.Legendre is so useful.

[Grizzly]

quote:Originally posted by Mr.Impact

If there is someone that is ignorant its's your dad for marrying his sister.

What exactly has he done for this club?

1) The stadium would have been built with or without him. You admitted yourself that it's not up to par, but then again you wanted them to build an "MLS" type stadium when they weren't even certain of being awarded a franchise, low bid or not.

2)The team was selling out before Legendre came on board, even during the Robillard era. The team also maintained all of their most important sponsors.

3)If you take the bacon from your eyes, you would be able to read why Legendre was hired 1)GET THIS CLUB INTO MLS 2)BE RESPONSABLE FOR THE DAY TO DAY RUNNING OF THE CLUB INCLUDING THE STADIUM.

So to recap, did absolutely nothing for the pitch when it was falling apart during the season, infact he allowed to get worse.

He obviously brought nothing to the MLS bid, as we don't have a team.

He is ultimately responsible for not allowing Fan paraphernalia into the stadium, doesn't seem to be a problem at BMO.

As far as marketing is concerned he didn't have much to do cause the branding was already existant. TV and Radio contracts were already in place, so was advertising.

So yeah Id say this guy is more then useless, heck he's fit to be your brother.

What facts can you provide to claim otherwise?

Not that I should bother to respond based on your first sentence but I will correct the numerous fallacies anyway.

1) I did not advocate building an MLS stadium. I advocated building an MLS stadium if we were planning to go to MLS which was our announced intention. If we were going to take another approach such as stay in the USL and try to convince other teams to stay as well then we should have built the stadium we did build. In short I advocated building a stadium which met the standard of the league we wanted to join. Instead we built a USL stadium while trying to join MLS.

2) The team was selling out and had sponsors before Legendre joined and are still selling out and have sponsors now that he has joined. This is your evidence that Legendre is useless???? By the way, not that you seem to attach any importance to how the club is run in making your ignorant statements about it, but ticket sales and sponsorship is not Legendre's area of responsibility. John Di Terlizzi is the vice-president in charge of those areas and I would also say that he seems to be doing a good job.

3)Legendre was brought in to run the club on a day to day basis including the stadium that is correct. I also think he is doing a good job in this and it was not his assignment to go in and change the things that were already working well such as ticket sales, marketing and sponsorship. One of the signs of a good leader is to allow those people doing good work to continue to do so. As I have already stated, if he is not given the means to make a good MLS bid, he can not be blamed for its failure. I don't think he is directly responsible for the ban on flags or the state of the pitch this year but as the boss does bear some responsibility for this. Regarding the pitch it was the first year of the stadium, we had an unusual amount of rain and we played far more games and far more frequently than anticipated. I think the errors in soil composition will be corrected this year. The ban on flags in the stadium has also been lifted.

The Impact have been a well run club in the past and have continued to be well run since Legendre took over and additionally have had their most successful season ever. This is evidence that Legendre is doing a good job.

[SteveBeau]

quote:Originally posted by Mr.Impact

If there is someone that is ignorant its's your dad for marrying his sister.

What exactly has he done for this club?

1) The stadium would have been built with or without him. You admitted yourself that it's not up to par, but then again you wanted them to build an "MLS" type stadium when they weren't even certain of being awarded a franchise, low bid or not.

2)The team was selling out before Legendre came on board, even during the Robillard era. The team also maintained all of their most important sponsors.

3)If you take the bacon from your eyes, you would be able to read why Legendre was hired 1)GET THIS CLUB INTO MLS 2)BE RESPONSABLE FOR THE DAY TO DAY RUNNING OF THE CLUB INCLUDING THE STADIUM.

So to recap, did absolutely nothing for the pitch when it was falling apart during the season, infact he allowed to get worse.

He obviously brought nothing to the MLS bid, as we don't have a team.

He is ultimately responsible for not allowing Fan paraphernalia into the stadium, doesn't seem to be a problem at BMO.

As far as marketing is concerned he didn't have much to do cause the branding was already existant. TV and Radio contracts were already in place, so was advertising.

So yeah Id say this guy is more then useless, heck he's fit to be your brother.

What facts can you provide to claim otherwise?

I'm not trying to take sides here but i think your going a bit too far by implying that Grizzly's Dad married his sister...Not to mention that its quite childish..

[Richard]

It is way past time to be ignoring this poster, stop feeding the troll.

[Mr.Impact]

quote:Originally posted by Grizzly

Not that I should bother to respond based on your first sentence but I will correct the numerous fallacies anyway.

1) I did not advocate building an MLS stadium. I advocated building an MLS stadium if we were planning to go to MLS which was our announced intention. If we were going to take another approach such as stay in the USL and try to convince other teams to stay as well then we should have built the stadium we did build. In short I advocated building a stadium which met the standard of the league we wanted to join. Instead we built a USL stadium while trying to join MLS.

2) The team was selling out and had sponsors before Legendre joined and are still selling out and have sponsors now that he has joined. This is your evidence that Legendre is useless???? By the way, not that you seem to attach any importance to how the club is run in making your ignorant statements about it, but ticket sales and sponsorship is not Legendre's area of responsibility. John Di Terlizzi is the vice-president in charge of those areas and I would also say that he seems to be doing a good job.

3)Legendre was brought in to run the club on a day to day basis including the stadium that is correct. I also think he is doing a good job in this and it was not his assignment to go in and change the things that were already working well such as ticket sales, marketing and sponsorship. One of the signs of a good leader is to allow those people doing good work to continue to do so. As I have already stated, if he is not given the means to make a good MLS bid, he can not be blamed for its failure. I don't think he is directly responsible for the ban on flags or the state of the pitch this year but as the boss does bear some responsibility for this. Regarding the pitch it was the first year of the stadium, we had an unusual amount of rain and we played far more games and far more frequently than anticipated. I think the errors in soil composition will be corrected this year. The ban on flags in the stadium has also been lifted.

The Impact have been a well run club in the past and have continued to be well run since Legendre took over and additionally have had their most successful season ever. This is evidence that Legendre is doing a good job.

Yeah he's doing a good job at cashing in his pay cheque, other then that he's brought sweet sugar all to this club, Nothing !!! and by the way De Terlizzi reports to Legendre.

[Mr.Impact]

quote:Originally posted by Grizzly

Not that I should bother to respond based on your first sentence but I will correct the numerous fallacies anyway.

1) I did not advocate building an MLS stadium. I advocated building an MLS stadium if we were planning to go to MLS which was our announced intention. If we were going to take another approach such as stay in the USL and try to convince other teams to stay as well then we should have built the stadium we did build. In short I advocated building a stadium which met the standard of the league we wanted to join. Instead we built a USL stadium while trying to join MLS.

2) The team was selling out and had sponsors before Legendre joined and are still selling out and have sponsors now that he has joined. This is your evidence that Legendre is useless???? By the way, not that you seem to attach any importance to how the club is run in making your ignorant statements about it, but ticket sales and sponsorship is not Legendre's area of responsibility. John Di Terlizzi is the vice-president in charge of those areas and I would also say that he seems to be doing a good job.

3)Legendre was brought in to run the club on a day to day basis including the stadium that is correct. I also think he is doing a good job in this and it was not his assignment to go in and change the things that were already working well such as ticket sales, marketing and sponsorship. One of the signs of a good leader is to allow those people doing good work to continue to do so. As I have already stated, if he is not given the means to make a good MLS bid, he can not be blamed for its failure. I don't think he is directly responsible for the ban on flags or the state of the pitch this year but as the boss does bear some responsibility for this. Regarding the pitch it was the first year of the stadium, we had an unusual amount of rain and we played far more games and far more frequently than anticipated. I think the errors in soil composition will be corrected this year. The ban on flags in the stadium has also been lifted.

The Impact have been a well run club in the past and have continued to be well run since Legendre took over and additionally have had their most successful season ever. This is evidence that Legendre is doing a good job.

Yeah he's doing a good job at cashing in his pay cheque, other then that he's brought sweet sugar all to this club, Nothing !!! and by the way De Terlizzi reports to Legendre.

[Mr.Impact]

quote:Originally posted by SteveBeau

I'm not trying to take sides here but i think your going a bit too far by implying that Grizzly's Dad married his sister...Not to mention that its quite childish..

Whats the big deal its very common in Germany,Whats surprising is that they didn't name their offspring Corky.

[Grizzly]

quote:Originally posted by Mr.Impact

If there is someone that is ignorant its's your dad for marrying his sister.

quote:Originally posted by Mr.Impact

So yeah Id say this guy is more then useless, heck he's fit to be your brother.

What facts can you provide to claim otherwise?

quote:Originally posted by SteveBeau

I'm not trying to take sides here but i think your going a bit too far by implying that Grizzly's Dad married his sister...Not to mention that its quite childish..

quote:Originally posted by Mr.Impact

Whats the big deal its very common in Germany,Whats surprising is that they didn't name their offspring Corky.

Now you are really showing your true colours. First a racist comment followed one referring to a tv character with Down's Syndrome. I have a pretty thick skin to insults but this should get you banned.

You know Mr. Internet Tough Guy, I am pretty easy to find in the stadium. I really doubt you have the courage to repeat these statements to my face.

[mtl-supporter23]

Way out of line...

one thing to argue ideas and beliefs, but its another to attack someone personally, throwing out insults. Very childish thing to do, and considering grizz is such a respected member over here and among Impact supporters you should be ashamed.

O well, so going back on topic here...

My guess is that the game has only 2 possible venues:

Olympic Stadium and in T-dot at Rogers.

To those who think the Montreal organization is not doing everything in their power to keep this game in Montreal is a fool. If this game ends up being disputed outside the 514 it still wouldn't be fair to blame Legendre or Saputo. These men have done all they can for the game in Montreal and in Quebec, and to some extent Canada.

[Cyrus]

quote:Originally posted by Mr.Impact

Its an embarassment for the city to have a venue to host the game, but it cant be used because of neglect and poor planning.

Uh, yeah! Exactly. It's the Big Owe. It's been an embarassment to the city since 1976! About the only thing it's good for is as a tombstone for one soccer team, one baseball team, and three football teams.

But we don't have another potential winter venue available in the province.

[Cheeta]

Ahem...

<mod>

Ladies, gentlemen, as a group we're pretty relaxed about some things around here although some would say we're less tolerant that other forums, but either way there are limits to what is considered fair game when it come to trash-talking. And on that note...

Mr. Impact, I've sent you an e-mail. If you did not receive that e-mail, send me an e-mail at CheetaV@shaw.ca and I'll reply to that with a copy of the e-mail you should have previously received.

There isn't an issue in this topic to get all twisted over, people. Try to stay civil.

Off to the "Hypocrisy..." topic

Cheeta

</mod>

[youllneverwalkalone]

Why won't Football 365 ever accept this submission for lookalikes???

[Grizzly]

Good one YNWA! I see the striking resemblance even if Football 365 does not!

[Duane Rollins1555362254]

quote:Originally posted by Grizzly

your long response snipped

It would cost $25,000/hour to rent SkyDome -- that's before the costs of converting the field. It would be free to play at BMO.

When TFC made the "claim" they were in the competition. The Canadian championship is sanctioned by CONCACAF (which is why a fourth team can't be added).

If TFC makes it to a quarterfinal it will be played at BMO. You can chose to not believe that. Neither one of will be proven right until it actually happens.

[Grizzly]

Where do you get your figures on the Skydome costs and what do they include? For example does that include only rental or staff as well. Regardless of that issue I don't agree that the cost of playing at BMO would be zero. There would be costs of removing the bubble and preparing the field and costs of preparing facilities in the stadium at a time when they are not being used as well as possibly shovelling out the seats. Plus one would have to figure in large costs that could occur if the game could not be played on the scheduled day due to the weather. Even at $25000 an hour and them being charged for five hours the costs would be $125000 plus the field conversion fee. Even at a conservative average ticket price of $20 (which is probably far too low) the 30 000 extra seats would create $600 000 of revenue. If each person bought an average of $10 of beer/food that adds another $300 000 and that is not counting merchandise sales and the inestimable marketing value of having TFC play a game in a packed far larger stadium as opposed to the strong possibility of playing at minus 20 before an empty stadium except for the supporters groups. It makes no sense to play this game at BMO with a perfectly decent larger indoor venue just down the road. However, I do think the expense of Skydome will prevent the Impact from playing there as I don't think the game would attract many spectators. If we can't play in Olympic stadium I expect us to play at either Swanguard or a smaller stadium in Florida.

[Duane Rollins1555362254]

The $25,000 figure was what some high school football people were quoted at in regards to holding the Ontario HS championship bowl games at the Dome (the NFL stepped in and picked up the cost for them this year).

I'm not sure TFC would sell out a Feb. game out of season. They might throw it in as a bonus game on a season ticket package, but I'm pretty sure it would draw 10-15k tops. The hardcore, yes. Casuals, not so much. Keep in mind that TFC didn't sell out the Canada Day game against Vancouver (about 18k were there) which is likely part of the reason the V-Cup games are part of the season ticket package this year.

I'm not a naive take management at what they say guy (far from it. I'm a journalist), but on this issue I believe them. There is simply no reason for them to lie about it and you're being a bit naive if you don't think that there was a plan in place. Say what you want about MLSE (and much of what's said is trite and not based on fact), but it is a big and successful sports management company. You don't get that way making it up as you go along.

[Mr.Impact]

quote:Originally posted by Grizzly

Now you are really showing your true colours. First a racist comment followed one referring to a tv character with Down's Syndrome. I have a pretty thick skin to insults but this should get you banned.

You know Mr. Internet Tough Guy, I am pretty easy to find in the stadium. I really doubt you have the courage to repeat these statements to my face.

Go have another doughnut you whiner

[Mpenza]

quote:Originally posted by Mr.Impact

Yeah he's doing a good job at cashing in his pay cheque, other then that he's brought sweet sugar all to this club, Nothing !!!

Have you ever been in section 114 with the Ultras?

This is Legendre's work.

To you, it might mean "nothing", to us it meant survival of our group. This season, we'll have ALL of 114 (instead of half of it) and as a GENERAL ADMISSION section. Two decisions approved by Legendre as well.

Get your head out of your ass and you might see what he brings to this club. He's taking care of all the things the club didn't have someone in charge for in previous years when it didn't have its own stadium. That's a lot of work.

[MTL_4_LIFE]

quote:Originally posted by Mpenza

Have you ever been in section 114 with the Ultras?

This is Legendre's work.

To you, it might mean "nothing", to us it meant survival of our group. This season, we'll have ALL of 114 (instead of half of it) and as a GENERAL ADMISSION section. Two decisions approved by Legendre as well.

Get your head out of your ass and you might see what he brings to this club. He's taking care of all the things the club didn't have someone in charge for in previous years when it didn't have its own stadium. That's a lot of work.

So, 114 is just for the supporters now? Beacuse that will be awesome!

And are we going to be allowed this year to bring flag poles back in the stadium?