Colorado Rapids To Hold Fan Forum

This has obviously been a crappy season for the Colorado Rapids and one of the big things that supporters have been clamoring for has been some sort of news of what is going on with the Rapids.  You know, the plan for the team.

Almost on cue, the Rapids sent this tweet out today.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rapids96?src=hash">#Rapids96</a> to hold a Fans Forum for Season Ticket Members on Tuesday, August 11. Full details here <a href="http://t.co/xpnICGhO9t">http://t.co/xpnICGhO9t</a></p>&mdash; Colorado Rapids (@ColoradoRapids) <a href="https://twitter.com/ColoradoRapids/status/628705927919718400">August 4, 2015</a></blockquote>

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The Rapids are going to be holding a fan forum with Rapids President Tim Hinchey, Rapids Vice President of Soccer Operations/Technical Director and Rapids Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni on Tuesday, August 11.

Some Thoughts:

1) This is a teleconference and not an in person forum. I imagine this has a great deal to do with the timing of it all.  The Rapids are scheduled to play Columbus Crew SC on Saturday and play San Jose Earthquakes next Friday.  Getting everyone together in person is going to be difficult.

2) This seems like outreach by the Rapids. Look, lets face facts here: this team and organization has taken a step backwards this year.  Yes, the Rapids are averaging more points per game this year (1.14 vs 0.94) compared to 2014, but this team was completely overhauled in the off-season and they are not significantly better.  I am hopeful that this is a way of saying to the fans that, yes, we know we suck right now, but here is the plan.

3) An Admission of a Lost Season: I know that no one wants to admit it but this is a lost season.  You do not have a fan forum unless you have completely screwed the pooch over something.  I want to one of these after the Real Salt Lake debacle at the end of the 2009 season.  That was after the Rapids crashed out of the running for the playoffs and got destroyed in Sandy.  It was basically a mea culpa from the team that said "we suck, and we are going to get better."  And they did.  2010 was a good year.  But to have this sort of forum now shows that the Rapids are admitting that this one is over for 2015.

Which, is kind of true all told.  The Rapids need to average at least 1.77 points per game to make the playoffs this year and hope the nine teams keep their current form or start to suck.

Not going to happen.

But I am pleased that the Rapids are taking this step, and here is hoping that Hinchey, Bravo and Mastroeni are honest about the performances and the direction of this team.  The Season Ticket Holders deserve nothing less--especially now that renewals are out there.