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Worst execs in Metro FO history


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#1
NittanyMetros

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Those of you who have followed this club for an extended period of time have probably come to the conclusion that we are run by complete incompetents, outright liars, or a combination of both. For those of you who are newer, the hysterics of Chris Heck are absolutely nothing new. Metro has a long and proud history of both horrible executives with even worse ideas and grossly over matched/over hyped blowhards with an inexplicable amount of hubris...to the point that they have convinced themselves "surely I can conquer the New York market".

In an effort to chronicle the failings of the FO over the years, I think it is time for us to to compile the list of the worst execs in Metro history. Who knows, maybe this can be the new "Bracket of hate" for Metrofanatic. Ideally this would cover everyone from GM's to lesser known marketing execs to club presidents.

If I don't look back and laugh about the insanity of it all, I start to die a little bit on the inside. So with that said, here's the preliminary candidates and one statement on their claim to shame.

Preliminary Candidates:

Alexi Lalas: "Corporate Shill"
Andrew Lafiosca: "Mastermind of interns in red face paint doing weird shit in Manhattan"
Charlie Stillitano: "Worst. GM. Ever."
Chris Canetti: "MPF"
Chris Heck: "Sell-outs"
Erik Soler: "DeRo for Dax...STRAIGHT UP"
Eric Stover: "Concession Stand Extraordinaire"
Jeff Agoos: "Juan Pietravallo"
Jim Leahy: "Hates soccer, Marketing exec of soccer team"
John Guppy: "Loves your wallet, hates your guts"
Mark DeGrandpre: "Fired Bruce Arena, quit to sell purple drank"
Mark Washo: King of Minor League Baseball promotions"
Nick Sackiewicz: "60 to 90 days"

Owners:
Mateschitz: "Destroyer of Metro, corporate overlord"
AEG: "New York has a soccer team?"
Klubotnic: 'Charlie Stillitano fan club"

Please feel free to add your nominations, and celebrate the years of FO futility. Who's the worst..ever? :pint:

#RedBullOut


#2
NittanyMetros

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On second thought I may be a bit too harsh on Stover here...I actually thought he wasn't terrible.

#RedBullOut


#3
JayJeeMoNee

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Wow. That list is depressing.

(Formerly JonnyG)


"In church, they say that suffering is good for the soul. I like to view my love for this team as being a spiritual exercise." - Steve B2


#4
Rob Money

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Can you please list better reasons? maybe go more in depth.

#5
JBigjake54

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On second thought I may be a bit too harsh on Stover here...I actually thought he wasn't terrible.

Well, at least he got rid of the yellow shirts in 101 at GS. :cheers:

We are good enough to beat the best teams, and bad enough to lose to the worst teams. 


#6
Metro4LIFE

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Can you please list better reasons? maybe go more in depth.

I dont think this site has enough bandwidth or storage space to do that.

I actually think Charlie wasnt that bad of a GM. If he would've stayed out of the onfield stuff he wouldve been good. But then again that was a different time in MLS where GMs where more towards the Americanized versions.

I think the NickS era staff where the most laughable and incompetent. They just made you bang your head against a wall at all the silliness they came up with to sell a ticket.

Today's FO just seems outright evil and soulless while still being incompetent.

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#7
jamison

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Can you please list better reasons? maybe go more in depth.


16 seasons, 32 chances to win the two major domestic trophies on offer, zero wins.

There's the detail.

NickSack still gets my vote. Everyone after is just small potatoes compared to that guy. (to me)

 


#8
Eleazar

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In particular, I'll add to this thread with respect to interactions with ticketing folk.

Sherwin - a Caribbean guy that always took care of people as best he could considering all the ineptitude above him.

Mike Minchella - my dealings with him so far have relatively fair, straightforward and colloquial. Typical customer service. No problems, just brief dialogue, purchase of ticket. Boom. Done.



AND HERE IS NOW MY CONTRIBUTION TO THIS PARTICULAR THREAD:

The RB Ticketing guy that actively wanted to fight me and a guy who has BOUGHT and PAID for 2 STHs, is another thing entirely. The guy with the 2 STHs is a guy some of you may know, likes to get mixed in with supporting, especially with the Spanish Pavilion contingent, he's a long-time fan of the club, made the trip to MLS playoffs, etc. He can speak for himself as to what happened earlier tonite.

This ticketing rep, in his current state of inebriation, we'll just call him Fonzie, due to his vintage leather jacket, apparently is an aggressive type of person and likes to fight with people. In addition this, he has no issue with referring to a fellow RBFO employee, a female, "sassy". Honestly, I don't get the context as to why he referred to a female co-worker in such a manner. Must be an inside thing that I am not aware of.

The female RBFO employee he spoke of is Lisa Becker. I don't know her personally, I've never met her, outside of my dealing with her ONCE purchasing a USOC ticket one Thursday evening. That's about it.

This ticketing rep, apparently, likes to be aggressive with people who are patrons of the sports team he is an employee of. Is this the kind of person we have to deal with? Is this the type of person who is vetted correctly during the hiring process?

Apparently so. Pretty comedic in the end, but it doesn't bode well for the current state of affairs with fans of the team who PAY to attend matches and those people who are employees of the team, considering all that has occurred in the past, in addition to this past weekend at the SW Challenge. Maybe the employees of the team, specifically some of those who work in the ticketing office may need a refresher course as to how they interact with people who are paid STHs, not just on the phone, but also away from the job. With some employees, as this incident has proved, it seems to be severely lacking.

For the record, I didn't get the actual name of "Fonzie". Outside of his vintage leather jacket, dark hair, 5'10", etc. That's all I got for a description.

RIP Guillermo Romulo, Alexander Francis Orig, Celenio Eleazar, and my Mom, Resurreccion Eleazar.

 

RIP Cesar Castello, Mike Vallo, Glenn Stampiglia, Bob Paquette, and Warren Lee

 

 

 


#9
Metro4LIFE

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What exactly did Fonzie do? Seems like youre just complaining about him without a reason other than he called a chick "sassy". Not doubting your opinion as much as I wanna know the juicy details.

Soy Del Metrooooo, Del Metro soy yoooooooo!

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#10
Eleazar

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What exactly did Fonzie do? Seems like youre just complaining about him without a reason other than he called a chick "sassy". Not doubting your opinion as much as I wanna know the juicy details.


Friend and I were talking getting some late nite eats on Avenue A. We're talking about the bus trip to DC and other club related stuff, no more standing in the upper deck of RFK, possible interacting and banter with DC fans, etc.

Some random guy, an expatriate sitting at the table next to us, interrupts and then begins a lecture as to how we are not schooled in knowing about soccer. During this part, we tell the expatriate we're fans of RBNY. Guy continues on the half-drunken lecture, all the while his pal Fonzie sitting at the bar, drinking water, I assume. Expat tells Fonzie that we're fans of RBNY, Fonzie tells us that he works in the Ticketing office upon hearing that we're fans, my friend being an STH, and we tell him we know Mike Minchella. My friend says he knows Lisa Becker, and Fonzie makes the comment. We both don't know why he said the comment, it's the 1st time he talks and involves himself in the conversation.

Fonzie comes over, possibly recovering from a nite out, a little of the drink spills on my arm, I ask him to take it easy due to the spill. I don't yell at him, in fact, I ask politely, I'm too busy wondering why the lecture from the expat is happening in the first place. During this time, the expat continues to think that since we're not of Euro extraction or are super-reverntial to all thing Euro, he proceeds to continuing lecturing us, this time with an even more condescending tone. I found this part to be comical, considering that he didn't even know that Kris Boyd is the all-time leading scorer of the SPL, the whole time professing that Larsson was. He then backtracks when presented with the facts, but still tries to lecture. We laugh at his error.

Fonzie gets all attitude on me since I told him to back up so that he doesn't spill more water. The expat, for some reason, is riled up. He didn't like hearing from Americans that Boyd, who in all honesty, I could care less about in the first place, plays in this league, and he being a Celtic fan, I assume, MUST cop an attitude with people whose conversation HE interrupted. He also didn't like hearing that some of us American soccer fans could REALLY care less about sectarianism, how it is ridiculous in our eyes, and about how politics are heavily involved in the game. I make the comment, "I am glad that sort of bullshit doesn't exist here, what a waste of time". Guess he didn't like that either, but continues to try and lecture, but raising his voice in doing so.

It proceeds further, friend and I exchange a look of "who gives a fuck" and we proceed to wrap up. He gets up when we do since we've already finished eating, and is almost yelling. He says some things, I return with comments. He gets in my face. I am unmoved, clearly not caring that he is riled up. I guess he didn't like that we didn't fall over ourselves and praise his team or the fact that a player he despises plays here, and especially for a team we could give a crap about in the first place.

Fonzie is clearly yelling, "LET'S GO! LET'S GO! WHAT?!?!", etc. My friend, who is dumbfounded at how the expat just barged in on our conversation and then proceed to get angry at us. Dumfounded especially over a player that we, in the end, don't really care about. My friend starts walking out, feeling that continuing this with two drunks is futile. I'll give him that, he and I just wanted to get a bite to eat and talk about the upcoming home matches and potential MLS road trips. At this point, I assume that the people who are working at the place tell the expat and Fonzie to calm down or will call the police. The workers didn't tell us to calm down, cuz our voices weren't raised in the first place.

Expat calms down, but can't help himself but to sling some more barbs at us, "MLS is NOTHING! FULL OF NOBODIES!". I return with some comments of my own like , "Whatever buddy, keep talking, you don't matter anyway, you're done, so feel free to 'go on and walk alone'". Fonzie is still acting up, and tries to follow us outside, with my friend burying his face in his hands due to the whole stupidity of the situation which all began with the expat barging in in our conversation. I proceed to wave goodbye to the expat and Fonzie. I suppose this riled Fonzie up. Fonzie is outside trying to follow, with expat trying to calm him down and get him back in the restaurant. My friend is still shaking his head, but I can't help but have a laugh at what went down.

All this over Kris Boyd and Fonzie not being able to keep his styrofoam cup upright.

Should my friend choose to add some more to this, he is free to do so.

RIP Guillermo Romulo, Alexander Francis Orig, Celenio Eleazar, and my Mom, Resurreccion Eleazar.

 

RIP Cesar Castello, Mike Vallo, Glenn Stampiglia, Bob Paquette, and Warren Lee

 

 

 


#11
onionsack

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On second thought I may be a bit too harsh on Stover here...I actually thought he wasn't terrible.


Stover was okay in my book. Pretty straight up guy and he was probably most responsible for getting the yellow shirts out of 101 in Giants Stadium, for that he will always get high marks from me.
RED BULL OUT!!! - True Soccer fans in NY since 2006

#12
NittanyMetros

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I dont think this site has enough bandwidth or storage space to do that.

I actually think Charlie wasnt that bad of a GM. If he would've stayed out of the onfield stuff he wouldve been good. But then again that was a different time in MLS where GMs where more towards the Americanized versions.

I think the NickS era staff where the most laughable and incompetent. They just made you bang your head against a wall at all the silliness they came up with to sell a ticket.

Today's FO just seems outright evil and soulless while still being incompetent.


I don't deny that Charlie had good intentions. I was only a kid during his reign, but I really don't think Metro ever fully recovered from the tenure he had here. His decisions led to the decimation of the fanbase in the early years and there is no denying that. 1999 was the worst season I ever had to endure as a fan. We have yet to recover, IMO.

Nick Sack is still a piece of shit. He is my most hated FO person for his incredible prowess at fudging attendance numbers and doing downright stupid things in the name of the almighty dollar. Short on skill as an exec, and yet still had an insane ego that made him think he was always right.

I'd take Stover back in a heartbeat. Heck sucks.

#RedBullOut


#13
elf

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Alexi "Super Club" Lalas made Nick Sack and Charilie's administrations look amazing. he dismanteled a very good core of young players and vets (selling M. Bradley, trading E. Gaven, Ward, Razov... ect) made the team look anything but super by being a clown in reality tv, firing Bob Bradley, attendance took a dip..... ect

#14
DHatch

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16 seasons, 32 chances to win the two major domestic trophies on offer, zero wins.

There's the detail.

NickSack still gets my vote. Everyone after is just small potatoes compared to that guy. (to me)

THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#15
Did I Do That?

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Friend and I were talking getting some late nite eats on Avenue A. We're talking about the bus trip to DC and other club related stuff, no more standing in the upper deck of RFK, possible interacting and banter with DC fans, etc.

All this over Kris Boyd and Fonzie not being able to keep his styrofoam cup upright.

Should my friend choose to add some more to this, he is free to do so.


If you build the NY stadium, these men will magically become Cosmos fans.

Seriously though, pretty wtf, I'd imagine.




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