There's a couple things that need to be clarified here. I disagree with pretty much everything you said except one thing, and I'll start with that. I'm not giving up on this team either. This is OUR team. It doesn't belong to an energy drink company no matter what the name of the team is. So I understand how you feel when you say you're still going to go to games this next year.
What you need to understand is the #RedBullOut movement isn't about "giving up" on the team, it's a boycott. You don't boycott something you don't care about. Over the years the fans have been trying to send a message to our occupiers and they have not listened. It seems the only thing they understand is money, so that's the only option we have left, stop giving them our money.
When you ask why now, why the Petke firing, the answer isn't simply that, it's a combination of many things. But the Petke firing is very symbolic of a problem that started the day Red Bull walked in the door. The day they got here they said they were excited about building a history with a team that doesn't have any history. They've never acknowledged that there was a team and a fan base here a long time before they showed up. So now they fire the one guy who is a big fan favorite, played for the club under both team names, and did a very good job when it's all said and done. In his first season as coach he wins the Supporter's Shield. In his second season he's one goal away from MLS Cup. You have to ask yourself, what more did he have to do to keep his job? Win MLS Cup? Are we saying if a coach doesn't win the cup he's out? No wonder we've had the most coaches in league history.
But here's the bigger point. Yes, they built us a stadium, but normally when a corporation comes in and funds the building of a new stadium, you name the stadium after them for a certain period of time. Hell, you might even give them the front of jersey logo for a period of time. It's unheard of that you hand over the entire team and rebrand everything in order to build a stadium. As fans, we were promised that if we give up our logo, our colors, our team name, and support this embarrassing branding of an energy drink we will get an owner who is willing to spend more money on the team. We can get bigger signings, we can afford more stability, and "all" we have to give up is the team we grew up loving.
So we went along with that, but what have we got? We still have a revolving door of coaches and players. It's CRAZY that no coach in our history has lasted more than three seasons. They fire Bruce Arena after a season and a half and now what is he doing? We're promised bigger signings and what did we get? The only big name player they've ever really signed is Henry. So many signings have passed us by because "we can't afford it".
We can't start a USL Pro team because "we can't afford it". (yes, they're finally doing it, but only after us fans yell about it)
No one has a love for the Red Bull energy drink. The only reason they're here is because they have money. So when we start hearing them saying they can't afford things, it makes me start to question why they're here to begin with.
They're not spending money.
They haven't brought stability.
They haven't helped build a community of fans. (we have)
They haven't brought in a core group of players.
What exactly are they doing for us? I agree with you, you can't blame them for player mistakes like the PK encroachment and BWP's yellow card, and all that stuff. No one here is blaming them for player mistakes. We're blaming them for FO mistakes and lack of respect and care.
I'm with you in that I'm still supporting my team. Red Bull can't take my team away from me. But I don't have to support them.
#RedBullOut