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The MLS Red Bulls lost $14M last year, “the largest single-season losses
in MLS history,” according to sources cited by Ives Galarcep of the North
Jersey HERALD NEWS. While the MetroStars were “among the league leaders
in corporate sponsorships in the years prior to the Red Bulls’ takeover,”
a combination of “elaborate spending, failed attempts to market the club
and the massive losses of corporate sponsorships has left the Red Bulls in the
type of financial shambles the club hasn’t seen since 1999, its worst season.”
Club insiders “suggest that Red Bull has a new plan in mind where only a
select few big-money sponsors would serve as the team’s partners.”
But the club “has yet to secure” a new sponsor. Also, excluding last
year’s home opener and a doubleheader with the Ecuadorian national team,
the Red Bull’s average home attendance was 9,113 in ’06. Sources say
that Red Bull “chose not to spend money on marketing after being disappointed”
with the opening day attendance. Galarcep added there has been “no evidence
to suggest that the Red Bulls have devoted any sort of money” toward marketing
games for the upcoming season. Additionally, the team’s TV deal with MSG
expired after last season, and the team has not yet finalized a new contract.
Galarcep wrote Red Bulls Managing Dir Marc de Grandpre “certainly deserves
his share” of blame for the state of the team, but “the real guilty
party is Red Bull itself for believing that it could hand the reigns of a professional
sports franchise over to a 32-year-old marketing director with absolutely no experience
in professional sports” (
North
Jersey HERALD NEWS, 3/13).
