Average attendance for Revolution games last year ranked 16th out of 23 teams in MLSGETTY MAGES
While Patriots and Revolution Owner Robert Kraft has been "able to master the NFL, the soccer revolution in America has mostly passed him by," according to Kevin Draper of the N.Y. TIMES. The Revolution's average attendance last year "ranked 16th" out of 23 teams in MLS, and the club has been "trying to build a soccer-specific stadium somewhere in the Boston area" since '06. MLS Commissioner Don Garber thinks that "most of the Revolution's problems would be fixed by a new stadium." Garber: "My view is their economic model is challenging at Gillette. It has not been able to tap into the young, millennial sports fan in the Boston metropolitan area because it is further away." Draper noted in '17, the Kraft family entered the Overwatch League with the Boston Uprising franchise, and the "sardonic joke among some Revolution supporters is that now they're not even the neglected second child, but something even worse: the ignored middle child" (N.Y. TIMES, 3/16).
CASE STILL PENDING: SI.com's Charles Pierce wrote if the solicitation of prostitution charges against Kraft are "proven to be true," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell should "punish the Patriots owner severely, and with something beyond a fine." If the charges stick, Kraft's "influence and involvement in the business of the league should be minimized, if not entirely eliminated." Arguably, he should be "suspended from the operation of his franchise, at least for a season" (SI.com, 3/15).
