Take the EOS NY Soccer Census
- Thread starter Goodfella
- Start date
done....lol at that bias question....but i answered it.
I reserve the right to declare the results statistically flawed and irrelevant depending upon whether or not I like the results.
Only way we can separate the trolls from the fans and get a clear picture of how we service each respective team Fantazma. And honestly ... I am pretty shocked at how that vote is going some 500+ votes in.
Thank you all for participating. Those who know me know I like to keep engaged and get a real feel for what you all think of us. Surveys like this really help us understand our readers and mold our coverage.
Cheers in advance. Maybe see a few of you for a beer one day on River Ave.
Solid survey. A few of the questions were difficult to answer based on the options provided: (i.e., I'm not an avid fan of a team in Europe, but am an avid fan of those leagues and watch them every weekend; I would consider (key word) pro/rel in MLS in maybe 20+ years once interest in soccer has continued to rise, but still not certain it would work here; I would be a proponent of instant replay in MLS, but only on limited items).
On the bolded part, your content is great, but some of your writers seem to take very flimsy evidence and turn it into internet rumors that put NYCFC supporters in a falsely negative light that gets picked up by other supporters around the league. I would expect more diligence on that front.
I know the reference and am totally comfortable addressing it, Soup.
In that case, it was Christian who found a damning thread on Reddit and shared it as gospel via social. However, we never ran that story (though several seem to think we did?).
To Christian's credit, he made a full public apology for sharing it after getting all the facts and meeting with Rox -- and I am sure the entire episode was a valuable learning experience.
Either way, I appreciate the input. And again, to Christian's credit, you will be hard pressed to find a harder working reporter on the NYCFC beat. He broke the Training Center story. Is always in Purchase and matches. His work speaks for itself.
Thanks man!
Looking for a job, Jay?!
Appreciate the response. I know you guys didn't run the story and do enjoy your stuff and the coverage you bring to NYCFC. I'm definitely not questioning his work ethic, but in my eyes the credibility of one of your writers took a massive hit, at least with me.
I won't bother to say anything more on this, at least publicly on here. Always happy to chat.
I answered the survey and the bias question at the end truthfully.
If you want more of my page views then try and be neutral. Once in awhile I will check out an article or two to see if you've managed to find some kind of non biased journalistic integretity. Since that is never the case the mean time between me checking continues to rise. I am being completely truthful when I say I'm virtually done with EOS, and I believe that you will find that to be a relatively common theme on this board. You may also find that there are a chunk of people on this board who are already completely done with EOS. Then again I'm just one person on the internet with an opinion, so take it as you will.
That said you asked for a truthful opinion in an attempt to make your site better, I will always happily provide feedback. Below is some feedback on EOS as a business.
I really hope you guys can get it together. As a niche soccer website you've got rather greater market potential than anyone else serving a similar purpose in the US. Have you considered hiring any writers/freelancers who actually support blue? For example, while aviewfrom226 rather needs to work on his on camera presentation, set, and graphics his views tend to be insightful and well thought out and logical. Frankly forming a partnership with any of the more popular blue supporters would be beneficial for the reason outline below.
To make the most out of your market potential your website needs to shake off the perception that is is a home for Reds and occasionally Greens. You're missing out on a significant percentage of your potential market by excessively catering to one side. Partnering with prominent blue supporters would do much, at least in the short term, to help you reapply the veneer of impartiality. The actual work of which will probably be a long and difficult undertaking.
Being perfectly frank in three years of existence and two years of playing NYCFC has amassed a larger fan base and audience than NYRB and the Cosmos combined; probably. This state of affairs will probably only get relatively worse for NYRB/Cosmos as time goes on. NYRB's marketing presence in the city is virtually non existent and the Cosmos's is only slightly better. Meanwhile NYCFC often has bus stops, subway stations, subway trains, and occasionally billboards plastered with NYCFC advertising; hell I've actually seen some local TV ad spots for NYCFC on non YES network statsions. I've talked to a few friends in marketing and I would not be surprised if NYCFC was spending more than their salary cap in advertising, on a yearly basis. What this means for EOS from a business perspective is that you will be catering to a steadily declining percentage of your target market, NY soccer fans.
For the moment you still retain some first mover advantage and some structural advantage over a lot of the organic, non MLS or NYCFC produced, soccer websites and blogs that focus on the NY area. Your first mover advantage primarily lays in the fact that you've been functioning as a news website for longer than a lot of your recent competition. Thus EOS tends to possess better graphical presentation, writing quality, speed of presentation, and most importantly timely access to information. However, your competitors are catching up in all of those areas and I would not count on those first mover advantages persisting for more than an additional two years at most. Your primary structural advantage is that, ostensibly, you focus on and support the entire NY soccer scene, something rather uncommon amongst your competitors.
That said if you guys can't get your collective shit together expect someone to see an underserved market and make a play for it.
Hope that helps.
If you want more of my page views then try and be neutral. Once in awhile I will check out an article or two to see if you've managed to find some kind of non biased journalistic integretity. Since that is never the case the mean time between me checking continues to rise. I am being completely truthful when I say I'm virtually done with EOS, and I believe that you will find that to be a relatively common theme on this board. You may also find that there are a chunk of people on this board who are already completely done with EOS. Then again I'm just one person on the internet with an opinion, so take it as you will.
That said you asked for a truthful opinion in an attempt to make your site better, I will always happily provide feedback. Below is some feedback on EOS as a business.
I really hope you guys can get it together. As a niche soccer website you've got rather greater market potential than anyone else serving a similar purpose in the US. Have you considered hiring any writers/freelancers who actually support blue? For example, while aviewfrom226 rather needs to work on his on camera presentation, set, and graphics his views tend to be insightful and well thought out and logical. Frankly forming a partnership with any of the more popular blue supporters would be beneficial for the reason outline below.
To make the most out of your market potential your website needs to shake off the perception that is is a home for Reds and occasionally Greens. You're missing out on a significant percentage of your potential market by excessively catering to one side. Partnering with prominent blue supporters would do much, at least in the short term, to help you reapply the veneer of impartiality. The actual work of which will probably be a long and difficult undertaking.
Being perfectly frank in three years of existence and two years of playing NYCFC has amassed a larger fan base and audience than NYRB and the Cosmos combined; probably. This state of affairs will probably only get relatively worse for NYRB/Cosmos as time goes on. NYRB's marketing presence in the city is virtually non existent and the Cosmos's is only slightly better. Meanwhile NYCFC often has bus stops, subway stations, subway trains, and occasionally billboards plastered with NYCFC advertising; hell I've actually seen some local TV ad spots for NYCFC on non YES network statsions. I've talked to a few friends in marketing and I would not be surprised if NYCFC was spending more than their salary cap in advertising, on a yearly basis. What this means for EOS from a business perspective is that you will be catering to a steadily declining percentage of your target market, NY soccer fans.
For the moment you still retain some first mover advantage and some structural advantage over a lot of the organic, non MLS or NYCFC produced, soccer websites and blogs that focus on the NY area. Your first mover advantage primarily lays in the fact that you've been functioning as a news website for longer than a lot of your recent competition. Thus EOS tends to possess better graphical presentation, writing quality, speed of presentation, and most importantly timely access to information. However, your competitors are catching up in all of those areas and I would not count on those first mover advantages persisting for more than an additional two years at most. Your primary structural advantage is that, ostensibly, you focus on and support the entire NY soccer scene, something rather uncommon amongst your competitors.
That said if you guys can't get your collective shit together expect someone to see an underserved market and make a play for it.
Hope that helps.
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There is a lot to digest here, but let me break it down:
1) You lose me a bit when you say immediately go on attack: "if you've managed to find some kind of non biased journalistic integretity" -- makes me think you have made up your mind. Which is fine. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I just fail to see how our coverage of the team is bias in any way.
Sometimes we find ourselves in a vacuum online, where boards like this have 3-4 loud voices claiming bias, and people accept the narrative without looking into the allegation. Frankly, some of those voices have been so vitriolic it prevents me from visiting here as much as I like. But as far as an institutional bias, I don't see it. Again, I can't change your mind if you are of that school of thought. I just think it's misguided. We can only work harder.
2) Reaching out to fans is a constant goal for us. Getting in bed with any of the three team supporters isnt. When I vet my writers, I never select people who are STH. I want independent voices -- not popular figures within the fan community. That's not to say we dont have exclusive voices. Glenn Crooks writes a weekly column for us (BLUE), just like Mark Fishkin previews RB every week (RED).
3) Having said that, surveys like this are meant to get the pulse of fans on all spectrums -- and allow me to engage you. Try to find another site that does as much with as little resources. And believe me ... we have VERY little resources. I'll wait.
4) I welcome competition. Ask the guys at NYCFC Nation! There is no one that is as welcoming as I am to new faces on the scene. Remember -- this isnt the NFL. We arent killing each other for news. There are a HANDFUL of outlets that even CARE about MLS, let alone NYC, Cosmos or RBNY. The more the merrier. And let fans decide.
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The problem with your concerns are, as you say, you see a "perception that is is a home for Reds and occasionally Greens" -- and all we can do is continue to churn out quality news from the team in hopes to change your mind.
Anyway, appreciate the feedback. Feel free to keep going or reach out privately!
Sidebar to the topic at hand (apologies), but thanks for this. I've tried to be substance first, though I do wish I had more time to improve the quality of the presentation.
I read EOS daily and will continue to do so. When I had a problem with something from an EOS writer that wasn't even posted on the site, Dave took the time to hear me out. He is an open minded and genuine guy and that's reflected in any interactions I've had with him or witnessed in his interactions with others online. You won't find a more non biased guy out there. I appreciate the effort of the census as well as him even being on here and taking the time to respond to our feedback and input. I'm confident that EOS coverage of NYCFC will continue to improve. I also appreciate the RB content as I like to keep abreast of what's going on over there. But the Cosmos? Fuck the Cosmos.
#1 You were asking for opinions, I gave mine in a truthful and unvarnished manner. As I said before, I am one man on the internet, therefore you can choose to take or disregard my opinion as you will. Unlike others of my generation I am not under the illusion that my opinion matters simply because I have it.
What I should have made more clear is that the first paragraph was initially going to be the sum total of my response, I created the rest of my reply because I thought you deserved a better and more thoughtful response than my unvarnished opinion. Would separating the two have enhanced the presentation and impact of my objective analysis, of course it would. But then it would have failed to contain the perspective/opinion which created it, which is something that you wanted.
#1a. As you say in your article you've been a Red Bull's fan for five years. Just because you can't see institutional bias does not mean it doesn't exist. Then again it really might not exist and I am the one with biases. What I can say for certain is that I was regularly reading EOS from the day NYCFC was announced until about halfway through last season. My collective reading experience from that time led me to believe EOS possessed an institutional bias against NYCFC.
#2 Good I guess? Though I personally would not have made the business decision to exclude someone based on their season ticket holder status or not, your site your prerogative. That said I think that not attempting to tie popular independent writers to your organization in some way can be a mistake, people like that can drive page views. On the other hand if you want to tightly control your organization, the material it publishes, and the way it grows then you're doing exactly what you need to do. Both are perfectly valid ways of growing a business.
#3 False equivalence. We're talking about your website here and what it hopes to accomplish. As I pointed out in my initial post your major structural advantage is that unlike your competition you are ostensibly trying to reach all NY soccer fans. I don't believe you have any major competition at this conceptual level, except for maybe once a metro, but frankly I believe the quality of your product is superior to theirs on basically every level. My opinion is that you need to make your appeal less biased or you may see a serious competitor arise.
#4 That may be true for the moment. TBH one of the things that appeals to me is that on a deep level we MLS fans are fans of anything that makes the sport grow in the US. But anyone with half a brain can see the writing on the wall, it's not going to always be like this. Sure basically no one gives two hoots about MLS right now in a broader media setting, however, demographics are on soccer's side in the US. I fully expect MLS to be a multi billion dollar yearly business in 20 years, then you guys will be killing each other for news. I want to like EOS, I think you guys are doing good things, I think you're just not setting yourselves up for future success.
But again this is mostly my opinion or actions I believe would help you based on what I believe your market position to be. Feel free to disregard.
Np. Quick and dirty on what I think might improve your presentation a bit.
#1 Wear the hypnokit, from what the camera is telling me you've got super pale skin and dark hair. That combination just does not play well with super light colors. Give it a shot lmk what happens.
#2 Watch some people and compare the way you monologue to the way they monologue, your delivery is kinda flat; think Erin Bernett, Anderson Cooper, Brett Baer. It's not just the way they talk there's specific body language they're using, that body language tends to be open. Your body language tends to be closed, which can turn off a viewer and leads me to believe you're not entirely comfortable on camera. Only lean forward when you really want to emphasize a point. Also constantly clasping your hands together when leaning forward telegraphs nervousness. Chest out shoulders back, play around with it and you'll look a lot better in camera.
Making something work in camera is entirely different from talking in real life. Keep that in mind when you play with your body position.
#3 Even better would be to find someone to talk with, there's a reason sports tend to be discussed in panels and announcers come in pairs. It makes things appear more natural to the viewer.
#4 Might want to consider bringing the camera in a bit, big wide angle shots like you tend to use are for multiple people in frame. With one guy in picture all you're doing is creating dead space.
#5 Try softening up the lighting a wee bit.
You've got stellar content though, keep it up!
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