Lafc Astroturfing A Supporters Group

Ahab_Flanders

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So LAFC posted a job listing looking for a SG liaison. http://mls.teamworkonline.com/teamwork/jobs/jobs.cfm/Communications?supcat=154#76427

The current posting seems innocent enough, like they are merely looking for a point-man to interact with Supporters Groups, but the original text was pretty damning. (Thanks to r/MLS user @HueyBosco for the original text.

From the post (emphasis mine):

Communications: Media/Public Relations Servicing LAFC Brand Personality - Los Angeles Football Club (Los Angeles, CA) The “LAFC Brand Personality” will be responsible for being the face of the brand, LAFC Originals Ambassador and Pied Piper of the Los Angeles Football Club. The position will be the ears of the organization, ready to listen and engage in conversation with LAFC fans, Originals and Supporters 24/7/365 .

Primary Duties:

Liaison to our LA Originals via regular communications, meetings and always listening.

Point person for LA Originals to ownership and senior management - identify best opportunities to leverage senior management and ownership.

Vet and validate candidates among LAFC Originals who may become the leaders of the LAFC supporter group.

Work in tandem on camera with the LAFC Documentarian to generate digital content for LAFC digital and social properties.

Identify the right individual(s) to ultimately lead the official LAFC supporter group.

Elicit input on all franchise matters from known and unknown LAFC Originals.

Facilitate and organize introductions and meetings between LAFC ownership and management with best candidates for leadership of LAFC supporter group.

Serve as “person on the street” and “in the pubs” spreading the gospel on behalf of LAFC.

Work side-by-side with LAFC staff to ensure that key moments are publicized in advance and/or shared via social media, mailing lists, website.

Qualifications:

• A Good Listener.

• Millennial.

• Multilingual.

• EA Sports "FIFA" Aficionado.

• MLS Fan.

• High Level of Futbol Acumen.

• Significant Playing Experience (ie a minimum of NCAA or other high level amateur club/organization) - You MUST have walked the walk, so you can talk the talk.

• Outgoing, Self-Starter, Articulate, Good Listener, Passionate, Creative, Born Leader, Chameleon-like (eg can lead a meeting in a board room; can host a rave).

• You Can't Believe LAFC will Pay You to do This Job!!!

• Did we mention - A Good Listener!

So, aside from the pretty iffy description, it appears that LAFC is looking to install its own official Supporters Group?

EDIT As of 12:45PM, LAFC have dramatically altered the job posting. Above is what was originally listed. Below is the new listing for comparison:

LAFC Supporter Relations - Los Angeles Football Club (Los Angeles, CA) LAFC Supporter Relations - Los Angeles Football Club (Los Angeles, CA)

The “LAFC Supporter Relations” position will be the face of the club and will act as an ambassador on behalf of the brand to the wider Los Angeles area and beyond. This person will be responsible for listening and engaging in conversation with LAFC Originals and Supporters Groups, as well as potential fans and community members.

Primary Duties:

· Liaison to our fans and to the LA community via regular communications and meetings – online and off. This person will be the point of contact for fans and Supporters Groups and they should be able to identify the best opportunities to leverage senior management and ownership to grow our network and awareness in the community.

· Work in tandem on camera with the LAFC Documentarian to generate content for LAFC digital and social properties.

· Elicit input on all franchise matters from fans and community stakeholders.

· Work with Supporters Groups to organize private meetings with club leadership and public events to grow community support.

· Serve as person on the street and in soccer bars and pubs, spreading the gospel on behalf of LAFC.

· Work side-by-side with LAFC staff to ensure that key moments are publicized in advance and/or shared via social media, mailing lists, website.

Qualifications:

• A Good Listener.

• Multilingual.

• EA Sports "FIFA" Aficionado.

• MLS Fan.

• High Level of Futbol Acumen.

• Significant Playing Experience (ie a minimum of NCAA or other high level amateur club/organization) - You MUST have walked the walk, so you can talk the talk.

• Outgoing, Self-Starter, Articulate, Good Listener, Passionate, Creative, Born Leader, Chameleon-like (eg can lead a meeting in a board room; can host a rave).

• Did we mention - A Good Listener!

People on Reddit are saying this sounds an awful lot like the Third Rail as well.
 
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People think TR was set up by NYCFC. Or at the very least believe there is a Board Member who was hired by NYCFC.
Thats stupid tho... Why would nycfc pay someone an above minimum wage salary to be a board member of a sg? Even if that did happen, whatcwould thaf accomplish?
 
Thats stupid tho... Why would nycfc pay someone an above minimum wage salary to be a board member of a sg? Even if that did happen, whatcwould thaf accomplish?

It raises some serious questions when another big market expansion team as much as publicly announces their intentions to do along those lines.
 
Thats stupid tho... Why would nycfc pay someone an above minimum wage salary to be a board member of a sg? Even if that did happen, whatcwould thaf accomplish?
Marketing can be a lucrative career choice. These guys would likely be salaried in the 50's. A farcry from minimum wage.

No one said NYCFC is doing it though. Just trying to answer your original question.
 
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Marketing can be a lucrative career choice. These guys would likely be salaried in the 50's. A farcry from minimum wage.

No one said NYCFC is doing it though. Just trying to answer your original question.


So just to cover all our bases here. Can someone give me a brief summary on how The Third Rail came about? Was this supporters group around, waiting for an expansion NYC club, were they founded in response to the announcement of NYCFC?
 
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So just to cover all our bases here. Can someone give me a brief summary on how The Third Rail came about? Was this supporters group around, waiting for an expansion NYC club, were they founded in response to the announcement of NYCFC?
If no one responds in the next few hours, then I will try and give you a shortened version of how things got started, whenever I get home to my desktop.
 
Shortly after NYCFC was announced the Forum was opened by NYCFC_Dan NYCFC_Dan and the NYCFC Supporters Group Facebook page was started by Buckley Buckley and Billy Howell. I got involved with both groups shortly thereafter. A lot of the current board members (and former) were frequent posters both here and on FB. while I don't know these men and women personally, I've gotten very familiar with them through these mediums as well as the numerous events.

Things began taking shape right around the time of the Q&A w Reyna, Pernetti and Soriano. Which was where the pieces of TR started to assemble.

Not long after, a couple of the guys (@BToto920 @zl10 @NYisBLUE) organized a meetup that would turn TR into what we see today. They laid out what their plan was. They described what lengths they went through to be officially recognized by NY.

From there TR started to focus it's efforts on Facebook. However MANY of it's members are regular posters here.

I honestly believe that the Board Members (past and present) are there to represent the members and no other reason. Could I be wrong? Of course...but having spent many hours online and in person with these people I don't believe that to be the case.

TL;DR I know these guys. I trust the individuals running it.
 
Yeah if I remember I was like the 3rd or 4th person to register on the forums lol

Yep.
QUOTE="Buckley, post: 39101, member: 3"

I'm not saying that there's something wrong with the TR, just pointing out that LAFC is clearly trying to pull something and the comparison is being drawn by a lot of people. It's not a good look.
 
As much as people want to call NYCFC 'plastic' I know for a fact that everything came together by means of supporters. TR had a big hiatus where they didn't do much of anything cause they were going through all of their legal stuff to get officially recognized by NYCFC. One of our buddies actually took care of some of it if not all of it for them (correct me if I'm wrong einwindir einwindir) so if it was the club doing everything for them this wouldn't have been the case.
This is a big city and you have people with all types of skill sets coming together and they've all helped contribute in many ways which have got us to where we are now.
I've always been a forum nerd. Ran a few in the past so I figured I'd contribute with the community aspect. Przemek took a liking to the club and out of good will helped get some of us started with ways to identify ourselves by means of logo's and so on.
It's not like it's happened over night. We've been live for 10 months now. The first few months were pretty rocky and then things just started to snowball as we announced players and so on. And here we are today.
 
Its a case of I don't like NYCFC amd I want the narrative of there was no market for it so they have no supporters going. Some Cosmos clowns are still claiming we sold less than 5000 season tickets. Besides the club helping with the banners at the jersey reveal, (and TR has been pretty open about it), and Ben Jata writing content for the MLS website (and people love to say there's MLS employees in the TR but most just repeat what they heard and and that means everyone in the TR is a league employee) people don't have any proof of than "I've heard", "there's rumors", and my personal favorite "I've spoken to people in bars"
 
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I touched on this topic in another thread (http://nycfcforums.com/index.php?threads/questions-for-third-rail.1834/page-5#post-39151), so after reading this I guess my question is:

Should the Third Rail address the allegations that they are tied to NYCFC?

It's such a silly statement and rumor that I don't think they should even entertain it. Don't feed the trolls. It's the same three pathetic Cosmos fans rehashing rumors over and over again. It's really sad that these people have nothing better to do.
 
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