I have what some would view as a dilemma. I’m a fairly long-time (approx. 20 years) Man U fan (please don’t hold it against me) supporting a CFG and effectively MC affiliated team. But I have no problem with that. It was a little strange and awkward at first putting on a jersey that looked quite like a MC jersey. I remember one time before the season started I went to the mall here in NYC, and I was proudly wearing my new blue NYCFC jersey, but my little boy happened to be wearing a Man U jersey. You can tell who the soccer fans were (mostly foreign tourists) because they kept looking at us in amazement and laughing, thinking I was wearing a MC jersey and my 3 year old was revolting against his dad with the enemy’s jersey.
But having a team in NYC has been my dream for so many years. My dad used to take me to the original Cosmos games almost weekly in the ‘70s and ‘80s, rooting on Pele, Giorgio Chinaglia, Beckenbauer, Carlos Alberto, etc. If there was a special occasion or a birthday party, it was at a Cosmos game. It was a sad time when that ended, and ever since I would hope and dream about another team here to support. A fun indoor soccer team (the NY Arrows) was more of a goofy temporary but not real fix, and I became an avid supporter of our national teams. I then religiously watched the foreign leagues and started supporting Man U, first, as a result of friends and family who were affiliated with the team. It was great to have a team I could call my own, but I could still never call myself a homegrown fan, and seeing the games in-person was something that was much more difficult, time-consuming and expensive than simply jumping on a subway train or hopping in the car for a short drive. At the same time, my dad and I bought season tickets to the first season of the Metro Stars, but didn’t really feel the affinity or the connection to that team, so we were one and done. For those 20 years I continued to daydream about the idea of a real NYC team joining the MLS.
The announcement of NYCFC was truly a dream-come-true, and even with the CFG/MC connection, it didn’t really even phase me in the slightest. If they were responsible for bringing a team here (if not them, whoever it would have been), my Man U connection really was an after-thought. And if their acumen, resources, scouting system, and money could help my new team (the success, degree and extent of that remains to be seen), I’m even happier. Though my inherent bias against them also results in my being more critical of decisions, as well as some of their fans who have taken a more unreasonable view of the relationship (you, the OP, seem to be in the minority). Not surprisingly, I could still never root for MC, but there is no reason one should think that I would have to. It seems that I do (albeit unintentionally) follow them more closely though with more interest (not a rooting interest, but an interest in youth, scouting, style of play, etc.). I’m all-in with NYCFC, taking my family to games the way my dad did. While I still regularly watch and root for Man U, my passion truthfully (and I guess naturally and not surprisingly) has waned a little bit with my dedication to NYCFC, which makes it even easier to brush off the ribbing I get from my pals when they see me wearing blue!
derek_villa and others that we need to find a balance and get some younger DPs in the next way. I think CFG wants to win. I believe they will learn and adjust and we will be one of the best teams in the league within a few years.
