As we close the book on the downer of a year that was 2014, there are a couple things I’d like to see from the club in 2015-
1) Start Strong
This one is kind of obvious. The Hounds dug themselves a deep hole through the first third of last season that they were never able to recover from. Not only did it suck as far as standings are concerned, but it was extremely deflating to the fan moral. The hype train was in full force going into 2014 only to fall off a cliff. The surprising part to me is while looking up how the Hounds historically have started the season, apparently last year wasn’t that abnormal. During the USL PRO era, in their first ten games the Hounds have started the season (W-L-T) 2-5-3, 2-6-2, 2-4-4, and 0-6-4. Saying this pattern needs to change is an understatement. Playing in a higher profile venue like Highmark Stadium brings more eyes and more expectations. They can’t keep building hype in the off season only to kick it in the balls in the first two months of the season. Am I expecting them to win every game? No, but they need to be better from the get go so that they don’t need to do these miracle runs in the second half of the season. Especially as the league continues to get bigger and filled with better teams. It would be nice to not want to write off the season by June.
2) Sign players you need, not players you want
Subtitle: Get some damn defenders. This time last year the Hounds were making a splash signing big offensive names. They were able to bring back Angulo and Dallman. Ngwenya, Obodai, and John all signed. The Hounds got all the big offensive names they wanted. Hindsight being 20/20, it’s now obvious they were not the players they necessarily needed. I could discuss how Ngwenya, Obodai, and John may not have been good signings for the system coach Evans wanted to run, but I’m going to focus on the other side of the ball. At the start of the 2014 season the Hounds had only four pure defenders signed- Fekete, Flunder, Katic, and Marshall. Four defenders in a system that almost always had four in the back. Flunder and Marshall had a bit of an off year, Fekete proved to be ineffective, and unfortunately Katic never saw the field. The Hounds were fortunate to get Arena when they could, but often they had to rotate a midfielder or two into the back to plug holes. No wonder they had one of the worst goals against in the league, and one of the worst in recent team history. Defenders may not be sexy signings, but when you run a system with four in the back, you need more than the bare minimum, and you need good ones.
3) The Bistro
Nightingale mentioned several times in his first press conference about wanting to transform the Bristo into something better. I sure hope he follows through with it. The Bistro at Highmark Stadium enters it’s third season as a bland afterthought. I’ve always wanted to give the place a chance, but looking like a prison cafeteria isn’t too appealing. I hope Nightingale transforms it into a proper, inviting pub with local beers on tap. Hell just give the Steel Army some paint and we’ll make that place look (subjectively) awesome. I want the Bistro to be somewhere I might want to go to get out of the sun during those hot, hot summer tailgates. I want there to be events to go to outside of Riverhounds games. Trivia night anyone? With how successful the lady Hounds are, and Nightingale’s desire for a professional women’s team, if that place isn’t a go to spot for the Women’s World Cup this summer they’ve messed up. It doesn’t need to be a major change over night. Small upgrades like what we saw with the team store go a long way. Obviously the Bistro isn’t something that’s going to help the old the field product. However, with the fresh start the Hounds have after bankruptcy, making the Bristo better would be a nice addition to Highmark Stadium.
4) More Events
To go along with the Bistro, I want to see more events out of the Hounds. It’s a bit of a sore subject, but the meet and greets with the team us season ticket holders were supposed to get last season never materialized. Not only is it shitty from a sales perspective to not follow through with those events, it’s shitty from a fans perspective. Unless you have a kid in the academy there aren’t many opportunities for a supporter or general fan to interact with the team outside of post-game autograph sessions. If the Bistro gets a revamp it’ll be a great venue to have nights to shoot the shit with players over some pints. Here’s a free one- trivia night: pros vs joes. Or, I’m sure it’s not hard or that expensive to do a bowling night somewhere. Again, Women’s World Cup… get it done. It doesn’t have to be that frequent. Something like once a month-ish through out the season would be awesome. That’s like at most 5 events. Easy peasy. Connect with the community more and maybe we’ll reverse that attendance slump.
5) Tots
Sorry, bit of a cop out, but I have to keep this weird running joke going.
#UNLEASH
