Who is the Union?

• by Conor O'Grady
• February 7th, 2012
• Featured, Opinion
• 9 Comments

As I laid abed recently, weary from the day’s blogging, I heard a voice. Since I’d taken all my medications (and a few other people’s too, for good measure), I figured it had to be an external one.

I could only assume it was my dearest wife, with whom I share a bed, a life, and an incorrigible devotion to the Philadelphia Union.  Having recognized her voice, I immediately went through my usual mental checklist of recent transgressions and relevant excuses/apologies/denials.  But before long I realized her reproaches weren’t aimed at me.  Instead, she was lamenting the state of the Union, on the eve of Season 3.

Mind you, Wifey ain’t the sort to throw her two cents around.  Unlike her husband, she doesn’t see her opinions as gifts that need immediate bestowing upon the rest of humanity.  This night, however, her demons needed exorcism.

“Y’know,” she said, “it’s gonna be completely different.”

“What is?” I asked.

“The home opener- now that Le Toux and all them are gone.  I’m so excited to see our SoB friends we haven’t seen in a while, but I was excited about seeing the team again.  It’s like going back to see my boys…except now they’re all gone.”

“Well,” said the blogger, “not ALL of them.”

“I know,” she said, “but it still won’t be the same.  I won’t know half the people on the field.”

At this point I made the predictable argument about how we support the team, not any particular players, and how feelings aren’t part of the FO’s job descriptions, and how we’ll come to know and love all these random signings in time.  Before long, I assured her, she’d be screaming for Nizar Khalfan the way she once screamed for Le Toux.  Rosters change like the wind.  Such is professional sports, I reminded her.

“But who is the team?” she asked indignantly.  “I’ll get to know these new guys, and then how long ’till they turn around and sell them?  If all they’re gonna do is bring up players and then sell them off for money, who are we rooting for?  The bank account?  The corporate fucks making out from all the money the team makes?”

Just as I was reaching for my official Occupy Philadelphia home drum circle kit, she continued:

“We join something because we want to stand for something.  We joined the Union and the SoB’s because we wanted to stand for something that was apart from everything else, that was different from other sports and that means something.  And in the end you feel like just another one of the sheep rooting for someone to make money.  It’s just…disheartening.”

Her soliloquy ended there, her ginger rage dissipating instantly like a summer storm.

Her words stayed with me.  They kept me up that night.  I wanted to dismiss them as naive, as the sounds an idealist makes when cold reality intrudes.  Yet I had defended the front office, and insisted that business concerns pose no threat to the fundamental spirit behind the Blue and Gold.  Was I the naive one?

I was reminded of a comment left on this very website recently.  A “Paul C” bemoaned:

“I do believe the front office has a larger plan in the wake of all the recent moves. Unfortunately, I don’t think that plan involves winning cups. It’s stockpiling young players and selling them for profit. If they get a decent offer for Adu or Mwanga they will pull the trigger.”

Is this really possible?  Is there truly no team-building going on here?  Piotr would have us believe that he’s fashioning, from the ground up, a multi-cup winning organization that’s greater than the sum of its parts.  But if that’s really the case, why sell the trees just as the fruit is ripening?

Are Nowak’s investments in the team meant to be redeemable for cups or cash?  Or both?  Or neither?

And is it possible in this cold, cynical world that fans could find meaning in a pro sports team that goes beyond budgets and championships alike?  If losing Le Toux was the right move, for the bottom line AND for our Cup dreams, is there anyone out there who would’ve kept him anyway, just because he was the “heart and soul” of the team?

Mondy wasn’t the world’s greatest goalkeeper, any more than Seba was the world’s greatest (misplaced) forward, or Califf is the world’s greatest center back.  Are the warm feelings they bring to everyone in the stands worth more than gold or glory?

When it comes to soccer, is love all you need?

In two seasons, the Union has made it clear that they are, at the very least, contenders.  This was accomplished through hard work, smarts, and a whole heapin’ shitload of spirit fueled in no small part by irrationally devoted fans.  Surely that spirit warrants some kind of consideration by the bean counters.

No one wants to root for the loveable loser, the team that’s all heart and no cups.  That said, if the Union brass are too cold in their calculations, we might wish they’d been more careful what they wished for.   We may discover that we’ve got a financially impressive championship team who can only inspire that most superficial kind of love- the love of winning.

We’re better than that.  We’re not Yankees fans for Chrissakes.