OT: Great concept - power to fire the GM

Chewie · Post #1 » by **Chewie** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 6:48 pm

Saw Drew Carey on the Late Late Show last night and saw that he apparently is going to be part owner of the MLS soccer franchise in Seattle and they're adopting a VE-RY interesting concept. For $1,500 you can become a member of the franchise. As such, you have a vote to keep or dump the GM at set periods (thought he said every 4 years). What an idea! The club makes money off it and you, as a club member, have as close a taste of ownership as you're going to get. How do we get the Bulls on this plan ?

Looked up the article below today for legitimacy purposes :

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/otherspor ... occ13.html

With the Arsenal-Reading game as a TV backdrop, Carey announced Monday that his involvement with the Seattle MLS club would mean a unique approach to running the team.

First, Carey wanted to allow fans to buy memberships that would allow them to, among other things, vote on the fate of the team's general manager.

"If you don't like the job he's doing, if he doesn't have a winning team, if you don't like the product, if you don't think the hot dogs taste good when you go to the stadium, you can just vote him out," Carey said, with co-owner and general manager Adrian Hanauer grinning in the background.

"We're not afraid to let the fans have the power," Carey added.
Saw Drew Carey on the Barcelona and Real Madrid in Spain and Atletico Barboa in El Salvador institute this democratic system and were Carey's inspiration. He even became a member of Barcelona after a recent European trip.

"I went to Europe and saw how Barcelona's organization was structured; I thought we should have that in America," said Carey, 49, a Cleveland native who became a soccer fan after attending an MLS game in Los Angeles and has been active in pursuit of a soccer fix all around the world ever since.

"No other fans in the United States will have the chance to do what Seattle soccer fans will be able to do," he said.

Friend_Of_Haley · Post #2 » by **Friend_Of_Haley** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 7:41 pm

Hhhhm interesting idea. They should just make it full on out like a publicly traded company with stocks. Could they do that if they wanted?

Addicted123 · Post #3 » by **Addicted123** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 7:48 pm

I submit my vote to fire John Paxson.

Chewie · Post #4 » by **Chewie** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 7:51 pm

Addicted123 wrote:I submit my vote to fire John Paxson.

You just need to fork over that $1,500 now. I'll PM you the address to send that check to. :wink:

Addicted123 · Post #5 » by **Addicted123** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 8:04 pm

Chewie, LLC?

Post #6 » by **dougthonus** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 8:17 pm

If the fans actually had real power in this situation (ie the fan vote ended up being the total vote) then this would be an absolute train wreck for a franchise more times than not. I suppose you'd be somewhat mitigated by the fact that basically no fans would fork over $1500 to have that vote.

Leslie Forman · Post #7 » by **Leslie Forman** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 8:36 pm

dougthonus wrote:If the fans actually had real power in this situation (ie the fan vote ended up being the total vote) then this would be an absolute train wreck for a franchise more times than not. I suppose you'd be somewhat mitigated by the fact that basically no fans would fork over $1500 to have that vote.

Nobody's that stupid. From the sounds of it, they want something similar to what Barcelona does, and they are one of the biggest sports franchises in the world (easily bigger than the Bulls).

http://www.fcbarcelona.cat/web/english/socis/avantatges/veu_i_vot.html

BULLHITTER · Post #8 » by **BULLHITTER** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 8:43 pm

while this is meant in no way as disrespectful to anyone on this forum, fans having a say in hires and firers would result in an absolute train wreck and consistently one of the worst run organzations in professional sports due to the fact that with myself included......

FANS DON'T KNOW SHYT.....

Post #9 » by **DuckIII** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 8:48 pm

This board is proof positive that fans should not have a voice in the hiring and firing of a team's GM.

Except Knicks fans. They should get to vote. They've endured enough.

Dieselbound&Down · Post #10 » by **Dieselbound&Down** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 9:03 pm

Maybe the fans as a whole should not have a voice but I see no rational reason (other than I don't own any part of the Bulls organization) that I shouldn't have a voice and feel that I would make some outstanding decisions. Maybe if you all paid $1,500 and designated me as your proxy, we could really get this train rolling. I'll feed y'all info through tech9.

jd901 · Post #11 » by **jd901** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 9:21 pm

we dont need to fire paxson i mean we all thought the team would be good at the begining of the season no reason not to, we need to get boylan fired, and wallace traded

Friend_Of_Haley · Post #12 » by **Friend_Of_Haley** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 9:27 pm

Its not like the fans have the say in all the moves. It would be like the difference between a true democracy and a representative democracy. We let the idiot masses vote for the people in Congress. Why can't we let idiots willing to fork over $1500 the right to vote for a GM if they want? It will be funny to see some of the moves a GM would make in an "election year."