Letters From The Rapids Community: Eric Stinson

Burgundy Wave would like to start a new series of articles. Going back to our time with SB Nation, Burgundy Wave was described as a Colorado Rapids Community. Yet our content has been mostly one way communication of us writing and tweeting at that community. We want to be a platform for you. These will not necessary reflect the views of BW but as they are from the community, they are relevant to the community. If you’d like to write the next Letter From The Rapids Community, our DMs are open on Twitter,

Dear Rapids Community,

As a longtime Colorado Rapids Season Ticket Member, I often find myself going between pockets of optimism and adulation for fleeting success, and other times of aggravation bordering on disillusionment. This is the life we endure as those that pay thousands of dollars a year to watch a club struggle to find and maintain an identity.

Back in 2017, Pádraig Smith promised “The Rapids Way.” This promised attacking soccer (apparently they didn’t think much of Pablo Mastroeni) and perennial playoff appearances. But the level of success promised more resembles the Colorado Rockies. Since taking over, we have made the playoffs twice, including winning the Western Conference in 2021. However, we are trending in the wrong direction, finishing out of the playoffs last year and off to a very slow start this season. At present, we have scored six goals in ten games, and only have nine points in the standings, which has us in 12^th place in the conference.

How does he fix this? By selling off established players to bring in more financially friendly, yet unproven, talent. Kellyn Acosta for Max, Mark-Anthony Kaye for Ralph Priso, Gyasi Zardes for Kevin Cabral, Kei Kamara for chicken feed. The list goes on. This has left me and many of my fellow STMs scratching our heads in amazement. Does Pádraig know what he is doing? Now, albeit, he has hit several home runs in his time with the club. Jack Price, William Yarborough, Andreas Maxso, and Connor Ronan are sensational. However, he has had more well-known failures: Yannick Boli, Stefan Aigner, Younes Namli, Nico Benezet, and Tommy Smith.

And of course, for his rousing amount of success, he was promoted to President of the Club. Which speaks more towards the antipathy shown by Josh and Stan Kroenke, than it does his actual prowess in the role. To be fair to Pádraig, the root of our lack of relevance can be laid entirely at the absent and aloof feet of Josh Kroenke. Unless I’m mistaken, the last time he showed up at DSGP to talk to fans was 2019 in the Arsenal friendly, and mostly that time was attempting to mollify the 15,000 Arsenal supporters that were fearful of the upcoming disaster that was their season.

What is it going to take for the Rapids to live up to the promise made in “The Rapids Way?” We were promised many things in that Denver Post op-ed. And yet it feels more like the Rapids Way is “be grateful you have a club at all.” All we want is a consistent winning club. One that we feel not only cares about winning but doesn’t look at this city and this state as a bunch of tourists with open wallets feasting on stale pretzels and over-salted chicken fingers washed down with hideous beer selections in a drab stadium with a video board resembling a 1980’s broken television set.

Eric Stinson

Denver, CO (12-year Season Ticket Member)

Photo Credit: John Babiak.