Is Robert Kraft starting to take soccer seriously?

We can only hope. At lot of people forget that Bob Kraft was one of the league’s most active and ambitious owners in the early years of the league. He was willing to spend big money (by mid-2000s MLS standards) to keep Twellman and Dempsey around for a while when English teams wanted them. He’s been put on blast in the press this year by Sam Stejskal and other reporters, and I think he’s finally had enough of his second organization being a clown show. Hiring Bruce Arena is a great short-term step towards building a sustainable, successful team in the long-term. He probably won’t be head coach for too long, but he could be a great GM until his retirement.

I’ve always felt like New England is a sleeping giant ready to be awoken if they get a Boston stadium. The Revs were so close under Steve Nicol to being a dynasty in the mid-2000s. Incredibly unlucky to lose 4 MLS Cups in 6 years by one goal or less.

The Revs get respectable attendance despite being bad and playing all the way in Foxboro. I can easily see them getting 25K attendance consistently if they actually played in Boston, maybe more. Getting a stadium built in Boston is really tough and we’ve had fruitless Revs stadium rumors for years, but this one seems to have more smoke to it than usual. There’s also a lot of smoke that New York City are close to securing a stadium site in the South Bronx that could be completed by 2024. The Chicago Fire are also looking at a site not too far from Wrigley Field.

I think what we’re seeing here is MLS owners planning for the 2026 World Cup on home soil and wanting their teams to be in the best possible position to take advantage of that wave. They’re willing to spend a lot of money now for huge potential profit down the road.

He's a good answer when you're in the hole that the Revs are in. He knows the league, has had recent success in the league. Immediately brings legitimacy back to the team. He still has a ton of good contacts abroad. It's a safe hire and you know he will leave it better than how he found it.

At the very least, he should be able to build a strong foundation for them to build on. He sure as hell should be better than Mike Burns and Brad Friedel.

It's also probably pretty damn hard to convince a foreign manager to come take the current New England Revolution job.

Well he got an asian massage which had been a soccer delicacy in the past, so maybe.

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Maybe this was part of his plea agreement.

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Hopefully they also stipulated in the agreement that he’s required to further development of the sport among the poor areas as well. I’d love to have a couple southie defenders ending Mexican, Panamanian & Honduran careers with their tackles.

Bob’s experiences abroad and the club structure between the two is night and day

But here you are white knighting for MLS

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the club structure between the two is night and day

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But that's not a negative for either of them.