Jurgen Klinsmann has been a polarizing figure since being named head coach of the USMNT, for me the jury is still out. Soon the US U23's will begin the qualifying rounds to earn their ticket London and the 2012 summer games. The problem I have at the moment (and this just might be my brain) is that Klinsmann isn't being too positive about the whole thing.

Yesterday, Sean Donahue of New England Soccer Today mentioned that the Revolution to Wonderland may still be possible. Donahue, using Thor Jourgensen of Lynn, MA's The Daily Item article on Revere Mayor Dan Rizzo's push for redevelopment of the old Wonderland race-track, indicated that the Revs to Revere talks may be, at least superficially, back underway.

Representatives for Robert Kraft have been in contact with Revere Mayor Daniel Rizzo about building a stadium for the New England Revolution, according to a report in the Lynn, Mass. Daily Item.

Rizzo is working on plan for the 26-acre Wonderland Greyhound Park which was shut down on August 19, 2010; shortly after the state-wide ban on dog racing went into effect.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. It's hardly the stadium news fans of the New England Revolution want to hear, but the current home of the Revs and the NFL's New England Patriots, Gillette Stadium, will see much of its power coming from alternative energy sources in the near future.

An agreement between The Kraft Group and NRG Energy, announced today, will see the amount of solar energy generated at Gillette Stadium and Patriot Place triple.

Fairly quiet business weekend in American soccer, but here are a couple of stories worth noting. We'll start in New England, where owner Robert Kraft is pursuing a resort casino development across the street from Gillette Stadium, the current home of the Revs and Patriots. The story is significant to soccer fans only because of potential impacts on the Revolution's efforts to build a soccer specific stadium in the Boston area.

If first impressions matter most, it is hard for New England Revolution fans to take much solace in the recent organizational reorganizational announcements.

The Revolution is viewed as being stuck in MLS 1.0, while the league has largely moved on to MLS 2.0 (or more.) Apparently, Revolution ownership seems to agree, with Robert Kraft suggesting: "Major League Soccer has evolved significantly in the last few years and while we felt we had a structure in place that had worked well earlier and led us to success, the last two years did not live up to our expectations"

However, addressing such fundamental league changes by redrawing lines on an organization chart seems more like this feels more like a reboot than a system upgrade.

Their Words Major League Soccer has evolved significantly in the last few years and while we felt we had a structure in place that had worked well earlier and led us to success, the last two years did not live up to our expectations," said Robert Kraft. "With this new executive structure, we will be better positioned to compete for championships on the field while we continue to focus on growing our business and building.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. Weeks after the club parted ways with Steve Nicol, the Revolution announced more changes as Chief Operating Officer Brian Bilello and Vice President of Player Personnel Michael Burns were promoted to President and General Manager, respectively.

The promotions, which are effective immediately, give the organization greater transparency, not to mention accountability, to the club's organizational structure something that was direly needed of under the helm of former president Sunil Gulati, who will now assume the role of special advisor to the Kraft Group and the Kraft Family.

Two weeks ago I put up a piece making a case for Mike Burns, or at least for giving him some slack in the coming months as he puts on the coaching search. I let everyone know that a lot of the criticisms we level at him for the construction of the squad might actually be misplaced, and while I can't say he's going to be great now that Stevie Nicol is gone, I also can't say there's a lot of evidence to say he'll be catastrophic.

Yesterday, it was announced Steve Nicol would no longer be the head coach of the New England Revolution. The decision was made after a meeting between the inimitable Scot and the Revolution's investor/operators (read: owners), Jonathan and Robert Kraft, and was described as a "mutual parting of ways.

FOXBOROOUGH, Mass. Less than 72 hours after his team finished the season with the fewest wins in team history, Steve Nicol parted ways with the Revolution on Monday.

Nicol, who guided the club to a 112-108-81 record in his 10 seasons with the club, led the Revolution to a disappointing 5-16-13 (28 pts.

More Seattlish stuff...

(First, apologies, if you just flew over from Twitter based upon a certain Megan Fox tweet that bent the truth. This is, afterall, a piece on marketing. Read on friend for the connector.)

A great tweet on Sunday for MLS: 64,140 people watched Seattle beat San Jose in MLS this weekend.

A 45 Minute Nap Is Planned For Saturday Night
Good morning, RBNY faithful and faithless! With temperatures expected to reach triple digits around the NYC area today, and with tomorrow's clash with FC Dallas looming, let's take a look at the news.
The big news this week is not from the team itself but instead from the supporters.

STARTERS
The 2011 Kicking & Screening Film Festival begins in NYC tonight. Make sure to get there if you live in the area.
-And make sure to read the daily blog. Some good stuff on there.
dN
Five MLS games will be played tonight - Wed Jul 20. See the full schedule below.

New England Revolution marketing supporters and their section "The Fort".
Photo Credit: The Drug is FootballAt this point in American soccer I thought we were really past this. I thought that, for the most part, Major League Soccer teams had decided that supporters were a good thing. Yeah, sure they occasionally dropped the f-bomb and, oh yeah, we'd really appreciate it if you left the smoke bombs at home, but you all keep on doing what looks good on TV and to the rest of the fans at the stadium.

Commentary
I am happy that the NASL is taking a pro-active stance after the USSF revoked their preliminary sanction for D2 soccer last week. The NASL under Aaron Davidson and Traffic Sports is currently working with the USSF to regain sanctioning in time for 2011 action as the D2 league in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean.