Revolution Soccerballhead Shalrie Joseph 2010/11 Away Replica Jersey Revolution 2010/2011 Game Shorts Youth Revolution Framework S/S Tee-navy

This year our goal, as always, is going to be to reach and win the MLS Cup. I think we’ve got a real strong group of core veterans coming back and a real promising crop of new players, so it should be a very exciting year.

When I was preparing my comments for today I thought about all the different things I could speak to you guys about.

There are two kinds of themes that I saw. One is enhancing the popularity and marketability of our sport and the other is the presentation of the game both in how we talk about it and how we present it with all our TV partners, as well as the quality of the play on the field - which continues to get better, but, is already at a very strong, very high level.

Let me speak to you about a couple of those things on the popularity front. TV is probably the big story of the year in that regard. Locally, TV 38 is going to be our new partner and they bring a number of things to the Revolution, the first being great coverage with cable and satellite broadcasts, a consistent location for all our games so our fans know that our local broadcasts are always going to be on TV 38 when they turn on the TV, and just great promotional opportunities to promote the team and to talk about the team and to get the word out of when our games are on. It’s a great partnership for us.

We are expecting an announcement about Rhode Island and the coverage that we’ll have down there soon. So, hold tight for that and hopefully in the next couple of weeks we can make an announcement there.

On a national level, I think it was just a couple of months ago was when the big pop happened with that. Just to remind everyone in this room, as a league, we’ve had a number of national TV deals that were signed this past year. We are very, very excited about those as well.

ESPN, probably the most prominent of those, brings to the table a number of things. One, high-definition broadcasts, which will be really fun and exciting and a consistent event broadcast. Instead of a Monday or Tuesday or Thursday, every Thursday there will be the ESPN Game of the Week. It’s in high definition and it should be a real fun, event-driven type of experience for our fans.

And then finally, just the exposure they bring. The variety of properties ESPN owns will help promote not just soccer as a sport - which I don’t think needs a lot of help in this country right now - but particularly, our league and our teams will look to really drive the relevancy and reach people who aren’t just the core soccer fans but also the ones that we are trying to engage with on a higher level in MLS.

Fox Soccer Channel, which is the premier soccer-specific destination on TV in this country, will also be hosting games so we’ll see a lot of games on there. In addition, Univision, which is really the dominant force in Spanish-language broadcasting in this country, and their family of channels, will be carrying games.

And then there’s HDNet as well, so we’ll get some HD programming in addition to ESPN’s games.

So, there’s really exciting things on the TV front not just for the Revolution, but also for the entire league.

Expansion is another big story in the league. Toronto FC just came into the league this year and obviously we are going to open up at home April 14 against them, as well as hosting the U.S. Women’s National Team versus Mexico doubleheader that Kristine Lilly will be talking to all of us about. But Toronto has been a really successful launch of the league. They have sold out of the season tickets in their new stadium. I know they are really excited to start in this league and we are really excited to be hosting them for our opener and are excited to go up there and see their stadium later in the season.

And on [the soccer-specific stadium] front, it’s an issue that has been in the news from time to time, but we are still diligently working on a soccer stadium for the Revolution.

It really hasn’t lost a lot of momentum since we first announced that and the league first came forward that they wanted to get the Revs a soccer-specific stadium.

We are meeting with multiple cities and towns and we’ve visited a number of sites and talked to folks about those sites and are going to do our analysis on that. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of details to announce on those visits at this time because we don’t know them ourselves, but, it’s a project that we are very committed to, that we are working hard on and I want update you as we have progress on that. It’s going take time and its not an easy thing - as all of us in this market know with building sports facilities in this area - but I think it’s something we are going to get done.

The "Game First" initiative is something that the league talked about yesterday and I just want to talk a little bit about it today and how it’s relevant in our market.

"Game First" puts the focus back to the game in a variety of different ways. If you’ve read the league’s announcements and seen what they’re talking about, it’s about pre-game having a more traditional, more consistent format of how the players take the field and their pre-game activities.

Also during the game, really reducing the number of PA’s and announcements you hear including the sponsorship announcements and activities like that and really trying to get the focus down on the field.

I think what we’re trying to do here is take it to an even further level: really getting the fans to engage in the field and what’s going on. Not just the goals and the saves, but all the other activities that you see on the field that I think the core soccer fans love and appreciate. For the causal fan or youth fan that shows up, it’s important to make sure that they understand the rules and all the nuances of the game and why this is and exciting game and why people love it so much. So that’s a really big initiative for us this year and slowly, as we build momentum, you’ll see more and more with that.

I think there’s a guy name David Beckham who the league signed this year. (His signing) has brought a tremendous amount of exposure and I expect to see a similar amount when he joins the league this summer. We are seeing that here in New England. We are seeing the excitement about David Beckham both in our announcements and having him come here on August 12, which has had a tremendous amount of support in our fanbase.

We are already halfway sold for the game, and we fully expect to be sold out for that game based on what we are seeing for momentum. It’s going to be a real exciting day for us and our goal for that game is to expose those fans to the Revolution and to turn people who are curious about David Beckham, and what the Revolution have to offer. By doing that, we create more fans for our franchise here.

There’re a number of new rules in the league related to player transactions and if you have questions on those I’m sure Michael (Burns) and I can answer them.

Also, our youth development proposal that’s been approved is something that we’ve been working on as well. We don’t know exactly what way we are going to go, but we are talking to a number of different organizations on that front. This is a program that is not going show proof this year or even next year, but years down the line. So, with that in mind, we are taking a real measured approach about how we approach youth development down and in how we approach that program. We are not rushing into anything right now but we are working with different organizations and we’ll have an announcement about that sometime this year as well.

Just to wrap up so we can get to some questions and also get Kristine on the phone, we are excited to start the season. There is a tremendous amount of momentum here, let alone nationally for the league.

I look forward to starting this season both this Saturday in Chicago on TV38, but especially so when we welcome all our fans back to Gillette stadium the week after when we host the U.S. Women, Mexico and our newest team Toronto.

Questions From the Media

Q: On the soccer specific stadium front, are you looking specifically for an urban location in downtown Boston? Will proximity to Foxboro be a factor? Or is it wide open?

Brian Bilello: "It’s wide open. What will ultimately happen is we will probably have a number of options and we’ll just have to weigh those options and see that one stadium will give us this, one stadium will give us that. Urban locations wouldn’t be likely give you a number of fields to play with, but you’re located to a population density. Then, you’ve got a suburban location that might give you a certain number of fields but not the population. There is a mix in MLS in the stadiums that have come alive and we’ll just have to see which one overall gives us the best option."

Q: A lot was made about Gillette Stadium being built and how Kraft funded this himself. Is that a situation with the soccer specific stadium? Is he looking, or are you looking, for people to give you things so-to-speak and that’s why the process is taking so long?

Bilello: "I wouldn’t say that’s why the process is taking so long. Where we’re going there will be different possibilities on how the stadium might be financed so it’s difficult to tell because we don’t know exactly where its going to be and exactly how we are going to finance it. But certainly, nothing like that is holding it up. It’s just a slow process in how to find the sites that would actually work, where the stadium would actually fit and would be a positive place for our fans to have."

Q: Are you seeking funding from towns or communities?

Bilello: "Yes, it’s across the board. If that’s available then that’s certainly something we would be interesting in having help with. But it will vary from site to site."

Q: Something a little bit off topic that wasn’t really mentioned was the designated player allocation. Are there any players in the works that the organization is looking at or are they still looking for other players?

Mike Burns: "I think to address the designated player rule, the coaching staff and our entire staff has talked to and explored that, but it’s a situation where the homerun so-to-speak for us would be to get a player that not only raises the level on the field but obviously would help in the ticket sales area and in the marketing area. Having said all that, we will continually look for that right player and Stevie (Nicol) will address the team chemistry. He will always determine how it’s going to effect team chemistry. We are in a situation right now where we’re not going to rush into signing a designated player at any particular time. Having said that, we are continually looking for a player that might fit in well here both on and off the field."

Q: For the Beckham game you said you’ve sold half out. Have you got a number on the amount of seats that will be available for that game and also what impact have you seen in the overall ticket sales since Beckham will be coming over here? I know a number of the ticket packages you have also include other games on the home schedule.

Bilello: Right now it looks like we are going to be opening the entire lower bowl of the stadium. We have club seats that are always going to be open so when you add it all together, it’s probably going to be in the order of 30,000 tickets. We also have a number of flex-ticket options which are out there where people can come to a number of different games, so we have to be careful with that and we may need to increase capacity. When we get out there and get a feel for how many fans we think will come into that game and how many we think are still in the market, we’ll make those decisions. Right now it’s looking like right around 30,000 will be capacity for that match. So, I say we’re at half, about 15,000 sold right now and it still has a lot of momentum.

"In terms of packages, we’re seeing a lot of momentum around that. We let the season ticket holder purchase however many individual tickets as they wanted for that game and that was a real big boost. We are selling a four packs right now as the primary way in which people can get the Beckham game. Those includes our home opener, the June 2 game against Real Salt Lake which we think is going to be a great draw because of Freddy Adu, and then we have our August 2 game which is our one and only (home) ESPN national game of the wear, and obviously the August 12 game against Beckham. We tried to put together a really attractive package so fans who want to come to Beckham can see some great Revolution games, as well, and there’s been a great amount of support for that."

Q: Obviously with the Beckham game being a huge draw, do you expect a huge walk up attendance for that night? Is that something you have to bear in mind when you make certain amounts of seats available?

Bilello: "I honestly don’t think about it because I think we’ll be sold out. I can say that now - and we’ll see where we are in June and July - but the way the momentum is now, I don’t expect to have any walk up sales on that night."