My friend Mark - seen in the photograph on the left - and I headed to The DNVR Bar at the corner of York and Colfax here in Denver yesterday morning to watch the soccer match between Leeds and Millwall. Leeds beat Millwall 2-0 and are now in first place in the Championship League, England's 2nd division soccer conference. This is important, since the teams that finish first and second at the end of the season are automatically promoted to the 1st division Premier League, while the teams that finish third through sixth compete in a playoff round to decide which one will be the third team promoted. This is a pretty powerful motivation for both players and team ownership. Imagine for an instant that Major League Baseball used the same system. The Colorado Rockies draw almost 3 million fans a year, no matter how bad they play, and so owner Dick Monfort is not very motivated to do what it takes to win - namely, hire baseball executives who know what the hell they are doing and know how to build a winner. Imagine if the three worst teams in Major League Baseball were demoted to Triple A, and the top three Triple A teams replaced them each year. Now THAT would finally light a fire under Monfort to start thinking about winning.
The Leeds United Colorado supporters seem to be a very amiable group, and I was surprised at how many turned up at 9:00 A.M. to watch the game. On the right is the official group photograph for yesterday's get-together, taken by the bartender, who told me he had to work until 2:00 A.M. the previous evening and then come in early the next morning to let in all the Leeds fans. Talk about dedication. DNVR is a digital sports network that decided to take over the space that once housed the Three Lions, a popular Denver soccer pub, which Mark and I frequented in the past. Now that DNVR is returning the place to its soccer roots, we have started visiting more often. And I must say, we enjoyed both the game and the pleasant company.
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