E-mail Hoax? Revolution Not Moving

A blog post came out today on The Drug is Football with an anonymous e-mail from someone who claimed to work at the Kraft Sports Group sharing supposed office stories that the New England Revolution’s owner Bob Kraft could possibly sell or move the team in the coming seasons because it was under-performing and hurting his reputation. Team sources have confirmed to New England Soccer Today that the rumor is untrue and there are not plans to sell the team or relocate it out of state.

“There is absolutely and unequivocally no truth at all in that e-mail on which the story is based,” wrote Lizz Summers, the Revolution’s Director of Communications, in an e-mail. “Because there is no truth to the email, no executives will be commenting on its contents.”

Earlier in the day, the Revolution’s President Brian Bilello responded to a tweet from a fan concerned about the post and claimed that it was a hoax.

.@skobebro None. If you are referring to the email that some have seen, it is a hoax.

— Brian Bilello (@RevsPrez) August 20, 2012

In the post, the author, Brian Smith claims that the e-mail could be a lie, but he continues with the post, writing (unedited):

The following we are about to tell could be the biggest load of BS ever written or if true, would serve as the greatest indictment of the Kraft family’s commitment to the New England Revolution and high level soccer in general:

2013 could be the last season in Major League Soccer (MLS) for the New England Revolution, with Bob Kraft rumored to be considering a League proposal that would see him sell the club to an out-of-state buyer who would then relocate the franchise out of New England.

[Updated]

Smith has responded to an e-mail request to comment on the post he wrote on The Drug is Football. Here is his e-mail to New England Soccer Today in its entirety:

As with any anonymous source there is a difficulty in verifying their information. We were among many to receive the same email. We discussed the information with the source both prior to and post publication and those discussions have led us to believe the source is legitimate. Many of the concerns that I have seen throughout the day are valid ones that we all shared and discussed ad nauseum prior to publication. When we received the email a week ago we started the process of trying to verify or get insight from third party sources well placed within the MLS/US Soccer hierarchy. Comments about MLS being unhappy with the current state of the Revs was easy to verify. The discussion on possible sale and/or relocation was met with an unwillingness to discuss the matter, it was not denied as being false. We did not contact the Revolution for comment, some may balk at that but would anyone honestly expect them to admit to something this controversial if it were true? Especially TDIF? Our dealings with and attempts to get information from the Revolution FO over the course existence of this blog has been futile and not worth the effort.

That all being said we understand the commotion we have caused, we were and are prepared for it and the consequences of our actions. If our intent was malicious we could have published this a week ago with no effort put in on our part, but the conversations we’ve had have led us to believe the story is plausible. We are not saying it’s true we’re not saying that the sources details are 100% correct, we would have not prefaced it with a 6 paragraph caveat emptor statement if we meant to portray it as solid fact. In the end whether true or not it has started a dialogue over the current state of affairs in the big picture of this team. We felt it was important to get this information into the public and leave it for the fans and supporters to make their own decisions.

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