Photo credit: Colorado Rapids
Club has held four such forums in the past 13 months — three since One Club, One Legacy campaign began
Following a busy transfer window and a bevy of changes this season club-wide, Colorado Rapids leadership took to the concourse of Dick’s Sporting Goods Park to get feedback from some of the club’s most devoted fans.
An hour before last Saturday’s 1-0 win over CF Montréal, club president Pádraig Smith and chief business officer Haley Durmer took questions from season ticket members at an exclusive event at The Dale’s Bar behind the supporters’ section. It was a continuation of the club’s efforts over the past couple of years to have an open dialogue with fans.
On the Thursday prior, C38 supporters’ group members were invited for a separate discussion.
Some 50-60 STMs packed Dale’s for the event to hear updates from the club and ask questions to leadership. Originally scheduled for just 30 minutes of back-and-forth, Smith and Durmer stayed in the spotlight for nearly an hour. As kickoff neared and Dale’s employees were readying the bar for opening, Smith reluctantly relinquished the microphone after saying he could keep at it for hours.
He and Durmer being talkers, there weren’t an abundance of questions from the audience, but the ones that were asked cast a wide net over the state of the club from roster building and youth soccer to facilities and fan experience.
For Smith, it’s an opportunity to reevaluate what the club is putting front and center of its focus.
“They (the forums) have very much become a part of our process. I think that’s the key thing here, and I think a lot of what we’ve done over the last two years is listen and try to make those changes, whether that’s in the area of youth development, … or hearing our fans talk about wanting GB Fish and Chips (Maria Empanada, Jake Baby D’s and Taco Bron are just a few other examples) back, and being able to go ahead and execute things like that,” Smith told RMSJ after Saturday’s STM forum. “I think it’s just making sure that consistent communication with our fan base is just a part of our everyday process and it feeds into the meetings we have (internally).
“The more we know from our supporters, the better we can be at serving their needs. And that comes with things like the surveys they fill out, the post-game surveys, so there’s already full meetings that are set up to analyze those surveys within our team. We’re doing this on a consistent basis.”
Since August 2025, the club has held four of these forums to go along with numerous surveys and private focus groups. The frequency has gone up since the One Club, One Legacy campaign began back in December — an effort to “slow down, really listen, and learn from our fans and the wider soccer community,” Durmer said in the campaign’s launch statement.
Not many other places in professional sports will you see club leadership expose themselves to the public and its fanbase this often. The Rapids plan on continuing the forums as part of its regular process. There are no concrete plans for the next one yet, but the club knows there will be a lot of questions to answer around the 2027 sprint season and subsequent calendar shift.
“I really enjoy these opportunities that we have to speak directly to our supporters, whether that’s C38 or our season ticket members, even just random folks as you walk across the concourse,” Smith said. “I’m always grateful when people stop us and give their thoughts, good and bad, because it’s important for us to be able to listen and take it on board.
“Ultimately, we want to be representatives of our community, who want to stand for something that our community believes in and something our community wants to be a part of. I think you can see the passion and commitment there is from the supporters there. That’s something we feed off. … You always come out with something new or a little tidbit you haven’t heard before.”
His favorite from the night: a question about the youth soccer system in Colorado, something Smith said is “near and dear” to his heart and paramount to the evolution of the sport in the U.S. Smith said he and the person who asked about it talked further right after the forum, and the two may go for a coffee soon to continue to talk shop.
