As many of you know, there has been a lot of traffic on RSL forums lately about “Supporters Groups”, the “Supporters Sections”, and some heavy recruiting going on in cyberspace. This is because conversations which were begun in 2005-2006 with an RSL front office which bears little similarity to the one which currently exists have finally come to some phase of conclusion. I am going to give props to Bill Manning for getting personally involved in the process to achieve some workable plan from which RSL and all of RSL’s supporters groups can finally move forward on. I’m not going to bore you with the laborious tale about how we have finally come to the place where we are today, but instead simply preface the entire issue with the fact that the Sandy Stadium (we really need a better name for this) will have a supporters section…or more precisely, at least 3.
I’m apparently unable to get the seating map image to come up here, but I’ll put the link in and you can imagine that the image is represented HERE
http://www.rslstadium.com/seats/seatingmap.pdf
The sections in question are sections 8-12 behind the south goal. As it stands, RSL has allocated seats in the following sections for each of the 3 supporters groups to sell. Sec. 8 and 9 RCB(Rogue Cavaliers Brigade)…Sec. 10 FCB(Frank Castle’s Brigade)…and Sec. 11 and 12 Loyalists.
I’m not entirely sure where to start. I was reading some of the posts on http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=702378&page=8
and it seemed like the tenor of the conversation was starting to get a little divisive. I don’t think people’s passion for RSL is in question here. I can appreciate why people may or may not want to sit with supporters groups. The main thrust of having a section in the stadium for SGs is to have a place where the kinds of antics SG’s are prone to are not just tolerated begrudgingly, but acceptable and encouraged. My heart goes out to every family who has unknowingly bought tickets in or near the RCB, thinking they’d have great seats to quietly enjoy the game, only to discover 15 minutes before the game that they were likely not going to hear anything but screaming chanting and singing for the next 90 min. The MO of American soccer fans has not yet reached the same level of fan participation which exists elsewhere in the world. I remember as a young 11-year old watching the US nats play Cruz Azul at UNM stadium in Albuquerque. Cruz Azul was represented by a small hardcore following with a few drums and the US was represented largely by kids and their parents. I remember my mom telling me it was unsportsmanlike to join in when the stadium took over a Cruz Azul song turning it into a USA chant. This attitude about stadium etiquette is something which stuck with me for a long time and the attitude is really prevalent in America today. Having a supporters section will solve some of the immediate unpleasant interactions, but it does mean that the supporters groups will need to gather like people to their cause and actively recruit people to stand with them in 2009 and on. Having the SGs separated from the rest of the fans will mean people who just happened come to hang out with one SG or another for the atmosphere will be need to make a more active choice to do so by buying tickets in the supporters section.
Prolific and Plake are making a huge effort to actively recruit season ticket holders to the South End because they understand how many seats need to be filled, and the burden this agreement places on all the supporters groups. I personally feel like there are SGs outside of the RCB, FCB and loyalists in the stadium who didn’t get represented in the SG meeting (SLElite, among others), and would like to find a place for all groups who want to be in that section. I’d also obviously like to grow the RCB in the south end, and I hope to see the Loyalists and FCB also reach some critical mass. More voices, more approaches, more minds coming up with songs and stadium wit is what we’re all really after in any form that takes. Of course there will be individual groups who have a different approach than others. That’s part of what makes the environment exciting to be around…but the masses of voices and drums and pipes and instrumentation capable at any moment of coming together en masse is the potential driving force in the stadium that we’re all after. There are many different visions in a group of supporters 3000 strong, but together they have a life of their own. For anybody who’s never experienced the phenomenon, I highly recommend it.
Come be part of the experience…
-Heretic
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