Has any FO ever really financially helped the Cauldron out? I'm not talking free tickets or the odd beer -- I am talking $2000 so you can make and buy the flags you have asked us for, $1500 so you can pull of a massive TIFO, $3000 so you can make a flag that covers an entire ********ing section of the stadium? Specific cash handouts for specific things. I'm asking because ultimately if we make the Cauldron all it should be it will have a massive knock on effect on the remainder of the stadium, ticket sales etc etc. You saw the buzz Portland got and will continue to get. How Don Garber used to lick the asses of TFC. Just wondering why a few individuals wind up paying for this when the benefit ultimately winds up in being not just ours, and the on field lift, but also the reputation of the team entirely including extra exposure and ticket sales. The Chivas fans spent over $3000 on a flag, and its theirs and they worship the damned thing because of how long and how much effort it took (it needed to be flame retardant and all sorts of horse shit to get into HDC), CD Chivas USA didn't help pay for it, but they use it in their pictures just fine. Just wondering if the good nature of people can be taken advantage of a bit to much. I mean we have a bar ... to spend our money in ... and hopefully the smoke machines happen ... and hopefully the monitors that we talked about ... but then what? "Yeah but we built you a supporters section and blah de blah". Not trying to rock the boat but it just feels like in the grand scheme of things a handout once in a while would make a massive difference to what we can accomplish and more often than not would be smaller than the cost of a couple of rounds of drinks at Johnny's. (Yo FO: Help us Help you ...)
The old FO helped out with the costs on the blue & white checked "big ass flag" and the 3 or 4 smaller "mini big ass flags". I believe they purchased the two large drums (the white one and the silver/grey one). I can't think of anything else, even the ones I mentioned above were before I took over, so that was more than 6 years ago. There has been the odd kick-in here and there for flags & banner/flag material. Jeff may be able to answer on some of that because I know he made a lot of flag/material purchases with his money (I don't know about reimbursement directly to him).
Curt Johnson came up w/ a small budget to pay a seamstress for her time in sewing the flags, a couple hundred dollars. I purchased and donated the fabric - about $250 worth or so I remember. We'd like to get everyone who wants to help us figure out June 9th to come to a meeting next Tuesday to finalize our wishlist. I'm going to start a new thread for it.
I thought the Cauldron was an Independent Supporter Group Wouldn't that include no direct financial support?
The Cauldron approached and received funds to help get the Tifo's for opening day off the ground. I believed the FO pitched in about $4000 to help purchase the materials. I don't believe we could have raised that amount of money quickly if at all, however the raw man hours to create the work, the design, everything else was all handled without interference. I don't believe taking funds interfered with the 'Independence' of the group at all, merely reflects the co-operative relationship between our Members Section and the front office.
James is right, there was no way we could have raised that much in time to get the fabric ordered. We still spent around 1k on paint and supplies, 1k on flags and poles. I cant even put a price on the labor but thousands. Having a good working relationship with the FO is critical. Having material support is a huge help. I do not think this made us any less independent. There were no restrictions on what we could design. We did not want to charge dues to be part of the Cauldron which means all of our money is raised through donations, scarf sales, and tailgates. Sometimes we need help to get big ideas taken care of. Hopefully as we grow we will be able to fund these efforts ourselves.
