Section 109. Did it work?

The season is over at Buck Shaw, and it's a good time to reflect on the Casbah and Ultras sharing section 109.

Did it work? What were some positives? Negatives?

Would it be better to move one of the groups to the far end to rouse our quieter fans in the middle? Do you miss the back and forth chants?

Your thoughts?

We have began discussions with the Casbah regarding ways of making things work more smoothly. My first observation is that having two groups side by side causes some interference, the drums tend to drown out some clever chants at times and it leads to distorted sounds. Having the casbah influence some of the quieter fans with simple drumming and "lets go quakes" might be helpful to all.

Yeah so far it's a mixed bag. In the beginning though, it was a complete and utter disaster. We (Ultras) were being drowned out by multiple Casbah drums...and I mean multiple! Since then, we've been able to work with them in both cutting down the number of drums and getting more in synch with each other. It's not always ideal, but when we get a good chant going, they'll do their best to drum to our chant. Sometimes they will start a chant themselves and we'll join in.

Being an Ultra, I do like the Casbah and like what they have to offer to a certain demographic of fans. We need that type of diversity as a fan base. I strongly believe that we can co-exist and we will continue to work together when necessary. However, I really hope that in the future, we aren't in the same section. I wouldn't mind them in the next section over, but not in the exact same section.

Just my dos pesos

Did it work ? NO
The only good about this, is that the Ultras are now in section 109 so we can get almost the whole BS going.

Positives: well the Ultras, got more exposure, our tifo can be seen by everybody. and now the FO has attractive pictures of the fans supporting the team.

Negatives: Casbah still cannot find its way, beside the drumming, there is hardly anything else going on, I really wish for Guy Gayle return.

Moving the groups at each end of the BS it will be the best for the Quakes.

Yeah as an outside observer I'd agree with that. While the concentration of passionate fans was nice visually, functionally it was less than ideal. The far end of the stadium became a graveyard without the Ultras down there. I don't know who should go back to 101 but one of the groups needs to. We need the energy to be spread out among both ends of the stadium. It would also help with the times the two groups seemed to interfere with each other chant wise and drum wise.

Personally, I consider section 108-109 top real estate for any supporter group and as of now the 1906 Ultras has demostrated to be the SG in command. I will suggest the FO to have the Casbah moved to 101, after all that where the "new" family section is.

As a Quakes fan, I can say that WE DO need a family friendly SG, but we do not need to create one (La Doce ) we already have one Casbah.
I'm specting more colaboration from the FO to help this SG, but I'll be honest, I will prefer if the colaboration start by moving them to 101.

For those of us who would like to expose our younger kids to the atmosphere of a supporters section, it was a huge flop. There was no way to participate with the Casbah without prime exposure to the Ultras' fare. That was a deal killer for us, and when kids were in tow, we resorted to the family section at the other end of the stadium.

They are kids in the Ultra section.

FYP !

Most possibly there needs to be a family-friendly group (the ones who don't want to hear the "blue"/NSFW chants or anyone who doesn't want their kids to hear _____ or _____)--they should be in 101 along with the family section.

Behind the goal in 109--it will be mostly be the hardcore supporters--mostly the Ultras and the Casbah group/whoever else who want to amp things up, or to be "as nasty as we want to be" (that is, go no holds barred). Literally that section holds the true "Bleacher Bums" to speak and to give the opposing goalie/visiting team grief.

109 is the "12th player" zone. 101 is the family section--there should be a family-friendly SG over there--the spot where I can take the kids to have that same atmosphere "as clean as we want to be"... there will be the holdovers--but in the social order, the dominant group will be the ones who will "dictate the course"...

Ultras should be in 109 and Casbah in 101.

Member of The Casbah here!

My thoughts for next year are:

1. The Ultras should remain in section 109, letting them create a strong presence behind the north goal.

2. The FO should put some bleachers behind the south goal and we'll (The Casbah) move over there, creating a SG presence there.

3. Section 101 should remain as the family section.

With the SG's separate, they can have both their own individuality, while at the same time bringing voice to each end of the stadium. The opposing goalie will have to endure a full 90 minutes of vocally and visually passionate fans right behind them, unlike now when they get a break from that for 45 minutes!

Awesome idea about creating a Casbah area behind the South end goal!

In order to do this , we will have to wait at least until 2012 season,(we are talking about building another section in Buck Shaw) by that time the Casbah maybe extint.

Something really doable for next season (2011) is just to move the casbah to the section 101, once there, maybe they can really find their way and become the Casbah that once was.

This is a really stupid idea !
But the worst part is that already someone from the FO brough it up a while ago, for obvius reasons his idea didn't have that much support.

I for one, will not like to see any SG caged.

Like I mentioned before, something that may work is to have the Casbah moved to the 101 (where the family section is now) and once there, their membership for sure will incresed so their STH numbers.

I was refering to the picture with the caged fans !

I'm suprised the cashbah havn't dies already. If i hear one more drum off beat next season imma punch a hole through it...

It sounded like they started to work together toward the end, but the fact remains the two are complete opposite, other than their love for the Quakes I'd like to see the Casbah move to 101 and hopefully start to rebuild. Section 101 is more there type of members. The ultras will hold down 109. It would be nice to have the full stadium chanting EARTH ----QUAKES and with the presence of both SG's on different ends of the stadium it might finally work.

I hope you weren't suggesting that the Ultras are in fact the group with diminishing numbers with that picture, if so you are flat wrong.

The move to 101 is a solid place to start, but the idea to build bleachers behind the goal on the corona cove side is a solid one as well, I doubt that it will happen though, with a new stadium in the works and with Santa Clara Univeristy not needing that extra seating capacity

Update: For 2011-12, I was told by FO that the Casbah and Ultras will switch places in 109 and their rationale is to help the Casbah numbers grow and provide a "profanity" buffer to 108.

It's pretty clear what Ultras think of section 109. I'm interested to find out what the Casbah think of this latest development and proposals on this forum to move to 101.

It was a misunderstanding in the FO. It won't happen. The Ultras will be in the same area.

This is kind of a random post, but who is responsible for that awesome post-goal celebration where everyone rushes the front of the stands? I love seeing that kinetic motion after San Jose scores a goal, and I think they are the only MLS fans that do it.

Hopefully that remains next season.