I was thinking that we need to include more of the original concept of V- Army 1941 into what we do. We really don't have any "Victory at all costs" slogans / banners or anything else going on. I know that Zak has backed away from the name he originally picked, but I believe it still has cache and relevance. It was an excellent choice when it was first made. We should try to incorporate more of the idea behind the allies victory over fascism in World War II into our section's imagery. This is relevant because Chicago Fire are a bunch of fascists. Or, we could merely stick with the "without victory there is no survival” meme. Anyway, just trying to get some ideas flowing as we head into 2006.
I am a big fan of going the route of honoring the history behind the name of the group. A couple years ago I was Googling some of the old war poster images looking for inspiration. I even modified one, but I don't have that available at the moment. This is what my inspiration was: I also agree that it is a good countermeasure to all the communist style crap that the Section 8 folks love to go with. Any thought on what kind of songs/chants/cheers we could incorporate? Vic-tor-y Gold Vic-tor-y Black Co-lum-bus Crew On the attack (slow tempo) De-feat the com-mies! (repeat ad nauseam when playing F*re) I'm sure this one will get a laugh, but what the heck (blatantly stolen verse from Bedknobs and Broomsticks): Who’s sticking in here? Who will defend Every inch of Columbus no matter what they send? Who’s standing firm in our own front yard? The soldiers of the old home guard That’s Who! The soldiers of the old home guard We could also look at the various US military fight songs and make modifications for the Crew.
One other thought, and this would take a lot of effort, but could be very cool. What if we got the section to "march" in time and then had a call & response type of a chant like they have in basic training... take a cue from good old Bill Murray's classic: Stripes
I agree wholeheartedly that V-Army should get in touch with it's roots! You guys have awesome opportunities with that. The Cross of Lorraine (the double cross that V-Army has) was a sign of the French Resistance during WWII. You guys also have Churchill and the Allies working for you! Legion '04 is based off of Ancient Rome. Hence the banner we have of the skeleton army. The time of Julius Caesar and Octavian and such. We could also play off of the Czech Legion, the French Foreign Legion, or the American Legion. ---I think that it would be cool if we did stuff like that at some games. Whether it's marching into the stadium chanting like an army, or all wearing combat jackets. I think it would add some flair to the games. Legion was considering doing a "Toga Night" in honour of Caesar. Seriously though, we could do some pretty awesome sh**, and get attention too. Honestly, we could set up "History Night." We publicize it through the CFO at the home games leading up to it. On that night, V-Army wears WWII style uniforms or something, Legion wears plastic Roman army helmets and togas, and we hang some old school banners with themes relevant to the supporters clubs. Sure it's a little cheesy, but what a way to publicize ourselves and have a little fun doing it! Do it against Chicago and have the anti-Commie theme going. It would be hilarious, I'm sure we could get a few old-timers to laugh, if we had a huge anti-Red banner or something when Chicago came to town. Just a thought.
No to be an ass, but we're not going to all go out to the Army surplus store and drop a stack of cash on getting uniforms to wear to the games. Now, if MLS were to ever switch to a Fall-Winter-Spring schedule, the official supporters jacket would certainly come into vogue. Right now, the biggest/easiest stuff we can do is chants and banners. There is a chance that we can do the march in, but it's not going to be rank & file sort of a thing, just a loose group with a drum and the chanting... maybe some flags or something too if we can manage.
Speak for yourself, I'm going to get out my vintage WWII US Army fatigues and wear them to opening match.
We do the call and answer bit with one of my favorite chants, "Everywhere we go..." - I think its success comes from how easy it is to follow along. I don't really think you'll ever get the section to march in time, since we've been having trouble just getting everyone to stand up. My thought, as you've pointed out to Legion 04, is to maybe get some banners and flags that reflect the speech in which our common cause was set forth: VICTORY AT ALL COSTS. (Perhaps we could fly the flags of the allied nations?) If it were up to me I wouldn't advance an anti-communist agenda since the Soviet Union were an important part of the allied pact that defeated Nazi Germany. Now if you changed "commies" to "fascists" I'd be along with you. I'm hoping that my posts doesn't have the added effect of "militarizing" the section. I don't want to wear fatigues to Crew matches. I don't think we need to dress like an army. I just think we should remember what we stand for. Like the Armies of the Allied countries in World War II we fight for Victory and victory alone in the face of unthinkable oppression.
I've posted my thoughts on the subject numerous times, so I'll be brief.... What does keeping with the military theme have to do with soccer at all? "Victory at all costs" is catchy, for sure, and I'd encourage a banner stating that. However going to far over the top, IMHO should be heavily guarded againsts. You/we need to start to work on the most important aspect, again IMHO, bridging the gap between Legion and V-Army.
I don't think we should keep with the military aspect. I'm not in favor of wearing camo or having war paint. I think we should stick with the themes of Churchill's speech. I'm going to commission and create the banner. Also, while I agree that bridging the gap between Legion 04 and V-Army is a high priority, it doesn't mean we can't think about other things. IMO, We do need some more visual appeal to being in 137. Furthermore, I've gone up and played the drum with the Legion crew and generally tried to keep them clued in as to which chants were going on 10 rows below them. I've picked up chants they've started into V-Army. The biggest gap that exists between V-A and Legion exists here on Big Soccer. It doesn't exist in 137.
Having said what I said, Zak, I want to hear your thoughts about what we can do to bridge the gap. It should be all of our goals to have a unified and loud 137.
In the short term, dissolving the groups into one is probably unrealistic, so the first thing I would do is take these types of discussions off big soccer. I would further accomplish that by creating, if it already isn't in existance, a general 137 mailing list on google. I wouldn't post anything here apart from meeting times, and schedules for events. Are we really at a point where we can claim "The biggest gap that exists between V-A and Legion exists here on Big Soccer. It doesn't exist in 137?" If that truly is the case, then the most significant portion of work is already completed. I'll think about this a bit more going forward. It's hard for me to think about actually, do to the fact that I can't believe that measures already taken before haven't been more fruitful.
Well, I guess what I was saying is that there seems to be more friction between posters representing the groups on this web board than actual friction in the stands. Once we're in 137 I haven't noticed any shouting-over or anything.
A step in the right direction would be to intersperse (sp?) the two groups. That way there wouldn't be a need to jump up ten rows to let people know what songs/chants are being sang. The two groups are so relatively small that distance between the two should be a critical issue.
I agree with ZipSix that there really isn't that much of a gap between V-Army and Legion at the matches. Along with that, I agree again with ZipSix that we should have a more visual appeal to the section. I put myself behind the "Victory At All Costs" banner. We should make a big project that we all come together on. It also lets people in on the fact that V-Army and Legion are essentially one united front. I also support a massive "Northenders" banner to hang at the bottom of the section. That way we're getting our message out to everyone. I also support a community service project that we can all get involved in. I mentioned that to the CFO and they liked it. Groups like Barra Brava, Screaming Eagles, and what not, are known throughout their region because of community outreach they do. We could go to soup kitchens around the city wearing V-Army or Legion shirts, or something. Your thoughts...
If you would like to do community outreach, get the ball rolling yourself. You'll find that the result will come far quicker than if you rely on others. There are plenty of organizations out there to help, and if you have the apparatus (sp?) to contact your members, CFO is an un-needed entity.
The unfortunate souls at soup kitchens are unlikely to add much support to Crew or V-Army/Legion. Not that its a bad idea or anything, but some of the outside work should benefit recruitment. Perhaps Legion/V-Army could organize an indoor req-league or something? Get a supporters A & B team or something, and get a little round-robin tournament in place. The visiting side that finishes the highest gets 20 or so passes to sit in 137 (try for 2 tickets per player or something so they can bring a friend). Edit: If we can't convince the FO to chip in the tickets, have each player for the V-Army/Legion teams chip in like $10 to a ticket fund.
I like the idea of getting some teams together, but I don't like the idea of the FO chipping in. Getting together and playing footy and having fun and meeting some soccer fans that we don't usually see around the North End would be great for recruitment. I don't really think we should give away tickets because: 1.) I think it's best not to ask for help from the FO and when it comes down to it, I think it would be hard to get people to chip in money. 2.) People who go to the matches because they have free tickets are less likely to contribute to the North End (or even sit in the North End) than people who go because they want to go. I have a pretty limited schedule, but I could probably work some soccer in there somewhere. Who else is interested?
That's a good point about the tickets. I just thought it would be cool to offer something. I guess the biggest thing is to make sure that if they have fun to come hang at the tailgate and in 137... to really plug coming out for a good time. One other thought, you could make some cheap t-shirts if you ever end up putting a tournamnet together that is covered by like a $5 registation fee (difference covered by V-Army/Legion). The shirt would be simple, have something about the "Northenders Soccer Slam 2006: hosted by V-Army 1941 & Legion 04 : Proud supporters of the Columbus Crew" Whatever it is, it suddenly becomes cheap advertising as the folks wear their tourny shirt to classes or to the gym or whatever. Just gets the word out about town a little more.
I agree with everything you said in your statement. Could you be a bit more specific as to why you feel the way you do in #1?