Where the **** are you Philly fans??

At Sky Blue, the fans are 10 feet above the players when lining the rail. I hate that, even at Villanova, the fans and players are on the same level. My Daughter loves the pics from the charge, taken with a 35 mm camera, not the digital ones we've had for 6 years.. Its funny, I have pics of Lilly, Hope, Kelly and to see how my girls have changed from the first time we had met a lot of these players is amazing, you can't get that at most venues... Once you have stood next to Heather, Cat, KK.... you really begin to dislike going to the stadiums

Pasoccerdad, not sure if you have been out to PPL yet for a Union game but you can get ground level photos with the players after games.
As for field turf coming at Villanova, that stuff is virtually as bad as regular artificial turf. If you Wiki "field turf" you can see all of the controversies related to soccer player injuries for that stuff. But I like the size and location of the Villanova stadium and its access to public transportation and major highways. And at least the turf would be new.

I couldn't tell watching the match on FSC what the crowd looked like below the camera. I assume the biggest part of the crowd is behind the benches but couldn't tell cause there was never a single shot of that side. How was the attendance?

The general admission seats in camera view looked more filled-in than I've ever seen them, certainly more so than the two matches I was there for. Since I can't imagine people choosing to sit in the sun on a day like that, I'd guess that the GA seats on the near side were pretty full as well.

The stands were fuller than usual and the grandstand side, was surprised at how many were on the far side...

I believe, as I've said before, that the weather played a large role in the low attendance, across the league. Practically every team had scorchers all summer, and if not scorchers, thunderstorms. I hope next summer is a bit better.

The official attendance from Sunday is out: 4,011. That makes it easily the second most-attended game of the season. I got the sense over the last month that the attendance trends began to turn for the better. There were three home games in August. The game against Boston August 8 was #2 in attendance for the year before yesterday at almost 3,100. The game against Atlanta August 15 got nearly 2,600 - considering the weather the entire day up to the moment of the opening whistle was absolutely atrocious, it's impressive that game managed to top the attendance of four earlier Independence home games.

YAY! This is good news!!!! And I think we should thank the Philly Union supporters for a large portion of the increase!

Yesterday, not so much. The SoB continent wasn't at full strength in either numbers or volume: victory celebrations after the win on Sat. contributed to our lower energy level ;-) . Still a fun time, except fot the final result.

We were all celebrating the win the night before which took the energy out of a lot of us not to mention a lot of people were up in NE,etc. By next year we will be out in full force with 10x the number of people

From watching the replay of the game shown on TCN tonight. There where times we were fairly loud despite lower numbers. I could hear some chant better then others. Looking forward to getting better numbers. Hopefully there will be a home playoff game to attend this season as well!!

Yeah, we raised hands to see who was hung over. Let's just say there was a disproportionate representation of hung-over people to un-hung-over people. Personally, I spent 3am-7am in the ER waiting for my friend to get stitched up.

Kinda miffed we weren't supposed to do the Phila-delphia chant. What's up with that, guys? That woulda been awesome on TV. Everyone was doing it last game.

That's weird. It's the Philadelphia Independence, so why wouldn't we do that chant?

I was told that the other supporters-group-in-the-making was not happy with us doing it.

<crickets>

I hope that's not true! I like whatever y'all bring!

did they put it to a vote, or was it just one or two cheesesteak supporters being vocal about us SOB's upstaging them on their side? I love gocheesesteaks.com and would join both spirit groups given the opportunity and will probably sit with them at some games on the road next year... but I don't appreciate the clashing identities battling for more turf and a drum in a world where WPS teams can fold, and 2 have folded overnight. It's not as though we were trying to scream OVER them, we were trying to do something to support them! We said half the word PHILA- and waited for the other half to fill in the blank - DELPHIA, and the simple fact that it worked tremedously last game should not intimidate or undermine the cheesesteaks. It should give them something more to aspire to. the efforts to do a stadium wide cheer at the beginning of each half should be not only condoned, but well coordinated. Are we being accused, instead of supported, of actually pulling something off? Are they saying that if we tried it again , that they would try and mute it? I think there's a misunderstanding here and the two groups should consult one another on a high level. I doubt they hate us... maybe they just want to be consulted?

I would like to iterate that I believe the gocheesesteaks.com have great strength in numbers, more road game presence, and great banners - things the SOBs can all aspire to pick up on next WPS season and already have demonstrated for the most part as seen at RFK and other places.
HOWEVER - the cheesesteaks are very visible but will never be accused of being too loud or imposing on other teams/fans. If that was our crime, then I'll plead guilty.

it's been talked about a merge. I want to expand supporters, not contract them. with there being two ends, it makes more than enough sense to have two supporters sections. the cheesesteaks drum up support on their side, and the SOBs pick up the slack in the cheap seats, since the stadium is too big for one support group to be heard throughout. The alternative is we all sit together, and the other side at some games looks like an away side. It would be either half empty, or two thirds empty, and not very supportive.

when SOB started coming in droves about 3 games ago the cheap seats were a nice place to sit and relax and watch the sunset. Now it's a fun little rowdy zone and the other fans do participate a little more! sorry for the noise. I think a coordinated effort to do our side vs your side is helpful, but help me if I am wrong?

one of the other SOB's was explaining to me how the SOB culture and the West Chester culture are at a crossroads on game days. Well, we keep pretty family friendly and tolerant at WPS games, so the compromise from the other side ought to be acceptance of what we're there to do.

The SOB's and Cheesesteaks need to support each other even more - or at least it would seem so to this SOB.

I wholeheartedly agree with this post! The more people in the stands, the better the atmosphere! A little rowdy is good! Maybe flyers can be made and distributed giving some info about the purpose of supporters groups, and what they can bring to the game, and to expect a "bit of noise". Perhaps even giving some info about the songs so everyone knows how to respond! just thinkin

I am talking with them and handling this. Don't worry all will be worked out. It was just some early misunderstanding of where we were coming from,etc. It will all be sorted out.

Well, I'm glad it's being worked out.

I felt pretty awkward when I was told it offended people, as it was my idea and I was the person running around the stadium telling people to do it. I don't know if I came off like, "HEY DO THIS OR DIE!". I was amped up and trying to get the casual fans into it. I honestly didn't even know the other SG was there, or where they were.

Thanks Jim. I appreciate the fact that we have people on both sides of the argument that are more levelheaded than I, and just as spirited.
Hope we can work together on making the playoff showing the best, most "offensive," showing yet all year.

and by that I mean...

we're gonna score more goals than you!
cheesesteaks!

PHILA-delphia
PhilA-delphia
PHILA!DELPHIA!

www.gocheesesteaks.com
www.sonsofben.com/

This is what happens when you narrowcast your team's advertising just to appeal to teenage girls and their moms. It's the same thing the Charge did wrong and the WUSA as a whole. Soccer needs girls, boys, women, men, moms and dads. We're all on the same side, and something like what happened at the Boston game should've never happened in the first place.

This has been a very interesting conversation. As someone who's been at all of the home games, I must say that the addition of the SOB's has been a plus. Between them and the regular zanies, the atmosphere is really fun. Having vocal support on both sides of the field is truly a positive development, and I hope the two groups, even if they don't merge, can work together to promote the team. Call and response cheers would be great, one side starting, the other answering. I think both groups have the same intent--supporting the team, and getting more butts in the seats. That's the bottom line. There's nothing wrong with a friendly rivalry. And to both groups, I seem to recall a quote from Paul Riley about the song 'You'll Never Walk Alone' (is that a standard in EPL stadiums? Or a Liverpool thing? I apologize for my ignorance in this matter, but I read it awhile ago). You guys might want to work that into your repertoire if we do get a home playoff game. I'm optimistic that the results from the last two games will work in our favor...