Not sure why a typical adult without any disabilities would find this difficult. Your eyes and vocal chords are independent organs. Shouldn't be to hard to use them at the same time. Now when you add jumping and clapping to the mix things get a little more complicated. When you add a 1/5th of bourbon to the mix ... I can see it being downright impossible.
My problem isn't with the ability to do it, more the fact that the capos don't pay attention, and there have been a few times where they did some pretty bad chants for the circumstances on the field. And sometimes I just want to drink my beer and cheer on my team when they do something worth cheering about.
THAT seems to have been the main problem with the vocal consistentcy in Columbus. Combine with those who simply lack rhythm while even sober!
Portland Timbers 215 vote(s) Seattle Sounders FC 204 vote(s) Sporting Kansas City 190 vote(s) BIG GAP Montreal Impact 71 vote(s) Real Salt Lake 71 vote(s) BIG GAP Toronto FC 22 vote(s) With the right move, TFC has a chance of joining Portland, Seattle and Kansas City in the best atmosphere in MLS club. It needs a General Admission Supporters Section when the stadium expand to 30,000.
Hey guys. Remember when tfc came into the league and everyone was all like "wow, new league standard. So european. Lets have mls cup there cuz its the best crowd in the history of the league ?" Something to keep in mind about these cascadia teams.
You mean like 6 years after 1 team came in the league, destroyed attendance records, continues to do so and 4 years after the others but they're still all selling out? Well maybe not Vancouver but they're really close. Portland hasn't not sold a game out. They're crying to add seats but can't. Cool story, bro. They aren't in the same atmosphere as Toronto. Nice analogy.
The teams have kept the fans engaged by being good. I wanna see seattle fill that stadium after three or four losing seasons in a row. Its not like seattle was pulling those kind of numbers in usl. Im not saying it will happen. Just offering a cautionary historical example of folks jumping the gun on this issue
I'd sort of like the same thing to happen. Mostly because I've grown to hate every Seattle supporter with every fiber of my being. That will be an interesting scenario when that club finally shits the bed. The reaction will be worth all the time spent paying attention.
Regarding the supporters atmosphere, Mistake #1: Section 135 and 136 is not part of the Supporters Section Potential mistake #2: The Supporters Section could be assigned seating instead of General Admission. Hopefully NYC FC learns from Philadelphia and Vancouver mistake and make the Supporters Section GA. Atmosphere is one of the more important reasons why fans continue to buy tickets.
Am I reading the seating chart right in assuming that this is only the lower tier of the stadium? So the light grey Cat 6 seats are the back of the lower deck, and the beige row is the suites above, right? $250 bucks to sit in a box seat pretty far away from the field, and $150 for a lower level seat behind the goal? If you're at the other end, the view is better because you're higher up and cost only $30.
Portland was barely watchable in Season 1, although they did get some results and make a playoff push. But we were a hard team to watch. Season 2 was downright horrific. Season 3 was good. So far this year, we're better than only Chivas in the Western Conference, and are a few late time goals from being 0W-4L-3t at home. We haven't experienced the sustained megasuckage like Toronto, but we also haven't been "good" over the course of our MLS life. As for Seattle, we'll never know what would have happened to their support had they sucked balls out of the gate, but they didn't. I think its fair to assume their success has bred enough passion and loyalty that they can weather some down years in terms of performance (if it ever comes to that). Seattle was terrible at the end of the season last year and it didn't seem to dampen enthusiasm for the start of this season.
Out of curiosity, do you see the Timbers experiencing a Toronto-esque "drop" if Porter isn't able to turn around the ship? Historically, the Timbers seem to be more resilient to extended periods of suck and I'm wondering if you think that continues now that they are in MLS? I don't think you can judge whether or not the fans stay based on what was essentially 2 months of suck. Seattle fans are notoriously finicky when it comes to supporting teams that are not playing well. If the Sounders go through an extended period of suck, I could see them dropping off.. Even worse, I think the Sounders' fans level for suck is significantly higher than your average MLS team. We've made the playoffs every year of our MLS existence and fans are calling for Sigi's head because of our poor performances in the playoffs. I'm not entirely convinced that would be the case for other teams.
MLS can't compete with top European league with quality of soccer but it can close the gap when it come to stadium atmosphere. Stadium atmosphere is the key reason why many soccer fans who follow European League exclusively start to buy MLS tickets in Seattle. They come for the soccer, they come back for the atmosphere. I would venture a guess that it is the same in Portland and Kansas City too. http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/06/02/In-Depth/Main.aspx Trail saw the impact of that stadium experience when studying season-ticket holders of the Seattle Sounders. Buyers in that first year most often bought because they felt an attachment to their city, and also because they wanted to support MLS. They typically were not avid fans of soccer in general. Those people — the aficionados who were watching matches from around the globe and reading about tactics and transfers — wanted no part of Sounders season tickets. But in the second season, Trail saw a significant shift among Sounders buyers. “Watching the Sounders the first year caused a bunch to buy the second year,” Trail said. “And these people were totally different in their behaviors. They followed the game internationally. But they didn’t see the product of the Sounders being of sufficient quality to follow the first year. After seeing it a little bit, and seeing the crowd, they became interested sufficiently to buy season tickets. They’re the ones who follow the EPL and are in the soccer bars. Now they follow the Sounders as well.” Sober Tom wrote this on another thread about Phildephia Union / assigned seating: I wouldn't go so far as to say it's guaranteed, but I would say that it's likely. When this topic came up a couple of years ago I drew a parallel to what happens at hardcore or punk shows (and probably metal shows too). At all of these shows you have a GA policy. One thing about these kinds of shows is that the middle section is ALWAYS where the action is. People who are looking for that kind of experience, the "pit" experience, know it always kicks off right there in the middle front. People who don't want that experience know this as well (assuming they're familiar with the culture), and for the most part they don't go there. It's understood by all that there's a section of the floor that's different from the rest; it's all about crowd dynamics, not what isolated individuals want to do or don't want to do. In theory at least, the same kind of logic would apply to a GA River End. Instead of running into people and dancing like savages (hardcore shows) you have singing, flag-waving, moderate levels of debauchery, etc. Since the SoB's ledge is right there in the center, the closer you are to that center the more involved you'll probably be, or at least the more positive social pressure you'll feel to be involved (this brings up the issue of some of the more zealous SoBs berating others for not participating; the fact that you feel the need to tell someone what to do is just one more argument against assigned seating). I would venture a guess that this is the case in pretty much every soccer stadium that has GA; there's a center of activity and everything radiates out from there. Likewise, people who are attracted to that kind of experience will naturally gravitate towards it. Those fans who accidentally end up in the middle, for whatever reason-and they'll be in the minority more than likely-will at least have the option of moving somewhere else. With assigned seating they are not able to move, and in fact it wouldn't even occur to them to move. That seat is their property for 90 minutes, and their ticket, with the seat and row number, is the "deed" on which they stake their claim to that property, so to speak. Sadly, there are still many MLS clubs who have an Assigned Seating General Admission.
Montreal has 2 sections set up as GA supporters section. The first is where the UM02 are, and as the above poster mentioned, there's a pit (they actually removed the seats), and then it gradually gets less intense as you radiate out. Everyone finds "their" right spot in this setup. The rest of this section is people standing, some singing, while the second section is more to grow in the coming years. As IMFC don't usually sell out, these are the last sections to fill up, so there's always room. I can't fathom a non-GA supporters section.
There would need to be a extend period of suck - a few years worth - for attendance, measure by tickets sold, to drop significantly, I think. It would need to be near Toronto-esque, given the number of season tickets sold and the size of the waitlist. If the current run of mediocre continues into next year, I could see the sell-out streak ending. I could also see it continuing indefinitely on current form, though. The Timbers aren't winning much this year, but, damn, are the home games entertaining.
Unless you have actually visited a stadium in person I think you really can't make a 100% accurate assessment of stadium atmosphere. I have watched the Quakes 3 times in Seattle and I thought the first two games had great atmosphere, but, thought the crowd this year was kind of subdued. Hey, it was a boring game, and the Quakes certainly didn't do much to liven it up. I also saw a game last year at Rio Tinto when RSL played LA. (In town on business, thought I would check it out). Anyway, I thought the atmosphere was great for that game. I believe LA (Donovan) scored first, and then RSL hit them with three unanswered goals. Watching LA lose is always a pleasure. Not sure if all games at Rio Tinto are like that, or maybe they were just up because it was LA. As far as Buck Shaw goes, the Ultras are always going full tilt, but, the rest of the crowd may or may not be that involved. I guess it depends on the circumstances of the game, and that is probably true for most of the league. Also saw a game at Civic Stadium n Portland....1982. Sounders thrashed the Timbers behind a Peter Ward hat-trick. Oh...the memories.
Even then be careful. I was at a Sunday afternoon game in Portland and it was really boring, atmosphere wise. I certainly wouldn't consider that a good barometer for Portland though.