Your Thoughts On The Supporter Groups

What are your thoughts of our current supporters groups?

Should there be another one? And if so, what would you like to see from them?

Both existing groups are fine but we need something to rival the Legion1908, Im an admirer of what DC screaming eagles have done over the years, latin feel to their supporters group, but they mix it up with english and spanish chants, Flags banners smoke bombs. Maybe im more into that because im hispanic. But we need something like that. This is LA, the Supporters group should have a representation of what the city is like its people. Hell throw in the korean chants. In the end i just want to see something that supports the G's and gets them pumped up to play and to rival the Legion because i hate everything chivas with a passion.

hell yeah, throw in some korean chants.

I agree 100%. I think it has to start with the FO setting up the opposite end of where the Legion are at and make that the official supporters section every game. They have to have Green and Gold banners going up and down the rows with bags of confetti in each seat. Drums in the front row and flags scattered around the section. Smoke bombs should be allowed in this area and fans must stand up the entire game. There should be 2 leaders who are willing to teach and pressure the fans to sing along and jump the whole game.


It worked on me at the America vs Chivas game, I sat by the Monumental and the leaders just stare at every single person and tell you to jump and so what. When everyone else is doing it you feel stupid if your not so I went on and jumped up and down the whole game.

I think the Galaxians would be a better fit for this idea since they sing and jump up and down the whole game and look pretty crazy while they're doing it but they don't tend to cuss much so we'll have to work around that. I can't see LARS jumping up and down and singing(not chanting) the whole game but I can see them cussing the shit out of the ref alot too. Both of these groups have potential but I think we need a group that meets LARS Bad mouthing with Galaxians drumming and jumping up and down together for an entire game. No offense to either groups but I'm just talking from my expierences.

I’ll answer your first question… (then get to your second question later...)

They both mean well… and show passion… but other than seeing LARS scattered about 138 with drink in hand and the GALAXIANS jumping up and down… All we ever really hear in our section is the drums from the Galaxians.

How many people are actually associated with either group? I’d venture to say about 100 people total. Is there a member list? A website? Newbie information? A Board, a Director, a centralized list of songs or chants? A willingness or desire to actively bring other people into the group? To listen to outside suggestions? To engage other sections, including the sidelines, to learn and join in song? Organization? I’d Say doubtful on all questions.

Quite frankly, I like LARS. It has the best potential, is fun to watch, read about and have a few beers with… but so is the proverbial drunk uncle.

But you take him for what he is. Because after a while, you realize there is nothing there, he’s afraid to branch out for fear of losing what’s his own safe little corner of the world, it’s the same old stale stuff, no growth potential, he’s not inviting to others, won't reach out to others, he’s disorganized, won’t hear of organization… and without organization… has effectively cut off suggestions for improvement from anyone that hasn’t spread around “Reputation.”

If you read the “Curios about your Supporters Groups” thread, you can see that LARS is proud of their anarchy and decentralization… or “Organic” nature… but that doesn’t lend itself to growth or outreach. “Stopper” even explained how they operate and listed a song that he is working on. Both are probably going nowhere… because that’s not how you grow an organization. To be honest, the DC Model is the best. There is give and take, organization, leadership, outreach from each group and a central contact person for newbies or the curious to reach out to. My experience with LARS is that it’s very much a Click. Fun to have a few beers with… but still not very inviting.

So yes, there needs to be better supporters group… or at least some sort of leadership that comes out of the two that we have.

But I think that here in LA… especially for the “Corporate” image that the Galaxy has consciously developed over the years, it will have to be something that is non-traditional or at least somehow involves the season ticket holding sideline sitters to join in song.

If we're a clique, why did I see so many new people there when I showed up last Sunday?

LARS was nearly destroyed by the move to the HDC in 2003 and then by the FO in 2004. That's right... we were being shut down by the FO and our numbers dissipated.

Then came along Tim Martin from the FO who took up our cause and last season was a renaissance year for us. We are still adding new members every game and have actively worked to get the sections next to us involved (we passed out small sheets with lyrics last game).

In a few days, www.lariotsquad.com will go active and you can see that the Riot Squad boards are truly more active than even the official Galaxy BS boards.

Everyone is invited to the tailgate, everyone is invited to Section 138, and everyone in invited to the boards.

One rule: don't be a dick.

Tommy Mack

Oh, and here's a good idea of our numbers when motivated:

www.tommymack.com/larsguzan.mov

Enjoy!

tm

I wanna know what's up with the clique that's hanging up in the concourse of 138 during the course of the match. What gives?

Last year when we went to the MLS cup my girlfriend and I decided to make the treck out to frisco. I got tickets thru the FC Dallas FO and said I wanted to sit "stand" with LARS. From reading the message boards I knew where people were meeting before the game and drove up to see a group of LARS folks hanging out a drinking. I have never met any one from LARS but as soon as we came out of the car Tommy Mack spotted us and invited us right in. He took us around and introduced us to all the people that were there and offered us a beer. If you say that LARS is a click then you need to be a little more out going. I do not Stand with LARS at games cause I have tickets in 231 and like to watch the Games from there (best view of the action in my opinion) but I sing along with them during the games cause I can hear them loud and clear up there.

Yup. My exact feelings.

I'm a LARS Supporter, but it's hard to dismiss the fact that our numbers are cut in HALF when everyone goes for a beer. 138 looks completely empty.

LARS at its best - end of our last Dallas game - the three sections around us were following our simple Galaxy-centered chants, flags were waving, etc.

LARS at its worst - 2/3 empty 138 cuz everyone is smoking, and we're doing "Riot Squad, We Are Here" for no particular reason.



I'm cool with the Galaxians (whereas a lot of LARS-folk aren't), however, I don't get them, and I don't want to be a part of them. I have a weird phobia of fake afros.

In order to keep this thread positive, and in response to Manwich's question, I'd love to see a new supporters group. It needs to be -

1) BIG - constant outreach to generate a core of interest. We can't let Legion embarass us in our own home.

2) Organized - there needs to be a serious attempt at organization. People need to feel part of SOMETHING. Otherwise, they'll come and go as they please. Plus chants are cooler when they're organized. That's why Korean fans rock.

3) Energized - see my remarks about the smoke breaks

4) Galaxy-Centered - it's a supporters group, not a social club

You are Correct,... my experience as well. TommyMack is LARS' most hospitable member, chant leader, etc... but beyond and/or without TommyMack...

... and just to be clear, LARS is fun to tailgate around.

Okay, we get it. Crazy Eights pities us for not being what he had in mind and we would be elitist shits without Tommy Mack around.

I hope everyone that reads these boards that doesn't know either the Galaxians or the Riot Squad, but likes what they see, comes over, introduces themselves, and just tries to have a little fun at a soccer game with like-minded people. Its easy to blast away when you aren't trying to be a part of something and contribute.

Stand and sing.

Touchy. Its a wonder you don't have more people breaking down the door to stand in 138 if this is how LARS deals with outside observation.

The topic is Thoughts on The LA Supporter Groups... my thoughts are LARS is great... and is what it is... but could be much greater.

Back in the Good 'ol days when the Galaxy played at the Rose Bowl and the Galaxy site ran it's own message board. Several people posting on those boards voiced a desire to have a section of the Rose Bowl where they could have some fun, chant and show support for the team away from the soccer moms. This section was to be just that. Nothing more. Anyone could get a ticket in that section with the understanding that you didn't want to sit, seating was General Admission and there would be people around who would be chanting and making noise. No membership, no leaders, nothing but an area where fans could gather and support the team in a more traditionally non-American way.

Over time that ideal changed. The Front Office wanted the section to have a name. Names like the Space Cadets were suggested by the Front Office. Because there needed to be a name and dealings with the Front Office in order to keep things going. Eventually the Riot Squad name was settled on. Over the last 5+ years, things have evolved into what it is today. But what's funny is that the kind of things you are looking for in this new group is more or less what LARS was trying to create several years ago.

Yeah, LARS has become cliquish over the years. That's because there are a number of people who stand in sec 138 every match. Over time you get to know those people. Those who stand there can be as involved as they want. There's no leader organizing the chants because anyone has the ability to start something.

If anything is going to create an atmosphere at the HDC like RFK has, the fans who want to support the team in that way need to be in the same area regardless of what group they are or aren't in. If you have two, three, five different groups all doing different things, you aren't going to accomplish anything.

i have a hard time imagining, getting LARs to join the same chant as some other supporters group. But hey i could be wrong. youd probably get the !WHO ARE YA! Chant thrown at you like a bunch of hispanic dudes got at the last game i went to. I they were to the left of LARS and started singing for the galaxy in Spanish. They were a group of five or six sitting at the back of GA section. then I see this blond dude get up point at them and start chanting, Who are ya! So would a new supporters group get that kind of treatment? just curious

The best of both LARS and Galaxians that I've ever been in/seen was the final last year in Frisco. It was sort of combined, it was loud, and was fun as hell. That is what I'll remember as the best time I've ever spent in either LARS or the Galaxians.

That's the problem with LARS, they come across as the "our way or the highway type." If I was able to make it consistently to each game, I'd start a rowdy ass supporters group and I mean rowdy. I've sat with the REAL Legion, the Monumental of Club America, and other latin america supporters. They are very organized people and they have bags full of confetti that they hand out to everyone in the section, Smoke bombs for everyone, flags for every other person or so, balloons and pretty much anything u can think of. We need a supporters section like this.

I think they should set apart a section with all these props and have it open to anyone who wants to join in each game. I think it would really help if you can get the PA to announce during a game that there is a supporters section and anyone who wants to join can feel free to come into the section to support the G's. It would make people feel way more comfortable when they approach the section and they will feel more welcome.

I hope for a day when there will be large supporters clubs or chapters in other states so that when LA is on the road to say DC, we'll be sure that LA is represented by folks going from Maryland and Virginia.

Maybe start with regions first. LA Galaxy Southwest could include Vegas and Phoenix, Tuscon. We can all get together to travel to LA or Salt Lake to catch a game or something.

Well no wonder you've got such a small................group


Tommy has always been super friendly, even to an old fart like me. At the Rose Bowl, Ozzie never failed to say hello and make Mrs. Cadaver and me welcome. Actually, everyone I've encountered in LARS and Galaxians brings feeling to the games and seem happy to have others join them. I stood with LARS a couple of times at the Rose Bowl, and with Galaxians in Santa Barbara a couple of years ago. Everybody ought to try it and see what its like, at least once or twice.

Curious about the entire history of LARS. I tried wikipedia, and just wondering if anybody who has been there since the beginning could make an entry to wikipedia, it would help out some of the other people on here who dont know who LARS is.

tommy mac is gonna get the new site open in a couple of days so maybe you can get the info u need there

I think everyone gets it. LARS needs to be just like (enter South American team here) supporters. We have to have smoke bombs and crap that's illegal, because afterall, that's what makes you a supporter!

Guess what, lighting a smokebomb is oneway ticket to a night in jail in LA. Forget that kind of crap. It's not necessary.

Yes, there are cliques in the Riot Squad. But like somebody else stated, some people have been around for 3 or 4 years and are like family now. It's bound to happen. I have been a part time supporter with LARS since the RB. I make maybe 4 or 5 games a year max. Yet, I get tickets and walk right down into 138, find a spot and join in. Who cares if you're not part of the Buenavista Social Club? I know a few of the people in LARS well enough to say hi but most have no idea who I am. Nobody has ever given me a dirty look, nobody has every asked me to leave. Just join in, stand and sing, it's not that hard. And I am shy to boot.

To those who were standing a few sections away and started singing but got the Who Are YA, why not just sing along with LARS a bit and then start something again? Or find Tommy Mack, he's hard to miss, and let him know your intentions. If anyone can get LARS' collective attention, Tommy is the guy.