The New Generation of MLS Fans?

[purpleronnie]

There is a noticible difference in the fans that watch games in the US than other footballing nations.

I believe this is due to tradition of 100+ years of having a club, a club you are raised supporting.

Not only this but from childhood songs from the stands are ingrained not in your head but your heart and when those songs are sung it 's not to generate an atmosphere is just sung becasue its in you and needs to be expressed.

I watch a lot of MLS and hear the fans but its different, a lot different to what I'm used to hearing. Is it worse?...no....how can it be judged that way when the MLS is only 10 years old, soccer is not the main sport and the culture is different.

Its the culture that needs to change and only time can do this. Having been to a baseball and a NFL game its much more entertainment than anything else yes you might love your club but forget the face paint, the drum, the music at half time, the food in the parking lot, the franchise, the replica shirt, the cheerleaders, the large coke, the go team chant, the moving your team to another state, its being raised in the stands in the rain singing your heart out not becasue you want to make a noise but becasue it means everything to you its not fake its real and you mean every word. I haven't seen that in the US and I may never but my children might.

Do you think they'll be a time when the US culture towards sport changes?, to be honest I can't explain the difference between the US and other countries but there is one and all I can think of its down to soccer being the biggest sport in that particlar country and the tradition of the club over 100 years thats created it.

Do you know what I mean?

[tambo]

If the New Generation of Fans™ is like the crowd in this remarkable video (http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/special/07/templates/listpop.html?mcVideo=1299109762) from last night, I think we'll be just fine...

[jade1mls]

There is a noticible difference in the fans that watch games in the US than other footballing nations.

I believe this is due to tradition of 100+ years of having a club, a club you are raised supporting.

Not only this but from childhood songs from the stands are ingrained not in your head but your heart and when those songs are sung it 's not to generate an atmosphere is just sung becasue its in you and needs to be expressed.

I watch a lot of MLS and hear the fans but its different, a lot different to what I'm used to hearing. Is it worse?...no....how can it be judged that way when the MLS is only 10 years old, soccer is not the main sport and the culture is different.

Its the culture that needs to change and only time can do this. Having been to a baseball and a NFL game its much more entertainment than anything else yes you might love your club but forget the face paint, the drum, the music at half time, the food in the parking lot, the franchise, the replica shirt, the cheerleaders, the large coke, the go team chant, the moving your team to another state, its being raised in the stands in the rain singing your heart out not becasue you want to make a noise but becasue it means everything to you its not fake its real and you mean every word. I haven't seen that in the US and I may never but my children might.

Do you think they'll be a time when the US culture towards sport changes?, to be honest I can't explain the difference between the US and other countries but there is one and all I can think of its down to soccer being the biggest sport in that particlar country and the tradition of the club over 100 years thats created it.

Do you know what I mean?

Yeh, kinda...and there IS a new generation of MLS fans. they're the fans who grew up with the league when parents or older siblings took them to games 12 years ago.

I think it might be time for a 2007 version of this video...

lJ9_y01l9gY


This is also pretty good compilation.
cP0kgWqmlwI

[Roehl Sybing]

There is a noticible difference in the fans that watch games in the US than other footballing nations.

I believe this is due to tradition of 100+ years of having a club, a club you are raised supporting.

Not only this but from childhood songs from the stands are ingrained not in your head but your heart and when those songs are sung it 's not to generate an atmosphere is just sung becasue its in you and needs to be expressed.
Whole bunch of fluff that sounds nice and is good for promotional material, but doesn't really mean anything in the end.

Another sign that the rest of the world will never accept American soccer. If this is their best argument, I'm really not impressed, but it seems to boost their confidence, so the mysticization of the sport isn't going to go away.

[BVgolski07]

that houston video is great. did they get this kind of attendence boost during the playoffs last year? becuz if these 30,000 crowds could carry into next year's regular season games it'd be an amazing test for any team going in there. I would consider myself amongs the new generation of fans seeing as this was the first year i really paid attention to this league. I would say there's still a lot of kids my age write the league off as crap though. I know i'll be able to teach my kids about soccer much better than my dad (who had never played the game) was able to, and i think that will be common across the nation as there's millions of kids playing right now.

[bbsbt]

Plus the fact that the MLS fandom is aligning itself closer with the South American model than the European and/or English model.

[jade1mls]

Plus the fact that the MLS fandom is aligning itself closer with the South American model than the European and/or English model.

Right. It never ceases to amaze me when sometimes ignorant people from the UK (usually England) say, "but what's with your support? why isn't it like over here". At this point I usually want to put a map or a globe in front of them show them the big Atlantic Ocean and our proximity to South America.

[BBBulldog]

I think it might be time for a 2007 version of this video...


if you use Barra pics for other groups again I'll come to Seattle and kill you :D

[purpleronnie]

Have to say thats the kind of video that proved my point. I guess its just different and maybe that's all it is, I'm probably reading to much into it. All I saw from that video was a load of mexican american fans, songs weren't really being sung, then you get some white guy saying the team is awesome???? Thats the sort of thing that the european fans see and laugh at.

The other ones are compilations of fans with flags etc...That dosen't mean anything, anyone can buy a flag, I'm talking about something that you grow up with, songs you learn from childhood on school playing fields, then sing with all your soul at games and I'm not just talking about some big club I mean fans travelling 100+ miles to see their crappy little team lose on a wet wednesday night in front of 1 man and his dog.

Its not atmosphere I'm trying (rather poorly) to express I'm not knocking the US at all I like the MLS, its just I think it will take a long time and many generations to have a culture of soccer, I guess thats not a particually unique idea but people have posted so many threads about the fans of MLS and I think its great for a new league but its lacking not in noise but in football culture which stems from history and tradition and more importantly a lack of 'americanisation' that comes with sports in the US, unfortunately in england we are getting more and more like that but what we have what can never be taken away is a nation that invented the modern game and the fan culture that has spread throughout the world and that can never be replaced.

I believe things are only going to get worse more money means more 'entertainment' and that strips the soul away and america more used to it becasue its been that way for longer than any other nation and I think thats why the US sports have the reputation they do because it is so different to the rest of the world.

But I do believe even if this corporate entertainment of sports continues, with time, as generation upon generation of american soccer fans grow up, that tradition, the songs, the history will change the way american people view sports.

I'm not critising the MLS its 10 years old I think you guys do great and I know what your striving for, I just feel as i stated before the whole culture of the way americans view sport has to change especially as far as soccer goes as that sport alone has more history and fantadition that any other. This will come in time. Keep it up, but please teach the traditions and history of game and get away from all this other crap that you and now us have to put up with.

[dsp87260]

Plus the fact that the MLS fandom is aligning itself closer with the South American model than the European and/or English model.

Right. It never ceases to amaze me when sometimes ignorant people from the UK (usually England) say, "but what's with your support? why isn't it like over here". At this point I usually want to put a map or a globe in front of them show them the big Atlantic Ocean and our proximity to South America.

Just thought I'd quote these because purpleronnie seems to have missed them the first time...

purpleronnie, do you ask these sort of questions to and about the Mexican fans? the Argentinian fans? the Brazilian fans? [not trying to say we're equal with them as far as "soccer culture," but the posts I quoted are right...aside from the style of play on the field at times, our soccer culture is closer to Latin American than European...in great part due to the immigrant population, ie demographics]

[DoctorD]

If ticket prices in Europe continue their current trends, future European fans will act like today's MLS fans.

Once more, the US is the trendsetter.

[ossieend]

The thing is MLS is only twelve years old, but soccer in the US is almost as old as it is over here. The way some though not all people behave in their support of their teams has evolved differently than it has in England, but the same could be said of almost any country in the world.
The word evolve that I used is quite important here because support all over the world is constantly evolving. Who know's how it'll be in England in twenty years? It's certainly different now than it was twenty or thirty years ago. All seater stadia, more women, more and larger ethnic groups, very little fighting in the stadium, more middle and less working class support etc. There are many differences. Hey, you remember the inflatable bananas and stuff from a few years ago? That came and went.

[jade1mls]

if you use Barra pics for other groups again I'll come to Seattle and kill you :D


:) Don't worry. I won't make that mistake again. :p

[bunge]

Thats the sort of thing that the european fans see and laugh at.

Move MLS.

On a lighter note, I have the songs we sing in Chicago in my heart. I sing them to myself almost every day. To suggest otherwise is incorrect. To suggest a bad marketing piece represents support is ignorant.

Then again, when I see a video of people singing You'll Never Walk Alone and some stupid git is in the center of the pitch with a microphone singing it, or when you can hear it coming in over the PA helping the crowd, I probably feel the same way you do about MLS.

[Roehl Sybing]

Thats the sort of thing that the european fans see and laugh at.
Let me see if I can get you to answer this: if we Americans told you that we were looking at and laughing at something Europeans did, would you care?

[Orange1836]

Move MLS.

On a lighter note, I have the songs we sing in Chicago in my heart. I sing them to myself almost every day. To suggest otherwise is incorrect. To suggest a bad marketing piece represents support is ignorant.

agreed. i am constantly singing "que naranja sale campeon", "yo si le voy, le voy al naranja", and "queremos la copa"

annoys my friends to no end.

[ritsoccer86]

Hopefully in ten or fifteen years, MLS will be doing well.

What kills MLS's buzz and what doesn't?

[BBBulldog]

Have to say thats the kind of video that proved my point. I guess its just different and maybe that's all it is, I'm probably reading to much into it. All I saw from that video was a load of mexican american fans, songs weren't really being sung, then you get some white guy saying the team is awesome???? Thats the sort of thing that the european fans see and laugh at.


Dude, I'm gonna say this again. Where the ******** do you find these enormous balls of yours to refer to UK as Europe? Do you realize that what you do on the island of the coast is very different to what rest of Europe does and what rest of Europe does is much closer to Latin America than England?

this is rest of Europe..
http://www.ultrastito.it/foto/genoa_samp_89_90_2.jpg

Welcome to 2007.

[TheScarfMachine]

Dude, I'm gonna say this again. Where the ******** do you find these enormous balls of yours to refer to UK as Europe? Do you realize that what you do on the island of the coast is very different to what rest of Europe does and what rest of Europe does is much closer to Latin America than England?

this is rest of Europe..
http://www.ultrastito.it/foto/genoa_samp_89_90_2.jpg

Welcome to 2007.

This is funny, because most people in the UK don't want the UK to be "Europe". Except this guy, of course... He thinks the UK IS Europe

[nymetrobulls]

Yeh, kinda...and there IS a new generation of MLS fans. they're the fans who grew up with the league when parents or older siblings took them to games 12 years ago.

I think it might be time for a 2007 version of this video...

lJ9_y01l9gY


This is also pretty good compilation.
cP0kgWqmlwI

Exactly. I would consider myself a new generation fan. I grew up withe the league and have been going to games since the league started, when I was about 3 or 4 years old. I have a passion for my club that I will pass on to my kids. That is how people's love for their clubs started all over the world.