http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/27/AR2007062702397.html Looks like the Nationals will do anything to get people in the stadium.
Re: When is DC United's Faith Night? I read this story this morning and wondered what I would do if DC United ever tried this crap. More than likely, I'd just skip the one game and come back afterwords. FWIW, Alexi Lalas did this last year with his previous SuperClub. Then again, being a fan of that team probably requires a certain degree of "faith."
Re: When is DC United's Faith Night? Tell me you are joking. The Nationals averaged 27,000 or so last season. They are averaging 23,000 or so this year. This is for a terrible team in an old stadium over an 81 game schedule. And if the Faith group told United they would have 5000 people at any game not scheduled for August 9th this year then the front office would be doing handsprings. Because people who go to church probably have worse cooties than 4th grade girls.
Re: When is DC United's Faith Night? I'm not joking. I can see the team doing this. And I would not attend the game.
Re: When is DC United's Faith Night? Don't Houston have some sort of a relationship with a local Baptist community? I'm going to edit this thread title (since this is more about speculation than fact), and I want warn everyone in advance that I'll be moderating this thread with an iron fist - or it gets closed.
Re: When is DC United's Faith Night? So do you base your attendance at every game on what groups have purchased blocks of tickets? Does the front office forward you a list of the different church, scouting, school, ... groups coming to each game??
Re: When is DC United's Faith Night? I shouldn't waste my time responding to this, but my feelings have nothing to do with who is attending--as if there aren't thousands of regular church-goers at EVERY DCU game. I think it's wrong to bring proselytizing into the stadium; I think it's wrong to tie the teams' identity to a sectarian agenda. And, yes, I'm a staunch secularist--I want non-religious institutions to stay that way. You want "Faith Night"? Have a party at church. And I do mean church--this group is explicitly Christian.
That's where my curiosity/concern arises - what makes one night a "Faith Night" over any other night? And what are they planning on doing during breaks in play/halftime? I don't think churches need a specific night named for them simply to pull together an outing to RFK. Though outreach to local church communities to encourage them to have such outings isn't a bad thing, imo.
I don't know if you read the Post article but from my understanding of the article it might feature a Christian band performing at the end and some other stuff. However, as long as they are not handing out prayer cards or blasting Biblical passages over the PA I have no big deal with it - and I am about as non-religious as they come (damn four years at a Catholic high school plus four at a Jesuit college).
There's nothing wrong with outreach. They could even announce that members of such-and-such Church are in da house. Churches are social institutions, after all. Have you read the article yet?
Skimmed it before I posted, but read it now. Damn youse. I agree with your earlier post - this shouldn't be named "Faith Night", it should be named "Christian Night". Unless you plan on opening up the after-game events to the local synagogues and mosques. I would hope that MLS would have the strict guidelines in place that MLB does with regards to who is there in the after-game activities. I didn't know about that FOTF bit until I read this article. Interesting.
True its not a bad thing, per se. Its troubling that equal time/invitation is not giving to all Faiths. Many agree that you can have Faith and not believe that some dude who was nailed to a cross was/is the son of god. Lastly is August 9th considered a Faith night? Only if Tom "Xenu-lover" Cruise is in atendance.
Not to detract from the good conversation going on here, but I have to say that title is awesome. Peanuts, crackerjacks and Jesus - priceless. Also, if we have a 'faith night' at RFK - can the Barra still do the Diablo chant? Or would that be in poor taste?
It would only be in poor taste because the Barra is only recognizing one faith. Now if they also did chants about Buddha, YHWH,Christ, Zoraster, Mohammed and Shiva it would cease to be in bad taste. Equal time for all faiths is what I say...
I have a problem with this because as others have pointed out, it isn't a true "Faith Night" it is Christian Night. It is a way of implying those that aren't Christians lack Faith. Also, Christian bands are an abomination before God when judged on pure musical grounds. Now if it was a true Faith night, with lets say discounted tickets sold to groups from places of worship (Christians to Odonists and everything in between) I'll be fine with that. It'd be like Youth Soccer Night, but a little different crowd.
And the Barra has a baptismal ritual after every goal. Blondie, I'm thinking this is what saves us when chant Diablo.
I believe in United. When I'm attending a game I can show my faith that we will play hard and usually pretty well. We have plenty of bands to celebrate the team, with members of many different religious traditions. We have our own Reverend Ben. We've had the devil (El Diablo). Still, last time I heard, DCU had a good record of reaching out to the entire community, attracting a wide variety of people -- from the sticks to the burbs to the city, from different countries and language communities, from all kinds of backgrounds. Seems to me that the FO should continue to highlight and celebrate the one tradition we all share -- the tradition of kicking the asses of the other teams in MLS
Hmmmm and here all this time I thought we were just choosing to embrace the dark side. Wow, well, I've got to make some adjustments to my DCU shrine.
5000 chuchgoers who all know how to sing for 90 minutes without a break - a few hunded easily offended folks --------------------------------------- Net gain for United
Dunno, man. I'm about as non-religious as they come; but Faure's Requiem is one of the greatest pieces of music any human has ever conceived. Oh, you mean contemporary Christian music . . .yeah, I'm with you there.
It should be noted that, the Washington Nationals also hold nights that are also very diametrically opposed to christianity. Im not saying that I want United, or any other non secular institutiont to rush out and sponsor christain groups, however, in all fairness, I dont see a problem with it. The night I am referring to above, is called "Night OUT with the Nationals" In other words, its "GAY NIGHT". This has been going on in baseball for quite a few years now. The Nationals draw in the official block of tickets purchased by Team DC ( Washington DC's gay sports umbrella organisation... Yes I know, *GHASP* gays play SPORTS? Whew knew? ) around 1,500 - 2,000 gay fans to those nights. However, Unofficially (in other words those that know about the "night" but dont wish to purchase tickets in the selcted block behind home plate) do attend as well, and in large numbers, so in actuality, there are 4 to 5,000 gay fans in attendance on those particular nights. My point in bringing this up is, that if its OK for them to do outreach to Gays / Blacks / Hispanic, then I dont see any real issue with allowing a night for christians, as long as they dont turn it into a circus. Granted, christianity/ religion in general is a bit different than a minority race that has in the past been treated unfairly. The bottom line is thier money spends, just as easily as gay money ( of which there is ALOT as gays have the highest disposible incomes), or black money, or hispanic money, or republican or democrat money (you get the idea here) and they want to spend that money on United, thats fine with me. More money for my club. Howver, in all fairness, I would feel the need to put pressure on United to follow in the Nationals footsteps as far as community outreach goes, and host a "night OUT with United". I actually think it would be a resounding success for United. The gay soccer teams here in the D.C. Metro would likely all attend, as well as men and women from all other sports venues in the gay community. I know for a fact there are about 15-20 of us that I know who regularly attend matches. ( Ive missed just a couple in the last 4 seasons) And there are times when groups of 20+ (outside of us regulars) who also attend. There are at least 6 gay, paid members of Barra Brava, and we usually bring others with us to matches, and I know that number is about to increase, as I think I have manged now to bring in what will be my third Barra Membership, besides myself. Which will make 7 of is paid members that I know of. Anyway, my point is, if you are going to do it for one particular group, then I dont see the harm in trying to be as diverse as possible, and attempting to maximise your profits in the process. Im not particularly offended by the presence of people who hate the very being I am and consider me to be sub human, and there are ways of reaching out to all, without being offecive to others. Just my .02