Oh hell yeah, we definately should do that, only time I have marched into a stadium was when we came down to Meadowlands in May, I loved it, its intimidating IMO
Sorry. It's the Rose & Thistle on Chambers Road, West of Downtown. The owner is an ex-Brit footballer. The beer selection varies but IMO is always pretty good, and it doesn't have the Yuppie flavor of, say, the Elevator or Barleys' or some of the others mentioned, which are usually filled with obnoxious investment bankers trying to impress each other, and their trophy wives. Bleech. And you'd have to beat me unconscious to get me into a Fados: "Hey, here's a corporate-chain-suburaban version of what Ireland would be like if Ireland was located at Disneyland and everyone was gay". No thanks. Just my opinion.
I have a question regarding banners, signs, flags, etc... Will US supporters have a chance to come in early to hang up our banners and such? I know this has been done in the past. I know if there isn't, I'm heading in the stadium the second they open the gates to hang my stuff up. I was the only US fan who did that at the England match along with about 1,000 English supporters. I expect us to outnumber the Mexican supporters, but I encourage people to not only bring banners and flags, but bring them in as soon as possible. At almost every national team match I've been to, the opposing team's fans get in there early and put their flags up. I saw a number of fans at the England match who simply had no place to put their flag. Now I know we all love our tailgating time so it would be great if the us soccer channels could be worked in a way to allow those in the Sam's Army section to get in early and set up shop....and then enjoy the tailgate later.
FYI, Bill, everyone in Ireland IS gay! Why else would they dress like leprechauns and run after "rainbows" looking for "pots of gold?"
USAClash - that is a good question. Hopefully fid has an answer or you might have to contact the Crew Stadium management.
There will be a select group going in early to set things up. That's a question for buckeye5 (Andrew) who is going to be out in Hartford this week so he won't be around BS that much. I am sure when he gets a chance he can answer the question for you.
Very good point. I recall seeing many pro-Mexico banners at CCS during the '01 WCQ vs. Mexico. It made it seem as if there were more Mexicans than were actually there. Hopefully we can beat them to the punch and take most, or all, of the hanging banner space.
Banners/Flags... Here's the deal. I will be leading a group of 16-20 people in to setup up our card stunt/choreo, to bring in large flags, and hang banners about 5 hours before the gates open and 2.5 hours before the parking lot opens. Unfortunately, because of tightened security, this number is capped and restricted. Most of the 16 to 20 people are already accounted for, but you can PM me if you're interested. I may need a few more folks as I have not yet confirmed ever one and will not be doing so until I get back from Hartford. I tried to get some people on the list from different cities/supporters groups; we should have people, at least, so far, from DC, NY, NE, KC, Philly/SJ, and obviously Columbus. We will have a few options to get your banner up. (1) Give the banner to me (or someone on the setup list from your city/club, assuming that individual is willing) in Columbus at O'Shaughnessy's on Friday night or some other prearrainged time. Some folks are already doing this and have setup to give me there banner on Friday at O'S. (2) An idea that I have and will look into is that we set up a mailing address at Crew Stadium that will go to me, c/o Crew game management. Then we could simply pick these up from Crew. If there is interest in this option, please express it here. (3) Give it to me in Hartford. This is my least preferred option, simply because I don't want to have responsibility for two to three weeks. Also, my car may get a little full. However, I'd certainly be willing to do this if you're getting into Columbus late. Any other ideas, suggestions, comments? Please e-mail me (brown_2253@yahoo.com), as my PM box will probably not have enough space. As Rich said, I will be travelling the next few days from tonight through Thursday for Metros-Crew and then US - T&T. So please be patient if I don't get back immediately about match/section questions. I should get on here and check e-mail at least once a day. ab
So does all of this mean that we can't bring the banner in whenever we decide to go into the stadium on game day and try to put it up wherever we can?
I wasn't planning on making signs, but if this option can be arranged I would be more than happy to make a few to dress up the stadium
I don't think the above means this at all: if you want to bring in your own banner, hang it where you want, and be responsible for it, you can bring it in when you want.
You can bring them in if you'd like at 6pm. The above alternative are if you are interested in getting banners/flags/etcetera in before the gates open.
At the Gold Cup Final in the swamp, the Panama fans simply draped their banners over some of ours. Which brings me to a point... we should not only get into the stadium early (as is planned) to hang our banners, but we should also drape one or two over any unattended Mexico banners. Operation Evil Banner Cover-up!
And it may sounds stupid, but put the majority of the flags, banners, etc on the north and east sides of the stadium.
You know, I never realized just how damn big a 7 foot by 11 foot banner/flag would be is until I picked up the cloth for it last night. When sewing on grommets, should I put them all up top or would it be better to sew a handful of them all around the edges?
Not stupid at all, considering that the benches are against the west side of the field and the east/north sides will get the most coverage on TV (press box is west side as well).
Thanks for all the info Buckeye. It's great to see that something is set up to get US stuff in there early. I still encourage people to enter the stadium relatively early. We want every possible square inch to be covered in red, white, and blue, and believe me, the Mexicans will be trying to do the same with their ugly tricolors.
Put them on the top and a couple on the sides. I don't have the exact measurements, but i'm estimating that the wall is about 2-3 feet of concrete, with another 2-3 feet of railing on top.
Columbus US Supporters section card display details: http://sams-army.com/index.php?Mlist=content_full&Article_id=217