I was at the game in Philly yesterday, and was the guy that tried to stop the security from taking the La Norte USA banner, but to no avail. Were you guys able to get it back? I hope so. If not, I'm sorry I couldn't do more to keep it in the stands. I thought it completely unfair that they let the Panamanians tie a huge flag for the entire game but wouldn't let your banner stay 2 minutes before ripping it down.
That's too bad. They weren't real friendly when it came to that. We got the whole section pointing at the Panamanian flag and telling them to take that down as well, but they didn't budge.
This one: They wouldn't say why it couldn't stay, they just ripped it down. I kept pleading with it to let it stay or to let me take it back, but they just took it before I could get the two guys down to the front row who put it up.
Oh, for heaven's sakes. Doug, are you out there? Who went? What did security say to explain this, and what did they say when you tried to get it back?
They didn't say a word...even when we were asking them to just let us have it back, they just ripped it down, crumpled it up and took it away.
The Linc has a strict no banner policy and we posted that in our prematch thread hoping to avoid this. I will call the Eagles and ask if they have it, but that's all I can offer.
Thank you, Jeffrey Lurie. Thank you for not allowing the American flag to be displayed during the Army-Navy game. Thank you for cracking down on free-born Americans while Honduran and Panamanian fans get the run of the place with giganting banners. And I'll thank USSF for de-listing The Eagles Stadium from all possible consideration for soccer friendlies involving MY COUNTRY. And the Eagles suck, too.
I contacted the press guy from US Soccer, who told me that the Eagles have the banner, and they're willing to ship it to its rightful owner. In fact, here's the message he sent back to me: If someone can PM me an address, I'll send it to him and he'll contact the Eagles organization.
They didn't take the HUGE Panamanian flag that was about 2 sections away from the La Norte banner...that was hanging all game long.
I couldn't go because I was out of town but a handful of members decided after US/HN game they were going to go but I guess they didn't have time to check (here or anywhere) on the no-banner policy... They didn't have a reason to I guess, I mean, this is the first city where banners are an issue correct? But in any event, they had no clue... but still, you can tell someone easily 'take it down or we'll take it down' as oppose to just ripping it off... I mean it has the USA colors on it, how could they just tear it up like that? (shakes head) From what I found out (country) flags are OK, banners are not no matter how obvious they are on what they represent... But thanks a lot Mike for helpings out and to anyone else who tried to prevent this from happen or is helping us get it back. Luis who was leading the group that went to the game will get a hold of you with the shipping details.
Good point. The JEFFREY LURIE-OWNED, TAXPAYER-FUNDED CORPORATE ENTITY WHICH OCCASIONALLY MASQUERADES AS A GRID-BALL TEAM KNOWN AS Eagles suck.
I forwarded Luis' address on to the US Soccer press officer. He'll pass it on to the Philadelphia Eagles. I hope it gets returned to you guys.
Yet they're going to send the banner back. If you really have nothing to contribute to this thread but bitching and whining, please STFU so the people who are actually trying to resolve the issue can act like adults.
Well from what 'eye-witnesses' are saying including some of our members, they actually tore it... So I guess we'll see how badly damaged it is once we get it back... I doubt we can't hit'em up for them to fix it though.
Luis sent me an e-mail with his snail mail address, and I forwarded it on to my contact at US Soccer, who responded with this: Hopefully the banner wasn't damaged, and Luis will receive it relatively quickly.
We got it back guys, and according to Luis after a few patches here and there it will be good to go for the US game vs. Costa Rica in October.