Sanctions. Why do we even care? It just means having to lug less crap to games, coordinate it, and keep an eye on it. At the end of the day, drums, flags, banners etc. are all ancillary. The voice is where the soul is. We'll just have to sing louder. That's it. See you in the South End.
Has anyone call him to give the other side of the story? and Texans fans are as bad as Dynamo fans. Remember the tailgating brawls against the Cowboys fans a few years ago. That was crazy.
I'm not going to defend fans of any team throwing stuff onto the field. But, I can't shake the feeling that you all are in the doghouse not because of what happened, but rather due to where it happened and who it was aimed at. Some animals are more equal than others.......
Re: You guys saw this? Gee, seems kind of unfair to punish the Dynamo supporters but let the supporters of all FMF teams and El Tri run rampant in all other U.S. stadiums. Surprised Ortiz didn't come out in favor of bottle and urine throwing
One guy called in and said he isn't against smoke bombs. Host said you'd never get away with that at a NFL game. He obviously didn't understand the smoke bomb thing as he made it sound like live grenades were being thrown onto the field. I agree that throwing stuff onto the field isn't cool. The smoke bomb issue does seem to be a double standard. And why punish the supporters groups if those weren't strictly TA & EB guys and gals but rather a large group of Dynamo fans who sat together.
The focal point imho is blanket bid sanctions for the many on top of what our own FO has handed down to the very few who already have been banned two weeks ago. Also, when the league office gets on the slippery slope of policing even harsh language at league games, jeez, one would think they have way bigger fish to fry. Like getting D.C. a new home or Dallas new fans. Not trying to be funny, there are big needs in our league and this fallout from what occurred months ago has nil effect. Well save the new message MLS HQ is sending league wide of we didn't care about smoke before and we even used it to promote our sport, but now we will be draconian about it all! So there. I as well would like to know what the players think about all this from MLS HQ.
the thing that cracks me up about the pic in the article-isn't that Brahama on the left? Damn East Benard hooligans.
hey-this is a double standard-I was at the cotton bowl when Cletus netted 5. I remember, me my wife, cousin and his fiance getting pelted. along with the entire Metro bench with plastic water bottles. And no sanctions ever came of that. I did get to hop on the field and hide under the bench with Miles Joseph. Of course I was also at that LAG/Metro game in '96 where they stopped the match when 70K fans threw plastic beer bottles onto the field and thus began the no plastic bottles at MLS match policy. But no sanctions. But I believe that policy was put in place to protect players like Andrew Shue.
News media getting on to this. In a way, we're just gonna have to start self policing... however, if I start seeing other teams do things that we did and not get sanctioned, i'll be a little shocked.
Yea, that's me, I did it. Uh, what article? What picture? If its at MLS Cup, I was with Nigel in the second row. I blame him. Besides, I still have my flashlight.
If you think that the sanctions imposed for repeated violations are tough because you can't bring stuff to away games this is what happened to a fellow Dynamo organization because of it's Supporters. So not only did the actions of the supposedly most loyal Fans cause the Club to initially be banned from the German Cup but it also caused the Club to pay fines and restitution. Because of the repeated actions of a few knuckleheads everyone in Dresden will be forced to miss a game and the Club of course will lose that income as well. Unfortunately as seems to be the case in most of these incidents the guilty parties are not passing around a collection plate to make up for the Monetary loss to the Club, are not issuing an apology to every other Dresden Fan for getting them locked out of a home and away game and of course are not responsible for anything that happened. Does that sound like "Supporting" your Club?
These examples always sound extreme, but they only happen in countries with promotion/relegation and cup competitions that actually mean something with money. MLS has none of this, not to mention the lawsuits that would occur should an MLS Investor/Operator get stuck with such a penalty (regardless of what the operating agreement says, it would go to a court). I understand your point, I just don't know how comparable it is to MLS. I could care less about most of this, but it does seem like the Dynamo SGs are being singled out for silly things like "obscene language" which is a real joke. I love the smoke bombs and the flares, but I also know they are banned and generally not a good idea in a crowd. As far as self-policing, that frankly never works in any organization for the most part. Yeah, you kick a guy out of the group and he buys a ticket in the next section and causes problems and he isn't part of the group. Or he flat doesn't respect the self-policing, which is what I suspect happens more often. And self-policing and admitting you are doing so just is an admission that someone in the group caused the problem. You are better just turning a blind eye and blaming any incidents on non-supporters who are just sitting nearby. But you can kind of see where this may be trending. New stadium or not, you take the supporters' groups out and you get a real antiseptic environment pretty quick. And quiet too. And I suspect that if you really slip truth serum in the drinks of the FO, they probably would just assume sell the SG subsidized tickets to others who pay full price and just not have to deal with the problems. Lastly, it is BS that MLS and the Dynamo and its media partners use clips of said "violations" in commercials to show the passion of the league.
MLS is not doing any favors for the sport by this action. It probably could have been handled much better and in private with the offenders who threw crap. I'm pissed at all the rednecks coming out of the woodwork attacking the sport right now because of this.
Wasn't me either. I've spent the last two days attempting to point out the innaccurracies in some of the media posts which are headlining their pieces with the word "hooligans". Two blogs on "Dynamo Theory" were removed after I pointed out some rather egregious failures to fully vett the content. The removals also resulted in the removal of my observations, which were probably some of the best comments I have ever made in my time following MLS in the United States. All of that thoughtfull enlightened commentary erased with a simple "highlight all" - "delete all".
Well we're all upset because of the publicity that shows our sport in a bad light. But not to worry it will be soon forgotten - tomorrows news will be about Justin Beber and Gerbils
Wow, Offebacher, I see what you are trying to say... ...but your example is an extreme that Houston SGs have not even come close to, AFAIK. At least not yet... Fighting with police (not security... POLICE)? Fighting rival fans? Destroying property to the tune of almost $200,000? Have Houston SGs gone to those extremes? Not a comparable example. NOW... the closing down of the stadium for a game or two for throwing stuff on the field is a comparable example... and the supporters get punished by having to travel to a neutral stadium to have a "home" match and the club does lose money from gate revenue not received.
For what it's worth I wanted to have my say. I go to 4-5 games year with my family and some of the kids that my children play soccer with. I have the direct kick package on Dish and watch every game they play when I can. I also watch a lot of other games from other teams as well. The conclusion that I have come to is that there is absolutely no excuse for throwing things on the field. There is no excuse for filthy, racist, chants. Cursing your lungs out at the other team does not mean you are a better fan, just a loud mouth wannabe that has no respect for the people around you. Getting drunk outside the stadium and then rowdy inside the stadium doesn't make you the example of what a soccer fan should be. I am damned ashamed that our fans have been singled out for this punishment. I watched MLS Cup with my family and remember things being thrown on the field by our supporters. I am a fan and I don't want that reputation. The fact that it is the supporters group doesn't seperate them from the average fan in most peoples minds. I don't think that acting like Oakland Raider fans is a direction that we should go. It reminds me of when my daughter was one of the ball kids at the Gold Cup in Houston. The things that she heard and saw the Mexican fans do, was damn ridiculous and embarrassing for me to hear. She heard and saw the same kind of things that MLS is accusing the Dynamo fans of doing except 100 times worse. We need to make a choice now. Do we want to be like the rest of the world when it comes to fan behavior or do we want to behave like Americans do at most other sporting venues in this country. Do we want to be a major sporting league like the NFL, MLB or NBA? Or do we want to act like a bunch of tribal, drunk, loud, potty mouthed, racist, stadium burning criminals, like the rest of the world. It really is that simple. I have read where one of the groups has been in trouble before at the ROB, so this is not a first incident. It is a pattern of behavior now. I am proud of the Dynamo and all the good they do in the community and do not want our clubs name tarnished. I don't want to be associated with fans that do what we have done. After all it's a damned game.
The problem is that even though it is "Extreme" compared to what we have here it has become the norm in many FA's to "Punish" the Club (and by extension everyone that follows the Club) with so called "Ghost Matches" because a select few who think they are above any sort of rules or regulations screw it up for everybody. That is not where Sanctions against SG's and Clubs started but that is where they are today because a select few can't or won't learn their lesson. Those same few scream of the injustices that are done to them for breaking the rules (over and over) while at the same time giving the big Middle Finger to the very Club they supposedly "Support" and of course all the other Fans of that Club that are also affected by their actions. The outrage in this particular case follows the same pattern, MLS documented three specific cases of the same set of Supporters breaking the rules (arguing over the severity of the broken rule just dilutes the actual issue of breaking the rule not unlike getting convicted of Murder or Manslaughter does not change the fact that someone is actually dead) in the letter provided. Now that does not include things that happened at Home mind you and that were probably documented as well but not included in this sanctioning. So for everyone that says this happened in KC or that happened here two years ago you are missing the point which is three clear cut, easily documented cases in a short span and which also happened to include the Leagues showcase event. That does not excuse any of the things that happened elsewhere nor should it and if the perpetrators of those things were dumb enough to post pictures of their actions on the book of face or vids on the tube of you then they deserve the maximum punishment that can be given to them. But to get back to the case at hand and the usual response patterns we see things like: "The League uses pictures of Smoke Bombs for advertisement" or "Someone gave us the Mini Flashlights" or "We can't control everyone" or "It's our culture" maybe a bit of "So and so did this once" blah blah blah excuses and attempts at justification but the one thing you have not seen is this: "Damn, we screwed up, we got caught and now we are all having to pay the price. Let's make sure this type of thing does not happen again and let's look at ways that we can support the Club and that can involve everyone no matter where they stand or sit at the BBVA or on the road." Instead everyone is sounding like that Lawyer that can get your DWI revoked on a technicality while ignoring the fact that you were actually Drinking and Driving in the first place.
It's not that simple because a large portion of the Mexican fans for the most part aren't really Americans as you think of it. Plus, it's "cultural" to do things like swear, throw beer, and generally create problems for Mexico supporters so they get a pass on that. It's too much to ask them to behave like most of us.