Hey everyone, I’ve been a Miami soccer fan for a long time and I’ve noticed a peculiarity in our fan-base. Our city has more soccer fans than anywhere else in the country, but we have such a lack of identity with the city of Miami that it prevents us from unifying and showing our true potential as a soccer town. I want an MLS team bad, which is why I joined the Miami Ultras and have been a member of that Miami soccer fan club since the beginning. We are an organization with over 300 members but only have around a dozen hardcore people that show up to every event. I want to know what it’s going to take for Miami soccer fans to unite and get an MLS team the same way the Sons of Ben did and other expansion team fan clubs. If you’re reading this and are located in South Florida, what would inspire you to join the Miami Ultras and show up at our events? - Do we need to start a new fan club? - Should we support someone other than Miami FC? - Do we need to have events in cooler places like Miami Beach? - Do we need to market our message better?
Well there is the other supporter group Southern Legion which supports and goes to some games of the Heat and Dolphins.... I say we have parties/ and go to lounges, and ofcourse South Beach, i know there is a bar on washington and I think between 11 and 14 st infront of mansions club, where they are always showing UEFA champions league soccer live... i mean maybe we can talk to them and see how they can fit into all of this I Have a friend in Seattle who would always go to a bar before a sounders game because they always had like a promotion for the sounders free beer till kick-off, i mean come on what better way to promote Miami Soccer than with free beer that will catch everybodys attention.. We also need a big time celebrity that can promote the USA world cup bid in MIAmi (we are the lowest) and also promote the MLS ticket dedication for a proposed MLS team in MIAMI... I dont know if you guys ever seen the video Kasey Keller did for the World Cup bid in Seattle... We could probably Use Chad Ochocinco since he is a huge soccer fan and is from Miami and is well known in the NFL... We need to somehow ask him and other celebrity to promote MLS and World Cup bid like Emilio esteban and Alonzo mourning which are behind the bid to bring world cup to miami.. Any ideas on how we can contact these guys and help us promote, Maybe the Ultras can do something...
Get Miami FC attendance at least at 5000+/match, build it from the ground up, cause that's the only MLS will return to the sunshine state.
No. We need to continue to build up the one(s) we have. You're right, the Ultras have a lot of "members"(who probably only signed up for the free tailgates at Tropical Park in '08), but only a handful of hardcore supporters(myself included). Miami FC's lack of on field performance and low profile league and players certainly hasn't helped local support, but who else are we going to support? Next year we will have a PDL team in Ft. Lauderdale, that's 2 levels below what Miami FC is. Tough to cultivate a rabid fanbase on PDL. Rallying behind our minor league teams is one thing, but in the end I think the sensational TV ratings pro and international soccer(including English language USMNT matches) South Florida consistently pulls, and our soccer-friendly demographics, will do more to keep MLS interested than anything else. Toronto and Seattle only needed decent investors to get in. They had average(Seattle) to horrible(Toronto) support for their USL teams and look at them now. Of course, thanks to those teams, MLS is no longer looking for just anyone with a check for the expansion fee. Still I fell we have enough ingredients to attract MLS, even without great support for our USL team. We need to be where soccer fans are(and especially where MLS will notice). Doesn't have to be "cool". MLS brass doesn't care about South Beach(David Beckham might though ). The Honduras-Peru match at LandShark Stadium on the 18th will be a good chance to show our support for the game. The MLS Combine in January is something people need to show up for(if it is at Lockhart again). I was there last year with 5 other Ultras, and that was when we had an official Barça backed bid for a team. More people need to step up at soccer events. MLS preseason, USL, international friendlies, whatever it is, people need to go for the purpose of making noise for MLS. Enjoy the match at hand, sure, but also wear Ultras shirts, post flyers, make noise in general for the cause. I don't think that is the way to put it. We simply need more messengers. In my honest opinion, as I mentioned before, we could all just sit back and wait for a billionaire to come along with the itch for owning a soccer team, and eventually we'll have MLS in South Florida again. It's simply too attractive a market for MLS to ignore. However, I for one can't sit back and wait for it to happen. I take it personal when people call South Florida a "bad sports market" or that we have "bad fans". True South Floridian fans are as passionate as any on Earth. The problem is we live in a place that entices people from all over to uproot and move here... but not abandon their teams from back home(especially true when it comes to soccer, where people have long allegiances to much more established clubs and leagues). Folding the original Florida teams was an epic mistake(not that the league had much of a choice considering that apparently none of the league saviors/owners wanted our teams). MLS lost it's foothold and fanbase in two of the biggest TV markets in the nation and now, when/if it returns, has to start all over again. So our job as fans is to try and convert as many people as we can to being true South Florida soccer supporters, and speed up the process.
Well what is the age group we are trying to attract at these events?? And become soccer supporters?? I think we need to talk to celebrities and ask them to promote MLS and the World Cup bid for Miami!! Dr bring up a good point, at the Honduras game, I can tell you that that game will be big im talkin alot of Hondurans will go to that game, to watch their already qualified team in a friendly.. What we have to do is spread the word about MLS ticket dedication and the World Cup Bid in Miami at the stadium and maybe ask someone big at that game to promote it on the big HD screens at teh game, taht will catch alot of people's attention..
I want a MLS team in Miami ther should be like a slogan: Want a Professional soccer team in Miami? What are YOU doing to bring one back to Miami!?!?!?! We need to do something... The Barca bid nobody did anything to help spread the word (escpet for the Ultras), there has to be a way to get everybody on the ball to help bring a team here, like team work, one of us can't do anything but a whole bunch of us will get people's attention....
Well who is going to go the Honduras Peru match at Landshark?? All I can say is that, i think that game should be packed.. The game is dedicated to the Hondurans for making to the world cup, and with all the hondurans in MIami, should be a packed house, like atleast 20 to 25k plus.... I think I might go as a honduran to get that feeling of being in a vibrant soccer stadium.... Maybe there the word can be spread for the MLS miami, and the MIami world cup bid!!
The Ultras have been honored with a request from the Miami Sports Commission to volunteer to promote the World Cup bid for Miami at the Honduras Peru match at Landshark Stadium.