I was stood behind the goal, a few rows back from the Yardbirds -- and I totally could not hear what was being sung by the folks to my left. Jeff and Sean running around in front trying to co-ordinate but by the time people caught on to my right they were often late and we had overlapping versions of he same thing. I think getting the bulk of the noise makers and singers behind the goal may help things spread from the center outwards rather than going the huge distance from left to right .... great effort by everybody, but it was kinda flat in the middle and without the Yardbirds starting songs in the middle it really could have died. It was always going to be a challenge with the long skinny section -- didn't quite anticipate ever really hearing the same song sung at two different points out of either ear
I noticed with all the noise Sean and Jeff were even having a hard time communicating. Im going to look into getting a couple of radios donated to the cauldron. That way we can have people on either end be able to communicate and coordinate. Overall not a bad first outing though. On a side note, owning a drum does not inherintly grant your rythem. If you cant pound out on beat dont pound at all!
Instead of trying to originate sound from three points and keeping it together we need to have it originate from one point and grow outward. We need to focus the "leaders" to the Club side of the goal by about 10 yards and grow out from there.
Also think we need to be ready to do chants for a longer period of a time. Last night it seemed right when the chant caught on with a second section, the section that started it stopped chanting. Chants are going to need time to spread.
I believe in the next game things might be different...for a couple reasons. I know Sean and Jeff towards the end of the game were told by KCK police they could not walk on the path any more. Unless we are allowed someone down there it will be difficult to get everyone together...Second, I talked to Jeff and we spoke about having one person in front of each section leading cheering so we can all be on the same page...
Yeah, just tired. I have a lot more thoughts, but don't really have the time or energy to put them down. It's going to be a work in progress, that's for sure. The horizontal layout is a nightmare, just like I thought it would be. We need to come up with a seating and game plan for game 2. Instead of spreading everyone out across the whole section, I just say we centralize those that get what we do as well as possible and take over sections 3 and 4 behind the goal. Drums there. They were a section too far over last night. I don't want to be in front I don't think. It sucked. I'd rather be in the stands. Because the team was actually building the stadium right up until kickoff, we really couldn't get much face or email time with security other than the basics. We need more security on the bridge if people are going to watch from there. A lot of bottles were thrown from there, though from what a few people have told me, 3-4 came from over near/from where La Barra KC was located too, though I didn't see any first hand. I saw one dude standing near Dave Gentry and near Kyle chuck a bottle from the main stand, but I didn't recognize him.
I was in the section that had the KA part of the banner... is that north or south? either way... I think the issue was just how many people were there under the impression that they could just sit quietly and watch the game... and then there were the people who didn't seem to understand that the members stand was supposed to be for supporters... Anyway, the first half seemed like you guys were trying to get the WHOLE section in on songs/chants (and don't get me wrong here, I'm not here to criticize, just giving my observations) but the second half it seemed like everyone gave up on my section. Probably because there was no one walking down below to try to get us going... besides the heckler somewhere behind us, I think me and my 7 year old were the loudest in our section the second half. What you guys are suggesting already seems like a good combination of things to do in the future (although I wonder how hard it would be to hear a radio in a place as loud as LSP, maybe text messages would be better?). I'd say definitely get the loudest people right behind the goal, and spread out a little near the mid-front of the stands adjacent to those, and moving away from the center, thin out toward just the front sections. (don't know if I'm doing a good job of explaining this, but it would be like a big triangle with the midpoint being directly behind the goal). This way the songs and chants can move out from the middle and people in front can help their respective sections going. All that being said, you guys did a great job with the situation... I can't think of anything I would have done differently the first game, because there was no experience to pull from on this game. So, really guys, thanks for all the hard work and if there's anything I can do to kinda help things along at the next game, I'm in. let me know.
I have been in similar wide sections before. you simply have to cram as many people who we know want to sing in the middle section and keep chants going longer. The noise will spread to the left and right from there. It may require going in early or taping off a section, but completely populate the middle section with hard core chanters and dominate the section. Do this and there won't be any need for anyone to be walking down front.
BTW anyone have photos of the tifo display? I was under it doing a great job holding it aloft But it was all so secret that I still don't know what was painted on it!
Amen. And continuing on that side note, the drums were waaaaaaay too fast. I think some of the drummers were getting too excited and took it out on their instruments.
Tifo came out GREAT! Major props to everyone who was in on that. That damn near brought a tear to my eye.
This was made possible because of the hard work of 30+ people. The Donations of everyone allowed us to buy paint and flags. It also would not of happened without the financial support of the team. 4k is more than we could have done ourselves.
That was the way I've always known it as well. That was where I headed for naturally ... was kinda surprised to see everybody sections off to our left. One thing I would like to say is there were sooooo many people around me clapping and trying to sing along that I can't say I had ever seen before and it was more a case of it being hard to hear what was sung than any lack of effort on their part that prevented them joining it -- not sure we need to tape it off so much as start there and let it spread and just say, if the new people are around us they will join in quickly or sit elsewhere next time, we include them and they might just turn that 40-60 into 200-300 over time -- the people on this thread and the small knot of 40-60 people that really kick things off should just head for that area. Just pulling numbers out of my ass
The stadium did that for me -- all the pre shit and so on just set me off. Kopite was having a good bawl I'd have almost laughed if I wasn't 10 feet away using my scarf as a kleenex. Gotta have a heart of stone not to have felt that last night.
Sad that I still feel guilty about not painting ... forget the donations, I don't feel like I was part of it.
I was in the side section (will typically be behind the goal, but when we saw first row seats available 25 yds out we couldn't pass them up for the opener...plus we wanted to help spread the cheers around to other sections). From our vantage point, the cauldron was fairly loud but not near where it could be, which is to be expected for the first game. A couple thoughts: It seemed like there were a lot of first-timers who genuinely wanted to be involved (at least on some cheers) but who had no idea what was going on. Having a cheer sheet is fine if you know which cheer to look for, but by the time you can make out what's being said and try to catch on, the main section is done cheering it. If all these people are brought into the fold, the sound level goes way up. The solution is 3-pronged. 1) Make the cheers as loud as possible as soon as possible (which comes from a large concentrated section of people yelling) so that they can catch on before dying out. 2) Have a strong stable of simple, easy to understand cheers that are common to Americans (Let's go Wizards/Sporting, Everywhere We Go seemed to catch on well) to go along with the intricate ones. I'll take a loud cheer over a clever cheer at this point. 3) Keep the cheers going longer, as others have stated. Everything seemed a bit frantic in the heart of the cauldron, which is to be expected. All things told, it was still a great atmosphere. I'd also add that the Cauldron didn't respond to or join fairly loud chants originating from the southeast side to counter the Chicago fans. There were a couple of Let's Go Sporting chants that made it all the way to my area of the members stand but were never picked up by the heart of the Cauldron, which would have made it twice as loud. I don't know if it was too loud in that section or if everyone was just busy doing their own thing, but I'd suggest finding a way to help/encourage cheers from other parts of the stadium as often as possible.
Same with me. I felt a little weird about it because of where I was sitting. Surrounded by people who, while they spend a lot of money on their seats (assuming they weren't corporate seats), don't have the emotional history tied up in supporting this team that a lot of us do. So, crying during the opening ceremony did feel weird....but dammit, I had a right to my feelings!! And I spoke with Robb at halftime and told him that I too used my scarf to wipe away tears at the opening whistle.
@Wizhawk - Great points, excellent constructive criticism! This is what we need to grow support. I was in Section 102, and the Cauldron sounded fine, but with the emptyness of M9 (underneath Lance's seat) it felt a little distant. I agree with the moving of the chanting core to behind the goal. [Disclaimer: I am merely a new fan since the ManU game and yes I am not in the Cauldron proper, so feel free to take my head off, but I want to see SKC grow and thrive, so hear me out] Couple things I overheard from people I was talking to in my section and will mention here because they have some validity: 1) Repeating chants: It seemed like the same chants were done over and over again. Someone behind me asked if the Cauldron new any different chants. Obviously with a new stadium and a bigger section keep it simple as someone said above, but I agree more variety. 2) Wizards v Sporting: I know to the Cauldron saying Wizards respects the history, etc etc. But to people outside they thought the Cauldron was 'bitter and thumbing their noses at the owners, lacked creativity to incorporate Sporting Kansas City, and other semi-negative associations. So IMHO keep some Wizards but start to pull in a lot more KC and Sporting references and the people outside the Cauldron are more likely to warm to you and the team. To the rest of KC, the Cauldron and the team are the same and a divided front in public does us little good. I concur on the chant sheets and would say get them out to people in the sections adjacent to the Members Stand. If you can get Sections 101, 102, 103 and 131-134 to chant along then you are spreading the loudness. I will be happy to pass out chant sheets to 101-103, just get me the copy in time. And people in M1-3 can pass out chant sheets backwards to 131-134. We dont need to paper the whole section but even if we got 2 per row out.
It was hard, I was in M9 for most of the game when I saw how empty it was compared to the rest. Andy, Mark and I were trying our hardest with keeping up and relaying the chants, it was pretty damn hard.