As soon as I get a little free time and can carve out a little server space, I'll get it back online.
That guy doesn't understand all that history and causation *****. I hope that poster still has me on ignore, because I really do not want another one of his "you are mean" private messages sent to my big soccer inbox. Even mods like KC are sick of that bs.
I can't find that old "Z Side Columbus" website. It was live for years. "All I wanted was to make people happy. All I caused was citywide damage" I always suspected that was Eggy.
http://web.archive.org/web/20010614073241/http://www.v-army1941.com/soccer1.html I'm gonna have to find a way to merge the best of both. Gotta love the BOTW link menu.
*looks around that site* My, how far we've come and from sources no one ever saw coming: 1) HSH circa 2006-2007. 2) The construction of the stage (partially due to the situation at Germain Amphitheater.) 3) The CFO. There was a dark period when we would have shot their help down. The era from 2007-2009 was one big almost-overnight growth.
2008 was Mls Cup. Of course that year and the years after it were an expansion. We were actually winning... That is not to diminish the leaders of the supporter groups.. Just looking at context.
Which makes the membership growth and ticket sale growth last year fairly impressive considering we were having a down year.
Of course. The growth from 2008-2009 makes sense. The team fed off the fans and the fans fed off the team. (Something that was next to impossible just a few years earlier.) The leaders of the groups have certainly worked harder from 2008-2013 than from 1998-2007. A lot of people certainly did more than their share back then, but these past few years have seen things that a lot of people wouldn't even have dreamed of. We now have several pubs to go to, a deal with HOMAGE, connections to several food trucks, continual cordial terms with the FO allowing us things like the Nordecke Cup, and a whole lot more. Exactly. Ticket sales are up, memberships are up. I remember when the edict on "You must show a ticket in order to enter the section" came down and a lot of people whined and moaned how that would be bad for the section since a lot of people were hopping over for 15-20 minutes, whatever. I think it's safe to say that a lot of people had a knee-jerk reaction. Even a "summer slump" due to OSU students not being in town doesn't seem to be as bad as it once was.
I suppose that is one way to view the growth. (It's not a tumor.) I am not sure how I want to phrase my view, but a long explanation made short, it may be the result of the momentum of soccer.. aging of the League (in a good way), the continued presence of Crew in the community, etc... I know what I want to say.. it just seems longwinded. I think you will get my drift. I am sure the fan base will slowly begin to be a little less reliant on the product of the club (except if it goes for a long period of time) and more on the other factors I listed. /pregnancy and thesis writing has made my brain overall less functional on slightly less important things... like conveying ideas on my beloved soccer forum
I think $50 would be my highest. I could go and get one custom made at that price. The only downside would be that it isn't an original.
I would put in money for a few of them if we did a custom order for 10 or 20. See if we could get any interest. Maybe from the old guard.