I am attempting to determine how much of a following exists for our club here on the other side of the pond. I contacted the SAFC front office, but they have been unsuccessful in reaching, or even confirming the existence, of the USA supporters' branch as listed on the official website. Therefore, I ask the following questions: Are there any Sunderland fans out there in the USA or Canada? If so, would you be interested in the formation of a supporters' group? Please feel free to respond to this thread or PM me with any interest in this venture. I would love to see Black Cats' fans throughout the USA and Canada come together. ====UPDATE===== As a result of this thread, we have started a US based supporters organization called SAFC USA. There are many ways to connect with us which we have listed below. Additionally, we are always looking for help spreading the word about the club and our organization on this side of the pond. If you have any questions, please contact us or simply reply to this thread. ====MEMBERSHIP==== We have officially opened membership registration for SAFC USA! To become an official member of our supporters group, simply fill out the registration form and that’s it. Best of all, it’s free! We have a lot of great ideas in store for the future, but the first step is to find out how many supporters there are actually in the United States. So spread the word! We have also assembled a membership map that will be updated with city locations of all members as they join. This map can always be found on our membership page on our official website. Thanks for all of your support so far! ====SAFC USA LINKS==== Website - http://www.safc.us Twitter - @SAFCUSA Facebook - SAFC USA Email - nathan@safc.us
http://home.cogeco.ca/~bcna/home.html Hasn't been updated since forever, we have a Florida branch and have our very own facebook page.
Hewitt, do you go out to a pub or whatnot to watch matches? There are some cool spots in Addison...and Trinity Hall, of course.
I try to be a regular at the Londoner in Addison, which is the pub I assume you are referring to there. Unfortunately during the last season, I worked the vast majority of Saturdays and had to resort to bootlegged video streams or radio. I no longer work Saturdays, so that should be fixed. Good to hear that we have a few still spread across the states. I am revisiting the idea of getting the supporters group together. I have been touching base with the club's official office to see what steps would be required to become the "official" US/Canadian supporters group since the one listed on the website has been dead for at least a couple years. I will try to use the forums here for information as it becomes available.
Chicago based Sunderland fan here, but don't know of any others. Gyan is most underrated striker in EPL, I tune in every chance I can to see him play. Some great young lads, too, and well organized by Steve Bruce, as evidenced by current spot in the tables.
Definite loyal & committed Sunderland fan here in the Boston area. I am very much in favor of starting a SAFC supporters group here in North America. As we all know, Sunderland is the team on the rise in the Premiership and anything we can do to expand the brand and fan base is something I completely support.
I found the greatest love when I attended my first football match against Everton in 1999 at the Stadium of Light. Haven't looked back since. There are three of us who get together regulalry at The Globe in Chicago. I once saw another person walk out of the bar from the back but he left too quickly before introductions could be made. I now relocate to NYC next month. Any supporters out there? How goes forward movement on a North America supporters association? It would have my support as well.
Hi Felix, pleasure seeing other Sunderland supporters here. I'm in the Boston area. I met a couple of guys from Sunderland at a Boston Breakers game. Aside from my friend who I'm slowly turning into a supporter & those guys I'm not sure who's out there. Obviously the club doesn't have the following of a Manchester United, Barcelona or AC Milan but I'm confident there are more among us. It's just a matter of getting the word out & connecting. Would love to organize. Take care, Jimmy
Okay everyone. It's been quite a while since I started this thread and I will be the first to apologize for the poor follow up on my part. I am encouraged to see the pockets of support that have already represented in this thread. Most clubs start supporters organizations for current supporters to gather. While there is definitely some gathering that needs to happen here in the states, I believe the greatest task we may be charged with is creating Sunderland supporters here in the US. I will be the first to admit this is an enormous task, but I think it would be well worth the work. I am also still very much behind the idea of starting a supporters club, hopefully before the kickoff of the 2011-12 season this fall. My initial thoughts include a simple website and maybe some forums. It would be nice to eventually work toward membership packages and benefits, but that is something that I would only want to pursue once we can put the proper time and quality into it. My question remains, would a stand alone website, blog, and message boards be something we would utilize? The last thing we need is another dead SAFC forum here in the US. If we are going to do this, we need to get behind it. Lastly, what are your thoughts on a name? The popular variations would be SAFCAmerica.com or SAFCUSA.com. Thoughts? Suggestions? Do we want to be more creative? We could play off of Black Cats or SoL. Okay, please share your thoughts. We have a large task ahead. Hopefully the boys across the pond will give us some help with a solid finish next year and maybe even a spot in Europe!
Hewitt, I got your message. After catching up on this thread, I think we can at least get a Web site started. I'm down for helping you get this off the ground, as I have pondered starting up a supporters group myself.
Hewitt, This is a good plan. Let me know if there are ways that I can help. I'm not a strong tech person but will assist where I can. My sense is that we want to locate supporters in the U.S. and spread the word. I think a twitter account could be useful for that as well. That way we could begin small. In addition perhaps a website that simply sends individuals to the twitter feed. It could expand as more supporters come forward. Perhaps later a message board or blog. I suspect that SAFC and folks like ALS would help us spread the word as well.
Actually, the more I think about it, we would probably be better off just claiming this forum here on BigSoccer. It's not really being used much right now and would give us increased exposure to other supporters from both SAFC and other clubs. Felix, I think the Twitter idea is great. I am fairly techy and can get a very basic webite up, but we definitely need to utilize Twitter/FB, which is not my strength. I can Set these accounts up and make sure we have good uniformity, but will need help (from you ) keeping them active. I also had an idea. We could simply use SAFC.us for our website. That is pretty much the easiest domain to remember and it makes sense. Unless everyone is dead set on a .com name. There is always SAFCAmerica.com or SAFCUSA.com or any other number of variations. I'm not a terribly creative person so I could use some help with names. Okay, I'm at work right now so I can't write much more. However, I am excited about this idea and where it's going. I'll try to get the website up tonight.
I think utilizing this forum is not a bad idea. I also think a one page website www.SAFC.us is a great idea. It can have the twitter name and the link this forum. Links to related Sunderland sites. A gateway for individuals in the U.S. to get in touch. If you do Facebook...make sure to do a page rather than a group. More likely folks will find it I think. Thanks for taking the lead and I will certainly help to keep them active.
Okay, I made some good progress tonight. I now own the domain SAFC.us and have already configured it to my server. However, there is no content on there at the moment. We now have a Facebook page (SAFC USA) and Twitter account (@SAFCUSA) so please like and follow them! Obviously, we need to get 25 likes on FB before we can customize our page link. I'll try to chip away at the website a little bit more tonight so there is at least something to look at.
Safc usa We have officially launched a Sunderland supporters group here in the United States called SAFC USA. At this point in time, we are not an "official" supporters association of the club, but may move that direction in the future. Here are the primary ways you can follow, connect, and communicate with SAFC USA: Website We have acquired the domain www.SAFC.us and will be using it as our home page. In this early stage, the website primarily exists to keep everything organized and accessible in one place. Facebook Please locate the SAFC USA page on Facebook and click "Like" to follow us. Twitter You can follow us @SAFCUSA on Twitter. Message Board We intend to utilize this message board at BigSoccer.com as the main vehicle of communication and discussion among supporters. Please let us know what your thoughts and ideas are. This is really just the result of a few conversations over the past year, but we are confident it could grow into something much larger.
Hmmm...it should be there. You can also go to the website (www.safc.us) and click the Twitter link on the right under Community. Let me know if you still can't find it. We have a couple followers already, so it's definitely out there.
Got it! Thanks Hewitt and nice site. Will keep pushing it out on Twitter and see if we can round up the first dirty dozen.
Hewitt, I'm ready and willing to do whatever for this. If you need me to write articles, I can (I have a journalism degree).
Hermione, That is great! ...and I promise to read and circulate the articles as widely as possible! If it is possible to create some type of rolling RSS feed I would volunteer to keep it updated on a regular basis.