Does anybody have or know of a large Gadsden flag or banner? I know they've been at previous USA games. Does anyone know where they are or who might have one?
I know its a Tea Party symbol, and the Tea Party is basically a redneck, ignorant, racially charged sect. There are times when I want to support US soccer like I support Mexico, I really do, but when US soccer adopts a symbol that is widely used by a particular set of people who are linked with racially charged rhetoric, it turns me off, I don't feel very welcomed. And given the numerous videos on youtube of US soccer fans chanting culturally charged rhetoric, I can see why US soccer would adopt such a symbol. But the hypocrisy is mind blowing, since most Tea Party people who have adopted this flag as an icon of the 'tyranny' they believe they are enduring, actually; hate soccer! They see it as a foreign thing, as a European elitist thing, as an 'un-American' thing. A statue of liberty inspiration would have been a much better icon.
Please do not engage in politics on this board. This is not the appropriate place to address your opinions about the Tea Party Movement. That being said I am pretty sure US Soccer fans adopted Don't Tread On Me looooooooooong before the Tea Party Movement even existed.
It's not a Gadsden flag. It's a Culpeper Minute Men flag, but on a whim I opted for "Yank Army" instead of "Culpeper Minute Men" when I placed the order. It was a BigSoccer Fans & Travel forum collaboration back in early-mid 2001 (before the Great Crash), so it pre-dates the whole "tea party" thing by nearly a decade. It also predates the Nike/US Soccer/Clint Dempsey rap "Don't Tread On Me" campaign by several years. The tea party types seem to stick to the Gadsden version...which we didn't opt for, because the Gadsden would have been way more expensive because of the extra color (black and green ink, instead of just black). That said, I don't have it, and I haven't seen it in a few years.
So I located the person who currently poses the flag and they say they will do their best to get it to the Spain game.
Garrett is like a magician. He can't tell you how he does things, or else you won't be as amazed when he does.
If we could use big soccer back in 2000/2001 to collect money from people to purchase some big USA flags and have some others made, I don't see how or why we couldn't do it again. There are tons more USA Supporters now than then. We could probably get enough donations to get a big DOTM flag if we wanted one. I'd like to see a collective effort to try and get a quality '50 states' flag made up similar to this one, consisting of all 50 state flags: I remember pricing one a few years back from quality flag store across from Betsy Ross House in Philly and they wanted like 4 or 5K for it.
Does that 50 state flag still exist? The fed may have banned hanging banners but huge American flags??????? C'mon...
In theory, yes, but I do look forward to the internet scolding and chest thumping that will ensue if and when the section sucks. The terrorists are winning. I have almost all 50 state flags in 3'5' form though most are on poles so I could just give them to Prairie and be like "Would you sew this for me please and I'll give you anime stuff in exchange? Hello? Prairie? You there?"