My family rarely goes out of Washington State. This might change in two or three years. Of course, we're doing that to watch an MLS game. Anyway, based on your 2009/2010 experience, where is the best place to watch a live MLS game and see your team play on the road (disregard the game result)? I put Seattle for reference, but please don't vote for your city.
In Toronto's first couple seasons they were god awful, like Seattle and Philly now. But Toronto has become one if the most professionally run places to go. That said, I don't hear a lot of complaints about Chicago either but I voted for Toronto.
The New York stadium experience was awesome. I am almost tempted to make an annual trip out there. The could do a better job of security around the stadium after the games but thats probably more a local police issue then a front office issue.
I've been to away games in San Jose, LA (galaxy), Salt Lake and Houston... as well as games as a neutral in DC, Colorado and LA (both Chivas and Galaxy). I won't consider those since I wasn't an away supporter there. From my own experiences.... I'd say the overall security and day of game stuff was handled best in Houston overall. No issues with rival fans coming over and starting shit, got in ok, were held back and got out ok, etc. We were allowed to do whatever we wanted in the away section and no issues with use of foul language, etc. RSL was generally pretty good, but there were a few issues with random home fans being allowed in or nearby and there was an altercation or two... but nothing truly awful. The away section location we were in was probably the best out of all the venues I've visited for being segregated from *most* of the home support, as well as being pretty good seats overall and great for amplifying noise from chanting! LA was ok during the match but the procedures for getting us out of the stadium were a clusterf*ck, not to mention the parking attendants were clueless in directing us (well, the ppl in my party anyway) to a designated tailgating area. They weren't as liberal about flags, drums, etc inside as Salt Lake and Houston either. San Jose was the worst of the lot by far. Although it sounds like they were better this year, but last year there were issues with all kind of things -- fan segregation/interaction, language, what we were allowed to bring in or not, ec. Definitely had the feeling that there wasn't a lot of game-day coordination between the Quakes FO, the security, stadium personnel etc.
Hmmm, I voted before I read the first post. I voted based on my experience as a traveling supporter. Places I've been: Chicago - good experience. I've been there three times. The staff worked with us, put us in a relatively segregated area, and allowed banners, flags, and drums. The last time we were there they allowed local fans to come right up behind us and scream expletives at us during the game. Security did nothing. Some other Fire fans came over to our section and told those guys to shut up and get out of our section. Up until then it was pretty close to perfect. Good game day experience. San Jose - decent, gave us pretty good seats, allowed banners, no problems with security. Tight stadium makes it a good place to watch a game but the otherwise not a great experience. Bleachers are not in good shape, kind of hard to get around inside the park. Tickets were expensive. Kansas City - security was paranoid from the beginning, they did give us an interesting place to stand, very strange experience in the baseball park New York (Giants Stadium)- helped us out with getting a drum into the stadium, put us in a segregated area, escorted us in and out, game day experience was crap but haven't been to the new stadium. LA Galaxy - pretty good, security worked with us, great stadium and good game day experience. Having to sneak around drinking in the parking lot is a detractor. DC United - worked pretty well with us, good security, escort, good segregated area to stand in, some arbitrary tifo rules but that was the worst thing New England - segregated away supporter section, didn't allow us to bring much in other than a banner, other than that sterile environment, not much fun Chivas USA - awful, no security, lots of problems with local fans, same stadium as Galaxy but feels a lot different. Colorado - terrible experience, home fans allowed into visiting section to harass us, no security presence, hassled in the parking lot, restrooms, you name it. Stadium is OK. Game day experience not great. Frisco - problems with security, fans, stadium, police, parking area,..... (I'm from Houston so it probably comes with the territory.) I haven't been to the others yet.
I've been to San Jose, DC, Portland, Vancouver and Chicago. DC's security was by far the best. It was for the Open Cup final last year, so I'm sure they knew we were bringing a large contingent. Kept us segregated and escorted us in to the stadium from a few blocks out. Plus, it was nice to see LBB and SE in action. Portland was by far the worst. They had the entrance to the beer garden run right though the middle of ECS.... no way there wasn't going to be issues with that set up.
I have only been to Dallas, DC, LA(Gals), and Seattle...best overall experience was Seattle: great public transportation, great food, great family attractions, nice stadium, great crowd, some good-natured ribbing but nothing over the line...next was DC which is very similar to Seattle but with a smaller, less vocal crowd and more over-the-line stuff...I won't go back to LA because the experience did not match the cost for me...the only reason I will go back to Dallas, duh, I'm a Dynamo supporter...Pizza Hut Park is a great stadium with good food... ...all this being said I can't imagine coming to Houston will be high on very many people's list...we have crap public transport, the stadium is good but old, the stadium food is extremely mediocre, security is decent, and your team stands a good chance of picking up three points against us right now...hopefully that changes with the new stadium...and hopefully a successfully rebuilt team...
Agreed. We had fans come over and hassle us in the section. Security were dicks about any off-color chants (Spanish or English), going so far as to slam one of our guys down and march him out of the stadium while pinning his arms behind him because they thought he was being belligerent, but evidently never thought about keeping home supporters out of our section until a few of them came over and started throwing punches. Outside the stadium afterward, it took police to separate a group of San Jose fans who got into it with one of the RSL supporters' groups. Good time, fun experience, but the stadium is totally mismanaged. Colorado is also pretty terrible. Security swings back and forth between being overbearing (wanting us not to sing after we'd bought a suite at a charity auction, for instance) and being completely ineffective (doing nothing to prevent altercations or mixing of home and away fans). I enjoy going because I hate the Rapids, but if it weren't for the rivalry I wouldn't bother. Best was probably Seattle. Security did a good job separating supporters; we had our own section and security was constantly nearby to prevent things from getting out of hand while not being dicks about it. Great atmosphere, of course. Fun city. I would have gone again this year if the game hadn't been on a Thursday.
New York was legit. Security prevented ruffians from trying to steal our banners (later getting a banner back) and also prevented a ruckus from occuring by our bus. Overall it was organized, in, here's the rules, out....with 3 points
they will try to limit the away experience if this starts to be the norm. I received this message this morning. I am a Sounders supporter and I was looking forward to the return of the Northwest Derby. I know this may not directly effect some of us... But it does effect our team and a lot of SSFC fans. This is ridiculous... So many are looking forward to this rivalry and the opportunity to travel in large numbers to support our boys up in Vancouver and down in Portland and they want to cap visiting fans at 150? The potential for us to show the rest of the country how a true soccer rivalry is done is enormous... It will only help the MLS and soccer in the US in general. Capping at 150 will only hurt the league... Please join the group and let's all get behind this and make ourselves heard... Send this link to any and all Sounders/Timbers/Whitecap fans you may know... http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=159827094041527
Portland is a great game day for away fans. Awesome atmosphere was provided by Sounders and timbers army. But I do agree with you about the beer garden set-up. Believe me we worked long and hard with the FO to try to get that changed. Unfortunately, short of major renovation, there wasn't anything that could be done to avert the " physical set up". The sounder sections were located above the walk way where fans had to walk to get to the stairs going down. What COULD have been done was to post several more security guys at the top of the Sounder sections and at the front. This would have eliminated any of the people, (who were walking by), taking a detour up to the sounder sections. Next year, with the new renovation going on at PGE, the beer garden is being eliminated or moved. So the only fans walking infront of the away section will be portland fans who are actually sitting there. The Atmosphere that that the sounder fans provided (mixed in with the normal TA noise) created an ambiance that I had not experienced before. Never had PGE had a true full & packed away section. The Mexican exhibition matches always had a lot of Mexican fans, but they were always scattered all over the place and never really had anything co-ordinated. The two Sections that are set aside for away fans at PGE park is just short of 1,000. I believe each section holds something like 484, so we'd be letting in a lot of Sounders faithful. Why Joe Roth wants to only give 150 seats for away fans, (and not not let Sounders/Timbers/Whitecaps fans create the awesome atmosphere MLS has probably never seen), is just mind boggling. When the Timbers played at Qwest in the Spring, it was better than we had experienced before. Escorted in, had pretty much our own sections with limited sounder intrusions. We did get escorted out separately at match end, but it was a bit sketchy. The Timbers had won the match and there were a lot of sounders who wanted to get as close as possible to hurl the expected post match insults. But over all it was a pretty positive time. I am positive that Vancouver, Portland, and Seattle would be able to accept large numbers of away fans and still have it be a positive and safe experience.
I really enjoyed seeing an away game at Rio Tinto this year. The game was early in the season, so we were able to get a few days of skiing in too. Lots of touristy stuff to do & see. The stadium was nice & the home fans friendly.
The only away game I went to was DC. I was pleasantly surprised. Despite RFK being a shit hole and union losing, everything else went well. Tifos out in full, and friendly staff.
DC- In years past, there were problems anytime we went down there. After 2006 and the M-80 incident post USOC match, they have really stepped their game up from a crowd management standpoint. They are now the best away day in MLS from what I've seen. Away fans are afforded their own bathroom, their own concession/beer area, staff who turn the other cheek to pyro, plenty of space to hang banners, and their own area free of DC fans. Security escort to and from the ground is timely and efficient, fans can secure as many tickets as they want in the upper deck, and away fans are given a specific lot that is more than big enough to hold a traveling contingent. Another nice thing is the roof for cover in the event of a major thunderstorm. Decent sightlines even if they are a little higher up, and plenty of hate can rain down from the upper deck onto scum fans below. They need a new stadium, but their crowd management has been top notch the past few years. Columbus- I haven't been there since the nordecke was established. When I went, it was a relatively subdued affair with a smaller traveling contingent in an early season match. The stadium itself isn't that bad, it just doesn't really have any sort of cover in the south end away section. Parking was a nightmare, but nothing worse than I've seen at a PSU football game. I was given some trouble for wearing colors, but it was mostly because I had my PSU hat on and not because of my metro jersey. Times have changed significantly however, and I have yet to hear of any team really having a pleasant experience at CCS. From all accounts their security is terrible (and antagonistic), the home fans aren't especially pleasant and the amenities aren't that great at all either. New England- The only thing they do correctly is segregate fans. Outside of that, everything was pretty terrible. The last time I went up there, a brawl broke out because no security staff had the presence of mind to keep an eye on NE fans looking to start shit. Considering our buses were parked right outside of the gate, I find it incredible that NE fans were allowed to be waiting for our crew post match. Instead of controlling the few fans that were causing problems, they locked up three of our fans and hit them with pepper spray, including a guy in a wheel chair. The game day atmosphere is pretty pathetic, the concessions are ok at best, and you have to walk the length of the endline to even get to them (from where they had us). I mean, this was an awful, awful day out. Chicago- Monterrey security freaking blow. I mean they were beyond awful. A small traveling contingent and they still managed to allow Chicago fans to get into our area. I was beyond surprised at that, especially since they have a lot of away fans to their place. I like banter, but keep fans separated inside the ground FFS. Other than that, the section itself was alright for the location. I'd like to see them place away support in the upper terrace closest to the stage end. Less people up there, more room for away fans and banners as well. The tailgating wasn't too bad either. I mostly travel for cup matches (been to Wilmington Hammerheads, Harrisburg City Islanders, Long Island Rough Riders, Crystal Palace Baltimore, DCU)
What i've seen in RBA is they give a section in the upper deck corner to away fans opposite side of the arena from Home supporters. I guess this is good and bad. The bad is that there's no security up there so if problems came up, they security would be slow to respond. The good is that the home fans in that part of the arena are generally tame, so there shouldn't be problems with people starting fights, unless the away fans are being complete douchebags. Its mostly families and single game fans looking to have a good time. I sat up near the chicago fans for the season opener and found them kind of entertaining. But i don't know why this has to be an issue in MLS. Every other pro sport in the US has away fans mingling with home fans and its not that big a deal. Usually its a drunk jerk starting crap, which happens just as often between home and home fans. I've been to Yanks/BoSox playoffs and even then it was fine for the most part. As long as you know going in weaing away colors that your going to get comments, and don't overreact you're good.
Other major league sports don't have organized support and supporters groups like there are in MLS. How does it work with high-tension NCAA rivalry games (basketball/football/hockey)?
It has everything to do with the supporters groups. It is far easier to manage the great potential for security issues when all of the away fans are located in one place. Whether correctly portrayed or not (here in the US, definitely not), soccer has a reputation for violence between fans. Also, since soccer has the tradition of organized support, it is much easier to create a unified front of support when we are all located in the same section. Instead of the random yelling you see at other sporting events because of the interspersed fans, you get a block of songs and chants.
There is very little traveling organized support in upper level college sports in the U.S. For example, I went to a Big Ten university which is a big school conference in the Midwest. Most of our football stadiums are from 65,000 to 100,000 seats. The away team typically gets a block of less than 1,000 tickets out of that for their official traveling group. The basketball arenas are in the 10,000-20,000 seat range but the visiting teams only get a couple of hundred seats. The universities put together official travel groups but those are mostly alumni club groups. They sit together but otherwise are nothing like soccer supporters. Some college students travel but wind up all over the stadium and don't act as supporter groups, just individual fans. It's just a whole different situation.
Wrong. Away fans in RBA are surrounded by security, escorted to and from the ground, and have security stationed near bathrooms and in the hallways to prevent problems. RBA's plan is excellent. Outside of a minor issue outside of the ground, NY has shown that they are doing an excellent job handling away support.
Not really. PSU get's at a minimum of 3,000 seats for away games and sells out the allocation every time.
It's not an issue. There is always someone usually on these forums who over dramatize some "incident".
More than you think. I think we all know what the Big Tewelve is. You're not talking to a bunch of Tutsi herdsmen. I know OU & Texas, Nebraska get way more than that and sell out every one, not to mention they, they along with schools like Alabama, and other big schools all buy up unsold home tickets if any. See Above. The reality of the "whole different situation" is that there has never been a hoolie culture in college sports, (outside of the good old days of OU/Texas on Commerce Street, but none of that was inside the stadium,) and on a lot of campuses, alcohol is not sold in the stadiums. That combined with campus cops and state troopers who have never had a problem dragging Green Street Wannabes and other people gassed up on liquid courage out of the stands and beating them stupider with night sticks is what makes up you're "whole different situation".