I was in section 113 and it was very good view from the second row. Could hear S8 very clearly, some times it is the timing of who's the best, it should be done during dead time in the game. Any way the players and the coaches walked right in front of the section. After the game I yelled at Andrulis that he blew it and is going to get fired and he shot me a dirty look. I have to explore SF some more but I thought it was nice, looking foward to being in S8 next game. BTW , did anyone see on the scoreboard Cory Cramer proposed to Lisa Brennan(my cousin). Well did she accept. John
i've got to say...i just don't like it. i'm sure a big part of it is just getting used to the new set up. it feels fake. too high-tech, i guess. of course, i grew up going to a stadium where you pissed against the fence. oh well. section 8 sounded like sh!t. yes, we weren't at our best, but mostly it's just the configuration of the stadium. seeing the same cocks*cker garcia faces in new unis was a pleasent surprise. here's to a few years of making their lives hell. once we bring in the flares/smoke bombs, things should get back to some sort of resemblence of the good old days.
You guys sounded good on TV. That might have been because of Fox Sports' audio setup, though. Also, from the shots they showed (all lower deck?) the place looked full.
Section 8 was usually clearly audible from the front of 211, although it seemed to die down some after Mirek got tossed. Access into and out of the east side 200 level requires serious improvement. Staff didn't appear to know where to send people after the match, and obvious exit routes (the escalators and colonnades) were closed off.
I was not all that impressed with NSF. I thought the sightlines and acoustics would be better. After seeing a game at NSF I'm more conviced then ever that we need our own stadium. Something inbetween NSF and NCC. Standing in the front row of section 8 I could barley hear the drums. On a side note I think it would be great if we hoisted up the netting that is used to stop a football from entering the stands after a field goal, before an opponet takes a PK infront of section 8. Hopefully it would send a "message" that we think that the shot will go sailing high over the crossbar. I can just see the look on someone's face, like what in the h*ll are they doing, it would have to distract them at least a little.
From the Republic of Texas's vintage point you all looked great. Noise was not as loud as in Naperville. And the ugly NFL lines ruined the visual simplicity soccer can only offer... Fire: you need your own stadium with a roof... That's it...
Keep up the good work. It's really important to have intelligent derogatory directed at our opponents. It gets in their heads. Anyone can scream "*#*#*#*# you!" but when someone is more aware, like knowing the Crew just screwed their season, it can really hurt. That's good fanship.
Mirek got tossed? Christ, what the *#*#*#*# is going on? There are at least a few people in Section 8, myself not included, that should be considered sacred. If they're taken out, we're all taken out. Crap.
Mexico vs Uruguay from the new soldier field on telemundo Wed Oct 15 06:00PM Pacific Wed Oct 15 09:00PM Eastern Mexico vs Uruguay
Now that my frustration levelled off slightly, I would like to bring forth a few comments about the New Soldier Field. First of all, it really is an ugly thing. I don't like it from the outside and the inside offers nothing special. I could not care less about the concessions and what they sell there because, as an unemployed person, anything that is offered at an insane 600% (or more) of its value is as much beyond my financial ability as merchandise priced at 200%. The bathrooms featured some annoying attendants begging for money for them and their families. Very unpleasant sight--I did not know Chicago still has so much resemblance of the Third World. The only thing that I liked was the concourse at the top of the 100 level which allowed free movement around the entire stadium but again I think Gilette Stadium in Foxboro and even Columbus Crew Stadium are designed better in this respect. The seats are a joke. During our tour of the stadium on Wednesday, we were told that these Australian seats are very expensive and fairly unique (only two stadiums in the United States have them, including Soldier Field). What is not up to par is their durability. I clearly understand why standing on them should be forbidden--they seem so fragile. Of course there were few who tried sitting on them (I don't think it is possible to sit in them at all) in Section 8, but I heard that they are not so comfortable, either (this looks more and more like some scam). The positioning of Section 8 might not be the best. I was surprised it was so difficult to hear each other in the section, and outside of the section the sound just did not carry so well. The lack of intensity may be attributed to the missing podium/nest/stand for the cheerleader or leaders. Therefore, it was difficult to conduct cheers in the section, as few people could see the leaders. Add to this the constant battles with the security and you had one big mess instead of an organized activity. The difficulty to carry on cheering may be explained this way: few people were able to see the leader so only part of the section was starting the cheers. People would join in a moment but by this time the people who started felt that they were the only ones cheering and stopped chanting. Others would stop soon, too, and this way the cheers were dying out super fast. In addition, because it was difficult to hear each other and very few paid attention to the leader, there were numerous times when there were at least two chants going on in the section at the same time. I guess you guys did not come with a big heart as I asked you to. Or the lack of stand spoiled everything. I actually think that Section 8 did not sound too well because there actually were very few people singing at one time. I don't think I ever got attention of more than 50% of the group. A smaller effect had the positioning of the section, which magnified the damping of Section 8 sound. I reckon the positioning of Chris's drums is good. I could hear the drums well and I think they will carry sound much better than if positioned up front. There, the bass will just escape into the field and at the top it can be carried by the solid media: stalls, seats, people, and the nice air bubble called the concourse. In the second half, I went around the stadium to observe how Section 8 sounds and what sightlines are offered in different parts of the venue. My study may be somewhat biased because Tomek, who was leading the section at the time did not seem to recall any other songs beside our most popular one. That made it hellishly annoying to me. Overall, the section could be heard more or less througout the stadium. It is easier to notice and understand what we are singing in sections closest to Section 8 up to near where the penalty area ends. Then, hearing Section 8 becomes more and more difficult, although you can hear it a little better just past the half line going north. If you go farther, the sound just dies down. The opposite side is not the best place to hear Section 8 but if you listen closely and carefully, you can pick it up from ever present chatter of people in other sections. So overall, it is a disaster, but not absolute and total disaster. We know that the "Who's the best" question remained unanswered and that it was not very audible far outside of the section. I guess we need to live with that and wait for breaks in play before we attempt to ask it again. It will also be crucial that absolutely everybody shouts the question out then. However, the "Fire, clap, clap, clap" chant carried very well througout the sections and very many people joined Section 8 in doing it. We need to repeat it more often throughout the game. So my final thought today is: the Fire need to find themselves their own soccer specific stadium that will sit 30000 (or slightly more) people on two levels with the lower level closed with the roof or overhang. Marcin
My wife was wondering about that. She always thought I would proposed that way, but I was too afraid she would say no. Well congratulations to your cousin. Will the bride be wearing red?
From 244, I couldn't hear S8 very well at all. It was clear that there were a lot of people singing, because I can tell the difference in sound quality between a few voices and many, but it just doesn't carry. I agree with whoever said it felt like we were indoors. Very little sky visible. At one point, someone in our section began singing 'Let Fire Roar', which was cool. It's going to be tough to get anything stadium-wide, because the overhangs make the 200 sections into very loud echo chambers for themselves, but they shut out noise from everywhere else. Apparently the fireworks freaked out the Cubs fans in Kasey's Pub in the South Loop. The bartender asked if I'd been at the game, asked if there were fireworks, and said that people were like what the *#*#*#*#, terrrorists? He had a hunch and told them it was the Fire. The funny thing is that it was exactly the same for us inside the stadium. We knew there were fireworks, but we could only listen, because the overhang blocked all but a sliver of sky. The view was great considering where my seats were, and where the equivalent seats would have been in old SF.
All I can tell you is that out side of the fact that it may have bee a little disorganized, I think you are blowing things way out of proportion. Section * sounded better tonight than it did most nights in Naperville IMO. You need to have a warm glasss of lighten the hell up!!! Take some prozac or something . On a serious note I strongly disagree with you. I think the only people I didn;t really hear were the Ultras .
Section 8 The other thing you have to remember is that with 30,000 people in there, section 8 was a much smaller percentage of the attendence than any game at Naperville. There was a lot more ambient noise of people talking, and that helps drown out your organized cheering a bit. And there were probably many thousands of people there who didn't know the cheers and didn't know what was going on. How much of Section 8 were regulars, anyway? Once you get things organized again, I'm sure it'll be better. I couldn't hear much but whistles on the Yahoo stream for the most part, but there were a few occasions when I heard "Fi-er, fi-er,fi-er fi-er fi-er" or other familiar chants. And thankfully, no bloody horns... I'm still hoarse from singing in the pub today (En-ger-land!), so I'm looking forward to Wednesday.
Anybody remember Coneheads? Onion is a term for a female conehead vagina. They essentially look the same if you cut an onion in half. That is the reason.
Re: Section 8 I was very unpleasantly surprised to learn that Section 8 was limited to only two sections: 122 and 123. I guess the Fire management did not believe we would have more than 600 people. I think at least 300 to 600 people were left outside Section 8 even though they wanted to be in it. This is in addition to the fact that there were actually about 800-900 people in the 600 seats in these two sections. Most were able to sneak in from the adjacent sections and only those who had tickets to completely different areas of the stadium were turned away. This is why the sections adjacent to Section 8 (121 and 124) looked one-third empty while all the other ones looked full. Those people were hanging out in Section 8. I think it is a big blunder on behalf of the Fire ticket sales crew. They should have kept 4 sections: 121 through 124 for Section 8ers. I don't think there would be any problem with filling these up and there should not be in the upcoming games. Why the hell is this area called Supporters' anyway??? Those who don't feel like supporting should be offered tickets and seated on the opposite (north) side of the stadium. That side sold out at the 100 level anyway. I don't even want to mention or talk much about the overcrowding problem--this is not my concern. Section 8 was filled with regulars last night if you can call people who came back after 2 years of hibernation while Fire played at Cardinal Stadium. I brought a group of 156, and around 110 of them have not been to more than 1-2 games in Naperville and most of them have been to none for two years. In addition, I have seen many familiar faces that God knows how got into Section 8 because it was sold out a couple days before the game and I am sure they did not buy their tickets in advance. Well, those people might not have been up to speed yet but we pretty much only covered our old classics and did not venture into out new repertoire too much (see my remark about Tomek's cheerleading). I guess I have to live with all these wrinkles for a while and try starting to iron them out. (I don't know much what Prozac is but I will try not to take so much speed anymore.) As I said before, he "Who's the best" chand needs to be taught to the masses again and we need to try it during breaks in play at the top of our lungs. It will be harder than at Old Soldier Field. Marcin
I got into secion 8 even though I had tickets completley somewhere else but they were $15 more expensive then the secion 8 tickets so I convinced one of the ushers to let me in. And there were so many people there that never came to naperville so they didn't know any of the newer chants that were made up in naperville.
Driving to the stadium, from the outside, it looked to me like the inside of a soup can. or possibly those ribbed metal garbage cans. ugly. Inside, what is with all the DENTED TO HELL siding all over the place? If you're going to put up any sheeted metal, at least make it thicker than aluminum siding. shoddy. football lines. ug. Where's FIRE Stadium?
i was in 122 and saw on a couple of occasions people looking confused because someone was "in" their assigned seats. maybe things would be better with general admission tickets for the section... give people a better idea of what to expect/is expected.
Yeah that was annoying I saw few groups of people like that but then at the end they just gave up because there were two times more people then the seats there.