ESC's Mother of all Open Cup Final threads; MUST READ (Now with Tommy Smyth!)

ESC's Mother of all Open Cup Final threads; MUST READ

All-

After a number of days working on ideas for the first cup final in Metro history, we have made the following plans. If you have questions, suggestions, etc, please post them here. You may also e-mail us at empiresc@verizon.net (please be patient, we will get back to you).

Please use this thread to plan for fan activities for Wednesday, October 15th. If you have other ESC membership business, questions about bus trips or whatever, please e-mail us. Thank you.

The Party
There will be a pre-game party at Nathan Hale's Bar and Grill from 2-6pm.

Nathan Hale's
6 Murray St (Bet. Broadway & Church Near City Hall Park)
New York, NY 10007
Tel: (212) 571-0776
American Express, Visa,MasterCard,Diners Club Discover, IGT/Times
Subway:
4,5,6, to City Hall/Brook. Bridge
N, R City Hall
A,C,E Chambers St.

There will be: Food, Drink Specials, a live band (from 5ish to 6pm), tons of metro fans congregating to get ready for the biggest game in team history.

If you've never been, Oct 15th is your day. Metro fans from all over the city will turn out, get loud and bleed for Metro. Please be there to share the day with your friends.

The Flyers
If you haven't already, please check out the flyer. Wait till the boss goes home and print out a few. Paste up where ya can, where you think they will do some good. Note: You cannot post them up in NYC, but you can pass them out on the corner. You can put them in bars/restaurants if the owner allows, but you must check with them first. Wear 'em on your jacket. Give it to your friends. Cut eye holes out and tape them to your face. Do what you have to do, but please try to get them out there. (Don't litter!).

Note: There is an England-Turkey Euro2004 qualifier game this Saturday morning. If you are going to hit a bar or soccer store near you, try to do it before Saturday AM (bars espec.) so that more soccer people will see them.

We encourage all fans to get active with the flyers. It is the cheapest, easiest thing you can do.

Stay tuned for flyer updates, we will have a flyer with party info on it in short order.

The Ad
There will be an Ad in First Touch magazine, you can look for it later this week. We may do another ad, but we are trying to save money for the bus, so that might be the largest Ad we have for this game.

The Bus
We plan to run 2 buses from Nathan Hale's to Giant's Stadium and back. Cost is $ 10, round trip (quite a deal for NYC, mind you). Count on $ 1 tip for the driver if you please. No, the bus does not include a match ticket.

The bus leaves from Nathan Hale's at 6pm. With traffic, we should get to the stadium by 7pm, leaving time for a bit of tailgate, march in and some pre-game warm ups to be in our seats (standing) by 7:45.

If there is enough interest we may run another bus, but conversely if there is not a lot of interest we may cancel the second bus. There are 55 seats per bus. We encourage everyone to RSVP by sending an e-mail to empiresc@verizon.net to request a spot. You can either paypal your $ 10 to escgear@yahoo.com or pay cash on the day of the trip. How you pay is up to you, but we ask that you please RSVP via e-mail so that we can take a head count. We don't want to cancel a bus and turn people away, nor do we want to end up with a second bus with 10 people on it losing money for the club. And if you RSVP, please actually show up. Again, we are doing this for everyone's convenience, so please help us help you.

The bus will drop off in 16A after arriving at Giant's Stadium.

After the game, we will board the bus no more than 30 minutes after the game ends (hopefully a bit sooner). Details will be given out on the bus on the day of the trip, but plan on getting from the park on the bus as soon as you can. If the game ends at 10, the buses will leave at or before 10:30pm or sooner.

The bus will return to at Nathan Hale's by 11pm, which has advised us that they will stay open for some post game drinking (always a Metro staple, win or lose). If you don't drink, show up and buy a coke, you won't regret it.

The T-Shirt
We are working on having a T-Shirt for everyone to buy, commemerating the first final in club history. Details will follow in this thread next week. Expect it to be short sleeve, double sided and costing around $ 15. It will likely be white or red, with black printing, but those details are still in the works.

The Tailgate
Post your tailgate plans here.

Details on that are up to the driving-type people, but expect a solid tailgate starting at 3pm and lasting until 7:30pm in lot 16A.

For the tailgate people, it is imperative that the grilling wind up around 7:15pm for the march-in at 7:30pm.

The March-in
Yes, old school style we will do a march in from Gate C around the stadium into 101. We will rally in lot 16A at 7:15 and leave at 7:30. We plan to bring our flags, drums, and loud voices to all metro fans. We should be in the section at 7:45pm.

Tickets
All tickets are $ 25. Contact 1-888-Metrotix with questions. You can buy tickets for section 101 at Gate C, and the ESC will be in that section only. If you need a membership, we will hook you up on the day.

If you are already an ESC member, you can call the number above and get tickets for $ 20. You will need your membership number.

The Game
Wednesday, Oct 15th, 8pm.

All we can say here is the obvious. This is the first final in club history and we have the luck to be hosting it. Everyone in this club, on the boards, in the area and within any possible driving distance who supports Metro or even soccer in general needs to show up to support Metro. We need to come big, loud and fierce. Bring every flag, drum, horn, instrument and vocal chord you have. Wear red and black. Paint your face, paint your gut, whatever you need to do. Bring your friends. Bring your enemies. Bring homeless people from the subway. No one at the game will regret going.

But most of all, bring yourself. It is up to all of us to make this a day for Metro fans, players and the league to remember. In the words of Frank Cross:

Don't miss it. Your life might just depend on it.

Thank you.

-ESC.