I know atmosphere is completely subjective, but am still curious what it is like at the Depot Center during a game. Who are the fans? Are they latino? Is crowd made up of kids? What's the general feel of the place? Stuff along these lines.....
Much like the city of Los Angeles, the usual crowd for a Galaxy home game is sort of a melting pot of soccer fans. You have the soccer mom crowd - parents with their kids, the "ethnic" fans - people who probably cheer for their native or ancestral country more than for the US, business types who got some corporate tickets and wouldn't know an offsides trap from a throw-in, and the really dangerous people- the diehard fans who insist on standing during the games and chanting and have come up with names for their thuggish clans. Blue-collar, white-collar, no-collar, they're all there. Which is why I love going to the games so much. It is typically a little more laid-back than I would like, the soccer-mom and corporate crowd mutes everything a little too much. But when it's an exciting game it starts to get pretty electric in the stands and the noise level goes up and it's a lot of fun. Except for how much they charge for parking and beer...
I think it depends on the game and the opponent. I really believe that one material element of the traditional soccer experience is a good size away supporters group to fire up the locals. When San Jose is in town, we get that. When NE or KC comes to town, not much. I've never tried to do an "ethnic census" of LAG crowds, but my gut reaction is that the crowd is about 50/50 Anglo and Latino. In the Latino group, only a part is Mexican - our larger ethnic groups are Guatamalan (no surprise) and Salvadorian. The LA Riot Squad in the south-east corner does a good job of chanting/cheering/swearing/drinking and other traditional soccer-related activity. Did I mention drinking? The Glaxians have drums and are more family oriented, but still do a lot of traditional cheering and noise making. I think Galaxians have about twice the size group as Riot Squad, but I could be wrong on the numbers. The North End general admission seats (The 12th Man Section) can be pretty loud too, but not very organized. We do get our share of kids and soccer moms, and I know from other threads what you think about them. If it weren't for the #$#@^$* plastic horns, I could tolerate them. We do have an amazingly wimpy "mascot" but mostly people ignore it/him. We used to have a guy who dressed up like a witch doctor and fired up the crowd, but he hasn't been around for a while. The roof makes a huge difference by keeping the noise inside the stadium and reflecting it back. And the upper deck is a great noise-maker, because people can stomp on the metal decks. When LAG scores, there are confetti cannons - which seems to fire people up. I have been to games in Chicago at old Soldier Field and in Naperville, and games at RFK. I think the hard core group at RFK is bigger than ours, and I like the "bouncing" stunt they do. And Sec. 8 at Fire games is a little bigger than our supporters' sections, but no more intense. Over all, I think our crowds tend to be louder than the RFK crowds (at least at the games I've been to) and I haven't seen Fire at home since they moved to NSF, so I can't judge. You need to come out and make your own judgment, but I think you would find that a good game at Victoria Street is about as close as any MLS game comes to the real feel of a soccer game. BTW: It wouldn't hurt the atmosphere any to have a team that could attack occasionally!
I think the crowd is more likely 75% Latino and 25% Other Than Latino. Without Latinos, our crowds would be more like Sad Jose in size. In fact, without Latinos, I seriously doubt there would be an LA soccer franchise and I doubt that there would be MLS. The $ revenue would simply not be there. Have you hugged a Latino today? Topper
As bias and immature this post might sound to some people, I actually agree with it very much. Without Latinos involved, I fell North American Soccer would have nevere risen above the collegiate levels.
Latino...Gringo...who cares? We are all Galaxy fans. Personally, I can't tell what the atmosphere is like at games because I seem to always have some 6-year-old blowing in a horn right behind me. I can't even hear the announcer tell us who the Kohls fan of the game is.
I really feel that it has been evolving something like this: Year 1 LAtino 95%, Anglo 5% Year 5 Latino 75%, Anglo 25% Year 9 Latino 50%, Anglo 50% I really believe that above. Which I think is why it is great to have Chivas in the league to recapture some of the latino fan base that the Galaxy has lost over the years. Mike
Do you really see any bias whatsoever in my post? I can guarantee you that in my heart and mind, there is none. I was making an observation of the crowd in HDC, not passing judgement of any kind. BTW, I took my own suggestion and hugged a Latina today, and I would say that we both enjoyed it. Topper
HDC is louder then RFK because of the roof, it's already been mentioned amongst DCU fans that a roof is a must have if/when they get their stadium...for many reasons, including Noise Levels.
Before I decided to post a serious reply, I was originally going to say that the Home Depot Center Atmosphere is composed of 75% Nitrogen, 20% Oxygen, 3% Carbon Dioxide and 2% Menthane, the menthane being the byproduct of all the bull**** Dougie's been laying the past two years...
Do you remember those early innocent days when the LAG had "the official jalapeno of the Los Angeles Galaxy." And the one thing that should have been brought from Pasadena to Carson was King Taco. Better than anything sold in the current concession stands!
U forgot about those wonderful horns!!! I hate those stupid things!! Ought to be banned. D.C. has the best atmosphere along with Chicago, IMO, and I live in L.A., our games are not as "intense" as Id like
Regardless, Bayer04fan still deserves a punch in the groin. "OOOH GAMES JUST AREN'T AS INTENSE AS I'D LIKE! WAAAA!" Get with the Riot Squad, that should do yah. Chicago, indeed. Their crowds were weak sauce this year, and the atmosphere of Solidier Field must be like playing in the Grand Canyon.
Absolutely. It was. That's one of many reasons that the experience at Victoria Street is so much better.
How many games have you been to at RFK, or are you judging by the TV coverage? I've seen three games there. Their supporters groups are top notch, loud and wonderful. But the other 90% of the stadium might as well be the Dead Zone, and because of the roof Victoria Street is much more intense overall.