Ok, I'm really starting to get mad. Why? -I'm tired of United's supporters being the loudest in the league. -I'm tired of Columbus Crew supporters being degraded on these boards -I'm tired of the same old, same old, at CCS -I'm tired of the lack of support in Columbus -I'm tired of no new ideas being put into action for the supporters clubs Come on people. I'm watching clips of Barra Brava and Screaming Eagles. We can do better than that. We need to get ready for 2005 NOW. When the Crew is on TV, it should be a sea of banners, just like DC. You should be able to actually hear our chants. Good God, DC is loud enough. You can hear constant noise and chants there. Listening to replays on MLSnet.com is embarrasing. You hear a quiet hum for pieces of the match. Maybe it's just me, but this is frustrating. It's time to be creative. It's time to make a difference. Let's make the north end a sea of black and gold, with flags waving, drums beating, banners over sections, and chants you can actually hear. The Legion 04 is more than ready to work with V-Army. We have the ability to accomplish these goals if we want. Let's make it happen.
Do we really want to be like DC fans? They're loud, but they're also obnoxious **********. Every one of them. Hmmmmm.....
Good god, you can't stay out of business that doesn't concern you. This is Crew business. For Crew supporters. And no one else. I really do hate to say this, but look at the way the teams played today. Not once did either team throw the towel in. Even when [result]DC had a 2 goal lead, KC kept on fighting.[/result] If that was Columbus, who knows what would have happened.
You're heart is pure Crew, kiddo. But before you start getting other fans to chant and really into it, you may want to look at your initial crowd, and ask yourself why the kids sitting with you are giving each other "noogies" and spiting ice chips into each others' cups... Just saying..
Good point. This is the toughest time. We're just starting to build, it takes time and so this stuff happens. If we can average 30 or so next year, I doubt we'll have problems like this.
I'm getting sick of going to f'king mlsnet.com and seeing DC wins again. Seriously. If we don't do competent stuff next year, I swear to God, I'm not responsible for what I do.
Because most of them, if not all, are in high school. Personally, I don't care how many groups we have, just as long as everyone works together to achieve the same result.
Well, technically we're open to anyone, but yes, we do target high schoolers. Also, we work with V-Army during matches. There were several Legion members working with V-Army on the jersey flag. We chant together, we lead some, and V-Army leads some (more of them). I started Legion 04, because... -I had/have a vision of what the north end can truly become if we work at it. -I was getting tired of the same old-same old with V-Army (No Offense) -I was getting frustrated of the vulgarity coming from 137, it had no purpose. -I like being in control, leading is something I like to do, I could therefore put my ideas into action. -I wanted to see what I could come up with, I wanted to see if I could get my ideas to work. -I didn't/don't think that V-Army was/is thinking progressively or creatively (No Offense). -I want to see the north end grow and become a solid mass that is so loud, the announcers on the radio and TV have to raise their voice.
This just continues my list of grievances.... I'm frustrated that my ideas, especially at the supporters club meeting in August were being shot down as "impossible" or "not practical." For example, I suggested trying to put another banner under the jersey flag so that when the jersey flag was pulled back down, there was another one underneath it, with some statement or whatever. I immediatly received responses like, "We can't do that," or "We don't have enough money." So....IMPROVISE. You think I've got alot of money...crap no, but I don't give up. I've said this so many times...I AM WILLING TO DONATE MY TIME TO HELP US ACCOMPLISH SOMETHING GREAT. We have to think out of the box. Why do you think no one really wants to join Legion 04 and V-Army? It's because we do the same thing game after game. If you make every game unique, people will get excited. What that is, I don't know, that's where we invent, think out of the box. We can do numerous things, whether it's releasing 1,000 balloons into the night as the Crew takes the field, whether it's making a long thin banner that stretches across five sections that reads something, or whatever...we can do it...together. V-Army, you guys have so many resources, that at this current stage could only dream of having. You don't utilize those resources. You, right now have the ablity to do more than you think. You have resources in us. We have...hopefully, a resource in V-Army. Together, we can make Screaming Eagles and Barra Brava look like the weakest supporters clubs in the nation. I'm going to end this very long post with a quotation from Henry Ford... "Whether you believe you can or you can't, you are right."
I don't mind an occasional curse word, but if you want to bring in support, you can't be cursing every other word.
There's some things I've been thinking about for a while here, tell me what you think. Why not plan ahead of time and make a "program" for songs and chants that is fairly consistant from game to game. Have the program seperated into 9, 10 minute spans or 18, 5 minute spans each with different songs and chants and 1 common song like "Glory to Columbus" to be song when the Crew score. Then make it available through HPI and SCN for people to print about 50 or so at their house and pass out in their different sections that they sit at the stadium. Then V-Army and Legion also make up a large bunch for general passing out as well. I know song sheets have been tried in the past, but the problem with song sheets is they don't give any type of direction; people have no idea what to do with them. Now I'm a good Presbyterian and I can tell you the exact minute on the hour each section of the service begins because there's always been a program handed out before services. It's just become ingrained in me. It's just like the "SUCKS" cheer during introductions, everyone knows it and eveyone knows when to do it and most people participate. Give people direction with a program and few people to actually start the songs and chants in the sections and I bet that a lot of people will join in. Now as for Banners and Flags, why not have a big banner making station out front of the stadium before games? People can come over and make their own banners as they walk in the stadium. Maybe even have some stencils of Crew logos or players as well. People can go over to Goodwill and buy white, black, or yellow sheets for like .25 to .50 cents, cut them up and get a good number of canvases for signs. It wouldn't be that expensive. Set it up right next to where V-Army has their tailgates with a big sign saying FREE SIGNS. Hell maybe even hand out confetti as well. Buying a large box of yellow and black paper is only like 15, 20 dollars, cut the paper in thirds, put it through a paper shreader and you have confetti to hand out. Maybe even have a face paints there for people. I saw some things like that at Big Lots for a couple dollars. That's my suggestion. It'll cost money, but I think it could work. Maybe not so much money if V-Army and Legion can get the Crew FO on board and maybe throw some money in it.
How about using the cheerleaders to actually lead some cheers? Give the Crewzers the song sheets with the set times for each song and let em loose on the crowd. I know a lot of people on this board have certain feelings about the Crewzers, but the general public seems more tolerant. Give them some of the easier (and clean) ones and get the entire stadium involved. Or if people think the Crewzers incapable, have some fans go around and lead the chants. Once people get accustomed to chants they become second nature, like the sucks chant during intros or the DE-fense chants at football games. It is a matter of consistently getting the chants going. If that means that at every tenth minute one chant gets started and every 30th another starts so be it.
The big thing with song sheets and doing "this song" at X minute, is that it won't always work. If we pick a song to sing at the 70th minute, we could be up 2-0, or we could be down 1-3 with a man sent off. Many times, the game dictates what song we sing. I think the banner under the jersey flag idea could work, it's just that we always need so many people to help with the jersey flag, that takes a lot away. When we run it up the stands, we need at least 4-5 people to run it up. Then we need about 8-10 to run it under the stands. Obviously, it'll be a little hard to run it under, if people are waving flags in the section. Also, when the jersey flag comes down, it'd be hard to hold the second banner, while pushing the jersey flag down. Maybe it'll work. Let's see what numbers we have next spring and see what we can or can't do.
You'd have to make the songs kind of Generic sure, more cheering for the Crew then against the other team. It's not like you can work in a we're kicking your ass cheer at the 70' before the game. However, it seems a good trade off to try to get everyone envolved and it doesn't(or shouldn't) matter if the Crew are down to cheer on our boys. Then after a couple years of that when people know the songs and that it's expected of them to join in, you could do away with the "program"
Yes, numbers will play a factor, but if we can muster the hands of at least 12 we can do the banner under banner idea, and here is how.... You need the standard number of around 8 or so to run up the banner and stuff. If you can position 2 on each side of the jersey flag to hold the banner underneath it, you have a base to hold down the second banner. You have one on each side also at the top (total of 6). At the bottom you have another six to pull down the jersey flag. Assuming the other banner is big, the jersey flag should slide right down over the other one. Now here's the kicker... We have to find a way to anchor the bottom banner to the jersey flag. We only need to do this at the top. The jersey flag will then essentially pull the other banner up with it. Then when we pull down the jersey flag, we disconnect the bottom banner. The jersey flag slides away, revealing our other banner... ______________________JerseyFlag__________________________________ I____________Other Banner____________________________ 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 The "I" represents the connection, something that can clasped and unclasped quickly, grommets with a plastic snap thingy would be best. This is on the corner of the flag and is held by the person running the flag up the stands, on both sides.. The zero's are obviously the people. Of course to make this work we have to construct a banner. I've seen some of V-Army's art, and it's pretty good. We don't necessarily have to go buy a professionally made banner, we can connect fabric pieces, and go from there. Imagine.... It's opening night, the anticipation is at the climax. Baba O'Reilly begins to play. Smoke is coming from 137. The Legion is bouncing in 138. The jersey flag begins to work its way up over 136, 137, and 138. It reaches the top, swirling in the night. It stays there for several seconds. It begins to slide back down, but underneath there's another banner, reading (insert message here ). It stays there for several seconds. It too begins to go back down. As the Crew comes onto the field, people at the top of 137 and 138 release hundreds of black and gold balloons. As the second banner slides down, the people emerging from under it are releasing balloons. The roar of the crowd is deafening. The 2005 season has begun.
Yep and the 90' crowd noise after that is completly the same. I don't see how adding another banner to a pregame thing is going to make the stadium louder during the game.
I think it's clear: we all want the end result (full stadium with involved fans), but no one is really willing to work to get to that point. It's easier to just sit here and complain about it or make up reasons not to stand with V-Army. Now Zak, to my knowledge, was doing a lot to help build the group, but philosophical differences between him and the club (fire Andrulis already!) caused this initiative to stop. I still remember the first game of this year (2004) when all of section 137 was standing for the whole match and most of those people were singing/chanting. I personally brought 4 friends to that game, and all of them wanted to come back because it was a great time. But the support slowly declined, and eventually my friends didn't want to come anymore. I have a feeling many of you have similar stories. I sort of forgot where I was going with this, and this is a long enough post already.
Legion04, best way to get people to respect your ideas is to go and do stuff. I didn't ask anyone to help me make Barra banner (well except my gf cos I can't sew ) Now when I want to get more banners pro made I can get people sponsoring it in a second. I didn't ask anyone to help me make large 50 foot signs and by last 2 home games of season we had a group of 15 working on it and freeing me to do other stuff. I didn't ask for help with our first choreos and by the time we were in LA we had few guys who organized some themselves with little help from me. Just put your (and your group's) work into it, people generally respect deeds more than talk hehe that's the spirit
To whomever mentioned the Crewzers leding anything in the way of support; you must be dreaming I remember early this season, some kids were trying to get "The Wave" started, and asked the Crewzers to help out a bit. I believe they just laughed and continued to talk to one another. Classy. Very.