Zak and I were talking today about this stuff. Here's what i'm thinking. This is not a final list by any means. (kickoffs 7:30 saturdays, unless otherwise noted) April 5th, LA 4 PM - Home Opener 4 PM (*)April 26th MetroStars - 4 PM (*) May 31st MetroStars June 28th - D.C. United July 5th Dallas - Large US flag for holiday celebration/weekend. (*)August 30th - Kansas City - Front office pushing for large crowd. (*)September 13th - Dallas October 4th - D.C. United October 26th - Chicago Crew Schedule for 2003 -- (*) - Games that can be cut out. July 5th - In lieu of jersey flag, Crew office has access to a large (very large) US flag. It's somewhere around the dimensions of 60 feet x 40 feet or larger. Maybe 70 feet by 50 feet. We'd do it in the same fashion as jersey flag. FWIW, Brad and I were talking about possibilities of a double header with the USNT.. he says it's probably not gonna happen. August 30th - Holiday weekend (labor day), Crew are trying to "heavily sell" this game because of the labor day weekend. But look at who we're playing and something tells me not to do it. We can look at ticket sales and make a decision in a few months, i guess. September 13th - This game's tricky. I have family coming in from all over. So I may not be able to help unpack, or I may be able to drag some of them over to help, but it's looking right now like I won't be able to help set up. Things can change of course. Also, we do have the Columbus Flag which can be used when the jersey flag is not being used. The good thing about the CF is that it can "travel" from section to section in two senses. 1) If we're doing the jersey flag, we could possibly have the CF go up some place else while the JF's going up. 2) Start the Columbus flag at one corner of the stadium and have people pass it all the way around the stadium. #2 wasn't my idea, but it's certainly something we could work on. And for the first game, we're probably gonna meet at the stadium around 1 PM, take people inside to set up banners and then start the tailgate soon after....if I heard Zak right on that. Also, some of you may know THOMA GOL.. he's the guy that made a bunch of the banners.. he wasn't here for the 2002 season, but he says he may be back this year with more (new) banners to replace the ones we currently have.
I would say that most of the starred dates will be no go's. But, in the event that we approach 20k, then I think it's doable. Lets plan on home opener depending on what the sales are like, both DC's, and both Shitcago's. We can then play it by ear on all the rest, if there's a 20k game then we can get it done.
more ideas US flag up during anthem (obvious). Megaphone for jersey flag (if it'll help any) lastly (for now), one of the jersey flag days last year, the flag went up (on cue), but for some reason, there was a delay before the team took the field.... if we could do this again this year, maybe it's worth looking in to?