God, I hope you're kidding. Are you serious? And if you are, is that because of a law, or a regulation? It's not a meaningless distinction; regulations can be changed or waived, especially if your FO is willing to bat for you (yeah, I know, that doesn't seem likely right now, but for the sake of discussion) while laws are laws. Obviously there's no silver bullet -- no "if we just do X, everything will be solved." But it seems obvious that a lot of the problems either boil down to your FO, or have solutions that are impeded by the FO. And it's absolutely the case that the support of the United FO has been essential here. So it boils down to creating that support from the Metros FO. If you're convinced that that's just an impossible thing to get, then I dunno what to say. But if there's a chance to change that, then that seems worth of committing every ounce of your efforts. For instance, you could put together some sort of collection of images and audio/videos -- of us, of Section 8, of the Riot Squad, of some of the better Sam's Army turnouts, whoever -- showing huge flags and choreographies and banners and confetti and whatever else you want. And schedule some sort of meeting with the public affairs folks at the FO, where you show them this stuff. They can't be completely oblivious to it -- we heard from our FO that representatives of the Metro FO, here for the 2nd leg of our playoff series, expressed some envy about the atmosphere -- but such a presentation can be used to make it more clear. And then you ask the question: "Do you want this here? We want it here, and we want to help it happen here. Do you want it here." Only you ask it more politically carefully than that, because the way I just put it seems adversarial. And you get across that you're not asking for money (we get no money from the United FO for the stuff we do), you're not asking for resources -- you're just asking for *support*. To go to bat for you with the NJSEA, so that tables like described above could happen. To facilitate ticket exchanges, so that people can come to find out about the ESC, meet people, and possibly join. To get NJSEA to allow (if you currently cannot) open tailgates, and to help publicize them (a mention on the PA at each game; a mention in any inserts that go out to season ticketholders). To go out of their way to keep you up to date on off-field events, so there's never a chance of something happening without an ESC presence. To have an open ear to suggestions on how the team could promote itself (even if the suggestions are mostly crap and the FO doesn't follow them, the sense that the FO listens to them helps maintain interest). There are a zillion things they could do that don't require them putting money in your hands. "We'll sit at the tables. We'll make an effort to meet new people and introduce them to others. We'll lead chants and songs. We'll make banners. We'll organize call ins to sports radio shows or question write-ins to online chats, so the Metros have more opportunities to cross the general public's radar screens. We would like you to *support us* in doing these things." If they see you as an asset, I can't imagine that they won't want to use that asset. If they're not dedicated to destroying the team, and if they believe that you'll do the things you say you'll do, how can they say no? And if you're sure they will nonetheless, try anyway; the worst that can happen is they do say no, and you're no worse off than you are now. The one thing I wouldn't do is wait for the new stadium. I agree that a lot of things get simpler that way. But maybe that gets delayed for a year, or two. And even if it does go through perfectly, a lot of the above is stuff that there's no need to delay on, that doesn't require waiting for a new stadium to get going. A lot of the time, failure comes not from trying and failing, but from never getting started because of waiting until one can do things perfectly. I dunno. I'm worried that I'm annoying the crap out of people here because you're sitting there thinking "yes yes, we know, we've thought of these things before, we've tried them before." I'm sorry, if so. But I'd still suggest trying anyway, and trying again if you've tried before. If you can win your FO's support, a lot of other things become a lot easier. And obviously morale is a lot better when you feel like the FO gives a crap.
Or we could just show them videos of the ESC pre-2000 There is a silver bullet. It'll be the one the enters at a very high speed through what little grey matter our GM possesses. Nick S. can't stand criticism of the team and of the players Nick S. cleaned out all the people who actually cared about Metro Nick S's vision of a fanbase is "fan-friendly" little groups and kids. He has made it abundantly clear that if he had his way, ESC would not exist and be replaced by some tame facsimilie. so no, we don't have support of our FO and probably never will as long as Nick can manage to drag out this project - in fact it's quite the opposite. which is why if the Metro average 5K in real numbers next year I wouldn't be surprised.
Thanx for trying to help Bootsy...... But you are preaching to the choir. The MFO that traveled down to the game in RFK.... yes they were impressed with the atmosphere, but like everything it takes work, and the MFO ain't gonna work to make it happen. As I've said before, there are quite a few people in the MFO who'd love to have a huge ESC, and would be willing to help them out. But like every organization, the orders come from the top. And in the case of the MFO, the people at the very top there do not want a vocal and independent ESC. You can change all the mid level MFO people that you want, but it won't matter. The marching orders come from the top. For whatever reason, Nick is afraid that if the ESC grows, he won't be able to sell the Metrostars as a family outing. Nick does not think that a good balance can exist between the hardcore soccer fans and the soccer mum's with their 12 kids. Nick is convinced that the hardcore fan will show up no matter what, and therefore he only needs to concentrate on the fly-by-night fans. Shame...... And yes, the NJSEA WILL arrest you for setting up a table in their parking lot. Hell, even purchasing an ESC membership in the car park is akin to a drug deal in the eyes of the NJSEA. Never mind trying to sell ESC/Metrofanatic merchandise......
LA security took our drumsticks this weekend and had balls to claim they will be used as weapons. I mean, really what do you say to stuff like that? I was just looking at the guy, shaking my head and saying you are actually serious? We had cellphones, batteries, coins, beer bottles and could have just brought in rocks if we wanted flying objects heh. Instead we just sent our FO big wig to get sticks back and used beer bottles to play drums till then Speaking of which, 30 or so people from our FO were standing right next to us wearing black, from tickets people to top guys like Steve Zach and Mike Mohammed. They sang and chanted whole game with us (and got us drumsticks back during game, brought in streamers and some of the flags on team bus so we don't get harassed on entrance, got us in day before to hang banners - stuff LA FO was supposed to do but was too lazy, and got good number of us into postgame party). Here's to hoping MFO does that one day too. our front office: http://www.bastaic.com/ultras/final/group_game_pics/game3.jpg
They just seemed bit braindead, following orders to a letter (drumstick as a weapon geez). They also went through our section looking for a guy that threw a beer cup on field (yes, I yelled at him ) so they must have had cameras on us. They couldn't find him cos we got him different hat and shirt and kept walking into security's way till they gave up lol
Awesome idea, but don't forget about CT, there are some Metro fans up here too. I'd love to find people up here as well as a central place, much like Nathan Hales, to all meet and watch the away games. Never had much luck with it tho.
You want it? Just DO IT. Committment and energy are all it takes. The ESC supports anyone who shows the initiative to do more than type some words on a message board. 1. Find a local bar, preferably one w/multiple TVs. 2. Tell them your group wants to gather there to watch soccer. 3. Give them 2 weeks notice of the date and time. 4. Promote the event here and get a head count for the bar. 5. Pull in enough peeps to get them to take you seriously, tip madly (a good CT. system to follow... watch whatever Koch tips and triple it), and work out a drink special for watch parties to follow. 6. Keep busting yer ass and it will happen.
I hear ya. I put another topic out on the Metro board to see how many people we have in CT. Granted only a few people have posted so far, but it's a start. I have no problem with organizing an event, but ya gotta have heads for it. I'm hoping that the people on here from CT will then do their own recruiting and get their peeps to join us. I think you are right tho, it may take time, but it'll eventually come together. So if any of you guys are from CT, please post on my thread under the Metrostars, and I'll try to get something organized for next year!