The fans of Section 8 protested the physical removal of one Liam O'Halamadrid last night by refusing to parttake in vocal support of the Chicago Fire during the second half of last night's game. While this was a protest of Liam's treatment on one level, it was also a protest concerning the general security conditions in Naperville and the treatment of Section 8 by the men in yellow jackets. No one disputes that this protest occurred. The question I will deal with in this article is: who did this protest affect? 1) The Management - According to "theburden," Fire GM Peter Wilt showed a marked indifference upon being notified of the removal of Liam from the game. There has been no reply, response or quarter given from management to the fans of the 8th Section regarding the Second Half of Silence. Clearly this protest did not make waves with management. 2) The Other Fans - In the postgame thread, a number of authors had noticed that Section 8 seeemed "particularly quiet" in the second half, but no one outwardly realized that a protest was occuring, nor was anyone upset that Section 8 was quiet. They simply continued to enjoy the game as they had in the first half. 3) The Team - With full cheering support, the Fire managed 1 goal on a penalty kick in the first half. With silence behind them, the Fire scored 3 goals in the second half. Our silence did not affect their play. 4) Section 8 - I had fun cheering loudly in the first half. I brought a friend to the game who also had fun. I was proud to show my friend exactly how loud and fun a crowd of soccer fans could be on a rainy, Wednesday night. In the second half, I sat down, was quiet, and did not have fun. My friend did not have fun either. She remarked that "the first half was much better before everyone got all pouty." She was right. I'm sorry that Liam had to leave. He did not take part in the crude, vulgar and sophomoric "YSA" chant. He did use the "F" word. Most of the group cheers do not involve foul words. There is no reason that we should not be able to cheer loudly with many "Lo's" and "Hey Fire Go's" and have a generally fun time in Naperville. Yes, we have to play ball with the men in yellow jackets, but most of our cheers do not involve profanities anyway. My conclusion: the only thing taking away from our fun in Naperville is the attitude of the 8th Section and their refusal to make the best of what they have. In these tough times we are faced with a choice. We can be silent, but it appears that no one else will care or even notice our silence. Or we can continue to cheer and parttake in the spirit that originally drew us to the game.
I think it was well stated but I just want to mention something that really bothered me last night and into today. The reason Section 8 exists is to support the men on the field and to enjoy the game as fans. When Liam got tossed it put us all in a bad place. The question of whether to stand up for one our own or support our boys on the field was a difficult one. There is no telling if we made the right decision or not. To be honest with you, the players didn't really notice that much. The few I talked to after the game were surprised to hear that anything had happened. This is probably because we did cheer when the Fire gave us something to cheer for. But back to the point which is we are there to support our team. If that means we have to behave a little better then in SF, is it so difficult to do? I don't think so. Not if your love for the team is more then your need to be vulgar (not knocking vulgarity at all, mind you just the necessity of it). The second half of yesterday's game could have been an uproaring, memorable party but instead it will be remembered as a day when we just sat down. I hope that wont be the case against B.O.B or in any other future game. We all look forward to getting back to SF, but nothing is going to speed that up. In the meantime, lets get back to the business of supporting the #1 team in the MLS.
Yeah, I can't really say if this was the right thing to do or not. I certainly didn't enjoy it and I agree when it was said that we were kind of between a rock and a hard place. I do kinda think it would have felt just as weird to act as if everything was normal as well though. I don't really have anything new to say it seems... heh heh... I just hope we don't have to deal with this kind of thing again.
I agree for the most part. Its not the best form of protest. But I think a lot of it comes from the fact that that once someone gets kicked out, the motivation to cheer just gets lost. So its part protest, part the air just going out of the balloon.
This form of protest, though, isn't directed towards the object people seem to be protesting. Purposeful silence is directed, intentionally or not, only at the players. Noone here should have any problems with the players over any of this. The subject of the protest being security policies, the object ought to be the thing that brought those into being: Naperville and the dastardly Napervillians. Not that it will make the slightest economic impact but if all of Section 8 stopped eating, drinking, and shopping in Naperville on match days, it would at least symbollically indicate that their attitudes displease us as much as ours evidently offends them.
Well, we did gear up again in the 90th minute, which I think was intended to show the team that we still cared. Later, COZ
I'm glad we did this. The last thing I want the players to think is that we don't care about them. Even though I was sitting down and not singing (which was hard to do) I am still a Fire fan 100%.
I don't believe that a half-hearted chant of "thank you Fire," repeated three times before it died out no less, was the appropriate gesture for our team. They provided us with a 4-1 win over our archrivals, and they also gave us a second half that involved 3 times as many goals as the first half. We should have been jumping up and down for the entire second half. So Liam got kicked out. Naperville has rules that we cannot change, and he did not play by those rules. Not everyone who broke the rules was ejected, but you cannot protest an ejection if the offender did break the rules. I don't mean to be the jerk here... I don't agree with the no profanity rule at all, and I don't believe that punishment has been administered fairly for the breaking of that rule, but at this point nothing we do will change that rule. You can boycott the game if you like, but I personally have season tickets, so I'm going to go to every game... and if I go to a game, I don't want to sit around like a puss-puss being quiet so I can pout about how "stupid" Naperville is. Yeah, some of the rules are stupid, but deal with it and find a way to have fun that won't get you kicked out of the game. Or don't go. If you choose to go to a game at this point, you should know what you're getting into. So don't complain and act surprised when you get in trouble for breaking a Naperville rule.
i like what has been said in here i'm not a fan of the silent protest... it tells me that the security won
I felt it was the best kind of protest we could have had. If we just ignored the incident that happened and continued normal section 8 behavior the same thing would happen the next game. It's hard to say if things will change next game but I felt that the protest showed how quiet a game can be without us. After talking to many people during and after the game, a lot of them felt if things don't change within the next few games, they would not attend games until SF is completed. I'm hoping that PW will see that most of us are there because of the team and not Naperville and that it is quite possible many Section 8er's will not come back until we are back at SF unless things change fast. In conclusion, ************ Naperville.
I don't think so at all. I feel since we have moved to Naperville the fire staff has sort of taken Section 8 for granted. They have put us in advertisements saying how much better it makes the game(they don't lie) and they sell Section 8 t-shirts for profit. But what I don't think they realize is that were getting a very shity deal in Naperville and many section 8er's could leave in a blink of an eye. That atmosphere could all be gone before the fire staff knew what happen. I'm hoping that fire staff will see this and hopefully try to compromise with us soon.
Much like the supporter clubs before that have been upset by actions of front office/security Section 8 must realize what they are there for. Is it to scream profanity, protest social injustices, or support the team.
So you guys protested by not saying anything? God, that really does sound like cutting off your nose to spite your face. I mean, why didn't you protest by making up a chant or something? I would think that would have gotten you point across loud and clear.
Flynn is not the type that would suprise me by making an obscure reference. Then again, neither are you (or me for that matter).
Actually, it's "On The Silent Wings Of Freedom," and I think that any resemblance is probably coincidental. I just figured the time for serious discussion is over, and now it's time to just be a wiseass about the whole thing.
It wasn't too bad, at least people could have heard my short sometimes really stupid comments. Like: "Countess ya filthy bastard" lol
You guys should know that I only quote Aha songs ... however, when I'm in a scholarly mood, I quote from the great philosophers Aha quite a bit.