i agree, but they are def the exception, not the rule. anyway, back to the sob chatter, the flags they sent this year were rad, but a bit too big. i brought mine once and within five minutes it was wrapped around my face.
I also like the flags they sent this year. I was shy to bring it to the games at first worrying about the people behind me bitching. I quickly got over that and have brought i to most of the games this season. I would like to see more of the flags in the RE but i think that will take time as more people get comfortable with the supporters culture, as it has taken time to get most people to join in with the singing and chanting. And I think i read somewhere that the gift for this years membership is a new jersey/tshirt?
As I have never been a SOB, (mainly because of age and location), can someone explain how SOB operates now compared to a few years ago? Most people say it has gotten worse, but they have never really explained it. I'm curious.
i havent heard about this years yet, but im interested to find out. I dont bring my flag usually because i already have one hand occupied with my adult beverage (responsibly enjoyed, of course) and i dont want to have both hands jammed up.
I am so glad that they put cup holders in our section. When the Union scores I am up on my feet. If I were holding my Adult Beverage, it would be all over the place. I almost reflexivly put it down when the Union are on the attack.
ive def lost mine a few times due to celebrations. we dont have cup holders in TRE, so ive also had a few get booted all over 138 rows C-A
The key thing is that the original SOB's were led by real Leaders who were instrumental in getting a team to Philly. It also helped that everybody was psyched during the first few seasons, we had a great tailgate location (with beer), the RE was always packed and the results on the field were good. Things went 'downhill' when the original Leaders handed over to the tailgate volunteers, Cory got married, we had the tailgate at a terrible location (without beer), the same old songs were sung, and the results on the field were awful. I like how things are now improving. The leadership is more visible (with the FO meetings), we will have elections (which will hopefully result in better leaders), the tailgates are not bad (but could be improved by using just 1 grass field so that we are not so spread out, but the beer and food are great), we have new TIFO's (and hopefully soon new songs...), and soon we'll hopefully be in the playoffs when the RE should rock!!!
I have been in 127 since day 1. I have been an SOB member since 2009 or so. I never go to the SOB tail gates because of limited time. From my vantage, the RE has not changed much since the start. I seem to notice that for a while the SOB were sending lots of emails and that has realy dropped off this year. Other than that, it seems the SOB are the same. I am in the group that wants a strong and loud RE but prefer to sit mid field and have my two beers a match. We all contribute how we can.
That could work. I would love to see the Union have a contest for the best in seat cup holder. They could conduct the trials during half time. It would be fun to watch people try to use their cup holders while performing stunts on the field.
I don't know about that, but I just saw something like this at a cocktail party and thought it was a great idea. It allows you to eat and hold a drink at the same time without being awkward. I can't believe that I didn't think of it. Every upscale wedding in America will have this within the next year.
They had those at Disney for the annual Food and Wine festival 4 years ago. Worked well for me but didn't help some of the over 40 crowd from walking into walls, in fact it did facilitate a nice food and drink collage on their shirt / dress.
All, I've read through the thread and while I don't frequent BS as much any more, I think it's time for some clarification about everything that was discussed. I'm not going to just respond to individual posts but if you have a question you would like answered about anything Sons of Ben, post it and I'll respond directly and honestly. We know things haven't been the best lately and a lot of the changes are geared towards helping shift us back to how we did things early on. With that said, have at it. Matt
Matt, I was wondering about this: The first two games at the Linc there was a chant of Philadelphia followed by Union but I have not heard it done specifically at PPL rather I just hear some doing the Union part. I mainly ask because I found it ironic that the chant was used in advertising the first year but it wasn't done at the games.
I remember that as well. To be honest, I don't know why it wasn't used past that. I know the Union used it in their initial commercials and a lot of people thought it was "manufactured" if that make sense. If someone else has some perspective on it, jump in but that's all I can recall.
Thanks for stopping by Matt. How do the SoBs plan to keep up the gameday atmosphere and noise, when the River End will be open to non-SoBs? I know that being an SoB doesn't guarantee you will sing, but I would think you have more influence over them than RE 'others'. ?
I was waiting for this question because it's something we debated internally and with other people who asked it. I don't think the issue is really the "non-SoB's". Like you said, being an SoB doesn't make you sing, chant, participate, etc. You have to want to do it and as we've seen over the last few years, we have a lot of people that just want to be in the RE for the environment but not really participate. The question really should be what can we do to INCREASE the atmosphere to a point that people do want to participate again. We haven't done a good job at all focusing on that the last few years. We had a lot of momentum going into 2012 after the playoff run and then 2012 actually happened and everything seemed to deflate. Now, with all the changes occurring, we're shifting gears and our focus is coming back to the in game environment. To be honest, it never should have shifted away from it. We brought on Tim Sosar to handle tifo and he's done a great job so far. He's pushing for more ideas and he's been working with his crew and others to generate and produce more for each game. It's a process, but that's his focus. He's always looking for suggestions and ideas too. As far as songs, chants, etc. We're putting a process in place where people can submit everything and it'll be posted online so people can see it and decide if they want to use it. You'll probably see more and more of that during the games as well. The "non-SoB's" who are/will be in our midst will hopefully catch on and begin to see what it's really like to be SoB and begin to be active. We really need that and the push we're making from now and through the rest of this season and into 2014 will be very telling.
100% agree with this... things have gotten stale and that leads to less participation.... also "forcing" people to sing does not help at all, and if anything probably makes things worse... My main hope/concern going forward is people are accepting of the non-SoBs and don't give them a hard time... let them organically join in...I see enough bickering back and forth as it is with who's "more of a fan" and screaming at people because they are singing while others aren't... if anything thats more of a turn-off to the non-singers than anything else. issues of educating people on "obstructed views" and dealing with people who feel the need to stand DIRECTLY in their seat no matter what with no wiggle room are things that I can't help but feel will continue to be an ongoing issue though.
Maybe not all folks participate currently but at least they stand (and don't sit). It should be clearly spelled out to Non-SOB's who get tickets in the RE that they are expected to stand. Otherwise issues will arise (like we had at the Linc when we were all mixed up with non-SOB's (during the Madrid game, I think); it was a total mess and almost erupted in a big fight). Therefore I think that non-SOB's should agree to the SOB codes of conduct before they are allowed to purchase RE tickets; or if need be special RE codes of conduct should be established.