Something that gets bandied about a lot when it comes to soccer, is how awesome a team's fans are. Normally, this is judged by all manner of visible and audible cues. The size of the crowd, the impressiveness of the Tifo, the volume, the willingness of overweight men to go shirtless in Newcastle in December... We hear about club and fan culture, "authenticity", emotion... I've often defended the Galaxy's fan base against accusations of a lack of passion, limited culture, not being loud enough and so on, by referencing our response to the tragic passing of AJ DeLaGarza's newborn son, Luca. The entire stadium came together in support of that family. LARS even gave their POTY award to Luca, something which clearly touched the DeLaGarza family very deeply. Events this off-season have reinforced everything we saw from our fan base at that time. It started with Chris "Zero Cool" Tucker of the Riot Squadcast, receiving a surprise in the mail. A fellow fan, had without any solicitation, anonymously bought him 2 season tickets. When people initially joked about doing a "GoFundMe" for his co-host Ed Rodriguez to get season tickets, the fans actually went ahead and did it. Within a few hours they'd raised the money. Anybody who follows Galaxy Twitter might be familiar with a guy who posts as "Galaxy_History". He's actually an English guy who follows the Galaxy over there and tweets great content on a daily basis about (as his name suggests) LA Galaxy history. Yesterday, the Galaxy fan base got together and did another "GoFundMe" and raised in excess of $1500 to fly the guy over to a Galaxy game this season (Mike Magee donated $100!!). This all came organically from the fan base, without solicitation, without prompting from the club. Just a set of fans appreciating various individuals who contribute to our support and fan culture. We may not be the loudest fans. We may not have the best atmosphere. We do have a culture and community that loves the team and cares about each other. In the search for authenticity, we've demonstrated it in spades and I couldn't be prouder to be part of this club.
Me, too. I feel that this fan base is extremely diverse, allowing for "mature" ladies like me, and young kids, and every age in between, plus the great diversity of heritage, accents and languages I see and hear at the games. Plus, so many fans are following the action closely and are so knowledgeable. It's great to see.
I'll tell you something else. My daughter (now 13) has Cystic Fibrosis. I raise money for the CF Foundation all the time. There have been a few times over the year's I've added a link to my fundraising pages for my efforts on CF and literally that is it. I don't think I've ever really called attention to it. Its always warmed my heart the contributions I've received from Galaxy fans on this board. You all are just lovely people. Special shout out to @Geneva who I think was the first and I'll never forget it.
Twitter drives me crazy. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the sports content especially following all my fellow Galaxy fans. I get so angry and bitter at all the political stuff I follow. Like it ain't healthy. Everyday I tell myself that today is the day I unfollow every single political person that I follow and just have twitter exist for sports and other hobbies. Every day I don't do it out of FOMO.
In late 2007 into early 2008 there was the Writer's strike in Hollywood and I was unemployed for about 3 months. I had to give up my 2 season tickets as part of the belt-tightening to get through that rough patch. Someone on this board (who isn't around here any more) heard that I wouldn't be at the season opener and contacted Galaxy Steve and bought me 2 tickets to the opening game. It not only allowed me to not miss a season opener, it introduced me to Galaxy Steve. And was such a deeply touching gesture that I'll never forget. Galaxy fans are awesome.
Aww, thanks. It is my pleasure. Your wife's updates on your daughter and CF research and fund-raising are unforgettable.
Ha, you'll have to unfollow me - or at least mute. I'm on Twitter for politics and sports, and for my work and passion, native plants and nature. And I don't post a lot about sports, but I love hearing about it. I'm sure the political content drowns out a lot of the Galaxy news and fun. Have barely touched Instagram yet, but that's where a lot of the "nature" action is. Is there a Galaxy side there?
It really is a great experience because of the fan base. I have brought several different people throughout the years who were not at all soccer fans. Most of them fell in love with the experience and are now Galaxy fans. One guy said to me before going “Why would I pay to watch some guys stand around for 5 hours”. He has been to nearly every home game for the last 8 years. I love that it isn’t a “cool guy” scene. It’s not a let’s fight scene. Like you saidI feel it’s just a very organic experience filled with people who just want to go have a fun time and watch a game. Now hopefully our team makes the actual watching fun again so we don’t have to just enjoy each other’s presence.