Now that Dill0n has made our Supporters Club an awesome logo, lets get some schwag! I know that Bryan76 has been working on a Cafepress.com site for us, so T-Shirts and Hoodies shouldn't be a problem. What I'm looking forward to is the MLS Cup game at RFK. If we get enough of us sporting SoB T-Shirts/Hoodies, we can make an impression... But lets get some Philly/SoB scarves, flags, and banners and really make a scene at the nationally televised game. Here's what I'm thinking: Someone (Read: Someone besides me) sets up a PayPal account to take donations from potential SoB members, which is spent on buying Scarves/Jersey's/Flags/Banners for our triumphant unveiling at the MLS Cup. We could sell the Scarves/Jerseys through the Sons Of Ben and PhillySoccer.com websites, or keep tabs on whomever donates. A donation of X dollars gets you a Scarf I'll donate. What do you all think?
Actually as long as we are talking defined order quantities we don't need to have a budget. I have contacts for scarves, shirts, flags and will contact the league to see if we can be included in the supporters summit and buy seats like SC's of active teams are allowed to.
This is among the most important things we need to do in order to get this rolling. We can say we're a supporter's club all we want, but if we don't have anything on to show our solidarity as a group and to show who it is we support, we won't be taken seriously at all.
Great thinkin'. I agreed with O.K, this is the most important thing for our supporter club. And as it comes to the schwag... I think budgeting some money for getting flags, scarves, etc. would let us set up our supporters club before our grand unveiling at MLS Cup. I'll probably bring about ten folks with me, but I'm not sure how many of them will be willing to buy scarves or flags (I'll buy them t-shirts, dont worry about that). If we have some to "loan" for the first game to everyone that we drag to the game with us (Read: Ether + Lost, foreign tourist + Waiting white van = One more Philly fan for National Television )that we could sell as more people flock to our supporters club, we could make a better visual impression at the Cup.
The greatest thing about the MLS Cup idea is that we came up with it so far in advance. We have plenty of time to make this great, gather more and more people, come up with songs, chants and other ways to be VERY visable.
Oh yeah... I'm looking forward to it so much, it's scary. Someone should let Comcast know before we go down there.... See if they'll give us some airtime in the Philadelphia region =)
Count me in to go to the championship sporting whatever Philly stuff we decide to wear UNLESS as expected DC United is in the game- if that's the case all bets are off as I have to show my support first & foremost as a DC fan. Not that anyone cares but I've decided that I'm going to fully participate in all I can to promote MLS to Philly INCLUDING becoming a season ticket holder BUT I'm going to continue to be a DC United fan as I'm already 40 years old and have been with them for so long now. I'm lucky enough to have been able to attend Atoms, Fury & Fever games so I'll support soccer in Philly to the fullest even though my prime adult years ended up with me as a DC fan. Do I still get respect if i continue as a United fan BUT also support Philly's pro team both financially & with my inclusion at any events?