suggestion for Fan Clubs at home games

I may or may not be at the next home game, but let me suggest this:

Everyone get in position. Then have La Norte march out with the drum (so everyone can hear) and then have the SEs and BBs follow out a moment later. It's only a split second difference, so it should look seamless. This assumes the SEs and BBs can hear the drum from the tunnel. I'm not sure if that's the case.

 

There are generally at least 4 drummers on average between the SE's and Barra as well though Sachin so I would recomend that (as with everything else) we stick together as tight as possible to inflate the noise and numbers. --I guess what I am picturing is a more mobile, slightly more organized version of what people do in the SE/Barra tunnel at halftime. If you add banners, flags etc to that and keep it moving relatively tight, it might be really impressive. --The Gate as Tom pointed out on the SE list is an issue as it will break things up momentum wise. That is why I propose that the actual "organizing" should occur once inside, immediately behind the gates at the S. Club ticket windows. --more thoughts?

 

The original plan was to meet up at the pedestrian tunnel in lot 8 and walk to the stadium. From there folks could regroup once inside near the supporters ticket booths (gate B). If we met up at 7 in lot 8, I would hope by 7:15 folks would be inside and we could proceed to our seats and be in them by 7:25 at the latest. To ensure critical mass I would just have the SEs and BB walk down to their seats together from whatever portal the folks in front select (135 would work fine). I think all three groups should just keep doing the "DC United, clap clap, clap, clap clap clap cheer from when we leave lot 8 until the Star Spangled Banner starts.

Now for La Norte, I'm not sure the stadium folks are going to let us stand in the portals to wait for them to get to the other side so we can all walk down together (especially now that they have barricades set up in the portals, we'd be blocking what little space there is left). What might work is if the La Norte folks also come in the portal with the Barra and SEs and walk over to their section via the walkway between the 200 and 300 sections. This brings the noise (so to speak) over to that area of the stadium and hopefully folks will join in. While folks might be in the aisle I think they'll get out of the way of a bunch of loud folks with drums.

Do we want to try to coordinate the DC United chant during set times during the game?

K

 

Organizing at the tunnel or organizing inside behind the booths is really apples and oranges. its fine to do both. We should start at the tunnel for sure, but at the same time its not super vital just because its a very short walk and at some point it will still be broken up as people go off to the windows to get their tickets.

---we can wait inside the gates and lather up some volume while they are in line before picking a tunnel entrance (any will work close to us.) I liked the first in the corner just because it makes everyone more visible longer getting to the seats and lets us see whats going on as we come in (ie. we get delayed and enter pounding drums during the national anthem... not good!

--as far as the chant at set times we can try anything between the Barra and SE's (we sing it all the time anyway!) the issue is how we get anyone else (meaning the entire stadium) to hear us or give a damn to join. --Has anyone asked/thought about the Stadium people putting up a D_C_ U_NITED CLAP CLAP CLAP thing on the jumbotron like they do in baseball games etc? A large prompt bit on the screen with SE's Barra and Norte leading may get people to move their asses. Other then that or mic's (something dramatic) I dont think this will ever work. i would bet the SE's with all their people skills with the front office could get something like this done. Maybe?

 

That would definitely work! Go for it!

 

I defer my time on the matter to Kim...
--Seriously, I admire how good the SE's are at this type of thing. If anyone could get that done it would be the Eagles. --Besides I don't trust the Barra's sPelLing ;-)

 

which he ain't, as he's been tossed out of the MLS reffing pool for sucking far more ass than anyone should be allowed to regardless of one's profession.

 

Signal

Another idea I just ran past McOwen... actually quite simple... have you heard of carbide cannons? I've got a big one that I got some years ago. It is too loud to even use here at my house in the city... firing this one off years ago definitely brought out several neighbors wanting to know what the big explosion was. I was doing it in my back courtyard, and the echo was great... it would probably be great in RFK also!

If you don't know what a carbide cannon is, it is completely safe and is sold as a kid's toy. It uses water and calcium carbide. When calcium carbide hits water, it gives off acetylene gas (and lime). It's the acetylene gas mixed with air that gives the explosion. This big cannon I have is pretty loud, according to the chart at the manufacturer's web site, my model is supposed to be 120 dB. I am pretty sure that could be heard anywhere in the stadium!

The idea would be to fire the cannon off to attract everyone's attention, and then go directly into the DC UNITED chant. If the main supporters groups knew that was the signal, it would be pretty easy to get everyone started (though not necessarily in sync!). The noise would be loud enough that everyone in the stadium would notice... and hopefully even the "sit in the seat" fans might realize that this is where they are supposed to join in the chant.

I'm not sure how often one could actually do this... as the bang might be loud enough to be considered game interference or something. One would hope it could at least be done right before the start of each of the two halves. And one would have to make sure the more trigger-happy fans (Chico13 ) didn't get a hold of the controls! It would also be nice to fire it off at the tailgate to attract attention.

There are a bunch of issues to deal with, not that they aren't solvable. It would definitely require permission of DC United and of the stadium authority. For best effect, it would probably need a small table to get the cannon up above the set of banners on the railing of 134/135. One would want it to be visible so everyone knew what was going on. And you would want it right there with the fan clubs so we can get "credit"!

Here are a couple of links to the manufacturer's web site about the cannon. Mine is Model 16FRB, the largest they make (about 2 feet long overall). I grew up in the town where they are made, so they were very popular there when I was a kid. It's strange, because almost no one I have ever talked to from outside that area knows about carbide cannons.

Main web site: http://www.bigbangcannons.com/
Decibel chart: http://www.bigbangcannons.com/decibel.htm

Anyway, that's the idea. I don't know how viable it is, but would be kind of interesting if we could get it to work. The hard part is approvals. I think this would be different enough to establish a kind of "tradition" that would be memorable and distinguish DC United and the RFK experience from the other teams.

 

Why don't you guys all sit in one area, whether it be around the Nest, or behind the goal. I know someone already said this. However, the best part about the Fire fans is that all their supporter groups are together. They are now section 8. I'm sure at first they were very fractionalized, but now after a couple of years, they seem very united. This could happen to United's supporter groups.

 

Oy vey! How many times do we have to answer this? For a variety of reasons we each have our own sections (non of which includes we don't get along with the other groups). As it is, the Barra and the SEs do sit right next to each other and coordinate cheers. Instead of trying to combine or collapse a group into one section I'd much rather see each group try to get more people to join theirs(a little friendly competition makes people work harder!)

I don't mean to jump down your throat but I'm getting tired of responding to this suggestion.

OK, now back to the text on the Jumbotron

I'm sure we could ask the team to do this however I'm REALLY hesitant to do so. Is prompting the crowd with a text message any worse than canned music like they have in Columbus? (I'm asking). I know we want to get folks outside of the supporters sections to cheer but I was hoping for the inspiration to come from us and not a direction on the jumbotron like a baseball or hockey game. (Now this is just me, if the majority is fine with it, I'll contact United and see what we can do).

K

 

THANK YOU for answering the Supporters Club thing... My head was pounding here as well!

On the Jumbotron thing I tend to agree. It isnt super cool BUT on the other hand I think it just might be the ONLY way we can get this accomplished. We could all march in like the Marine Drill team and sing like we are the Harlem men's Choir but I don't think it will be enough to get people to notice us or join in. Our numbers relative to the entire stadium are just too small.

--The nice thing on the idea of the jumbotron being used is that it will get AVERAGE fans to look up and can keep an entire stadium in time. Dorky yeah? But this is getting the masses to join in right? I don't see how we can avoid a little bit of that. Masses=dorky

Technically it probably would take DC United some time to come up with something so this may be better for next season but I cannot see why they shouldnt be able to help here and do something classy and nice.

--If you think about it the team really does nothing to increase the atmosphere at the stadium. Its ALL the supporters clubs. Frankly they shouldnt need to be prompted to come up with something like this. We can credit them for not playing music or basically not doing anything, but in the end its just that. Maybe they can help us out for change?

--For a simple start why can't they get a thing going on the screen that asks one side of the stadium to yell "DC" when they flash the letters and then the otherside to yell "UNITED" when they flash that? How bloody hard could that be?? Two or three times per game is all. No need for a dumb ass game show announcer either! Hopefully it can grow to be tradition quickly and it could be started by just the clubs and picked up by all. eh?