Hey guys... let me make a preposition here, and hopefully it catches on like wildfire all over soccer nation in the U.S. As I caught the WYC match between USA vs Argentina (btw, well done Gringos ) I noticed a few Argentine flags drapped over the rails with a fast growing element to them. If you ever watched or been to a recent England national game, you'll notice that the Englishmen put their city or club name they support (ie: London; Chelsea FC; Everton; etc etc) on the center of the English flag. It has reached a point where it's almost standard now with the English. Well, at the USA/Argentine WYC match, the Argentines had a city spelled out on the center of their flags. It looks sharp when you have several people from same country and various cities doing it. Of course, its much easier to make letters visible and readable on the England or Argentina flag because of its design, the U.S. flag with the Old Glory might be more challenging.. but alas, it's still possible. I recommend that U.S. supporters either a) spell out their desired city or MLS club name with black letters through the bottom 4 or 5 red & white bars (which would not interfere with the blue corner) or b) place your city name + state initials (ie: Miami, FL; New York, NY) on the bottom 4 or 5 bars of the flag. Aside from the English, I already see the Germans, Dutch, and some Scandanavians doing it, and the Spanish as the Argentines are showing early signs too. Let's not wait 'til the rest of the soccer world standardizes it and then we too accept it after years, let's be ahead of the game this time. Aside from a fan-organized appearance it will give viewers at home and around the world, it will also make little Joe Blow from Stateside say "hey look! That guy is from my neck of the woods because our city or town name is on his American flag" He might even ask, "If he can go to those games, maybe I should check it out too". Let's do this! Sound like a good idea? Let me know what you think...
There are a couple of problems. 1, the stripes are too small for any writing to be visible at any distance. 2, youre not supposed to write on a flag. There was another thread about this. There were some good suggestions on how to deal with the problems.
There was another thread on this with some very good suggestions that took 'US flag etiquette' into account. Specifically, if you took a 3' x 5' US flag, stiched it onto a larger piece of (white? blue?) material, say 5' x 7', and put your message on the border area; I believe that would be respectful and visually exciting. ________________ | ____________ | | | | | | | | | | |___________| | | | |__CLINTON AFC _| (Not much of a computer graphics type )
Here's how to do this, IMHO: Three horizontal stripes: Blue on top, white in the middle, red on the bottom. Blue stripe is filled with stars (large or small, doesn't matter) White stripe has dark lettering on it. Red Stripe has white lettering on it (or any other color that shows up well on a red background) So people know it's American, you can place your text on there and it will be seen clearly, and the hardcore can't freak out on you for writing on the flag because it's not really the American flag.
What I have been planning to do is to get some pleated fans and sew some lettering on. I think they are perfect for our purposes and hopfully they would pass most flag etiquette rules.
That's a great idea. No one uses bunting (like that fan) anymore, way too flag-centric in people's patriotic displays. And bunting always adds a touch of class (and a relatively larger set of white spaces for text). Something like this comes to mind (maybe I'll make it up for the Gold Cup): Also, if I remember correctly, bunting and materials with stars and stripes (that aren't THE Stars and Stripes) completely side-step the whole Flag Code issue because they aren't national flags (if I remember my Boy Scout color guard training completely ).
I don't know. The bunting is alright, but doesn't quite have that "edge" we need. This is a crude example of I had in mind based on Rapids/Arsenal Fan's comment above. Photo Link
Yeah, that has a little more edge (literally). Maybe the effect is more pronounced because it isn't as rounded. Hm... How about something like this since thick horizontal bars can hold a couple of (related) messages (another crude example): Fans of Keller
How dare you defile Old Glory! Expect two men in dark suits to arrive at your door while you're brushing your teeth tonight. It was nice knowing ya.
Holy crap. I see the smilie, but you wouldn't even post the image. And you assumed that I posted it, so that it was mine? Anyway, the thing about "writing on the flag" has more to do with commercialism and disrespect. Anyone that is patriotically displaying the flag at a U.S. sporting event isn't "disrespecting" anything. ----- I remember folks outside of Arrowhead in 2001 when we were folding up the 60' by 30' Big Ass Flag admonishing us "not to let it touch the ground." They were serious. Me: "Get a life". I'm sorry but "we" were the ones that went to the trouble to get a huge flag into the stands and then display it in front of everyone. If anyone has a beef with that they can bring their own 60x30 flag to a game. I've had the original (now in the hall of fame) 20x30 Baby spread out in my backyard drying out and airing out. No disrespect at all. In fact I was getting it nice and clean and fresh. ----- Moral: Folks who like sausage should never visit a sausage factory. Carry on.
Just pulling your leg. Sort of my comment on today's hyper-patrio-sensitive culture. As you were. P.S. I didn't repost your image in order to save bandwidth.
Haha. I think in terms of putting stuff on Old Glory, that embroidery is probably much less of an issue to the vast majority of people who know or care (outside of the ultra-hardcore - like this dude who calls out the Postal Service!) than writing on it with a marker or something (which I think someone was suggesting in one of the other threads ). Sure, both are violations of the Flag Code but I'm inclined to believe that if people are paying attention they are paying more attention to a) touching the ground (thank you Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts) and b) defacement, which, frankly, using a magic marker or pen to spell out your hometown is or, at least, comes across as (how cheap can you be? ). But what do I know, I'm more a customary usage kind of guy, anyway. EDIT: Go to dinner with the reply open and people write messages. Anyway, yeah, taking care of flags is a pain, and oddly enough even the crazy dude (see above) acknowledges that touching the ground happens and isn't the end of the world. Can't believe some people were giving AndyMead grief without helping put it away. When I had to kind-of-sort care about HUGE flags the emphasis was ALWAYS on not dragging it on the ground/getting it dirty (whites are a pain to clean for one), while understanding that sometimes touching the ground was just going to happen. Especially when you're dealing with something whose two largest dimensions are several times anyone's height.
Flag Etiquette The Fans of Keller is pretty nice. I think a U.S. flag should also be displayed, in addition to the banners.
Maybe a possible alternative to writing on a flag... I was in Target today and they had 4th of July table cloths(red/white/blue with stars and stripes) for sale for like 3 bucks. Get two of those, staple them together, and write whatever you want. Sure they're flimsy, but they're cheap enough to dispose of after one game.
I am bringing my state flag and hanging it right next to my stars and stripes representing my state and country without getting anyone angry