Ok, please bring me some comforting answers. Long story short, I had a friend order a pair of tickets for me while at work. The supporters section was sold out and the ticketmaster rep. talked her into getting section 150. PLEASEEEEE tell me that security isnt that strict and Ill be able to join my fellow Sammers for the game.
If the Gold Cup final is anything to judge by it could be a little risky. Probably made more so by the tickets being available on ticketmaster. Security seemed much more strict in regards to our section then they were for the rest of the stadium. But then everybody SITS in their assigned seats in the rest of the stadium. In fact there was security all around us for most of the game it seemed even though tons of stuff was being thrown at us from above they seemed more worried about what we were doing than the people throwing things. Generally if you stay out of the aisles and if someone comes looking for their assigned seat give it to them you will be fine. Even though it is understood to be General admission you are supposed to give your seat up if someone wants their assigned seat anyway and hopefully next time they'll know better than to buy a seat in that section or they'll show up early.
I have one ticket available in the Sam's Army section Sec. 121, row 5, seat 12. $40 Email me at ryansmith79[at]gmail[dot]com if you are interested.
I'm saying U.S. Supporters/Sam's Army meet on top of the Waldron Parking Deck, southwest corner, for tailgating and march to the game. 11:00 AM. Here's the map:
I've got two extra tickets in section 211 for face. PM me if interested! Looking forward to this game-- it's the first US game I've been able to attend since the World Cup...
I have two tickets in the Supporters Section if anybody's interested. I thought I had them sold, but haven't heard back from the guy. We're flying out tomorrow morning, so let me know soon.
Can someone tell me if Soldier Field has many entrance gates? When would you reccomend getting in line to get in? Is the wait long? This is my first international match.
Guys I've heard there is a lot of construction going in Chicago and I can expect delays (coming from Indianapolis). Should I leave early or catch the train from northwestern Indiana? I'm a little worried.
We have two extra Sam's tickets, directly behind goal, row 2 (not that it matters). Face value, at most. E-mail pegntim@gmail.com. We'll be at Sam's tailgate at about 1 p.m. on.
just got back in... great time, even though it's been a nice 11+ hours to get home... was in 124, stayed loud and had a lot of fun... the brazillian fans were fun and loud, we didn't do so bad ourselves... i was in 124, tried to keep the chants moving from sam's army with certain effect busted 3 nats game cherries on this one... one of my friends, a huge baseball and football fan, said straight up it was the most entertaining sporting event he's ever been to
yeah it was an overall fun match. I hope US Soccer keeps brining in national teams to Soldier Field. I think 43,000+ fans is a great showing. ps. I have never seen so many fake brazilian fans.
I second you on that. This was my first time at Soldier Field. It is a great venue for soccer. This could very easily work out to be the National soccer stadium, if there was one to be declared. Also, I never seen so many red and blonde hair, pale skinned Brazilians in my life either.
Bring on Portugal! That would seriously be a sweet game to see at Soldier Field. This one was awesome and seeing Ronaldinho, Robinho, Kaka, et al in the flesh was ridiculous. But Cronaldo's my favorite player that would be the coolest sh*t ever.
F*CK No! Granted I can't go t0 every venue the USA plays at in the states, but I had the WORST experience in my soccer supporting years. Anyone who stood the the Sam's Army section will instantly know what I'm going to rant about with this picture: If your reading this you security f*ck*r, then please take it as threat! First off when has Sam's Army not been a GA section? I stood in the first row, got there nice and early just so I could get that experience. Before the match starts this guy comes around and asks to see everyones ticket. Tells everyone to sit in their assigned seat, even though every single person told him that they knew the section was GA. I move to my seat in the 10th row, when more people start filing in I go back down to the front (Note I'm not the only one, just telling this from a first hand perspective). The match starts and everyone is chanting, drinking, having a good time. The USA score and the section goes wild. near the end of the first some other black security guy walks through the entire first row (and only the first row) and asks for tickets. I for some reason could not find mine and they take me up to the concourse ready to throw me out. "Your not even supposed to be in here with out a ticket." "I know sir, but I did get in with it". I found my receipt for my ticket but that didn't help, and soon after I finally find my ticket in a back pocket I never use, he looks at it as says thank you and walks away. WHAT? They simply went through the first row, disrupting everyone's view and enjoyment of the match, just to see if they still have their ticket!? I return to the front row, but soon after that the pictured mother F*ck*r returns. He actually found the people who had tickets for the front row seats where I was. The man grabs my shoulder yanks me out, and they guys he brought we apologizing about what was happening, saying they knew the section was GA and didn't want to have to move from there spot and take mine. So shake the security F*ck*r's hand off me and move back up to my assigned seat. Not 5 steps later, his partner asks me for my ticket again. I tell him that I was on my way to my seat, but he insists that he sees it. I pull it out and show it, he looks at me and says "your in row 10, what are you doing down here?". At this point I just lost it. I pretty much yelled at the guy (something I rarely do with security), saying that "I had just told you I was moving back up" He then tries to tell me that I'm in the wrong section. After a little dispute he finally realizes his mistake and lets me go. I spent the second half of the match in the 10th row. I don't want to sound selfish but I could not stand it up there. People where more interested in talking about their Italian Beef sandwich then the match. Only one guy was starting chants and joining in. It was like I wasn't even in the supporters section anymore. The fact is that I and others were pretty much picked on by security because we were in the front row. A girl I talk to told me that she didn't have a 3rd row ticket and no one bothered her. Next time there is a USA match in Chicago I either won't go or wont bother with the Sam's Army section. RRREV IT UP
Sorry to hear that. But once again, like at US-Mexico, I had an all positive experience at Soldier Field. I didn't even see security this time. Last time I only saw them come down when people were crowding aisles and ends of rows. What section were you in?
There were people in the supprters section that had no being there and you can blame the way the tickets was handled for that one
I can't imagine any highly attended match to be any different. In my section some"Sammer's" ushered in a couple of there friends that didn't have tickets to the supporters sections. Those tools were wearing Brazil jersey. That isthe real BS.
I agree with Rev here. I moved up a row due to the seating debacle and was still pissed off. Instead of some true red/white/blue fans (wearing red I might add), I just stuck behind two women who has no clue what was going on and some guy who was more intent on his girl than the game. They showed up 15mins into the game no less. And the cheering was pathetic. Besides the percussion section and one kid in a Copa jersey, I was the only one starting cheers. At one point, I turned around and cursed out the rest of the section talking about how there was still 15mins to go and this silence won't help our boys pull it out. I was ashamed and apologized to the 7 first-timers I brought. Despite this poor showing, Rev, we need to stay in there and hope things turn it around. We can't give up in the section the way they gave up on our team.
123. The whole situation was just ridiculous. I figured that the security weren't told that the section was GA, so I wasn't ashamed of breaking any rules by trying to stay down in the front row. I also knew full well that after the first time that the security f*ck*rs pulled us away I would have some problems staying where I was. What I'm trying to say is that I was going to exercise my right to stand in the first row of a GA section, but wasn't going to get too pissed off and make an unnecessary scene (that would just distract all the other supporters) when the security try and tell me to move. What pissed me off is that it continued through out the whole match. I was in the front row for 45 minutes. Everyone was having a good time. No one was fighting, no one was being rude to other people (as far as I could tell), so you would think that security would have an easy day. But instead, they insist on trying to get people in the correct seats, even though everyone understood that it's GA and no one was complaining (once again, as far as i could tell). [sarcasm]I think we need to start issuing a designated hooligan. A guy who isn't afraid of police and security and jail time. Send him into the stadium, far, far away from the home supporters section (preferably the away support section) and start breaking every rule he can. It'll distract the security who will actually have to do real security work (aka protect people) instead of going on power trips and looking at tickets. [/sarcasm] RRREV IT UP
Well hopefully this was a one time thing with the Supporters section tickets being available on ticketmaster without even a password. I'm sure that in it's self accounts for a number of complaints. I guess it was something that had to be done due to the the time constraints. And as far as the complaints about security I saw similar type things at the Gold Cup final though I didn't have any problems myself. I wouldn't have been surprised though if security had checked my tickets which were 3rd row and forced me to move down from the back of the section to the front. The just didn't bother us they were more concerned about the middle and front of the sections. What annoyed me was the amount of security that stayed around the sam's Army section at that game but seemed to ignore the flying beer and other things untill a couple of the security gaurds got hit with stuff from the section above. I don't know if we just made them nervous because we were making noise and standing or if they had a number of complaints about people not able to get into their seats. I'm sure it didn't help that so many people were standing in the ailses at different times and everyone should know better than to do that. I sat in the Sam's Army section in Tampa and hardly even saw any security, of course it was a more laid back atmosphere and I was at the front so I don;t know what went on behind me too much but in Chicago it seemed like there was always a security gaurd or two within a couple feet of me the entire game. why did they need so much secutiy down there when there were fights and things being thrown in other sections?? anyway I had a great time in chicago and wish I could have made it back for the Brazil game. edit: and hopefully US soccer will start to work it out where more and more venues that they schedule games at will have GA printed on the supporters section tickets and if a venue refuses then at this point they shouldn't get a game.
My friends and I witnessed the security douchebaggery pre-match and actually talked with the guys who got pulled up for quite a bit (hell, you're all probably here anyway); we actually missed the Boca goal because we had just given the place we had shoehorned ourselves to the two girls who had the tickets for those seats who asked for them (as I understood was what you were supposed to do) and so we were in the aisle trying to figure out a good place to move to (not quite what you're supposed to do but everything was nuts as it should be) and Mr. Chiponshoulder comes up and starts shouting at us, and when we're like "yeah, it's cool, just give us a minute" he gets all up in our faces like he's going to fight us, screaming at us to "watch our language" although we didn't swear, etc, etc. We ended up stuffing five people into a two-seat area as we had those two seats, and one of my friends had bought his ticket seperate from us, and there were two guys there already when we went back to that place (we had been there before the game but decided to move when we got a bit cramped). So we put our tallest in back, and the two smaller ones in front. It actually worked out wonderfully. And what a great first cap for me too bad the win wasn't on our side, but damn did our boys do us proud. edit: Went back and read the last page: REV IT UP, I'm sure I met you at least. How much do those asshats get paid anyway?
You know what else should be printed on the tickets? WEAR RED If the person's supporting the other side, they probably know what to wear. They already have that row of *********** that's doing FREAKING NOTHING.
Where to start??? My brother and I have attended games with Sam's Army over the past few years. And in my opinion, we looked at Sam's Army as the only real organization that might help build soccer here or give soccer supporters a chance to be heard and seen. We're not aware of who all the higher members are (other than Mark), whos in charge of what, or even really had the chance to get to know other members. What I think does matter though is that you have two supporters here in Dallas, Tx and plenty others throughout the US that are willing to travel wherever needed to cheer on our guys. And its a huge let down , when weve traveled all the way to Chicago and had no real Sam's Army gathering. Are we making too much out of it?? Its not even the fact of there being a gathering or tailgate so much. What concerns me is when we get in that stadium. A group of voices is much louder than supporters scattered throughout the stadium. There was a turnout??!! but where was our leader, someone to reinforce the reason why we're all there. It was pretty disappointing when I had to leave one section of SAMS ARMY to find a different section of Sams Army because of the non existent cheering and abundance of sitting. If you ask me its sad and looks like a step back from all the good this group has done for our men's national team. Like I said maybe Im wrong and am making to much out of it?? Or maybe we the us supporters who are scattered throughout the U.S. arent important enough to be invovled anymore. What happened to the website??blogs??or even the myspace page?? How else are we supposed to get information and stay or get in contact with people. Is that not important?? Ill end this with saying that I did have the chance to meet a group called the American Outlaws..not sure where Sams Army entered but the Outlaws we're definitely heard and seen. It really made me wonder ... sitting with a larger crowd(sams army) but looking across the field at a small but spirited group.