I've sat everywhere in the stadium, and I'll still contend that behind either goal is a great view. I know it's my favorite view, but everyone has a different opinion. Also, I know I have in the past talked negatively about whomever and whichever group. Again, everyone has their own opinion, and one can change with time. Jay, I wouldn't be discouraged by any negative talk on BS. BS, while it's a nice place to discuss one's club; it is not always the most reliable view of certain things and/or people.
Thanks for the comments, though I may just clarify that I wasn't so much discouraged from negative talk. Maybe a better way of putting it is: Why should I be a part of something that sucks this bad as every one seems to believe? However, you're point about not always believing what you read on BS is a good one. Thanks. Putting it that way I would say I'm guilty of not taking the time to really get to know the club and its members. Then again, first impressions are serious like a heart attack, so be careful.
Now I would actually take that one step further. I think song sheets are nice, but they don't offer any type of direction and if your in 108 and V-Army starts a song/chant, there's no way they can hear the words to the song to follow. I sat in 103, I think in 2002 during a playoff game against SJ, where V-Army handed out song sheets. I was excited to join in, but I couldn't understand what songs they were singing and in some cases it was clear they went off the sheet all together. I've suggested it before, instead of just song sheets, they should put together a program. Something like: 1-5' Here We Go Here We Go 11'-15' When the Crew go marching in. ect ect... With some set songs like everytime the Crew scores sing Glory to Columbus. And I know I've been told before that doesn't leave anything to spontinaity and different game situations call for different chants. However, I think you can't have spontinaity if no one knows what's what to begin with. I think we would have reached spontinaity when someone in 237 starts "Yellow Soccer Team" and everyone in the stadium knows to join in. But first you have to teach that person in 237 that the song exists. As for game situations, I never quite understand this. I think that mainly has to do with wanting to cheer against the other team. Honestly is it better to chant Nick Ramando is a pedafile or to cheer on Edson Buddle? I don't know I think Crew Supporters should cheer For the team, not against the other team. When you cheer on your team, it doesn't matter what the score line is. That's not to say they always have to do this "program." after a couple years of knowing to sing something it will become like the "Sucks" chant or when the Crew scores. Then you can start maybe throwing in some rinkles. The added bonus is people are like sheep, if you can get two or three to stand up and lead a cheer most people in the section will join in. Just free flowing here, perhaps the problem isn't with starting a good supporters section, but the problem is having a supporters section. What if you take the 30 to 50 V-Army members and instead of setting up in a section you take two or three card carrying supporters in every section as section cheerleaders? Turn the whole stadium into a supporter's section basically. Get the kiddies involved and get more card carrying members. Basically everything that Crew Union should have done, but was so poorly organized it never could.
Another thing, to build on this idea, is that if you hand out song sheets, label the songs with numbers, and then have a nice big 2 foot by 3 foot poster board with the numbers on them. This allows flexability, so when somebody starts doing "Oh When the Crew" then you hold up the number 5 card (or whatever) as that is the number on the song sheet, and people know which song is being started by somebody and they can then follow along on their sheet. Kind of the best of both worlds. Just have several people with these number cards stations along the bottom railings of a couple sections so that the message can be relayed around.
This sounds like a good idea to someone who considers himself a somewhat average supporter/not hardcore/supporter club member. If I was sitting in a different section, I would love to join in after I got past the initial embarassment of being the only one in my section singing. Hopefully that wouldn't be the case. IF there was some organization to this, like singing a certain song after every goal or at the start of the game or whatever, another idea (which has prolly been tried before to no success, so if so tell me to shut up) would be to have the announcer put the song lyrics on the scoreboard. This may be too cheesy from some and I'm sure the announcer would screw it up, but it's just a thought. That way you save the trees while singing kumbaya with fellow Crew supporters.
You've suggested this before, and I agreed then. This past May, I was looking through the old supporter threads, and I again came upon your idea, and liked it. And now, you just continue to build on it. Well done. Well, I know from personal experience, don't judge a supporter group based off a few people. I know I didn't want to stand anywhere near V-Army for years because of impressions I got of some folks on here. But I think that's something that I learned, and the kids from the Legion need to learn. Just because you don't like so-and-so in a supporter group, doesn't mean you still can't show your support of you club and stand in the damn supporters section. When it comes down to it, I don't care who's next to me at a match, just as long as they are there in black and gold. That's all that is needed in my book.
We had the stadium-wide "Let's Go Crew" chant. East side yelled "LETS", Endlines yelled "GO", and the West side yelled "CREW" Perhaps we could expand on that, say if we're up late in the game, we could get the one stand to yell the Crew's score, the north/south stands to yell "to" and the other side to yell the opponent's score. Example, if we're up 3-1 in the 85th, East side yells "THREE", the north/south yell "TO", and the West side yells "ONE" Obviously, this is a rough idea of something we could do, and with the team's performance as of late, it may not get done, but it's an idea.
That is what I patterned my response after. Obviously not everything should be done this way, but a few token chants/songs could work. I seem to recall the Crew doing this at the start of games with Ole Ole Ole Ole a few years ago.
The DC match was very good for both supporters clubs. Hopefully, the trip to Chicago will help solve these small rifts. I was personally impressed with V-Army on the 2nd and was proud to be part of the north end. Standing two to three rows back with Legion 04, it was a cool sight. Three flags waving, the C-R-E-W banner, we really looked impressive. We both had legitimate numbers, V-Army looked to have about 45 or so, we pushed 30 ourselves. I spoke with Mike after the game, I honestly feel that we're ready to move forward. I had no quarrels with V-Army last night. Though Legion didn't participate in the "If you want Andrulis Fired clap your hands" chant, I was happy to see the results. V-Army....kudos for reaching out with a cachy new chant that got people involved. The enthusiasm that you showed on the northwest steps after the game was so cool to watch. Hopefully, when we get this coaching mess sorted out, that will become a regular thing, pro-Crew, and fans will go home with some of our chants in their heads. I honestly feel, from my perspective, that though the Andrulis situation is sucky for us all, it can be viewed in a good way. The enthusiasm and energy towards seeing Andrulis depart is so great, that hopefully, when he is gone, this will continue, towards a playoff push and to welcome the new boss. I honestly feel that the 2nd was a big stepping stone for both supporters clubs. Here's why... V-Army Reached out to fans and had people in other sections going along with them. Two flags and the C-R-E-W banner looked real cool. It's the visual aspect that we (northend in general) need. Numbers were quite good, stayed organized, the focus was there, great showing. Your enthusiasm was very, very impressive from my standpoint. I honestly can't say how happy I was to see you guys in your finest form yet. Legion 04 We had our highest numbers in our 1 year history. I believe I counted 29 in our group (I could be wrong). We were up there though. Our jacquard project spelling out L-E-G-I-O-N was for the most part a success. I hope that everyone got to see that as the Crew came onto the field. We all bounced up and down on a corner kick and were loud at times. We were able to show that we can bring in the numbers and are capable of doing projects. _________________________________________________________________ I honestly believe that we have something in the works here. I would enjoy coordinating a massive project with V-Army. What this would be...I don't know. Please contact me if you are interested in doing this. We can meet or discuss it online and then go from there. Our project, for those of you who saw it, cost about $30 total. Imagine what we can do, with both supporters clubs working together. A unified northend will do wonders.
7 of them each held up a banner with one letter on it. They were pretty big banners, too, I'm sure it was clearly readable across the stadium.
Nice job with this; it looked good from ten rows away. I agree that 7/2 was fun, not counting the on-field product.
Hell I was in Section 107 which is 1/2 way around the stadium and it looked awesome. Well done. Hopefully someone got a picture of it...
I'm amazed, but certainly not shocked, at how quickly everybody is willing to pat themselves on the backs and go back to neglecting the problems at hand. Just because there was an increased turn out and some positive actions taken during the DC match, everybody seems suddenly content. Is anybody doing anything to sustain that momentum, or to keep the turn outs from decreasing in size again? Perhaps the lack of doing anything will provide the organicness or whatever. color me skeptical.