I was involved in those discussions. They were specific to Naperville. And no one in Section 8 leads the YSA chant now. We have lived up to the agreement even if you extend it to Chicago. And I'll repeat: I was involved in those discussions and they were specific to Naperville even if you think it makes no sense.
It's only a slippery slope if the request is coming from the front office. Hence my emphasis on the word self in self-censor. If the request were coming from the front office, my tone would be somewhat different.
You've got to be shitting me. Any goalkeeper that's rattled by the 35 fans who actually show up for an Earthquakes game calling him a bitch does not deserve to be paid even an MLS salary. I've played rec league sports and don't hear people heckle me...I'm sure a professional overlooks it far more easily than I do.
Would you prefer 12k and no section 8 or no MLS? Let's face it, even if the evidence is anecdotal, is MLS really in a position to lose one potential ticket buyer? Yes, the new stadiums are being looked on as a panacea, but leaguewide attendance has plummeted this year, even with the doubleheader attendance figures added in. The west side of the stadium has been empty for practically every game, they don't sell tickets in the 200 level of the south endzone any more, and even the neverending support of Section 8, from my vantagepoint outside of the section, seems to be dwindling every year, be it lingering anger over the Wilt/Guppy situation, overpriced beer, a lack of Polish players, two years in Naperville...whatever. Like I said before, the word doesn't offend me, and when I bring my children to the games someday, I wouldn't let it keep me from coming. I honestly don't care if you continue to yell it, even if it's as dated as the Shawon-O-Meter. But everyone needs to recognize that if the Fire loses say, 50 fans per game because of this, that's roughly $15,000 in ticket revenue per year alone, never mind their cut of parking, concessions, etc. $15K may not seem like much, but in a league where one team has turned a profit in one season over nine years, every little bit helps. In that respect, comparisons to the NFL are ridiculous. When Section 8 is even 10,000 strong (still well short of the 60,000 for the Bears), believe me, I'll be the last one to worry about the economics. But for now, is it worth it to lose that money so you can continue to scream ************** in public? (And let me tell you, if you're walking through Taste of Chicago yelling "**************", I've got to believe one of Chicago's finest is going to ask you to stop, so save the free speech argument).
Yes, there must be hundreds of you by now. There is also a group of thousands of folks who buy tickets who don't feel the need to act like 8th graders. Ironic, isn't it? When a small minority of fans want things exactly their way on what they perceive to be their turf, they're "defenders of the faith." Yet when a certain western suburb wanted things their way on their turf, they were contemptible, inbred, snooty, humourless neo-Nazis who didn't understand the Bill of Rights, and you folks did nothing but complain and bitch about them for two years. Also ironic is when people who aren't parents tell people who are parents how they should raise their kids, as some people here seem to be doing. I don't know if this sense of entitlement comes from winning the double your first time out of the gate, or the fact that the best GM in the league encouraged and coddled you from the get-go. But all the precious "atmosphere" that you create didn't sell enough tickets to save his job, now did it? And now that his replacement has the bottom line as his mandate, don't be surprised if at some point the club's unofficial position becomes that you're not all that cute anymore. Because your agenda is the only real agenda for attending a game, right? The "real" fans (who would rarely if ever go to Naperville because they couldn't get drunk and were actually asked to act like grownups) are the ones who should be smooched at every opportunity because, being upwards of, what, four percent of the crowd (?), they're vitally important to the bottom line. Some of you probably get pissed when a thousand Nielsen households determine if your favorite show gets cancelled, yet you see no problem at all with a few hundred people getting to impose their agenda on everybody else in the stadium. Hey, gotta admire your chutzpah if nothing else. But if a soccer match is "adult" entertainment, the folks who take it in should be grown up enough to recognize that while your ticket purchase ostensibly guarantees you the right to "support your team" as you see fit, it seems as though you're more concerned with your right not to grow up at all. And part of being an adult is recognizing that compromise that leads to coexistence is usually what's best for just about everybody, not just the vocal few.
i'm not trying to endear ******** to you, why should i i don't know you so i don't give a flying f what you think. jesus why does everyone want to be friends? i feel like a tennis fan. p.s. i'm going to wear you like a watch. (that means i'm going to fist you)
Wow, seem to have quite an understanding of what being an adult is. Here I thought that it was just being a full citizen within society. I didn't realize the pretentious bourgeois elitisim that is involved. But wait, could it not also be true that being an adult involves seeing something that is wrong in the world and making the effort to change it, despite how few in numbers you may be. You see, Section 8 mearly sees that the American happiness is lowered by puritanical prudishness and wish to change that by opening the youth of America to new ideas and value systems; much like another brave group of Americans, the founding Fathers. Despite being few in numbers, men such as George Washington were quite vocal and set out to be liberated of the tyranny of many. We at Section 8 are no different and are only doing a service to America and really all of man-kind. Why do you hate America, aleaguer? Remember on this 4th of July: god bless America and Section 8 alike.
That's just not a valid point for discussion. Screaming "You suck **************" isn't going to end MLS. I could just as easily say lots of fans will disappear if you make us stop screaming and yelling. Oh wait, that happened in Naperville.
An estimated 2 Billion people watched Live 8. http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news...8210002631851&dt=20050704082100&w=RTR&coview= "Hundreds" complained about swearing.
not only should we abandon using any profanities, but we should encourage all section 8ters to wear khaki shorts and american eagle polos. if you don't do your part to attract that untapped market of wheaton families, than do you really love the fire?
while this is stupid on a myriad of levels, there is one point at which its insipidity merits a response. and that is, that i don't think anyone on this thread is advocating the suppression of YSA. it has merely been suggested that it might be doing more harm than good for the club, and that, perhaps, those who engage in it might want to take that possibility into consideration. no one's threatening to make demands on staff security, or lobby the fire front office, or anything else of the kind. it's just a dialogue. so, you see, it's not really necessary to summon the founding fathers to the defense of a concerted bellowing of "you suck, a$$hole!". and it's a good thing, too, as i suspect they'd be more inclined to defend a civil conversation.
Ok, so we were "asked to stop" in 2003. And we DID, really. We don't lead YSA, and YSA is the ONLY profanity the section utters, apart from occaisional and individual cursing at refs. What I meant was, "Have we been asked to stop the YSA Chant, recently?" I didn't mean, has anybody ever in the distant past and in other places been concerned about swearing... We all know that in Naperville we weren't allowed to swear. But the YSA chant has become very popular, and you would think that if the Fire were really getting a lot of complaints about it we would have been asked to stop it, specifically.
Per Sagy, there was an announcement at a recent game saying use of profanity, among other things, would lead to ejection. I missed this particular game, so I didn't hear it, but others did later in the thread. https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5386174&postcount=283
Section 8's numbers in Naperville plummeted long before you were asked to stop swearing. You lost most of the Eastern European bloc from the get go.
Yikes, you really would have bad time in DC than if YSA makes you blush If young kid understands what YSA means that's probably because she heard his father yell it after he caught her mom blowing a milkman. If middleschool kid understands it who cares, few years from now they'll be balls deep in some HS chick's ass anyway. I'd translate some songs we were singing in our supporters group when I was 12 but experience might not relate given I grew up in a communist country so we had freedom of speech and parents, not big brother, were responsible for kids
That's just not true. Our numbers did drop because we were harassed in the beginning. If someone's not going to go because of YSA, then they're probably going to find something else to complain about and not go. I'm in favor of YSA on corner kicks instead of kickoffs.
Oh for God's sake,go away if you don't like the chants,creating a tribal atmosphere is part of soccer and the ones in the states are very very lame...........Here's a few for Section 8, to the tune of the Adam's Family. "Your mother is your sister, your father is your brother, you like to shag each other, The D.C. Family" To the song "One sunny day" especially for Chivas fans "You'll score again, Don't know where don't know when, But I know you'll score again some sunny day!" And for every team other than Chivas U.S.A. "Are You Chivas in Disguise???" And for Dallas F.C. to the tune of "You are my sunshine" You are my Jaqua, my Nate Jaqua, you make me happy when skies are grey! We could have Ruiz but he's a sleaze so please don't take my Jaqua away! And for away games Jingle bells...Jingle bells..... Jingle all the way Oh what is fun it is to see Chicago winning away......... Oh Jingle... And for the right wing Christians O come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant O come ye, O come ye to Bridgeview Come and behold them They're the Kings of America O come let us adore them O come let us adore them O come let us adore them The Chicago Fire !!!! And for the kum-ba-ya-my-Lord brigade of the right wing Christians sung to the tune of Lord of the Dance (going to hell for this I'm sure) Drink, drink, wherever you may be, We are drunk and disorderly, And we don't give a fu#k, and we don't give a sh#t, We're going home with the championship. and for the color blind you can have either He's red, he's white, He knows the Crew are shite, Jaqua,Jaqua. or We're Red ,We're White We're Fu#kin Dynamite And on Fire! On Fire! For those great comebacks during the game taunt the opposition with.... Blue Moon, you started singing too soon, You thought you'd beat us 1-Nil Now you're losing 2-1 Bluuuuueeee Moooooooon.........
When we were at Naperville and were asked to stop using the YSA chant, it was from fans who had just started attending games that year. As a result of these fans that had only been to a few games, security started overusing their power and ejecting people from section 8. That, along with not being at Soldier Field started the demise of the Arsonist, Fire Ultras, and Barnburners. All those groups are still around but no where near the numbers they use to have. Now we have new groups that are starting to grow in section 8. MDSC, Ultras Red-Side, Wiskey Bros. BB and FU are getting people back. Section 8 has finally been great again for a few games this season. We have new and old faces in the section and we are louder than we have been in a few years. Please don't challenge or try to change good things. Complaining about the YSA is only going to hurt section 8. Section 8 already deals with many issues, we don't need another swearing problem. Columbus fans have a swear every other word, along with ultra groups all over the world. Please let us have our ONE swear out of all of chants.
May I insert that we've drawn better than you for the past few months. Anyway, I don't understand your point. Goalkeepers hear us when we yell "F*** you B****". They get quite annoyed with it as the half wears on. Donovan heard us chant "Landon, we know, Bianca is a ho!" for 20 minutes straight during his warmup, and couldn't put a shot on goal.
My kids are now 12 and 8, and I've been bringing them to games since they were 7 and 3. The YSA rolls off them, I think mainly because my wife and I have told them that it should. We were at the RSL game last week with our club, and one of the parents e-mailed me the next day, complaiing a little about the YSA chant. Apparently he doesn't think his 12 year old should hear that. He11, the dad should hear what his kid says on the bench during our games. While I wouldn't want it to any stronger than that, I have no problem with YSA as it pertains to my kids. My 12 year old hears a lot worse at school every day. It did seem though as if YSA did get used more than usual at the RSL game, maybe because it was DJ. It seemed to get a little stale. I know that the parent I mention above will not be coming back this season, in part because of YSA. If Guppy hears this kind of story over and over, it might not matter what everybody thinks in the end.
Before I give my opinion, let me just say that I LOVE S8 and I sit in the section as many times as I can like I did last Saturday when we played DC. The games would be boring without S8 and attendance would be lower without the atmosphere that it creates. I'm interested in an estimate of what % of the Fire attendance comes from kids. I would think that it's significant. I brought a group of 40 to the U.S v England game, about 15 of them were kids accompanied by their parents. I would LOVE to organize a group like that for a Fire game but I won't precisely because of the profanity used in S8. I can only invite adults to the Fire games. Whether kids should be exposed to profanity at Fire games is not the issue, the issue is does it affect attendance now and in the future, and I'm positive that the answer is yes. Many of you in favor of being able to use whatever words you want at the games say that restricting chants etc... takes away from the atmosphere but I don't think that's true. At least there's no reason is should. It has nothing to do with being able to say You Suck A$$h... Why not just say You Suck. I don't understand why the support can't be just as passionate, the chants just as loud, and the fans just as fired up without the profanity. Ditch the profanity because it affects current and future attendance, and it's UNNECESSARY!!!
I agree with this. Personally I like the YSA chant, but if it keeps people away, then that's a bad thing.
Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill
Ok. I'm going to say this again, since nobody pays attention. Section 8 does not ORCHESTRATE the YSA chant. The capo doesn't call for it. There is no organized encouragement to do it. It's completely organic. It just happens because, obviously, the people there like to do it. Anyone who wants to get rid of the chant, come to section 8, actively participate and do something else when there is a goal kick from the south end. My advice is to get 100-200 of your likeminded friends to come with you and do the same because the key is to just overpower the chant. In time it will go away. Anything else such as analyzing and complaining on a message board are so amazingly waisted. Truly, end of story.