Sounders FC fans received many plaudits from outside observers for the atmosphere they created at home games throughout the 2009 season. The greatest compliment of all (in our opinion) came from Sounders VP of Operations who called the atmosphere ‘European.’ They also more recently received many headlines for their prompt and highly successful fundraising activities for Haiti, unequaled by fans of any other sport in Seattle.
But much as 2009 was fun for them, it was also a huge learning curve. Everyone made mistakes and learned a great deal. We decided to touch base with each of the main groups who were active in 2009, and ask them to look back, talk about what they had learned and tell us what their members can look forward to in 2010.
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Emerald City Supporters
The Emerald City Supporters are the largest Sounders FC supporters group with over 1000 members. Their main focus is game day atmosphere and they were responsible for the organisation of most of the impressive tifo at the Brougham End of Qwest Field last season. They have a co-leadership, who perform a good cop/bad cop routine with the rest of the world. We won’t say which is which!
ECS Will Continue to Grow
by Greg Mockos
2009 was a phenomenal year. I find it hard to describe it without using overused and redundant superlatives, but there isn’t any other way of describing it. The Emerald City Supporters jumped onto the MLS scene in huge voice and with a lot of color. I think that, beyond Seattle and the ECS, the supporter groups became a mainstream story in MLS. MLS officials have realized the importance of these groups for a couple of years now, but it was only during 2009 that they began to fully understand their power and their usefulness for running a successful club. ECS was no doubt a motor behind this shift in attitude by spreading and pushing for the desire to sing and stand and chant at Sounders games. The ECS managed also to implement some impressive tifo projects that invigorated the players on the field and awed the opposing team’s fans.
The ECS grew from a small dedicated band of 50 to one of MLS’ largest groups during 2009. The backbone of this was a membership based approach that allowed the ECS to fund its own activities and tifo without harassing its own members with donation requests. ECS also traveled well with large numbers going to Portland, San Jose, LA, and DC for the Open Cup Final. All in all 2009 was a great opportunity to see where this group can go. Whereas there were several successes in 2009, the ECS has room to grow both in size and quality and several lessons were learned.
What Did You Learn from 2009?
The biggest lessons learned in 2009 include managing a large group of people with multiple expectations. Communication with one’s members is critical for a supporter group to thrive. Furthermore, ECS learned that due to the high demand for Sounder tickets, that many people that were not into our culture sat in our section (the ECS requested the GA-sections 121, 122, 123-seating arrangement). This caused great grief within our ranks but we believe that in due time more and more like-minded people will sit in the GA and further in the future, in the entire Brougham End. A final important lesson that was learned was the all important role of the supporter group within the Sounders family. This is a lesson learned mostly on the part of the FO and that directly affects the ECS. The supporter group is seen as the core of the fan base. The supporters travel, sing and incite others to follow along and participate in activities that have been unusual or even awkward at American professional sporting events. The supporter lives and breathes with the team and stresses over the health of their team-whether it be in terms of the results on the pitch, the gameday atmosphere, or the financial stability of the club. The ECS and its members embody this stance and hope it spreads amongst existing Sounders season ticket holders.
What Should People Look Forward to in 2010?
2010 promises to be a great year-hopefully. The current CBA negotiations are worrisome but I am confident we will see kickoff of the 2010 MLS season in the end of March. In 2010 ECS expects to continue its growth and improve its quality. There will be several website changes that will allow members and non members to travel to Sounders games away at discounted rates, there will be a new and improved newsletter, there will be the chance for all Sounders fans and fans of what the ECS does to donate for our tifo projects. On gameday the ECS will continue to pregame at Fuel, but it will ramp up the atmosphere at McCoys so that we can get the whole 2nd and Washington block to become ECS’ pregame spot. The ECS will also have a more direct way of communicating songs during the run of play. Stay tuned for details, but you should be able to hear the capos that start the songs much better. This new approach is expected to increase song and chant participation and increase the volume coming out of the Brougham End. The ECS will also have a table on the concourse behind section 122 where newcomers and other Sounders Fans can get a glimpse of our gear, sign up for our newsletter or sign up for interest in membership.
That’s all for now. Please stay posted by keeping an eye on www.weareecs.com and the forums. Thank you for your support in 2009. Now its time to make 2010 even better! Up the Sounders, Up The ECS!
Gorilla FC
Gorilla FC is an activist supporter’s group that have already made headlines with their highly successful attempts to raise money for Haiti. They describe themselves as anti fascist (Antifa) and support fighting racism and fascism on all levels.
Their leader Kevin Zelko is a well known and respected community activist:
“We will have a workshop in conjunction with an activist group called If You Don’t, They Will. The workshop will discuss dealing with racism and ignorance at matches, confronting racism effectively and how fascists use football to organize. Gorilla FC is also looking to work together with other Antifa supporters groups around the world to work together.
Year two for the Sounders is also a sophomore year for GFC. We have a lot more members, more parties and fun to be had. We also hope to beat some of amounts we raised for causes this year. Last year, we were just taking off and getting to know new members. We sold over 250 membership pins, so this year we are ready to take some good steps forwards. Our second year started on a successful note on an issue we’d all rather never have occurred. The tragedy in Haiti affected all of us, regardless of politics. GFC moved quickly and with the help of three Sounders players, raised over $20,000 for Doctors Without Borders.
Gorilla Inside the Stadium
Gorilla FC now has two seated sections where many members are sitting. GFC will be in sections 119 and 120 in the South End. There will be some membership drive events closer the beginning of the season in March.
2010 brings an amazing year for the Sounders and USA. With summer and the World Cup, Gorilla FC will have some special events in the summer and a World Cup pool. This year also brings the champions league for the Sounders, and of course a new US Open Cup journey. GFC has scheduled Tifo and banner making nights during the off season, so as to be prepared for the year. We are going to be keeping the partying strong going forward.
Our first benefit will be in conjunction with Fado on their St. Baldricks event. In March, members and Sounders fans will shave their heads to raise money for Cancer prevention!
2010 will be a year full of Gorilla Partying!”
Sounders FC Meet up Group
The Meet up Group is the Supporters Group you can bring home to your mum. Formed mostly to arrange viewing parties for road games, they watch games in a family friendly atmosphere in pubs and restaurants. The Group is noted for having the highest percentage of female members and the best looking ones. The group is very popular with couples, thus proving that Real Salt Lake v Sounders FC can be a dream date.
New in town? Looking for civilised folk to watch the away games with? Want to meet other Sounders fans? The Sounders Meet up Group is for you. Many people like to watch the away games in the company of other fans, and to do what real fans do, argue incessantly about the finer points of the game. That can’t always be done in the hothouse atmosphere where the fans are noisily singing songs as if it were a home game, so the Sounders FC Meet up group provides an alternative.
With a special focus on making new friends, and welcoming the new arrivals, the group’s leaders always save a space or two for those who don’t know anyone there, but be warned, you’ll only arrive a stranger. You’ll leave a fully fledged member of the Sounder Nation.
The Sounders FC meet up group organises viewing parties for all Sounders away games. If you own or run a bar and want to be considered as a venue, please send an email for more details.
The Sounders Meet up Group viewing parties have frequently been the venue for recording episodes of KIRO FM’s Radio Sounders Show.
Best of all, membership is absolutely free and you can join 163 other Sounders fans right now, and still be a member of any of the other groups.
North End Supporters
The NES are the real rebels, considering themselves too hard core for the ECS. Their soundest achievement was to bring the noise level at the North End up so that, nowhere in the stadium, could you fail to be swept up in the atmosphere. The NES has a long standing ambition to occupy the Hawk’s Nest and carry the Winter tradition of that iconic section of Qwest Field into the summer.
by Jake Reeder
NES Aim to Make the North End Noisier in 2010
North End Supporters (NES) was formed in May 2009 by eight dedicated Sounders supporters who wanted to improve the matchday experience in the north end of Qwest through the use of banners, flags, chants, drums, and tifo displays. With persistence, creativity, hard work, and the help and guidance of other supporters groups, particularly ECS and Immortal Fury, NES quickly found its footing. Although organizing chants proved a challenge, our banners and tifo displays caught on and gained the enthusiastic cooperation of a majority of our seat-neighbors.
Though still in its infancy, NES learned a lot during the inaugural season. Our participation in the Immortal Flag Initiative was one highlight, as were our overhead tifo displays and rail banners. Those projects were relatively cheap and easy and went a long way to create a fun atmosphere across the wide age range of northenders. We learned that focusing those efforts in centralized parts of the north end was key to gaining participation of our neighbors. As the season progressed, more and more of those neighbors became integral members of NES, donating their time, skills, ideas, money, and hard work and increasing our output many times over, and our tifo efforts grew as a result to match those of the more established supporters groups in the south end. Another key to successful tifo efforts was working with the front office to secure early pre match entry to Qwest and use of the Hawk’s Nest for tifo setup and storage.
Perhaps our finest moment and greatest achievement was working with ECS to create the “Seaaaaaattle…Souuuuunderrrrrrrs!†call-and-response chant across Qwest, which instantly became a tradition that captured the attention of the entire North American soccer community, particularly during ESPN coverage. We fully expect to see (hear!) this chant for as long as soccer has a home in Seattle.
Other highlights of the 2009 season include
• Participation in philanthropic activities, like the Occidental Park Cleanup, Seattle Paint Out, and this December’s Jingle Bell Run and Walk.
• Cooperation with the Sound Wave to reduce in-match music and increase footy-inspired drum grooves.
• Establishing a network of Puget Sound–area pubs for away match viewings.
• Full participation in the Supporters Summit and other MLS Cup events, including meeting the Cup at the Washington State ferry terminal.
• Traveling support to away US Open Cup and playoff matches and meeting return flights.
We do face some ongoing challenges as we look forward to 2010, the biggest hurdle being organizing chants. Unless and until NES is collocated in a central, dedicated supporters section of the north end, organizing chants that encompass the entire north end will remain nearly impossible. We’re continuing discussions of possible solutions with the front office. In the meantime, NES leaders will focus their efforts on organizing chants within their own sections and hoping they spread across the aisles and, eventually, across the breadth of the north end. Similarly, we’ll continue working with the Sound Wave to help develop a unique musical element to the matchday experience, but one more closely linked to the traditions of football culture worldwide.
Another hurdle from 2009 we hope to overcome in the second season is the long-awaited NES scarf. When production snafus delayed the release of a scarf for basically the entire season, we decided to focus on an entire branding campaign for 2010, including a new logo, scarves, and other incentives to gain new members and increase awareness of our presence.
Our preliminary plan for 2010, though, is to focus on what did work in 2009. We’ll continue to expand our tifo efforts, particularly with ever-larger flags and overhead displays, and work to increase the enthusiasm and participation of our seat-neighbors. We also plan to increase production of rail banners and continue to foster positive working relationships with the other supporters groups (e.g., continue to grow the Immortal Flag Initiative and develop more cross-stadium chants). Our participation in philanthropic events will continue as well, spreading the NES and Sounders names throughout the Seattle community.
Overall, ours has been an amazing inaugural season. The work of a relatively few dedicated members has produced results that far exceeded our initial expectations. For a supporters group that formed after the first few matches of the season, NES has been a big part of the success of the inaugural Sounders season and helped establish a matchday experience at Qwest that will be a proud Seattle tradition for years to come.
Black Hills Militia – A Sounders Fan Club for Thurston County
by Jason Rojo
Black Hills Militia has grown from a small group to over 220 members in its short existence. By trying to follow the example of our parent organization ECS, we have found a good deal of success and have been able to solve the issues that have come up in a quick and expedient manner. As of late, we have experienced a good deal of growth as several new members continue to join the group.
Because of that, our plans to expand the group are pretty much the same as now, but we do want to be more proactive and get the word out to more people through various means. This year was mostly me and my brother-in-law Josh doing a lot of this, but next year we hope to get some volunteers to pick one site to deal with (Prost Amerika, Goal Seattle, Sounders FC etc) and have them be the main person within the BHM to post information and route it back to me to take action. We also have www.blackhillsmilitia.com under construction and hope to have that finished by opening day. I think that alone will be our single biggest project of the offseason. This alone could expand our group exponentially, and by linking it with other sites (ECS, Sounders FC etc) the sky’s the limit. We have also created a Twitter account to keep people updated instantly on any activities of the group.
Our biggest off season activity has been a fundraiser in which we have been selling ECS hooded sweatshirts in order to raise money for the Black Hills Militia rail banner that will find a home in section 121 next season. As of right now, we have finalized the look of the banner and have begun the process of getting it created. We haven’t raised enough money for the total cost, but we have every hope that it will be done by the end of February. Other future projects include the sales of our BHM scarves, shirts, stickers and other things like beanies etc…..
Other than that, we just have been really careful to not get caught up in too many things that don’t work for our group in comparison to some of the bigger supporters groups. I have a pretty good idea of my demographic down here and seeking those people out and getting them onboard has had its moments, but has also been very rewarding. Now that I have a good solid core of people, I am looking to find even more passionate Sounders fans so we can have our group grow and be able to do more projects like taking buses to Portland or Vancouver someday.
We would like to announce that we will be co-hosting a South Sound Supporters Membership Drive with the ECS Armed Services Group. The event is scheduled for February 27th in DuPont at McNamaras Pub at 7pm. We will be selling memberships for ECS as well as raising money for our rail banner, as well as introducing the pub to the South Sound soccer community in hopes that it becomes a regular place for the area’s soccer fans to meet for Sounders games. As far as fundraisers go, we are selling ECS hooded sweatshirts to raise money for our rail banner that will go in section 121 as well as accepting donations too. Several people (ECS and otherwise) have been very generous and even Matt Gaschk from Sounders FC has asked to contribute.
Check out their Facebook Page for more information.
Sounders FC Linked in Group
The Sounders FC Linked-in Group has 201 members and is a forum for commercial networking. It never meets as such, although networking events are planned for 2010. The group mainly exists for those either in the soccer industry, or who would like to attract soccer fans to be customers of their business.
Armed Services Group
by Commander Jeph Hurley
Who are the ASG? We’re basically a sub-group of the ECS, focusing on members that are either former or current military. We’ve got people stationed at Bangor, Whidbey, Everett, both Lewis and McChord, not to mention bases in DC, Virginia, Utah, California, and both Iraq and Afghanistan. While our primary function is to support the Sounders and encourage camaraderie among current and former military members, we are open to anyone who wants to show support for the military.
What about the scarves?: Anyone who wants to can buy one of our scarves at http://sites.google.com/site/asgscarf/. Paul Cox helped us out with the scarves greatly, and the group came up with a great idea to offer a benefit for those of us who have military service under our belts. For that group, the scarf will feature a specially-designed patch that will only be available for service members.
Club Goals
What are the ASG goals for this season?: This will be our first season as a group, so we’re hoping to establish ourselves as a solid subgroup under the auspices of the ECS. Personally, I hope that the ASG will take our role as military connected to heart, and become more involved in appropriate community work. We have a few irons in the fire on that front, both directly connected to the Sounders and also in the community at large.
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