Fans hold league’s feet to the fire
Supporters accusing teams of preferring to have ‘a passive fan base’
For more than two decades, Major League Soccer and its most ardent fans have had an unusual, if sometimes uneasy, relationship.
Using quick-cut video montages filled with coloured smoke, swirling flags and scarves held aloft, MLS has long trumpeted its passionate supporter culture as evidence of its health and long-term viability — proof that the match-day spectacle of MLS, if not the standard of play, rivals that of top leagues.
In this arrangement, the fans are cast as de facto evangelists for the league, supporters in every sense of the word. But that lens conveniently obscures the fact that the most independent among them routinely — and publicly, and loudly — disagree with any heavy-handed policing and ham-handed ownership decisions that trouble them as the league’s self-perceived conscience.
No recent season has ended without a news release boasting of a record for attendance, with crowds of more than 50,000 in Seattle soon overtaken by ones of 70,000-plus in Atlanta.
But as MLS kicked off its 23rd season this past weekend, the relationship between some teams and their supporters has never been more charged.
In Columbus, home to one of the league’s original franchises, fans are in open conflict with their club’s owner, who is threatening to move the team to Texas. In Washington, D.C. United’s recent announcement that it was entering into a “strategic partnership” with one of its supporters groups has infuriated a different one, Barra Brava, which issued a blistering open letter accusing the team of squeezing out their Latin American-inflected voices in favour of “suburban homogeneity.”
And in New Jersey, the Red Bulls in January took the step of revoking official recognition of one of their oldest supporters groups, the Garden State Ultras. The Red Bulls said the decision — the GSU claimed it was a first for the league — followed repeated disciplinary infractions, culminating in an episode on the last day of the 2017 season in which, according to the team, a GSU member dropped a flare into the family section of a rival team’s stadium.
The GSU disputed the team’s account and noted acidly in a statement on Facebook that, “We, along with billions of other soccer fans, are impassioned in both our love for our team and dislike of our opponents, and we disagree with attempts to mould a passive fan base that sits quietly, eating and drinking its overpriced concessions.”
Every MLS team has at least one official supporters group. Often, the groups are run by an elected committee, and they enjoy exclusive privileges: block seating behind the goals; allotments of tickets for away matches; and the right to bring nominally banned items such as flags, musical instruments and giant banners into stadiums.
In a few of the league’s newest arenas, even the architecture itself — steep banks of seats, safestanding areas, roofs pitched to amplify chants — has the hardcore fan experience in mind, often in consultation with supporter groups.
The supporters groups of the original MLS teams in particular — a group that includes Columbus, D.C. United and the Red Bulls team originally known as the MetroStars — are proud of their independent histories.
As the league plants its flag in new markets — a 23rd franchise, Los Angeles FC, joined MLS this season, and expansion teams in Nashville and Miami were recently approved — many of the oldest groups see themselves as the true keepers of the institutional memories of their teams, and even of the league itself.
Where there is a point of agreement among league, teams and fans, it is that there is little desire for fan groups to emulate the worst types of hooliganism seen in other parts of the world. Today’s MLS fan groups emphasize positivity: charity fundraisers, clothing drives and events supporting social issues from anti-racism initiatives to LGBTQ rights.
Corey Furlan, one of the founders of Philadelphia’s Sons of Ben founders, said of the apparent paradox: “Look, we’re Philadelphia sports fans — loud, obnoxious, whatever — but the type of people who care deeply about our team also give their energy, care and passion in other aspects of their life.
“I mean, players and coaches come and go, but we’re the people who are going to be here forever.”