‘The Siege’ club to host area watch parties
When Inter Miami CF kicks off the MLS is Back tournament against Orlando City SC on Wednesday, there will be an army of Inter Miami fans showing their support throughout the state — publicly.
The Siege, one of Inter Miami’s three official supporters groups, will be hosting watch parties during the match throughout Florida — three in South Florida and one in Orlando.
The watch parties will take place at Xtreme Action Park in Fort Lauderdale, DAS Beer Garden in Jupiter, O’Shea’s Irish Pub in West Palm Beach and American Social located in Orlando.
The group’s watch party at American Social in Miami was canceled after Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez announced restaurants will once again have to close their doors to diners starting Wednesday, due to the surge of new coronavirus cases.
“We wanted to provide an option for people that want to do it in a public space,” Siege president Max Ramos said. “We’ve spoken extensively about social distancing and proper safety procedures.
“While some may find it dangerous to do in general, we are trying to do the best we can in the middle while following the laws, because the biggest issue has been not just the fact that people go out, but when they do they’re not following the proper safety precautions.”
Ramos, and all of the venues, stressed that all parties will follow the necessary protocols to make the watch parties as safe as possible. Each member of the Siege who attends will be required to wear a facial covering at Extreme Action Park, which is required by Broward County except while eating and drinking, and each restaurant hosting one of the watch parties will limit attendance to 50% capacity, while encouraging outdoor seating.
Xtreme Action Park will extend their hours so the Siege can watch the game.
“In essence,” Xtreme Action Park marketing director Elizabeth Rizzuto said, “they’ll kind of have the whole area to themselves, which is really cool.”
Meanwhile, for the restaurants in Palm Beach County, social distancing will be used and outdoor seating will be encouraged for the group. Ramos said the group understands the criticisms they may receive for hosting the event.
“We understand the strangeness of having a public event during a pandemic,” Ramos said. We completely get it. We just wanted to provide some sort of avenue. We originally planned it when things seemed calm and better.”