In My Eyes: LiquidMJ on Being a Supporter

ECS member LiquidMJ wrote a stunning testimonial about his experiences this year with ECS and becoming a supporter. Click more to read it in full! Photo by Don the Pogi.

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I wanted to give a little background on my story of turning from a fan into a supporter this season. Before this year, I was a hardcore Seahawks fan. Though I still love the Seahawks, I have definitely converted to a true Sounders convert and ECS member.

My season tickets are in 112. Even though I filled out the survey and specifically said that I wanted to stand for the whole match and sing/chant for the boys, they didn’t even ask me about the GA. They didn’t figure it necessary to put me in the GA. That was my first bad experience with the ticket rep. Though they are not the FO, I felt like they were trying to sell me more expensive tickets when they took the whole time to “survey” your type of support to only put me in a section that does stand, but is by no means a supporters section.

On opening day again the NYRB, I was over in 112 and took my friend with me to the match. When I saw the things that the ECS was doing, I told him, how do I join that group. After week 2, I have sold all my tickets in 112 and have sat in GA since then. This was the environment I wanted to be a part of since week 1.

That being said, I didn’t really understand the true supporters culture until I started to get to know the people in ECS who have been doing this for a while. This is where my education started. The things they do was out of pure passion. I didn’t realize how “commercialized” everything was in American sports.

For example, look at the Seahawks. I still love the team, but the FO trying to get the crowd all crazy for more false starts is sort of gimmicky. Now, they have companies donate money to charities or something along that nature for every false start we get. The Mariners donate money for every K (strikeout) they get and the Seahawks FO control the 12th Man thing. To be honest, i never got into the whole 12 thing as I felt it was a bit over the top from the start and not organic at all.

For those who are newer to ECS, take some time to get to know the older members and get to understand their mentality. It’s a real eye-opening experience. I remember when we beat Houston in the USOC semi’s and I had the good fortune to get with Keith & Dan when we went up 2-1. The look on their face was something I’ll never forget. It was like the feeling I had when the Seahawks beat Carolina in the NFC championship game to go to the SuperBowl. I had been following the team for a few years and had to put up with so many losing seasons. That was the same look, but even stronger. They fought through some hard times of support for that one moment.

To really understand supporters culture, come out to the away viewing parties, kickarounds or any other ECS functions, but most importantly travel on the road. No other sport has a designated away support section. I feel the experience you can have for being a supporter comes than from travelling. It’s easy to support a team when 35,000 others are doing the same thing.

See you on the terraces,
LiquidMJ