|
|
| Fellow ECSers,
The season is over. I know we didn't win the MLS cup this year, and the last game was quite the disappointment, but we have had a great year none the less. We won the Open Cup(again), we traveled across the country and around the world, and generally kicked ass and took names. As we prepare for several months with out regular games, now is the time to recharge and re-energize your passion. And just because the season is over does not mean that the fun stops! There are all sorts of things lined up this off season, including an amazing End of Year Party. So keep up here and on the forums for all of the latest.
-The Emerald City Supporters
|
|
As another season draws to a close the ECS will blow it out in fashion. But this year we are going big! This year's event is open to ALL Sounders supporters and fans. Here's the meat of it:
WHAT: "Let's Go Mental" – ECS & SSFC End of Season Party
WHEN: December 4, 2010 :: 9pm – 2:30am
WHERE: Cirque Event Center (1,200 capacity, 10,000 sqft venue), 131 Taylor Ave N, Seattle, WA
TICKETS: $15 presale on Brown Paper Tickets | $20 at the door (pricing may be subject to change)
This is a MAJOR production! The night includes live performances by ECS member bands Hijalti vs. Miniature Airlines, Uninvited and the special headliner to be announced in mid-October. The night also features 2 DJs: west coast Mash-Up king, Victor Menegaux and, by request, ECS member DJ eBAM (Eagle Bear Morgan). Eagle Bear will also be serving up the night as MC. Live bands and DJs: the best of both worlds. The sound and light show will blow your mind. There will be free food and a drink for the first 300 who show up. And like last year this will be a semi-formal event, but no dress code will be enforced. And I know some are saying, "Wait a sec, the Sounders are involved? Is this a Sounder's event?" The answer is "NO". And there will be NO mistake when you enter the venue that it's all ECS, Baby!
Browse to the thread and join the discussion at http://weareecs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9681.
|
|
|
|
Brougham Bitter Snapshot
We are passionate about beer, that's why we brew. When I first saw what the ECS bring to a Sounders game I was blown away by the passion, commitment, and community that is The Emerald City Supporters. I wanted to combine our shared passion for Sounders FC with my passion for brewing beer and create a beer we can all be proud to call our own. With help from a fellow ECS member, Blake Morrison, Brougham Bitter was born! This partnership has been amazing and I'm so proud to say "I brew beer for the Emerald City Supporters and all fans of our beloved SSFC!"
We have brewed 12 batches (approximately 360 kegs) of Brougham Bitter thus far. We still listen to ECS chants on youtube and a scarf hangs on any tank that is holding the beer. The reception of the beer has been great; people love it and appreciate the fact that it is brewed locally and available at Qwest.
The following accounts have or are currently pouring Brougham Bitter
- Qwest Field
- Fuel
- Temple Billiards
- Atlantic Crossing
- Mulleady's
- Mazatlan – Puyallup
- Café Veloce – Kirkland
- Skep & Skein Tavern – Olympia
- Mission – West Seattle
- Beveridge Place Pub
- Cloverleaf Sports Bar – Bremerton
- Jules Mae Saloon
- Treehouse Bar & Grill
- Conor Byrne Pub
- Met Coffee & Wine Bar
- Green Frog Acoustic Tavern – Bellingham
- Puerto Vallarta Restaurant – Puyallup
- Farrelli's Pizza
- Wedgewood Alehouse
- Naked City Taphouse
- The Dray
- Zato Bar & Grill
- Meconi's Pub – Tacoma
- Beer Authority
- O'Malley's
- Moon Dogs Too
- Hales Alehouse
- College Inn
- Porterhouse West Seattle
- Dog & Pony Alehouse
- Deluxe Bar & Grill
- Pearl Bar & Dining
- The Red Hot
- Doyle's Public House
- McNamara's Pub & Eatery
- Bally-Hoo Pub
- Harbor Public House
- Collin's Pub
- Redline
- Jabu's
|
|
Tifo, a year in review.
I think the first thing that needs to be said here is thank you, thank you a billion times over. Nothing would ever get done if it weren't for all of you. The second thing that needs to be said is also THANK YOU!
I look back on this season and I can't help but wonder how the hell we did it all. This is only our second season in MLS and before this season began we had established ourselves as having some of the best tifo in the entire league. This season we blew the roof off and put all other supporters groups to shame.
Last season we managed a respectable 4 different tifo displays. I believe the historians would say we did a few more but I'm talking about displays that required something to be made, not just brought. We had the TOHBL banner, 35 Years of passion, Sounders Forever, and the playoff flag display. This season… Holy SHIT this season was absofuckinlutelyawesome! We seriously upped our game this season. Not only did we manage 6 different displays but each one was much larger and much more complex than anything we did last year.
Smash the Union: This was the birth place of "a sharpie on a stick". This was our turning point. This display is where we figured out some very effective and efficient methods for creating the best tifo in MLS. This overhead is easily my favorite. The level of detail that went into this design is easily the most detail any US supporters group has ever made. Once the material was sewn together this only took 3 nights to paint. Thank you all for helping.
99 (100) Problems: Personally I hate this display. Well, that's not true. I don't hate this display, I hate the memories I associate with it. We lost this match, 3-2 (barely), and it was the first time the Sounders had lost a match after we had done a large display. This display does have good memories though. We discovered the AMP (Asian Massage Parlor) in Federal Way (it's just a nickname, stop thinking dirty). This allowed us to make large-scale overheads without having to rely on the FO and we created a solid method for having consistent lettering. Most of our displays were made at the AMP this year. Once the material was sewn together (2 hours) this display took 3 days of painting. Thank you all for helping.
World Domination Starts Here: CONCACAF Champions League time. As I'm sure you're all aware, the Sounders didn't fair too well in the CCL this year but we beat Metapan to advance to the group stage. I liked this display for a couple of reasons. This has been the only time we've used pop-culture as the theme and we also incorporated multiple elements. We had the overhead, a card display, 10 large flags and a whole hell of a lot of small ones. This display (or at least the overhead) was small for us, but it taught me a lesson. You can make a display look much larger by spreading out and using flags. Motion helps add to a displays complexity. Once the material was sew together (2 hrs) this display took 2 days to paint and about an hour to cut out the cards. Thank you all for helping.
Fight for this city, its people and their spirit: That might be the best damn message even put on tifo. I love the imagery that phrase creates for me. Blood and battle, pain and pride, awesome. While this display may look somewhat simple, with its narrow overhead and blocks of color, it is anything but. CARDS, fuck me running that's a lot of cards. I don't remember the exact count but it took somewhere in the neighborhood 1,200 cards to make that display. Who among you can say you've cut 1,200 cards from rolls of table-rolls before? I can tell you it isn't very fun. It's tedious and takes for bloody ever. It's also a bitch on your back. But it's necessary, and rewarding, and fucking beautiful. This was the first time we brought upper-GA in on a display. Never in my wildest dreams would I have expected that much participation from them. I was expecting there to be large pockets of empty space where people were like "fuck this, I don't care", but there wasn't. Everybody joined in, everybody rocks. This display took about 2 hrs to sew and 2 days to paint. The cards took much, much longer. Thank you all for helping.
The Boys from Seattle Are Back: Did anybody else love this display more than any other? I did. This display easily has my best and worst memories associated with it. The look of this was beautiful, the message was clear and direct, the style was creative and daring, and the execution nearly caused me to have a stroke. We had never attempted something like this before so I had nothing to go on. I wasn't sure what the best method would be to deploy this. People always ask me "you nervous" before each match that we have a big display planned for and honestly the answer is no. However, I was nervous as shit while we were deploying this one. Polls were getting tangled and getting caught in people's shoe laces, people were tripping over other people, the capo stand was in the way, this was almost a colossal tifo fail… but then it wasn't. Suddenly, it was up and it looked amazing. I think this display is the one that people will look back on in the years to come and think to themselves, "yeah, the ECS knows what they're doing". This took 3 days to paint no sewing. Thank you all for helping.
Eternal Blue, Forever Green: I've never had the urge to punch and entire broadcast crew in the taint before. Before this display went up, I did. ESPN and the FO thought it would be a good idea to have Alexi (no soul) Lalas broadcast from the camera-well in 123… during our display. Seriously, does the FO not know how this works? The ECS owns the south end, that is our house, and what we say goes. I went back and forth with ESPN for about an hour before they agreed to wrap up their broadcast before our display went up. The main reason being security, they didn't want Alexi to get hurt. Believe me, I would have loved to bury Mr. no-soul under a mountain of overheads but that didn't happen. Next time ESPN, go somewhere else. One thing that really sticks out for me with this display was how fast the overheads moved. Holy crap, who hit the NOS? I was expecting a slow crawl, taking somewhere between 45 seconds to a minute for the overheads to reach their final destinations. Instead, I blinked and it was done. I hope this doesn't sound arrogant but I felt like Moses parting the red seas when this display went off. I raised my hands and the overheads took off like blue and green waves crashing into 121 and 123. Awesome, simply awesome. This took 3 days to paint and the sewing took longer than I care to remember. Thank you all for helping.
Now what? Well now we take a break. Now we relax and enjoy the fruits of our labor. Now we bask in the glory of our accomplishments. Now, we get to take a well deserved nap.
Looking forward to next season we're going to go even bigger. More displays, more complexity, more badassedness. Next season will be epic. Just think, next year we play portscum and you know that means.
I can't thank you all enough for all the long nights you put in this season. Weather you taped, cut, sewed, grommeted, or painted or simply held up a card, 2poll, flag, or overhead, your selfless contributions to tifo this last year make me proud to be an ECS member. We couldn't do it without you.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you all so very much.
UP THE ECS!
Rob
|
TICKETS
ECS Members! It is time to renew your season tickets. ECS leadership is strongly encouraging its members to get tickets in the GA and around the GA. As you can imagine demand for the GA tickets is high. At this time renewals are occurring and only a limited amount of seats will open up in the GA. If you get into the GA-good job and it should be a rockin' time. If you don't get into GA, no worries-we want you near the GA. We need to expand our presence in the Brougham End so that our chants are even louder than in 2010. Believe me, our boys have not heard us at our full strength yet!
Therefore, ECS leadership is encouraging its members that cannot get into the GA to focus on getting season tickets in upper 121, 122, 123. These are not GA, but they are perfect seats that will allow the ECS to perform more next year. We want to expand here first. Secondly if these sections are no longer available, please get your seats in 120 and 124. Remember that if you are non season ticket holder, you are at the mercy of the waiting list and current season ticket holders and whether they renew or not. If you are an ECS member and have tickets outside of the Brougham End, get your ass in the Brougham End! If you are a multiple season ticket holder and want to get rid of some of your tickets, please help fellow ECS members get their hands on them first by going to the ECS ticket exchange here: http://www.weareecs.com/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=36
So please contact your ticket Rep, or Chris Baretta at 425-203-8305.
ECS Leadership thanks all of you for your continued passion and dedication to making the Brougham End a true supporters fortress now, and in the future. Thank you.
Greg Mockos
ECS Leadership
|
Cascadia Supporters Groups Oppose 150 Seat Limit for Visitors
Unified Call for Clubs to Reasonably Accommodate Traveling Fans in 2011
Portland, OR., Vancouver, B.C., Seattle, WA. – October 22, 2010 -The Timbers Army, Emerald City Supporters , and Vancouver Southsiders have combined forces in order to jointly oppose limiting visiting support in Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland to the 150 tickets stipulated by Major League Soccer. The united supporters groups assert that visiting support adds greatly to the atmosphere of their home stadiums and that limiting the amount of visiting supporters to 150 is an insult to the tradition and history surrounding the Cascadia Rivalry and undermines the growth of Major League Soccer in the Pacific Northwest.
In the NASL days thousands of fans packed cars and buses traveling to and from Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver. The USL proved to be no different with each group sending hundreds of fans to their rival cities in support of their hometown team. In the past decade, traveling support has increased each year between the Cascadia Clubs and in 2010 each supporters group has sent as many as 750 fans to US Open Cup matches, pre-season and regular season matches between the three teams. At the cusp of the three clubs returning to the highest professional level in North America the supporters groups have been left in the dark with rumors emanating from Seattle that owner Joe Roth has decided that only 150 visiting supporters will be allowed in to, "ensure the safety and security of the Seattle fans while keeping the integrity of the home crowd and the great atmosphere." The Cascadia supporters groups strongly disagree with that sentiment.
"If Seattle limits traveling support at 150 in Qwest Field our front office would likely do the same to Seattle at the very least if not Vancouver as well," said Dave Hoyt, President of Portland's 107 Independent Supporters Trust . "It is unacceptable that any of the three clubs will limit traveling support to a mere 150 seats when the demand is far higher and all three stadiums can accommodate, at a minimum, 1,000 away supporters in a safe and comfortable manner."
"Obviously our stadium can accommodate traveling supporters," said Keith Hodo, President of Seattle's Emerald City Supporters , "According to page 30 I.14 C of FIFA football club regulations clubs are recommended to allocate 5% of the seating in their stadium to the away support. We (ECS) feel that our club should heed this recommendation and exceed it, offering as many seats as either Portland or Vancouver are willing to bring people. This will only enhance the atmosphere in the stadium and increase the profile of football here in the States."
"A 150 fan limit simply denies the reality and passion all three sets of supporters have for their club and the fact many will travel regardless of artificially imposed limits, " said John Knox, president of the Vancouver Whitecaps supporter's organization. Knox continued, "The Southsiders strongly believe that there needs to be a cohesive, unified policy among all three clubs that provides for a safe and fun fan experience for visiting Cascadia supporters while maximizing the opportunity to travel in 2011 "
The three supporters groups strongly encourage traveling support from all cities in the Cascadia rivalry.
· There should be no limits on traveling support and there should be a designated section for away fans. Traveling supporters on another team's home turf electrifies the atmosphere and increases the earnestness in supporting your own team.
· Simply letting visiting fans purchase individual tickets throughout the three stadiums will create more chaos and a higher potential for incidents all three groups want to avoid.
· Work together to find acceptable solutions to security concerns. The collective front offices should work with their supporters groups to assure the safety and security of both the home and away fan.
· Major League Soccer stands to benefit from this rivalry. In 2011 the eyes of the league will be set squarely on the Pacific Northwest. Do not rob the league and the three clubs represented from becoming the pride of Major League Soccer.
For more information:
Garrett Dittfurth, Timbers Army, 503.260.7525, garrett.dittfurth@107ist.org
Keith Hodo, Emerald City Supporters, 425.985.8779, ecs@weareecs.com
John Knox, Vancouver Southsiders, 778.231.2637, johnknox@shaw.ca
|
|
Coming up…
Next moth we will have a much more extesive look at supporters culture in Seattle!
If you have an articles you would like to send in, questions, or comments contact us at: newsletter@weareecs.com
|
|
It turned you into a member of a new community, all brothers together for an hour and a half, for not only had you escaped from the clanking machinery of this lesser life, from work, from wages, rent, doles, sick pay, insurance cards, nagging wives, ailing children, bad bosses, idle workmen, but you had escaped with most of your mates and neighbors, with half the town, cheering together, thumping one another on the shoulders, swapping judgments like lords of the earth, having pushed your way through a turnstile into another and altogether more splendid life.- J.B. Priestley
Sincerely,
Emerald City Supporters
|
|
|
