Hello, and welcome to American Tifo, a newsletter for, and about, North American soccer supporters. Thank you for being here. If you haven’t already, subscribe! If you’re a member of a supporters group, please consider sharing this with the rest of your SG and encouraging them to subscribe as well.
Los Angeles Galaxy supporters gathered in droves outside of Dignity Health Sports Park last Saturday night, but not for the reasons you’d think. Rather than passion and excitement driving their chants, it was anger and frustration, wielded like weapons against a front office they no longer have faith in.
As game time neared, rather than head inside the stadium, many supporters headed to bars to watch the game, handing the Galaxy its lowest home opener attendance tally since 2013.
The protests and boycotts were to voice their displeasure with the way the club has been operated over the past several seasons, plunging a once-proud franchise consistently down to the bottom half of the table. The tipping point came this off-season when Galaxy president Chris Klein signed a contract extension, despite serving a suspension for violating league budget and roster guidelines in 2019. Galaxy supporter groups have said they’ll continue to boycott until Klein gets the boot.
The incident is the latest clash between supporters groups and MLS front offices, a growing trend across the league.
The MLS SG vs. Front Office issue is too broad and nuanced to cram into a few thousand words, and it can never comprehensively portray the current situations for all supporters groups for all 29 MLS clubs.
But Major League Soccer and its supporters are at an inflection point. As ambition propels growth, which we’re seeing come to light with league expansion and blockbuster broadcast deals, the product on the field, and the pageantry in the stands are both drawing more and more attention. The stakes have been raised.
“I think in a lot of ways, the supporters are trying to see how much power they have, how much freedom do they have, how much do they really call the shots?’ said freelance journalist Jon Arnold, who also writes the newsletter Get CONCACAFed. Arnold is referring specifically to the Galaxy situation, but that sentiment can be applied across the league.
“I think in MLS, you’ve sort of had this ‘We’re all on the same page situation’, that I think probably still exists where soccer isn’t large enough yet to have the sort of conflict that exists in some Latin American or European markets,” he said.
The Galaxy are not the first club to voice displeasure about their front office. In 2020 Montreal Impact supporters released a joint statement against the club’s name change and rebrand, a move that has severely damaged relations between the two sides. In 2019, Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers supporters clashed with the league over their ban on the Iron Front flag. Just last week, Orlando City supporters groups, Iron Lion Firm and The Ruckus, issued a statement blasting Orlando City’s front office for its handling of contraband smoke bombs snuck in by their opponents during a mid-week CONCACAF Champions League match.
None of this is new. The relationship between clubs and supporters groups has a long history, going all the way back to the league’s inception. As supporter culture grew in the early days of MLS, and groups took cues from European and South American customs, clubs were wary.
“Originally, I think you saw a lot of front offices see the supporter groups as criminals and hooligans and were trying to suppress their expression in the stands in the name of security and safety. Bans and fines were rampant and didn't always make a lot of sense,” said Bailey Brown, president of the Independent Supporters Council.
But as American supporter culture evolved, revealing a glimpse of the fanfare and spectacle that could be developed, clubs then tried to insert themselves into the narrative, and market the fan experience as one of the highlights of attending a match.
“We then saw a shift to front offices trying to control the culture and visuals of sections with drum lines, flags, and more,” said Brown. “When supporters would push back and want their organic support, it would be cited that things were allowed as long as front offices had that control.”
But thanks to that supporter pushback, clubs backed off and many SGs flourished and grew their identities in organic ways, free to experiment and celebrate, with the general support, and minimal interference from the front office, who now saw a vibrant and creative supporter base as a positive selling point. However, that push to promote has led to more attempts, especially among newer clubs, to re-blur the lines.
“I think there has been a shift with new teams that there is this feeling from front offices that they need to be the biggest and best visually and audio-wise and really push supporters in a way that is for marketing purposes past their comfortable limits,” said Brown. “They want to control the narrative again, not for safety and security, but so that they have content to post on their social media accounts. I think we are seeing supporters find that balance again of how to stay independent, protect their identities and culture, and ultimately their members, while pushing into a new type of supporters' culture that is bigger than what was paved for them through the original groups.”
This push and pull in a new era of MLS is a tricky line to walk. For Brown and most supporters, the key to striking the right balance is respect and asserting their independence.
“Front offices need to respect that SGs are independent organizations that will function in that way, and SGs can acknowledge the positions those they work with in the front offices are in,” said Brown.
“It’s symbiotic,” said Nick Mann, of Chicago Fire supporters group, Black Fires, and the Chair of Section 8, the independent supporters association for Chicago Fire supporters groups. “We need each other. That being said, it is independent support and that independence is important. We do this voluntarily, giving up our own time because we love the team and we want to see the team succeed. So with that, we need to make our own path of how we see fit to support the team.”
Chicago supporters have a tumultuous history with the club, a relationship that has improved with the current regime. Now, supporters groups trade weekly update emails with the F.O., ensuring everyone is in the loop with any match day changes or away day details. Because if there’s one thing that needs to be in sync between SGs and the front office, it’s matchday.
Which parking lot can SGs tailgate? How far ahead of game time can drums and flags be loaded into the stadium? Where can the pre-match march be re-routed when there’s construction? When, where and how can flares be used?
This often requires an intense amount of coordination, which often can include local city officials, involving significant communication between SGs and FOs. Knocking one aspect of this delicate dance out of whack could lead to anger and resentment from fans, who spend time and money to ensure things run smoothly.
“There has to be an understanding of the labor of love that comes from those who are active in supporters' groups and that it's not done because it was requested by anyone,” said Brown. “At the same time, having a healthy working/business relationship allows supporters to work for more free expression in their stadiums and sections and be trusted to self-monitor their sections.”
Both sides have their weapons to hurt the other, if things escalate to that point. Supporters can boycott concessions, or matches altogether, to try to make a dent in the club’s wallet. Front offices can cut off privileges once afforded to supporters, or, in worst case scenarios, issue bans to individuals and groups. But to avoid clashes, many supporters groups and FOs bake clear and constant communication into their relationship from the start.
“A clear channel of communications with the front office with written agendas/ guidelines is necessary to maintain our identities as independent supporters,” said Natalie Lazo a board member of Empire Supporters Club, a New York Red Bulls supporters group.
“Oftentimes we have to set boundaries with the Front Office around things like using our name and logos, since we've never had our merchandise within the team shop for their monetary profit (and want to keep it that way),” said Lazo. “We love what we do for our team, and want to make sure the front office knows where we stand, how things are, and how they can improve the gameday experience for us and all of the fans in-stadium.”
But despite even perfect communication, conflicts can still arrive.
“When we have run into issues or conflict with our front office, leadership from our supporters groups and Wonderwall (our umbrella organization) reaches out to our contacts at the team and usually a call or meeting is set up to work through the issue,” said Meagan Weber, president of Dark Clouds, a Minnesota United SG. “We know we have those lines of communication and that's a really valuable thing. We’ve tried to get ahead of conflicts as they might come up by meeting more regularly with the FO and with more than one person from the FO. We have a good foundation built, and we’re trying to build upon that to ensure the relationship stays strong regardless of what might arise.”
That relationship was put to the test recently when Minnesota United advertised an initiative that looked suspiciously like a club-run supporters group, a move that caught members of Wonderwall off guard.
“There was definitely a worry that this was them trying to launch their own SG,” said Weber.
Both sides worked quickly to snuff out any potential conflict.
“The campaign was launched on a Tuesday. Wonderwall and the SGs reached out to one of our contacts and were able to hop on a call with them later that day,” said Weber. “We asked some clarifying questions, as well as explained what our concerns were. After that call, Wonderwall put out a statement on behalf of the SGs that we had spoken with the team and they had assured us that a club-lead SG was not their intent and we felt comfortable with that explanation, but wanted to reiterate the importance of independent support.”
As MLS continues to grow, these tensions, the small ones and the big ones, aren’t likely going anywhere, as clubs push to promote their brand, in all of its forms, and SGs battle to protect the authentic culture that has been built.
“I think that for old school teams that have been independent supporters, or even the new teams that want independent support, there’s going to be a fight in the next few years, because we know MLS is going to expand, and we know they’re going to try to be cookie-cutter,” said Mann. “So, for us as independent supporters, especially those who have been original ones, we need to keep that fight in the back of our heads. We don’t want to be fighting a constant battle, so I think this is just going to be a fight of keeping our traditions, making new traditions, and keeping our independence.”
But maybe that’s a good thing. Despite the knee-jerk reaction that soccer in this country is still in a precarious position, a bubble that could burst at any moment, a high-stakes battle for the soul of Major League Soccer might actually be a sign of growth.
“I think it’s something where supporters feel a special bond to the teams because of how long we’ve wanted to make this sport work in this country,” said Arnold. “It has felt like we all need to pull in the same direction because it almost feels like any conflict will derail things. We’re already fighting the columnists who only want to watch baseball or another sport, and we’re just fighting for attention in general. So, I do think MLS would be wise to continue to take the advice and opinion of these diehards into account because they are the people that have been there from the very beginning and will be there until the very end.”