Within the small circles I run, fans of New York City FC have asked me to help them with the challenges facing supporters. They say “You write with ease about the team, you go to the home games, you travel to the away games – tell the people of our struggle.”
They point to the fact that the Bronx in general, Yankee Stadium in particular, and Securitas specifically, have been less than accepting of soccer culture. That they don’t seem to understand the traditions of chants, songs, signs, flags and the occasional incendiary device that have long punctuated celebrations of the beautiful game for as long as it has been played.
But why would they? NYCFC are an expansion team playing in a baseball stadium. And not just in any baseball stadium, but in the cathedral to baseball, and everyone not wearing sky blue is going to protect it from anything that even remotely looks, smells or chants like a threat.
Of course, the problems aren’t just in the Bronx; supporters are met with acrimony on the road too. Most recently, they were denied drums and signs on the trip to New England. The Red Bulls have now famously limited the number of tickets for the final Hudson River Derby in Harrison. And there are rumours that the league will hand down still more restrictions to the NYCFC passionate.
And then there’s the mocking by fans of other teams of our supporters’ lack of tradition, of their struggle to establish the kinds of songs and chants and rituals that are now second nature to teams that can claim a heritage reaching all the way back to 1996.
Thus my social media explodes with the frustration and invective of the fans and supporters who just want to support their team the way fans have supported their teams for centuries, all across the globe. Who want to do so without being egregiously arrested for apparently starting fires or allegedly inciting riots.
And I get that.
But hold on.
This is New York City. This city was built on doing things our own way. In setting the precedent that others struggled to follow. We never look to others for a template. When the Dutch felt Manhattan was too small, did they do what others would do, and expand north? Hell no! They created more real estate down in Wall Street by dumping their garbage into the rivers.
When people said, “You know, it’s the middle of the great Depression, build something useful.” We said, “Okay” and created the god damned Empire State Building, generating more office space in one fell swoop than anybody could possible need in a good economy let alone one that was cratering – and along the way, forced engineers and contractors to literally invent new ways of construction just to finish the damn thing.
Hell, look at the Statue of Liberty. IT’S A GOD-DAMNED THIRTY STORY STATUE OF A WOMAN HOLDING A TORCH IN THE MIDDLE OF A HARBOR FOR CHRIST’S SAKE. WHO DOES THAT?
WE do that. Because we don’t do things the way others do. This city is – and always has been and always will be – full of people who left whatever god-forsaken little nation or city or hamlet or grove they were stuck in because their dreams were too big, their way of thinking too strange – or even because they were just god-damned tired of getting their asses kicked by Cossacks and Federales. They came here and they made something unique. Not a knock off, low-rent, road-company version of London or Paris or Beijing or Tokyo or Rio or Rome or Madrid or Mumbai. They made New York. It’s own damn thing.
So supporters, when Gillette Stadium says “no drums or signs” don’t despair. When RBNY says “you people are rowdy; only 500 seats in the supporter section”, don’t complain. When Yankee Stadium says “no smoke bombs” don’t whine. Prove you are New Yorkers and make something new.
What will this something new thing look like? I don’t know. That’s for greater minds than mine to contemplate. But I do know this. I know that when it happens, when the NYCFC faithful invent that thing that is new and unique and wholly our own, opposing players will stop in their tracks. They will look to our lads on the pitch with an expression of fear and trembling, incredulity and concern. They will ask “what in the name of Mary was THAT?”
And our team will smile, and they will say “That? That’s our supporters.”
Photo by Matthew Ashton – AMA/Getty Images
