Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Get to know your MLS Supporter Groups Edition 1


So I've noticed that some MLS supporters groups are super well know, some are pretty unknown. So in an effort to educate the world. I have gone on a mission to produce a comprehensive guide to the Supporters Groups.
Philidelphia Union
While Union has yet to play an actual game but it does have a supporters group. They've actually had a supporters group for about three years. Their main group goes by the name of "The Son's of Ben"(apparently New England is doesn't have a monopoly on Revolutionary War imagery, I expect ultras to battle while wearing tri corner hats). This is referring to the prominent Philadelphia resident Benjamin Franklin (not sure what Ben Franklin's views were on soccer but I'm not sure he would have like a sport invented in England). Now lets have a little history nerd break. New York Red Bull supporters have had a lot of fun pointing out that the son of Ben Franklin was a Tory (a colonist during the revolutionary war that stayed loyal to the British). This is true, Franklin's illegitimate son, William, did stay loyal to the British. He actually was the last Royal Governor of New Jersey. New York Red Bull Supporters are forgetting that New York was the most Tory city in the colonies. Sorry, I'll take off the History nerd hat. They commonly refer to themselves as SOB's. The Sons of Ben's claim they have a membership of 5,200. Although its pretty tough to verify this number since they haven't had a game yet. I actually doubt they have anywhere near that many members. That being said, from what I can gather about them over the "tubes", they are pretty well supported. My amauter guess would be that they now have a couple hundred die hard supporters (maybe a thousand) and that will increase once they actually play some soccer. They do certainly have some pretty committed fans. A couple dozen sons made an appearance at the MLS cup in 2007, a full 3 years before their first game. They seem to have followed in the Eagles footsteps and have developed an quick hatred of the New York Red Bulls. Their fury seems a bit misguided being that they've never played a game and New York seems to only halfheartedly see them as rivals (after DC United and New England). To me, it seems they think a supporters group isn't a supporters group unless they hate somebody. They've adopted "I'm looking over a four leaf clover" as their song. I couldn't actually figure out why, but that's cool. So here they are in all their glory. Enjoy.

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