Home, Home on the Road

With last week's announcement placing the league's 16th team as an expansion in Philadelphia, two things are going to have to happen. First, the American public, regardless of what they personally thing of soccer as a sport, will have to view it as a legitimate force on the American sports scene. Second, Major League Soccer will have to realize that their home teams have become victims of their own succcess.

I'm talking about away support. It's largely unseen in the US, largely due to teams having few rivals within driving distance of each other, and lack of seating. There's other factors. Lone Redskins or Giants fans making the short trip to Philadelphia could very well be in fear of their lives.

Soccer however is a different phenomenon, where traveling support has become part of the game. This is generally easier in smaller countries, where you may have thousands of teams in a very compact area (England is about the size of North Carolina. Imagine fitting the entire NFL in North Carolina, and you'll kind of get an idea). However, with new teams coming online in America, the distances are shrinking, and travelling to away games no longer seems a challenge. When the new Philly team comes online in 2010, it will be within a 8-hour drive of 5 MLS teams. The Philadelphia supporters' group, the Sons of Ben (SoBs) already has over 1,000 members. The team doesn't start play for another two years.

While mass migrations of away support have been seen before (The Cubs in the 2003 and 2007 NLDS come to mind immediately), it has never been organized. Supporters groups represent a kind of horizontal relationship between fans not present in other sports. Every sport has a vertical relationship where the fans buy tickets from the team to watch the game, but with a few exceptions, most fans do not know the names of the people sitting next to them in the stadium. So while there may be 15,000 Cubs fans at Turner Field, odds are all of them made their own separate plans to get there. (Stay with me on this point).

In MLS, supporters groups make their plans, rent busses, and make the trip to cheer on their side on the road as if it were a home game. I have been fortunate enough to go on two of these trips, and met up with the group on a third. They have all been a great time, and I plan on making two more trips this season.

What brings us to our present post is that Major League Soccer's 13th campaign opens in a few short weeks (I know you're all looking forward to my thrilling preview, which I promise to be just as inaccurate as last year's...crazy league). The league is at an all time high with 14 teams. The current record for away support in a regular season match is 800 fans, set by New York for the 2006 season opener at DC. For that, the team owners footed most of the bill. However, that record is due to be shattered. 2,200 fans of Toronto FC, with minimal front office assistance, will be descending on the stadium of their closest rival, Columbus. Ohio hasn't seen an invasion out of Canada of this magnitude since the War of 1812. It is simply, the largest mobilization of MLS fans in the history of the league, and probably in North American soccer. While impressive on its own, what does this hold for the future of the league?

It's no secret that MLS is on a level of exposure it has never seen. Attendance is climbing, stadiums are going up, the quality of play from even 5 or 6 years ago is unrecognizable from the quality of play today. The league is the 12th-most highly attended in the world. However, in Columbus, tickets are easy to get (a product of the Crew not having made the Playoffs in three seasons). What happens when this away support moves into the more highly-populated stadiums?

Last May, Chicago sent 200 fans to Toronto, and TFC returned the favor by sending 200 fans to Chicago in July for the rematch. There will be no repeat of that this season. The Chicago supporters have tried to bloc off 500 seats in Toronto (About 2% of BMO Field's capacity), and have been denied. Away support at BMO has been capped at 100 seats. What can be done? More seats cannot be requested since BMO is one of the most well-attended venues in the league. Chicago cannot restrict ticket sales for the rematch in Chicago because that represents lost revenue.

But fans are not stupid. Capping supporters sections only means that fans will have to find tickets by other avenues on their own. (see above) With this comes problems. Fans of both teams will be intermingling throughout the stadium. While this may sound like some outdated George Wallace stump speech, there's something to be said here. Soccer is by its very nature a more vocal sport. The ones who are willing to travel are also going to be the ones who are most vociferous in their support of the team, and mixing alcohol with this could produce a recipe for embarassment.

It may take a headline-grabbing security incident for MLS league offices to realize what they have on their hands here. In other countries, special sections (sometimes behind transparent netting or fencing, or separated from the home side by security is common. In England, this amounts to 3,000 seats, or 10% of the stadium's capacity (whichever is smaller) for away support. Those seats are always sold, due to the proximity of all the teams within driving distance of each other.

But I don't want to feed into the "All soccer fans are violent hooligans" stereotype, because most MLS fans who travel are generally just out to have a fun weekend with their friends, drink a few beers, have a few laughs, do some traveling, and watch their team beat the opposition. What I would suggest to avoid this problem is the following...

1. Have each stadium designate a section for away support. Preferably one far away from the home team's supporters. While American soccer fans are not prone to violence, why be stupid? It isn't Major League Friendship.


2. In each stadium reserve 250 seats or 1% of capacity for away support. In most MLS stadia, 1% will come out to be about 150-200 fans. The supporters groups are pretty public. Everyone in the league knows who they are, and it would enable the fans to have a chance to get in. The amount can be raised every few seasons as demand increases (From 1% to 2% to 5% to 10%, etc.)


3. However, for every Toronto-Columbus or Houston-Dallas, there's a New England-San Jose, or a DC-Colorado where traveling support will not be an issue. In that case, whatever tickets are not purchased by 24 hours before kickoff, release the remaining seats to the general public for a cheaper price than face value, a la the Uecker seats for the Milwaukee Brewers, which go on sale an hour before first pitch for dirt cheap.


4. This creates a double-incentive for fans to attend, that results in increased revenue for clubs. Games where the atmosphere will be intense (DC-New York, Houston-Dallas, Chicago-Toronto) will have people scrambling to get their tickets. While games that might not be as big a draw (Chicago-Colorado, Columbus-Kansas City) will entice casual fans with cheap ticket offers. If they enjoy their time, then they may become repeat customers. If the teams are worried about regular fans taking command of the cheap seats, it's only 1% of the capacity of the stadium...


5. Lastly, to avoid any security incidents, for games with large away support contingent, ensure there is some security presence surrounding the away fans, but the focus of security needs to be sent OUTWARD towards the home fans. Away fans have been subject to a lot of largely unjustified security and police scrutiny since it really is an entirely new form of support in North America. No security guard is really familiar with it, and odds are, has been listening to Jim Rome too often and thinks that all soccer fans are murderous thugs who are just looking for trouble. Security has to realize that in the other team's stadium, the visitors are hopelessly outnumbered, so it's not in their best interest to start trouble.

Regular, mobilized, organized away support is coming, whether MLS likes it or not, and it can be very good for business if everyone is reasonable.