In Regards to Issues With Chants Containing Profanities
For those of you who weren't at Saturday's game against Puerto Rico, we caught a lot of flack from GSF security and the scene was not pretty. Apparently they've been receiving written and verbal complaints from families attending games since the home opener concerning our use of profanities in group chants.
I spoke to several of the security staff, and while they were civil with me, several of them were very confrontational with a few of our members. Some members were yelled at, while others were threatened with being ejected from the game and even arrested. This issue has been addressed with the Rowdies front office and will hopefully be taken care of.
Following the game we had an after party at the new Green Iguana near the stadium. The team's Director of Public Relations, Megan Danner, spoke with me and mentioned that while many of the complaints were coming from families, some were coming from sponsors such as Budweiser and Lotto as well.
As a supporter's group, we must support the team. That means doing everything we can do to help make the Rowdies a success. Before the season began, I brought up the issue of profanities in chants and the response was pretty negative, but now it's time to revisit the issue.
Please hear me out on this one. We in no way have to "tone it down" as far as the passion we display or the intent of the insults we chant at the imposing team. Instead of seeing this as travesty, we should instead look at it as a challenge to be creative. When security began bugging us, we actually displayed a lot of creativity. We all spontaneously broke into the chant "Billy has a mangina!" directed to Islanders goalkeeper Bill Gaudette. Then we started including "punta" in a chant. While these chants will still be considered to be inappropriate by some, they should not illicit the same response that chants with asshole and the f-word do.
The counter-argument in the past has been that since we only have a few chants with these words in them, it's not a big deal to use them. I'd actually say that this will make it even easier to tweak them. For example, at the beginning of the season we used the chant "Paul Dalglish ain't nothing to mess with" but at Saturday's game, we used the f-word instead of "mess" and it can easily be changed back. For other chants -- such as the "we'll go f-ing mental" chant -- we can easily change it to "freaking."
The next home game is on June 12 against Montreal, so we have some time to discuss this. Let's take this one game at a time. My suggestion for this game is to learn some words in French security and families won't pick up on, use a lot of "USA" and "We hate Canada" chants and overall just be creative!
Again we've been asked by the team to change our language in the chants, not just by the GSF security staff. I say we support the team because so far they've been very receptive to our suggestions. For dollar beer night, they extended it into the 20th minute after we complained. After all of the uproar over the possibility of a band and "Rowdies girls", neither has been an issue. They also have promoted us on their Web site and have treated us pretty well so far. Let's try to return the favor!
Please share your thoughts, however heated they may be!
I spoke to several of the security staff, and while they were civil with me, several of them were very confrontational with a few of our members. Some members were yelled at, while others were threatened with being ejected from the game and even arrested. This issue has been addressed with the Rowdies front office and will hopefully be taken care of.
Following the game we had an after party at the new Green Iguana near the stadium. The team's Director of Public Relations, Megan Danner, spoke with me and mentioned that while many of the complaints were coming from families, some were coming from sponsors such as Budweiser and Lotto as well.
As a supporter's group, we must support the team. That means doing everything we can do to help make the Rowdies a success. Before the season began, I brought up the issue of profanities in chants and the response was pretty negative, but now it's time to revisit the issue.
Please hear me out on this one. We in no way have to "tone it down" as far as the passion we display or the intent of the insults we chant at the imposing team. Instead of seeing this as travesty, we should instead look at it as a challenge to be creative. When security began bugging us, we actually displayed a lot of creativity. We all spontaneously broke into the chant "Billy has a mangina!" directed to Islanders goalkeeper Bill Gaudette. Then we started including "punta" in a chant. While these chants will still be considered to be inappropriate by some, they should not illicit the same response that chants with asshole and the f-word do.
The counter-argument in the past has been that since we only have a few chants with these words in them, it's not a big deal to use them. I'd actually say that this will make it even easier to tweak them. For example, at the beginning of the season we used the chant "Paul Dalglish ain't nothing to mess with" but at Saturday's game, we used the f-word instead of "mess" and it can easily be changed back. For other chants -- such as the "we'll go f-ing mental" chant -- we can easily change it to "freaking."
The next home game is on June 12 against Montreal, so we have some time to discuss this. Let's take this one game at a time. My suggestion for this game is to learn some words in French security and families won't pick up on, use a lot of "USA" and "We hate Canada" chants and overall just be creative!
Again we've been asked by the team to change our language in the chants, not just by the GSF security staff. I say we support the team because so far they've been very receptive to our suggestions. For dollar beer night, they extended it into the 20th minute after we complained. After all of the uproar over the possibility of a band and "Rowdies girls", neither has been an issue. They also have promoted us on their Web site and have treated us pretty well so far. Let's try to return the favor!
Please share your thoughts, however heated they may be!
Views: 5
Comment
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Comment by Paul Peluso on June 14, 2010 at 8:06am -
I just wanted to say that everyone did a great job with this on Saturday. We had not noticeable problems with security. I will say that we seemed a little less up beat than usual. Not sure if that's because we were so cautious with our chants or because most of us had been drinking since noon!
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Comment by Jeff Thompson on June 11, 2010 at 6:01pm -
Great, I noticed when I wqalked around to the left feild side during the second half that it was very, very quite. I mean more silence than at a dull baseball game. Any thought to sending a friendly delegation to walk around getting the other parts of the fan base to cheer? Even a Tampa----Bay thing or Yellow----green, ala Crazy George would get them off their hands. The Seattle game last evening showed what 30+ thousand fans could sound like cheering all game. Just a thought, if we spread the tom foolary the security guys will have more to worry about than just us.
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Comment by Greg Legas on June 10, 2010 at 8:57pm -
We'll be very loud, as long as we can preserve our voices during the World Cup games at McD's.
As Nigel Tufnel once said regarding volume levels; "Ours goes up to Eleven. That's one more, isn't it?"
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Comment by Steve Holler on June 10, 2010 at 8:45pm -
We can chant whatever we want without "swear words," which I think consist of the seven words George Carlin made famous. Other than that, let's go get loud.
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Comment by Rob Wilson on June 10, 2010 at 8:44pm
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I've not a problem with the organized clean chants....but no chants at all would be bullsh*t.
Their has to be a happy medium somewhere
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Comment by Greg Legas on June 10, 2010 at 8:35pm
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Thanks for the clarification. It really is a (cliche alert) "slippery slope" when you let them start censoring the passionate U.S. soccer fan. I've seen it in every league in this country. It KILLS leagues. First the true profanity goes (I'm fine with that); then they start saying your comments about other players are "unsportsmanlike" and request that you only use positive chants that support our team. Then they get complaints that you're too loud for the enjoyment of other fans.......so they send Ralph's Mob to the "time-out-corner" with the pep-band.
What you're left with is a nearly empty staduium bereft of passionate, knowledgeable fans, with only a few youth-teams in attendance who got half-price tickets to boot!
That's where every pro soccer league has fallen down in this country: failure to balance the desire to be "family friendly" with the fact that everywhere else on the globe this is treated as an actual SPORT ! It shouldn't be seen as just another place top take the kids .....like the park, or the library.
I guess I'm just a grumpy old man ; )
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Comment by Carrie Wininsky on June 10, 2010 at 8:13pm -
yeah sorry typo on my side, we can't do chants with swearing.. blame it on steve he made me sick :-) haha
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Comment by Steve Holler on June 10, 2010 at 8:00pm
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I think the implication was no organized chants that involve swearing.
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Comment by Greg Legas on June 10, 2010 at 7:52pm
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NO organized chants? Not even "clean" ones?
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Comment by Paul Peluso on June 10, 2010 at 12:50pm
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Awesome, thanks for the update, Carrie. Can't wait for Saturday!
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