Fortgate-"Stunned Silence"

We've been waiting to write about this past Sunday's protest by New England Revolution supporters in order to properly gather our thoughts and take a better look at it a few days out.  As for how the overall protest went, well it went better than many of us had expected.   Members of the Midnight Riders, Rebellion, Rev Army and unaffiliated supporters  marched in about 45 minutes prior to kickoff singing and chanting the whole way in.  Once in The Fort everyone remained standing and singing, waving flags etc. while the players took the field for warm ups.  Several Revs players went out of their way to acknowledge this including Lekic, Reis and Soares.  Unconfirmed reports tell us that Reis and Soares were wearing black wristbands as a sign of support.

As soon as the whistle blew silence fell over the stadium with the exception of some screaming girls (The Sons of Ben.... I keeeeeeed I keeeeeed).  When the 16th minute was over and we started our song and walkout the SoB's in attendance sat down and were silent to show support for our protest.  We can't thank them enough and it was a real show of class, especially from a group that we do not have the best history with.  In addition many people seated around the stadium stood up and clapped in support of us when the walkout began, that meant a lot to the supporters who decided to take part.

While there was a noticeable presence of Foxborough PD and TeamOps upon our entering of the stadium, when we arrived at the top of The Fort during the walkout there were none to be found.  Kudos to them for realizing that we are adults and we act like adults, their presence would have increased tension, but for possibly the first time ever they got something right.  The only issue with TeamOps was with one supervisor at the gate we walked out at, she made a few snarky and snide remarks as we walked through the gate.  After the walkout supporters continued to tailgate in the lots with little to no interaction from security.  Evan Dabby, MLS Senior Director of Operations, spoke with supporters in the lots; not much was said other than MLS supports growing supporters relations with the teams.

The question now is where do we go from here?  Discussions between the team and the SG's are continuing over treatment of the supporters in the future and ways to improve relations with TeamOps and Foxborough PD and the front office.  In the handling of all of this, despite the mistreatment of a supporter by a FPD officer, FPD have probably done the best job of handling this and reaching out to the supporters. 2 officers even purchased "Support The Fort" t-shirts this Sunday and commented how the fans deserve better.

What this all comes down to is that it is a shot across the bow of the Revolution's FO, a leveling of the playing field perhaps.  Sunday's protest showed that we too in fact have power and know how to use it when need be.  We can only hope that this puts pressure on the team to open up more and be more transparent and that it makes MLS step up and start putting pressure on the team as well.  This protest was publicly pushed as a reaction to the events that occurred at the Chicago Fire game and it appears that movement is being made on those issues.  However this protest took on a lot more issues for a lot of people many of which we touched upon here.  Some people say that the protest should be ongoing, and that we should do it every game, others think it was too much.  What this says to me is that we did exactly the right thing and executed it the right way.  I for one at this time am not ready to advocate for repeated protests.

Just as the team should not have expected an overnight change of YSA we cannot expect them to change overnight, but we can and should expect to see some changes by the end of the season and certainly visible/major changes by the time pre-season starts.  The other side of this of course is that they have had 16 years to get this right and they haven't done it yet, there is not much sand left in the hour glass.  The organization needs a major culture shift, whether it's an influx of cash, hiring new and additional staff, cleaning house, re-writing of the book on how things are done or some combination of the above, something needs to happen soon.  To steal from the corporate world the team needs to become a "best practices" franchise, not a worst practices franchise.  Here on out it is time to put pressure on the team to fix not only the issues with supporters but all around, there is not much that the team is doing right or has going for it.  You name it, it needs to be fixed.

Hopefully this is the end of Fortgate.

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One final note despite our issues with the ownership of the team, we would like to extend our condolences to the Kraft family after the passing of Myra Kraft today.  Myra Kraft was a well liked figure in the New England area and did a lot of good and charitable work for the people in this region.  Her presence will be missed.

All photos by Evan Whitney, Evan has previously written for us here.  If you would like a Support The Fort t-shirt please click here.

Fortgate-The Airing of Grievences

On Wednesday June 29th members of the Midnight Riders, Rebellion, Rev Army and unaffiliated supporters met with Brian Bilello-Revolution COO, Evan Daby-MLS Operations, Kelly Way-Director of Operations TeamOps, Cathal Conlon-Revolution Director of Marketing/Supporters Liaison, and Alan Haskill-Foxborough Police Department Administrative Sergeant. Audio recorders were prohibited for this event so unlike the extensive coverage we have had for the Supporters Summit and Meet The Coach this unfortunately will have to be a recap based off our notes instead of an abridged transcription.

Opening the meeting Brian Bilello spoke of attempts to build the supporters movement by the team over the past few years and how the team would like continue to help it grow.  He went on to say that the team "realize[s] it's and adult environment and we want to market that."  The YSA chant was cited as causing problems with season ticket holders, groups and multi-ticket package holders.  The team was unhappy with there not being enough progress within a "multi-week time frame".  The team recognised that they could of handled the situation better (i.e. emails, handouts, etc.) but they immediately turned it around to the supporters and asked what they could have done better to control the use of YSA.  Focus early on was on the needlessness of profanity in chants.

Kelly Way informed us that the first complaint during that game regarding YSA was during the 1st half followed by subsequent complaints in the second half.  Cathal Conlon was asked to speak with the supporters to try and quell the chant instead of TeamOps going in and ejecting people.  No reference was made to Ms. Way repeatedly harassing the Capo, Monty Rodrigues about him leading YSA which was not the case.  Bilello stated that if he tells Way to "let it go, it goes", but that customer service is most important.

Evan Daby stated the the "league is in the business of growing the fanbase" but if the cursing issue wasn't fixed it would hurt everyone.  He said this was an opportunity for the team and supporters to be leaders in the league.

Bilello continued to speak of wanting to see the the supporters culture grow, but went on to say that there are 485 STH's in the Fort and that he has 5000 other STH's to worry about (wow we finally got season ticket numbers!)

Supporters in attendance started to voice concerns of the over aggressive behavior of TeamOps, despite repeated questions and accounts the issue was mostly tip-toed around by Kelly Way and Brian Bilello.  One female supporter recounted how she felt uncomfortable and intimidated by there presence.  She went on to speak of how she and another were surrounded by TeamOps officials and Foxoborough PD when they suspected them of filming them, which the proved they were in fact not.  Another supporter spoke of how she was knocked over by TeamOps pushing through a row of people to get to someone that was not causing any physical harm. As she was falling she grabbed onto a TeamOps member to catch herself and was immediately threatened with arrest and ejection. Kelly Way apologized for supporters not feeling that they have a voice with TeamOps and that they will look to improve communication, Bilello chimed in that supporters should give feedback and they will be responsive towards it.

A unaffiliated supporter who does not sit in the Fort recounted that YSA is not exclusive to The Fort and that it occurs in other sections of the stadium as well and there is never even a TeamOps presence there.  She went on to state that it is not the team's job to tell her kids what is and is not acceptable and that she can handle telling them herself that YSA is not acceptable but that she did not think that it needed to be stopped even though she doesn't like it.  She was concerned that placing the blame on just The Fort was unacceptable and that enforcement of the rules needs to be consistent throughout the stadium.

Midnight Riders President Fran Harrington spoke of how the Riders and Rebellion did everything they could to try to curb the use of YSA including posting on their message boards, emails, a joint letter sent through social media and word of mouth.  The consensus from the supporters groups was that more than a few weeks was needed to change multiple years of behavior.

Kelly Way was asked if Monty Rodrigues would be offered an apology for the way he was treated by TeamOps (specifically Way herself) while on the capo stand and making efforts to co-operate, to which Way responded with an emphatic "No".

Alan Haskill reported when asked that the officer seen in the video floating around the internet has in fact been reprimanded for his actions.  Haskill said that he won't defend the behavior of that officer and it was "not the type of response we expect and was unprofessional."  He stated that the officer would likely be working future Revolution matches.

After about 90 minutes of discussion revolving mostly around swearing, which everyone was in agreement that YSA can and should be eliminated the conversation was pushed by Bilello into wanting to extend the atmosphere of The Fort to the rest of the stadium and how would that be possible.

The issue of treatment of the supporters by the team and TeamOps was brought up again with one supporter speaking of his time growing up and going to games in Europe.  He stated in the 25 years of going to matches in Germany and around Europe that he has never seen more aggresive behavior by any security towards it's fans than that of TeamOps. It was pointed out the security and police intervening with supporters in aggressive ways only serves to escalate rather than de-escalate a tense situation, and that this wasn't "Milwall in the 70's".

Twards the end Bilello said that "everyone is just trying to do their jobs" and that TeamOps and Foxborough PD need to enforce the rules, if you're "doing what you're supposed to be doing there are no problems."  Fran Harrington of the Midnight Riders pushed Bilello to make sure that the discussion that the team has about going forward are transparent and open to or shown to all supporters and that TeamOps needs to do the same going forward.  It was requested that the team make sure that ther response is seen by the greater soccer community to which Bilello said that it should be a joint letter from the SG's and the team.

Bilello closed the meeting by saying "We care about you guys, we support you guys" and asked that the supporters have faith in them.  Working together to find balance and resolve issues in the future were the themes of his closing statements and the main points were 1. elimination of YSA, 2. better communication, 3. figuring out where we go from here.



So we had a 2 hour conversation about swearing, exactly what the supporters have stated that this is not about. When issues of mistreatment and aggressive behavior came up the responses were guarded at best and the issues were skirted around and the subject changed.  Kelly Way did a good job of putting a smile on her face and trying to be friendly and put a positive spin on things, a far different persona than we saw from her almost 2 weeks ago now.  The calls for communication were too little too late, the damage has been done and those calls were not enough for most of the supporters in attendance.  While communication is good and should be encouraged it's a baby step towards what they should be doing. 

Despite the team acting as if some of these issues with TeamOps were the first that they had heard others refuted that statement and said that they had filed official complaints with the team and never had any followup. If the team is going to actively pursue complaints from other STH's than they need to do the same with those from supporters and somehow TeamOps needs to be held accountable for their actions. In the end as we have said before, talk is cheap, actions speak louder than words.  There was very little sign of action and we all left feeling like we've heard them say these things before... because we have.


SUPPORT THE FORT

Fortgate-Everything Old is New Again

Today we are going to keep our mouths shut and hand our soapbox over to a long time New England Revolution supporter and Midnight Rider.  Evan is a true stand up guy and we were very happy to oblige to his request to do a guest post on TDIF. -Brian

Everything Old is New Again
Saturday’s incident is nothing new to this longtime supporter

By Evan Whitney
June 21, 2011

I was not in attendance at Gillette Stadium this past Saturday night when the New England Revolution met the Chicago Fire, so I can’t speak directly to the particulars of what happened in The Fort that evening.  However, based on a number of eyewitness accounts a series of provocations involving club officials, TeamOps security, the Town of Foxborough Police Department, and a number of fans in The Fort resulting from concerns related to a profane chant led to a decision and series of actions that reportedly resulted in the arrest of 10-15 home supporters, and up to 20 fans being banned from Gillette Stadium for the rest of the season if not indefinitely. Videos showing some of the arrests and ejections are starting to surface via social media on-line, select comments critical of the club on their official Twitter and Facebook pages appear to have been deleted, while unconfirmed reports suggest that club officials have threatened credentialed news media with revocation of their press access should they report on this incident. (Ed. Note- The Revolution have informed us that this is not the case, yet we still have not seen much coverage of this by Revs media and especially Revs 'mainstream' outlets.)

Three days on the details remain sketchy, but the flow of vitriol, accusation, hyperbole and frustration continues unabated with neither side visibly working towards reconciliation or resolution of the issue. If anything, the rift between some of the Revolution’s most passionate supporters, club officials, and stadium staff may have reached a point where reconciliation of concerns respective to all parties involved may no longer be possible.

The only inscrutable fact than can be taken away from the incident is this: the situation could have, and should have been handled much better this past Saturday by all parties involved. Unfortunately, they weren’t, all the more-so when considering a second, irrefutable fact: incidents like as these are not isolated and have been witnessed with alarming regularity at Revolution matches dating back to 1996.
 
As noted previously I was not in attendance at the match this Saturday night, and despite having been a season ticket-holder, a long-time board member in one of the Revolution’s independent supporters groups, having watched all but three Revolution matches I’ve attended from The Fort since 1996 and missing no more than five home matches between 1996 and 2009. Admittedly, part of my absence has been due to family considerations and other obligations, but it is also fair to say that my time away from Foxboro has otherwise been of my own free will. Quite frankly Revolution matches aren’t the same experience for me that they were sixteen years-ago, and while part of that can be attributed to maturing and getting older, the other part comes down to the value of the match day experience itself, one that has been steadily decreasing in value.

While efforts have been by both club officials and representatives of The Midnight Riders, The Rebellion and Rev Army to cultivate a better working relationship based on reciprocity and trust, time and time again decisions have been made (official or otherwise) and actions taken that have served to compromise these efforts. A number of supporters have seen fit to antagonize and instigate in their dealings with the front office and stadium security, a number of club officials have gone back on their word or deliberately misrepresented themselves in their dealings with fans, and certain members of TeamOps and local law enforcement have conducted themselves unprofessionally, engaging in action going far beyond bullying via willful intimidation, verbal threats, and unnecessary force.

These issues first came to a head in 1999 when a member of The Midnight Riders (an accredited member of the news media) was arrested in a Foxboro Stadium parking lot as part of a sting operation by the Massachusetts State Police involving ticket-scalping. While the individual in question was not selling tickets and was arrested for making change from the sale of a Revolution fan magazine for the undercover officer he was subjected to verbal taunts, racial epithets, and unnecessary force by the attending officers. At the start of the following seasons a Revolution staffer was assigned to the Riders’ tailgate to serve as a “liaison” for future problems, at the same time, with members of the Foxborough Police Department and State Police regularly observing the tailgate either on foot or from marked police cars not 50 feet away. A good number of longtime supporters did not return after that season, and the numbers steadily decreased with continued unnecessary confrontations with security and law enforcement with little or no willingness on the part of the Revolution organization to help resolve the problem. I have personally had a police flashlight pushed in my chest by a State Trooper telling me to leave the tailgate when I was waiting for my ride home, have been subjected to verbal threats and profanities from police officers and those from surrounding communities, and have seen TeamOps accost and intimidate physically and mentally handicapped patrons thinking they were faking or otherwise overstating their conditions.  It bears reiterating that these are Revolution supporters we’re talking about, not visiting fans who’ve not only been subject to the same, but often worse from stadium staff, officials and police.

My reason for providing this dose of institutional history is not intended to provide justification for off-color or profane chants, and in no means is meant to forgive or condone the behavior of a select number of fans who, as my mother might describe them, are  “young, dumb, and full of come.” Efforts have been made in good faith on the part of supporters to reduce the use of profanity, and anything, increase the color, volume, and other measures of proactive team support coming from The Fort. The people there don’t make banners, construct flags, spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on road trips to follow the team, hold up scarves, jump up and down, cheer themselves hoarse or wear blisters into their hands from drumming for their own personal edification, they do it to give our players a lift, to show them we have their back.

The greater issue here isn’t about profanity, the greater issue here is about self-respect.  Unfortunately, some patrons who take or have taken in matches from The Fort have demonstrated precious little of this, and as a result, these few bad apples have served to encourage club, security, and law enforcement officials to throw out the bunch, an action that is unnecessary as it is outdated. Admittedly, this particular issue may have reached a point where nuance and discretion were viable options in dealing with the situation, the ultimate manner in which also demonstrating a lack of self-respect on the part of club officials, stadium security, and other event staff. That being said, and to quote a longtime season ticket-holder:
 
“The actions taken by the (Revolution) front office and TeamOps were not justifiable in their extremity. In doing so, their actions have further eroded the relationship between the supporters groups and the front office, alienated many longtime fans of the Revolution (including a very good number of season ticket holders), illustrated the disconnect the Revs management has with how the rest of MLS is trending,  (and) continued(s) to paint the Revs in a negative light with regard to other traveling fan bases.”
 
I’m smart enough to realize that no matter how much importance we may place on ourselves as supporters in The Fort ultimately in the eyes of the club we are no less and no more important than any other event patron, especially season ticket-holders. I also know that no matter the nature of supporters and their with relationship with the front office or organization, most fans conduct themselves in a fashion that is largely consistent with a fan code of conduct or similar. Unfortunately, there appears to be no established code of conduct or similar for those individuals involved with events or event management at Gillette Stadium, which in the context of those situations where supporters have been mistreated, contributes to a perception that stadium officials can act with impunity and no accountability.

It would be nice to think that the club might have been concerned after having given up my season tickets and explained the reasons for doing so, but no effort was made to solicit my thoughts nor has the club sought to lobby me in an effort to win back what has been a dedicated supporter for over sixteen years. The fact of the matter is that the Revolution can, does, and with some ease, erase the deficit of my tickets by selling a season ticket to someone else; you’re really only as valuable as the sixteen digits and expiration date on your credit card.

I love the New England Revolution and I give my all in The Fort because while I’m not able to suit up for the club and connect a pass, make a tackle, score a goal or stop a shot I feel that I can be proactive in my contribution and helpful to the team. I am New England ‘Til I Die and I always will be, even if that means doing what’s best for me is offering my support from a couch in front of a television, something that a good number of die-hard Revolution supporters (including me) could be doing for the rest of the season, if not permanently.

Evan Whitney is a sixteen year member of The Midnight Riders where he served as philanthrophy chair for nine years, was a columnist for the now defunct Revolution fanzine Pictures of Chairman Mao, and has contributed to a variety of publications including Soccer New England and ESPN.com

Fortgate UPDATE 2: Revolution FO Responds Again, Only Gets Worse...

It's been quite a few days here at TDIF central and for Revolution supporters.  There has been an amazing show of unity among all MLS supporters coming and showing their support for The Midnight Riders, The Rebellion and Rev Army.

Despite this and what has been an incredible takeover of the Revolution's Facebook page, the Front Office and Brian Bilello still don't quite seem to get it or just don't want to listen to the valid concerns of the supporters. They have continued to throw salt into the wounds instead of trying to salvage what little, if any, trust and credibility that they have with the supporters.

"All. I wanted to share some numbers with you to be clear about a significant amount of disinformation that is currently being perpetuated. There was 1 and only 1 arrest on Saturday night and that was for someone who threw a beer and assaulted staff. 1 and only 1 arrest. As with any arrest, that comes with an automatic letter of disinvite to the stadium as it should. No other letters of disinvite or "bans" have been issued.

In terms of ejections there were 3 ejections. At this point none of these people have been issued letters of disinvite. All of these were related to swearing and unruly behavior that took place after our supporter's liaison spent 20+ min in the fort trying to calm everyone down and limit the excessive profanity. Unfortunately there were some people who chose to increase the frequency and potency of their swearing rather than calming down. This includes a verbal assault on our supporter's liaison who has spent the last 4 years working closely with all of you.

There were 3 protective custody's for excessive intoxication. Two of these occurred before the second half kicked off and are completely unrelated. The third did occur in the fort but was unrelated.
In terms of action taking by our organization that is it. Our supporters liaison went to the fort to ask for people to stop using one chant that the supporters' groups themselves asked their members not to sing. Unfortunately as I said earlier some people took that for an excuse to amp up their behavior therefore 3 people were removed and one arrested as explained above.

I am truly sorry and saddened that there are so many people that feel that they can't enjoy a Revolution match without chanting you suck a****le 10+ times a game but make no mistake this entire incident was about limited number of fans in the fort refusing to deter that one chant. That is all that was asked, no more. No members of supporters groups were singled out, targeted, etc. and if our supporters groups were truly stopping this chant with their members as they told us they were doing than no members of any supporters group will have been impacted by this." -Revolution COO Brian Bilello 6/21/11

We addressed the "disinformation that is currently being perpetuated" briefly earlier but we will do it one more time.  We contacted the team through the appropriate channels as we have done many times in the past in an effort to get any information they had on these matters and to allow them to comment for us prior to publishing.  Here are the questions we sent:

1. Would/will anyone like to comment further other than what Brian has already posted on the facebook page

2. Would it be possible to provide copies of written complains over the language of the fort 

3. How many people were taken into custody by Foxborough PD an/or how many banning orders have or will be issued based on Saturday nights events?

We sent that email at 10:37pm Sunday night.  We gave the team the chance to give us this information, they did respond to us but did not answer these questions.  We had to go with this story and we went with information from multiple trusted sources. We witnessed 2 arrest ourselves and many more ejections as well as confiscation of tickets from STHs, in our knowledge every STH we know that has ever turned their ticket over to TeamOps has received a banning order, some for life, some for a season. Also it seems that he hasn't seen the video of the arrest that is circulating.

Further, the expectation that one person can change the actions of many is insane.  Sending your supporters liaison to ask people to clean it up and stop isn't going to immediately get a section of hundreds of people to just suddenly stop, nor is asking a SG leader to stop people.  Change does not occur overnight and the expectation that it can or should is rather foolish.

The most damning thing is that Brian Bilello still thinks this is about not being able to yell "You suck asshole".  You just don't get it Brian, is that what your MIT education gets you? We still see this is a planned operation. The language used and the deflection of any blame to the FO, TeamOps or Foxborough PD continues to confirm this.  Most damning is the blame is still place squarely on the SG's, everyone must take some of the blame but the FO needs to be placed squarely in the middle.

Word of this has spread like wildfire on the internet, among SG's all around the league and now even overseas, shouldn't that have said to the FO that this is a situation that is going out of control? That this is a situation that the normal spin will not get rid of?  That maybe this is an issue that should be handled delicately? No apparently throwing more fuel on the fire was the right decision.  This is a situation the deserves a stronger response and damage control, and they wonder why the professionalism of the FO is often questioned. This is turning into a PR disaster for the Revs. Also Brian, are Facebook wall posts really the best you can do?  It would be great to see you interact regularly and in normal situations that way but this should probably be more formal.

This team, this market, these people can not support what is happening, this could be what single-handedly destroys the Revs and soccer in the region for good, and no one in the team seems to care or even notice.  There have been years of distrust and skepticism of between the SG's and the Front Office, recently things seemed to be getting better, sadly now soccer/supporter culture has been set back years.  This has become a referendum on the FO and the Krafts ownership of this team and it is not going well for them. We're not sure there is much that can be done at this point to turn things around. Do yourself a favor and admit that this could have been handled better

The silver lining to this situation?  There has been over the course of this season and the last, a quiet tension just under the surface between the SG's in New England, this has seemed to bring them all together.  It's too bad an incident like this is what had to do it, but it should not be squandered and these groups need to work together to make their voices heard.

Never give up, never give in, SUPPORT THE FORT.

Fortgate

So as not to offend the children there will be profanity and references to profanity in this post, please act accordingly. Also in the past we have been accused of being biased and using "Fox News Tactics" so just to be clear we are an opinion site as it says on the left, think of us as an opinion source with a news problem not a news source with an opinion problem.  Also we were present in The Fort for this match, much of what we relay here was witnessed first hand.

Fred Kfhoury www.nhsoccer.com

This past Saturday as the New England Revolution took on the Chicago Fire what can only be described as a planned operation took place against the Fort (the supporters section for Revs fans) and Revolution Supporters Groups.  Gillette Stadium security, TeamOps, went about ejecting and in multiple cases having the Foxborough Police Department make arrests.  The start of all of this is from the "You suck asshole" chant that is routinely done around the league after goalkeepers take a goalkick.

In what seemed like any ordinary match day for the Revolution the supporters filled the Fort, Midnight Riders at the front of 143, The Rebellion at the front of 142 and the Rev Army taking it's usual post in the middle of 142.  Songs and chants were all done as they usually are with nothing remarkable happening, there was a pretty decent atmosphere from within the Fort.  About half way through the first half we happened to notice a stronger than usual TeamOps presence, supervisors instead of the usual "orange shirts" were regularly patrolling up an down the aisles as well as taking posts within rows.  We noticed this was odd and made note of it to people during half time.

The second half of the game begins and the Fort continues with its usual repertoire.  Monty Rodrigues, long standing former president of The Midnight Riders took up his position on the Capo stand in front of 142 to lead the Fort in it's songs and chants. Normally Monty will take this Capo stand in the first half but other than this the Fort and the game was carrying on as usual.  Getting closer to the hour mark of the game we started to notice that there were more TeamOps supervisors than usual in front of the Fort, including a woman who appeared to be a high-ranking member.  We noticed them talking back and forth with Monty and soon after a representative from the team was also present.  Fran Harrington, current Midnight Rider president, informed me that TeamOps was cracking down on swearing and the "You suck asshole" chant from the Fort.  Word was being spread through the Fort that we should all turn our backs to the field during goal kicks as a response to this.  Many people did turn their backs but word was spreading slowly and the "You suck asshole" chant continued. At around the 63rd minute after continued blame and accusations being placed on Monty for the leading and continuing of 'YSA' Monty stepped off the capo stand and left the game despite the fact that he was not doing the chant or even leading it and hadn't been all game or even over the past 2 seasons that the capo stand has existed.  At this point I and others from all the Revolution supporters groups decided to walk out of the match, the need was felt to support Monty and follow suit.  There was a lot of confusion about what was going on and as word spread more and more people continued to leave The Fort leaving it's numbers depleted and silent by the end of the match.  After Monty left there was a supporter who went to the front of The Fort to try to keep chants going, he was not there long before he was arrested.  After 20 minutes of relative silence from The Fort another individual attempted to re-ignite what few people were left and not even a minute later he was removed from The Fort.

This is where our story gets ugly.  Let's make one thing clear from here, some people are seeing the reaction of the supporters as complaining about not being allowed to swear, this is absolutely not the case.  The reaction of the supporters is to the heavy handed tactics used by TeamOps, Foxborough Police Department and the complicity with these actions from the Revolution's Front Office as well as the inconsistency of rule enforcement.

We have heard varying numbers and do not have any hard information yet but multiple sources are telling us that between 10-12 supporters were arrested and at least 20 banning orders have been issued.  As a contrast the Boston Bruins had their Stanley Cup victory parade through the streets of Boston earlier that day; there were 1.5 million people there.  There were 9 arrests. We have asked the Revolution to confirm these numbers with us. Other than Brian Bilello's comments yesterday the only response we have been given of right now we have been told that the team will be spending "a great deal of time investigating the incident and will be in touch with the supporters groups in the near future" by Lizz Summers, Director of Communications for the Revolution

One person who was arrested has gotten in touch with us, due to pending legal action we will not publish his name however he told us he was arrested for disorderly conduct.  We witnessed him being arrested and he was peacefully leaving The Fort along with many others.  He also has told us that when he was arrested by the Foxborough Police Department he was not read his Miranda Rights, when he asked he was told by the arresting officer "Fuck your rights", in addition when they ID'd him he gave his military ID to which the officer said to him "You must be in the Navy because you're acting like a pussy".  Obviously we cannot blame this directly on the team, but these actions by the Foxborough PD are appalling and the disrespect they gave to an active member of the military is shameful considering we are a nation still fighting multiple wars.  These officers may be or have been members of rival branches of the military but there is no excuse for bringing that into their job. One cannot help but think this all could have been easily avoided.

We have had sources closes to the Revolution inform us that The Revs Girls, part of the teams marketing efforts, were told that they were not allowed to be in The Fort for this match.  The Revs Girls regularly come into the section and stand, sing, chant etc. with the supporters.  This bit of information further solidifies our opinion that this was a planned operation.  Ourselves as well as others noticed an increased police presence and increased number of TeamOps personnel as previously noted and we do not believe that this could merely be a coincidence.  According to Revolution COO Brian Bilello "This was not a security issue."  So it wasn't an over-reaction by TeamOps? You were complicit and involved in a planned effort to ban and arrest your supporters? This is the nail in the coffin for us.

There is a question of whether or not a warning was issued about the "YSA" chant and other profanity.  What we know is that the Midnight Riders and The Rebellion issued a joint letter regarding The Fort a few weeks ago, included was a request not to use profane language or add to the "You Suck" chant at opposing goalkeepers...

"However the following behavior is not tolerated... Use of profane chants, such as adding language to the end of "You suck"done towards opposing goalkeepers when in front of the fort."

Does this constitute a warning that you will be, removed from the stadium, banned and arrested? Absolutely not. The FO may have asked them to help try to limit it however there was no implication that such serious actions would be taken if people did not adhere to this request. This came from the SG's not from the team.  If the team wants to start enforcing something that they have rarely if ever enforced since the teams inception 16 years ago the should have the professionalism to give fair warning themselves. This does not constitute a fair warning.

"This was related to one particular chant which our supporters' liaison has spoken to the supporter group leaders about on multiple occasions this season." -Revolution COO Brian Bilello

Ok Brian, that's great and all but why didn't you email that this chant would be a problem to your STH's? Why not come out to the tailgate and personally ask the supporters to stop doing it and assist in trying to change it? Why not make it clear by placing notes in the seats of the fort? Why not issue a statement on your website or the Revolution blog? Did you expect things to change over night after years and years of this going on? Where you afraid of the backlash if you issued a statement on profanity and the fact that the often ignored and overlooked rules on it where now going to be vigorously enforced?

Are you happy now? 

Seems like all of those things might have been a bit of a better idea...

What about Joe College-Kid at his first game yelling cocksucker at opposing players? What about the fact that there were people who were sitting right next to TeamOps security calling people faggots? They weren't arrested or even thrown out.  If you enforce it for one you enforce it for all and that is not even up for debate.

Asking the leaders of the supporters groups to control and stop 'unwanted behavior' by the fans in The Fort is not fair or even a viable solution to the problem.  Not everyone in a supporters section is a member of a supporters group.  Members of supporters groups do not have blind faith in their leaders and will not obey them just because they are the leader of what in it's most basic form, is a social group.  The leaders of the supporters groups do it for the love of the sport the team and their group. This is supposed to be fun for them asking them to be the enforcers of rules is never going to work, they are not on your payroll, you should not be placing these expectations on them. The leaders of the groups serve their members and the players on the field in the form of their support and nothing else.

A week ago there were about 120-150 supporters who traveled to support the team against the New York Red Bulls.  We were encouraged by RBNY security to support our team loudly and in any way we saw fit as long as we were not making personal attacks against anyone.  We were treated with respect and dignity, there were a few situations that occurred while we were there and RBNY security went above and beyond the call of duty in dealing with the situations. They were focused on customer service despite the fact that we were away fans.  It was a similar situation when we went down to Philadelphia last year to support the team there.  It has always been that way when we go to Toronto, the ironic thing about that? TeamOps runs security in Toronto. To be treated like criminals and hooligans in our own stadium is disappointing to say the least.  This is not Green Street Hooligans.  This is not The Football Factory. We are not a firm lurking in the dark alley waiting for it to "go off".

The FO has told us in the past that they have no control over TeamOps. TeamOps is owned by the Kraft family, it is part of Kraft Sports Group (in case you need proof) just like the Revolution, to say that they have complete control and the team has no say is ridiculous. There is a long history of TeamOps' heavy handed tactics against supporters, we will have more on that later this week.

If 100 people out of the 14000 people in attendance complained about language this past Saturday that would be .07% of the fans in attendance filing complaints. I would venture to guess that there were not 100 complaints.  We have asked for copies of any complaints filed with the team but as of yet have not received an answer as to whether or not we will be provided with them.  If we are they will be posted here.  There should be an expectation that if you go to a sporting event, especially where there is alcohol served that there will be foul language, it is a part of every sport in every pro league all around the world, to think that you can avoid because it's a soccer game is ludicrous.

"I will not get into an online debate with people who may or may not have been at the stadium last night, nor will I allow this to be presented as an example of how this organization doesn't care about our fans or our supporters... Every one of our STHs show at least the same amount of loyalty and dedication to this team turning up week after week and year after year and our organization owes just as much service and response to them as we do to our STH in the fort." -Brian Bilello

Orange slices for everyone! The new face of the Revs!!

Do you use those who do not sit in the fort as the background to your website? Do you use them in your television and print advertising? Nope.  You use The Fort.  These are the people that pay for their own tifo, travel at great length and expense to support this team all over the country, create the atmosphere that is craved as a marketing tool by the teams in this league. A TeamOps staffer even had the gall to say that the flags, banners etc. that some SG members stayed behind to collect was property of the team. 

These are the people who live and breathe this team.  You use them to build your brand, well I'm sorry they should matter a little more.  Instead of using them for your marketing maybe you should go and start using Sally-once-a-year-soccer-mom, because guess what... a lot of them aren't coming back.  If you ever want to have the Fort look like this you will have to do a lot to change your current ways and to patch things up with the SG's.

The number of conversations I have had in the past few day where supporters have discussed not renewing their tickets, is quite possibly too much for the Fort to survive.  Numerous supporters have stated they will not be back this season and 2 close friends of mine sent their season tickets back to the team today.

Supporters are the life behind any soccer team.  This is not a past time for these people, it is a culture, it is a way of life, the FO and many others do not seem to realize that or understand that.  The way the Midnight Riders, The Rebellion, the Rev Army and the unaffiliated supporters were treated was a direct insult, this is why we are angry this is where the problem lies. 

Worse of all this has an unintended effect on the players, the ones we care about most.  They need to know that we are there for them and that what happened and will likely happen is not a reflection on them.  Rebellion co-founder Kyle Santos had this to say to us today:

"The worst part was I went to a restaurant after the game to get dinner and player came up to me and asked me what happened since they saw the entire thing unfold. I told them what happened, in all honesty and they were outraged. [T]he people who it matters to, who we support, support us and love us and by us getting disrespected it's a knock to them. After a game they don't go to section 114 and thank them..."

These events have far more implications than just in New England, this will affect every supporters group and every team in the league.  The New England Revolution have decided that planning and carrying out a planned security operation that will result in bans and arrests is an acceptable way for an MLS team to deal with its supporters, take note of this. If these keeps up, this team that is floundering in the league and needs all the support it can get will have more game that look like Wednesday's game vs. Toronto:

This team is at a crossroads, will you go for the 18-35 demographic that has driven the passion of the teams who are now in "MLS 2.0" and even stepping into "MLS 3.0" or will you continue on with the youth soccer crowd and continue to be left in the dust.  The ball is on the penalty spot put it in the back of the net or botch it Revs, it's up to you how you carry forward from here.

Finally in a showing of the good work that these supporter groups so selflessly do we'd like to share this with you:

The Midnight Riders will be holding a trivia night on July 11 at The Pour House in Boston. All money raised will be donated to the Prescott family for the continuing care of their daughter Sam.

Below is a letter we received from family friend, and fellow Revs fan, Greg Gomes:

I write this letter on behalf of a dear friend of mine. For the past six years I have had the privilege of being a soccer referee, one of my colleges who I have refereed more than 50 games with has had some recent family troubles. Mike Prescott, has a young daughter Sam, she is 15 years old and was a fabulous soccer player when on the field for the FC Stars of Massachusetts. Sam was truly going to develop her skills into what could have been one of the best players that Central Massachusetts has seen in a long time.

Sam started her October off like any other year, Northbridge had just finished up their soccer season and Sam was on the Varsity girl’s team, she then started practice with the FC Stars, and began refereeing at the same facility myself and her father Mike ref at. While refereeing one game same started to become ill, suffering from a seizure. Test after test and Sam remained her fun, outgoing self, just "plugging" along with the procedures.

To her dismay the Dr's had no explanation why she was having these seizures. Time had passed and Sam had begun to suffer from seizures again and she also suffered from extreme fatigue. A new Dr, and finally Sam had been diagnosed with an illness. Unfortunately for Sam it was terminal brain cancer. Again Sam is only 15 years old. I hope this letter will help the Midnight Riders with their event and I thank you for your time in reading this.


---------------------------

The Rebellion is also holding a raffle for 2 tickets to the 2011 All Star game and hotel for after the game. Buy them here: http://www.nerebellion.bigcartel.com/product/mls-all-star-game-ticket-give-a-way The winner will be drawn at the trivia night!

Revolution COO Brian Bilello Responds To Fort Incident

This afternoon the Chief Operating Officer of the New England Revolution, Brian Bilello posted a response to the actions of the team, TeamOps and Foxborough PD against Rev supporters in The Fort.  The following is taken directly from the team's Facbook page.

"Unfortunately there was an issue last night in the fort which was a culmination of multiple weeks of complaints from many of our STH who do not sit in the fort. This was related to one particular chant which our supporters' liaison has spoken to the supporter group leaders about on multiple occasions this season. Our organization has ...been extremely supportive of the fort, giving them as much freedom as we can to support the team in their own way. However this one particular chant has been causing issues with our other STH for some time. Frankly I think it is sad that our supporters place so much priory on being able to yell one particular chant 10+ times a game with profanity that upsets many other people in the building. This is not about occasional swearing, or an eruption of passion it is about for some reason needing to swear in an organized, loud manner every time the opposing goaltender takes a goal kick.

We will be discussing the matter internally and with the supporters groups over the upcoming weeks, but make no mistake, the issue last night was about a member of the Revolution staff (our supporter's liaison who has worked with them for years) asking on behalf of the organization to once again stop using that chant. This was ...not a security issue. While some members of the supporters groups and fort tried to help the situation, others took this as an opportunity to escalate the situation. I will not get into an online debate with people who may or may not have been at the stadium last night, nor will I allow this to be presented as an example of how this organization doesn't care about our fans or our supporters. Again, we will be reaching our soon to the supporters groups to discuss last night and how to create a better atmosphere moving forward.

As for claims that we are somehow not treating our most loyal fans right I take great exception with that. Every one of our STHs show at least the same amount of loyalty and dedication to this team turning up week after week and year after year and our organization owes just as much service and response to them as we do to our S...TH in the fort.

Thank you all, and thank you for your continued support.

Go Revs
Brian"

 

TeamOps/New England Revolution Stifle Supporters Groups

From our own FO apparently...

This is only a quick rundown on the events of last night, expect a full length story early this week.

Last night in what appeared to be a planned and concerted operation by Gillette Stadium security, TeamOps, multiple arrests and banning orders were issued to fans within the Revs supporters section The Fort.  While there are many details still coming forward to us what we do know is that this was a crack down on the use of profanity within The Fort.  Many people from the Midnight Riders, The Rebellion and the Rev Army started to walk out during the 63rd minute.  We were among the first wave out and witnessed 2 arrests by Foxborough PD and have heard stories of many others.

If you were in The Fort last night please email us with what you saw, your story, comments etc. Were you arrested? Did you walk out? Did you stay for the rest of the match? Tell us what happened.  All names will be kept confidential unless we are given permission to use it. Reach us at thedrugisfootball AT gmail.com