The home match with the Orlando City Soccer Club brought a crowd of thousands of fans. They all wore their colors to cheer on their MLS debut. The kids were going wild and enjoying the game! For the growing Central Florida franchise, which started in the third-tier USL Pro league in 2010, the match against the Chicago Fire Football Club on Friday, March 11, 2016, represented an ascension into the big leagues of professional soccer.
All that we’d done in the past was amplified at that game. We heard the roar of the crowd all around us. People were singing and chanting loudly and joyfully. That was incredible! The sight was an absolutely gratifying testimony that the three years of work the team had put into building a community around the club was paying off big time.
The massive show was dubbed “Fill the Bowl” by a media campaign. The support for the club was the result of Orlando City’s grassroots tactics for building its fan base. With the assistance of Julio Lima, ’83, of Orlando’s Say It Loud! Advertising agency, Tatlonghari and her marketing team have helped nurture the growth of the club’s passionate supporter community organically, because, in the world of soccer, the traditions, rituals, and spirit of the supporter clubs create the culture of the team. “Soccer fans are more passionate than many other sports fans,” says Lima. “There’s no fooling them, so we have to understand their wants and needs and give them something real.”
The supporter section of an Orlando City Soccer Club match, aka “The Wall,” might be unlike any American sporting event you’ve ever experienced. “If you [go] there expect your view to be obstructed because of flags or people jumping and chanting,” says Ruckus president Jerry Updike, ’01. “Singing and chants all game long — 90 minutes, no sitting.”
Blending international traditions from around the globe with a burgeoning American enthusiasm for the game, the Ruckus, and Iron Lion Firm supporter clubs incite fan fervor in the south end zone of the stadium to inspire the team to victory. We were all there to support and push the team, and of every race, creed, and orientation singing together as one — it was an exciting thing to the end. The final score of this nail biting even was a 1-1 tied match.
The entire experience was incredible. The visual effects alone gave us goose bumps. There were a few goals that hit the edge of the goal and bounced off leaving us and the fans around us bummed but all in all a great game to watch.
If you are in town you should definitely come out and see their next home game in April at the Orlando City Citrus Bowl.
Be sure to upvote if you like my post, follow me for more of my travel adventures, and leave a comment to let me know what you think.
