English footy fan here... planning to come to a match

[tunstallhill]

hello there, i'm coming from England in August and i wanted to come to a NYCFC match, and it looks like its going to be the Red Bulls away match.

i've been to matches all over Europe (Barcelona, Inter Milan etc.. even to Russia to a St. Petersburg game) as a kind of hobby, to watch a match and meet the fans, drink a load and get involved, making new mates etc.. anyway, can anyone offer me some advice?

• Is there a designated 'away end' inside the stadium for the derby?
• if so, is it difficult to get tickets in the away end?
• i heard that there was a bit of agro at a red bulls match last year, is it likely to be a feisty atmosphere?
• do the NYCFC lads meet up someone and travel together to the match? is it normal to arrive 5 minutes before kick off (to maximise time at the pub) or does everyone go in early cos you can drink in the ground?
• i'd like to buy a scarf, is there a 'supporters club' shop somewhere in New York i can go to, or would it be better to just buy one online?

I'm a Sunderland fan anyway, been all over the place following them, even to Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers for a pre-season tour back in 2006

any help is appreciated

 

[JGarrettLieb]

Good morning, or I suppose afternoon for you.

The designated away section in Red Bull Arena is section 220. Which is totally adequate for away fans for teams hundreds to thousands of miles away, it is less adequate for a derby. In short, unless you're a member of a local supporters group there is a 0% chance you're getting into section 220.

I'd recommend grabbing a seat in 220 or 219 instead. Also I'd get the ticket yesterday as avaibility is very limited.

Yeah, shit tends to be aggressive at these matches. But American sports aggressive and European sports aggressive are two very different things. You'll be fine if you stay away from the drunks.

People tend to do whatever they want before kickoff. But there will be a march to the stadium of some kind by the supporters groups. R roxfontaine will probably post details as the time gets closer.

Scarf's are sold in Yankee Stadium or online, we don't have our own supporters store yet Rent is way too expensive in NYC to justify the relatively limited sales that it would generate. Your best bet are online stores. Please use an official online store to help support the club!

PS: I've had to go through English border/customs a few times recently and I noticed that I'm getting pulled for more questioning a hell of a lot more often since I put my NYCFC sticker on my luggage. Would Man United supporters who are customs agents be likely to recognize the NYC logo and Man City connection? And if so would they care enough to hassle an otherwise anonymous yank?

 

[tunstallhill]

thanks for that mate, appreciate the info. few more questions, if you don't mind...

is this forum posted on by the 'The Third Rail' - is that generally what all the fans affiliate to, or is that just one small group within the whole support group?

Is the match likely to be a sell out? i noticed it was 25,000 last year, was that a sell out?

is the away section segregated, i.e police line in between the fans? if i go for section 220 will i be with the home fans?

Is the meet up likely to be in Manhattan or The Bronx and then travel together by subway?

with regards to your airport problem, i'd be pretty sure that they wouldnt give you a hard time because of that. it does look exactly like a man city badge, but man city are massive in England now. unless you were flying into manchester airport and were extremely unlucky. i think its more likely that border control is just more strict nowadays due to the world becoming even more of a f*cked up place, and the UK seems the target of choice at the moment.

 

[mgarbowski]

Third Rail is the largest primary supporters group. Their President R roxfontaine posts here regularly and lets us know about major announcements. Lots of folks here are members even if -- like me -- we're not active and don't sit in the supporters section at Yankee stadium. It's just another way to support and for the membership fee you get quite a bit of value.
NYCFC/Red Bull MLS matches can be assumed to fill Red Bull Arena.
The meetup is likely to be in Manhattan. That's where they've been in the past and it allows less travel time. The group won't travel by subway. It doesn't go to New Jersey. But they will take the train. It's just not the subway.

I don't know about the away section questions you ask.

 

[tunstallhill]

excellent, cheers for that. i sent a message to the FB page of Third Rail (prior to finding this forum) and was chatting with someone, is that likely to be roxfontaine?

another question, what are the away numbers like in the MLS ? in England we take massive numbers to away games (i've been away with sunderland 9000 strong a few times) but obviously we can jump on a coach and be at most opposition cities within a few hours, you don't have that luxury. do certain clubs have better reputations for taking numbers away? i take it you have to go by plane?

also, whats the latest with NYCFC new stadium? has anything been agreed? do you fella's like playing at the Yankee stadium?

do you lot feel that footy/soccer is still gaining in popularity or has it just about levelled off, in terms of attendance numbers and tv viewers etc..? i see that there is 2 more teams supposed to be entering the league, that has to be a good thing doesnt it?

 

[Seth]

excellent, cheers for that. i sent a message to the FB page of Third Rail (prior to finding this forum) and was chatting with someone, is that likely to be roxfontaine?

another question, what are the away numbers like in the MLS ? in England we take massive numbers to away games (i've been away with sunderland 9000 strong a few times) but obviously we can jump on a coach and be at most opposition cities within a few hours, you don't have that luxury. do certain clubs have better reputations for taking numbers away? i take it you have to go by plane?

also, whats the latest with NYCFC new stadium? has anything been agreed? do you fella's like playing at the Yankee stadium?

do you lot feel that footy/soccer is still gaining in popularity or has it just about levelled off, in terms of attendance numbers and tv viewers etc..? i see that there is 2 more teams supposed to be entering the league, that has to be a good thing doesnt it?

As to our new stadium, let me say this: ahahahahahahahahahahahaha

I say that because there's a thread here about the stadium that's gone to 454 pages and over 9,000 posts. Still no actual news but lots of stadium size comparison diagrams for some reason.

Away numbers are tougher to answer. We can get 1,200 at Red Bull Arena because it's a 30 minute "subway" ride away. But when seeing a Dallas match involves a 1,500 mile flight things get a little more difficult. Yesterday's Seattle match had a few hundred away fans, but then other teams that one could easily drive to like Washington, say, sometimes have none. I've gone to some RBNJ matches and also to a match in New England (but that sort of doesn't count as my daughter lives up there). Note also that the Third Rail sometimes charters buses to the closer away matches like DC, Philadelphia, and New England.

I think soccer is ever-growing here but I haven't gone and looked up any numbers. We keep getting new teams in the league though so that's a good sign. Us (and Orlando) three years ago, two more this year just started playing, More coming in the next few years as well. Currently 22 teams with vague plans for as many as 30 although nothing set in stone yet.

 

[mgarbowski]

excellent, cheers for that. i sent a message to the FB page of Third Rail (prior to finding this forum) and was chatting with someone, is that likely to be roxfontaine?

Third Rail has multiple active officers and volunteers. It could have been any one of them.
Seth did a fine job answering your other questions.

 

[tunstallhill]

Third Rail has multiple active officers and volunteers. It could have been any one of them.
Seth did a fine job answering your other questions.

ah right, sounds like a decent size operation. do you know if you have to be a member to buy tickets through them?

 

[Mario]

bring a pillow, its gonna get boring.

 

[LionNYC]

excellent, cheers for that. i sent a message to the FB page of Third Rail (prior to finding this forum) and was chatting with someone, is that likely to be roxfontaine?

another question, what are the away numbers like in the MLS ? in England we take massive numbers to away games (i've been away with sunderland 9000 strong a few times) but obviously we can jump on a coach and be at most opposition cities within a few hours, you don't have that luxury. do certain clubs have better reputations for taking numbers away? i take it you have to go by plane?

also, whats the latest with NYCFC new stadium? has anything been agreed? do you fella's like playing at the Yankee stadium?

do you lot feel that footy/soccer is still gaining in popularity or has it just about levelled off, in terms of attendance numbers and tv viewers etc..? i see that there is 2 more teams supposed to be entering the league, that has to be a good thing doesnt it?

Away numbers can range from 1 (And I mean literally 1 person in the visiting supporters section) to a low thousand number. The largest we had was 1,500 for the first Hudson River Derby (NYC vs. Red Bulls, as we like to call it). But due to some behavior and the front office of the Red Bulls, our allocation was cut into a third to 500 and has now been cut again to 250. Still people can get tickets through secondary sites like StubHub or SeatGeek to sit near the designated support section. Seattle and Portland travel well. Plane, definitely for anything more than 2-3 hours away by car.

And check https://www.reddit.com/r/MLSAwayFans/ for visiting MLS fan photos and numbers.

For the new stadium, please see the Stadium Thread, the NYCFC intern we joke about has not index it yet. It's a clusterfuck of news (or lack thereof), rumors, concepts (including my own, Etihad Island), and general nonsense.

As for Yankee Stadium it ranges from can't stand it to mind it. It's good in terms of getting to in terms of train, subway, and driving. The slight lines for some are better than others and the field is generally small, very small.

The sport is getting more attention. Coverage of international leagues such as the Premier League is getting bigger and better in the states. But for US soccer, it's really in terms of the World Cup cycles for the sport to get traction. The league is expanding to 28 teams by mid 2020s, so there will be more markets with an MLS team but we're far away from being a major force in sports in this country. But we'll get there, in time.

 

[JGarrettLieb]

ah right, sounds like a decent size operation. do you know if you have to be a member to buy tickets through them?

Yes you do have to be a member to purchase a ticket though the supporters groups.

Also since you probably haven't experienced New York in late July and early August, its going to be pretty freaking hot, just be aware of that. Late July you're looking at daytime high temperatures of around 28+ degrees C. And it never really gets colder than 23/24 C at night. But that's just the average, during a heatwave we will happily go to 35+ C.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

Yes you do have to be a member to purchase a ticket though the supporters groups.

Also since you probably haven't experienced New York in late July and early August, its going to be pretty freaking hot, just be aware of that. Late July you're looking at daytime high temperatures of around 28+ degrees C. And it never really gets colder than 23/24 C at night. But that's just the average, during a heatwave we will happily go to 35+ C.

What the hell are all those Cs? Means nothing to me.

 

[Mario]

What the hell are all those Cs? Means nothing to me.

cents

 

[JGarrettLieb]

What the hell are all those Cs? Means nothing to me.

Degrees Celsius.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

Degrees Celsius.

I was making a joke.

But I also honestly can only get a vague idea of what the temp means in Celsius other than a percentage of boiling. And that doesn't seem particularly effective.

 

[tunstallhill]

Away numbers can range from 1 (And I mean literally 1 person in the visiting supporters section) to a low thousand number. The largest we had was 1,500 for the first Hudson River Derby (NYC vs. Red Bulls, as we like to call it). But due to some behavior and the front office of the Red Bulls, our allocation was cut into a third to 500 and has now been cut again to 250. Still people can get tickets through secondary sites like StubHub or SeatGeek to sit near the designated support section. Seattle and Portland travel well. Plane, definitely for anything more than 2-3 hours away by car.

And check https://www.reddit.com/r/MLSAwayFans/ for visiting MLS fan photos and numbers.

For the new stadium, please see the Stadium Thread, the NYCFC intern we joke about has not index it yet. It's a clusterfuck of news (or lack thereof), rumors, concepts (including my own, Etihad Island), and general nonsense.

As for Yankee Stadium it ranges from can't stand it to mind it. It's good in terms of getting to in terms of train, subway, and driving. The slight lines for some are better than others and the field is generally small, very small.

The sport is getting more attention. Coverage of international leagues such as the Premier League is getting bigger and better in the states. But for US soccer, it's really in terms of the World Cup cycles for the sport to get traction. The league is expanding to 28 teams by mid 2020s, so there will be more markets with an MLS team but we're far away from being a major force in sports in this country. But we'll get there, in time.

that's poor form from the club to cut the away allocation so drastically after just one instance of trouble. we had one season when our derby (with newcastle) had a total away fan ban at both matches and it created more problems (with away fans in the home sections) but that was back in 1996. we get 3000 each for the away games, and police have to deal with it. its generally a warzone on derby day (a police horse got punched a few years ago by a newcastle fan which has given us endless fun) and they smash up their own city when they lose but the away allocation is never, ever cut. i'm surprised that the authorities have done that, as a strong away following generally increases the atmosphere massively. i would have thought the league would want to encourage hostile rivalries to give it more appeal / edge (i'm not condoning violence by the way).

isnt it just a case now that the 1250 away fans who cant get tickets in the allocated section just buy them legitimately from red bulls and sit close to the away fans? won't this cause problems by mingling with the home fans?

I'm going to go for the back row of section 221 so hopefully close enough to the away fans to get in the mix

 

[tunstallhill]

Yes you do have to be a member to purchase a ticket though the supporters groups.

Also since you probably haven't experienced New York in late July and early August, its going to be pretty freaking hot, just be aware of that. Late July you're looking at daytime high temperatures of around 28+ degrees C. And it never really gets colder than 23/24 C at night. But that's just the average, during a heatwave we will happily go to 35+ C.

yeah i've had a few people mention this. i might struggle if its humid, i live on the bleak north east coast in england, rarely gets above 20. i dont mind the sun and a bit heat as i'm on holiday. wouldn't like to work in that kind of heat though

 

[Gotham Gator]

For the away game last year, the Third Rail hosted a tailgate in a segregated area outside the stadium. They grilled burgers and tapped some kegs, and it looked like a great event. Not sure what their plans are this year, but something similar would be can't miss.

 

[tunstallhill]

For the away game last year, the Third Rail hosted a tailgate in a segregated area outside the stadium. They grilled burgers and tapped some kegs, and it looked like a great event. Not sure what their plans are this year, but something similar would be can't miss.

now yer talking. love anything like that

 

[roxfontaine]

Most of the questions have been answered already. A couple that were missed or need correction:

- Allocation for away supporters is still capped at 500. I have received no mention of a reduction to 250. The Third Rail had 400 tickets for the USOC and have the same for the league match.

- You do NOT have to be a member to purchase tickets to away matches from The Third Rail. We make tickets priority access and discounted for members. Non members can purchase from our public website at cost plus $10.

- You can purchase a derby scarf from our webstore and pick it up at the match or just purchase at the match.

- As it stands, we will be tailgating again in the area outside of gate C1. We're turning it up another notch this year with support from Bronx Brewery and Monster Energy. If you want to see what The Third Rail is capable of, you don't want to miss it!