February 13, 2012
  • 4/1/09

    new york red bulls

    By Max J. Dickstein

    The Equalizer: Two MLS new clubs’ fan support in Seattle and Toronto lends hope to Red Bulls

    Photo credit: Game Face

    A new stadium in 2010 will help RBNY attract more ardent fans. (Getty)

    By Andrew Keh

    Special to amNewYork

    Looking out from New York, one can catch brief, exciting and increasingly frequent glimpses of what Major League Soccer might one day look like in full bloom.

    Swelling crowds of people on their feet with flags and scarves raised high up above their heads, testing the limits of their vocal chords. Thousands of fans traveling with their team to invade the stands of opponents’ stadiums.

    In this still-young MLS season, two clubs — the Seattle Sounders and Toronto FC — with the support of their fans, have provided these views. Seattle has embraced the Sounders, an old franchise reborn in MLS, and the players have responded, winning their first two games in front of sellout crowds at home without conceding a goal.

    Toronto FC, a franchise with a reported 14,000 people on its season ticket waiting list, hit the road for an away match in Columbus, Ohio, last weekend with more than 2,000 die-hard fans in tow. Home advantage is no myth but, until now, few MLS stadiums have ever been considered intimidating venues. Taking some of that home support to away matches is better still.

    Toronto and Seattle operate now in a bubble of enthusiasm that other teams can only hope to replicate in the coming years. The Red Bulls, more than any of their counterparts, have that chance. To date, the franchise has failed to truly capture the heart of a New York market that could reasonably boast more soccer fans than Seattle and Toronto combined.

    The problem has always been turning those soccer fans into Red Bull fans. Next season, the team will open a stadium that, by all indications, will be the premier venue for soccer in the country.

    It will sit by the water, surrounded by new commercial spaces, and will be easily accessible by public transportation. The physical structures will be in place. The pressure is on the club and the fans to bring along the grassroots enthusiasm, the spirit of unconditional support for a home team.

    The Red Bulls are no fresh-faced expansion club; they have led a turbulent existence since the league’s 1996 inception. But 2010 represents their chance for new life.

    Andrew Keh is amNewYork’s soccer columnist.

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