Edmonton Post-Mortem

[River City]

I won't have a lot of time to spend on the forum for the next 4-6 days so I won't be able to post my detailed list of positives and negatives.

For those of you that watched it on tv, please post what looked or sounded good from the V's section. Which banners stood out, if there were close-ups of the V's, whatever.

For those that were there from out of town, please post what worked for you, what didn't work, what could've worked - everything from prematch activities to departure. What would make you want to come back again to Edmonton?

For the locals that were there (including all lurkers that don't post), please post what worked and didn't, how to recruit more people, etc.

As an example - I thought the seat assignment thing would work from a liability issue (in case someone snuck in and started problems), and to ensure chants were in unison, but we had 30 people crammed into the first row (17 seats) of Section P and V's that bought tickets had to find other seats for themselves.

This was due to the the tardiness of getting into the stadium due to security issues (drum sizes again)and then us scrambling to hang banners. The nice thing was, we did indeed attract casuals to the section, the bad thing was that we had different chants going on at the same time.

Let 'er rip...

[Bertuzzi44]

Well on TV the section, especially the banners, looked great. Good job guys!

As for the result...WFT?!?! Canada played awesome and could have easily won.

Sometimes I think the CMNT is teasing us. Just like God teased Moses in the desert!

[Scottie]

After leaving Toronto and Montreal heartbroken, I feel redeemed by Edmonton. I brought 8 friends up for the match, most of whom had never seen a canada match, and they were all impressed, and not just by the game itself. The western v's in the stands put on a hell of a show (I don't think any eastern v's made it out but correct me if I'm wrong).

On a couple of occasions, I felt we got a little quiet so I started up a little "la la la la la la allez les rouges" which caught on easily, as well as the "it's all gone quiet over there" after radz's goal, which i like to think prompted a mexican fan to throw his beer cup at us.

The fact of the matter is that out here we don't have the professional fan groups that Toronto is so fortunate to have (although there were a couple of southsiders) and yet we still held our own quite strongly. It was a great effort, that in the end was recognized by Radz and the whole team when they came over after the match. That was without a doubt my most heartwarming moment as a voyageur.

Well, after 5 caps, all I have left to say is I can't wait for the next one (gold cup maybe?). To all the voyageurs I've had the pleasure of meeting, may we meet again some day, and to all those of you I haven't met I look forward to cheering alongside you at BMO, Saputo, Commonwealth or wherever we may be.

ALLEZ LES ROUGES!

[Scottie]

After leaving Toronto and Montreal heartbroken, I feel redeemed by Edmonton. I brought 8 friends up for the match, most of whom had never seen a canada match, and they were all impressed, and not just by the game itself. The western v's in the stands put on a hell of a show (I don't think any eastern v's made it out but correct me if I'm wrong).

On a couple of occasions, I felt we got a little quiet so I started up a little "la la la la la la allez les rouges" which caught on easily, as well as the "it's all gone quiet over there" after radz's goal, which i like to think prompted a mexican fan to throw his beer cup at us.

The fact of the matter is that out here we don't have the professional fan groups that Toronto is so fortunate to have (although there were a couple of southsiders) and yet we still held our own quite strongly. It was a great effort, that in the end was recognized by Radz and the whole team when they came over after the match. That was without a doubt my most heartwarming moment as a voyageur.

Well, after 5 caps, all I have left to say is I can't wait for the next one (gold cup maybe?). To all the voyageurs I've had the pleasure of meeting, may we meet again some day, and to all those of you I haven't met I look forward to cheering alongside you at BMO, Saputo, Commonwealth or wherever we may be.

ALLEZ LES ROUGES!

[Lord Bob]

With regard to the disparate chanting, I think Scottie indirectly hit the nail on the head: many of us aren't that good at it simply because we don't get much practice on the left-hand side of the country. The Southsiders do their thing and good on them, but guys like me who can only come out for MNT matches get tangled up pretty easily.

By the way, that's the reason I was pretty glad most of the Voyageurs ended up clustering towards the front in section P: if we were tight together, we'd have much better odds of sounding great because we could all hear each other. I was mostly out on the edges but I don't think anybody was suffocating even up on the rail. And we got some great chants off as a result that wouldn't have sounded half as effective if we were spread out and outnumbered ten to one by the Mexicans next to us.

[Lord Bob]

With regard to the disparate chanting, I think Scottie indirectly hit the nail on the head: many of us aren't that good at it simply because we don't get much practice on the left-hand side of the country. The Southsiders do their thing and good on them, but guys like me who can only come out for MNT matches get tangled up pretty easily.

By the way, that's the reason I was pretty glad most of the Voyageurs ended up clustering towards the front in section P: if we were tight together, we'd have much better odds of sounding great because we could all hear each other. I was mostly out on the edges but I don't think anybody was suffocating even up on the rail. And we got some great chants off as a result that wouldn't have sounded half as effective if we were spread out and outnumbered ten to one by the Mexicans next to us.

[Free kick]

I watched on TV. I thought that your presence was definitely heard. I heard mostly "Go Canada Go" but also other occasional other chants. The cameras did focus on the banner and the super canucks was prominently visible. There was another Razinski banner that we were only able to catch a quick glimse of. So I couldnt tell what it said.

The overall turnout was extremely impressive from what I tell. Considering the predicament and circumstances of the match involving canada, I could understand if even 1000-2000 fans would have showed up.

[superbrad]

We were just to the right of the main 'clump' of V's and yes the chants were sometimes disjointed. You are right, we need to tighten up so that we are in unison.

Complaints - someone has to talk to the Stadium. Every fricken game in Edmonton they don't open up enough beer vendors and you get screwed by the long lines. Many missed the Radz goal to start the 2nd half. I just happened to leave the line to check out the game (while my friends held our spot) just in time to see the goal. As the Mexicans were dancing and singing in the line up just prior, I exercised the opportunity to start cheering and dancing around them as they all looked on dumbfounded. In fact, when they heard the roar of the crowd - they all thought Mexico scored and were rushing the stairs so I had to knock a few of them out of the way in order to rev up the beer line crowd. (Sorry a personal happy moment)....

[strobe_z]

I didn't have a lot of time to hang out with many of the V's because Mrs. strobe_z came along and was getting a bit cold, but a few random thoughts:

1) It was REALLY nice to see some out of town V's. I made a point of introducing myself to redhat, and I saw gwallace, Cheeta (nice hat!) and a few other familiar faces over on the other side. I was a bit worried about this from the start. People were all hyped up for the Toronto match when everything was still golden - plans were made and tons of people from all over the country were making the trek to BMO field. I was worried that by the time Edmonton's match rolled around we'd be out of it, no one would care, it'd be cold and everyone would once again point fingers at Edmonton because it'd be the 4-5 "core" Edmonton V's surrounded by thousands of Mexicans.

2) This was by far the best turn out for "regular" fans becoming engaged in the V's mosh pit. I kept looking behind and was amazed that the standing section seemed to grow. This was a far cry from 2000 when no one stood, and 2004 when security kept trying to get the 30 or so of us to sit down and watch nicely. For a nothing much game, on a weeknight in October... that's pretty good.

3)Going to the game with my wife was a new experience. She asked me why we were chanting "We're Red, We're White, We're Monkey Dynamite!" And then when she realized that it wasn't "Monkey" we were chanting... my chants ended up being "We're Red, We're White, We're {mmph!} Dynamite" because she kept covering my mouth with her gloves. It was also nice of the Mexican fans to offer her a beer when Radz scored. Oh, and apparently she thinks Cheeta deserves the "Screamin' V" award for loudest single yell.

4)As many others have said, Radz was a class act, and I really appreciated seeing him and the rest of the team come over and applaud our efforts. Radz was actually consistently doing it... he applauded us several times during the warm up, and then again at the final whistle. Who was the back-up keeper last night? I'm pretty sure he came over and tossed his jersey into the crowd as well. I kinda thought there might be a few more jerseys tossed into the crowd, but I think Gerba and some of the others that came over had already exchanged jerseys with some of the Mexicans... or had just taken them off already.

5)I'd like to give a big round of applause to River City for all his work in organizing airport pickups for out of towners, and all the rest. He was pretty hard to miss with the "#12 Voyageurs" jersey on. Great job, Sergio!

[bleed]

I'm an Edmontonian and was NOT at the game. It was a cold Wednesday night... come on.

I should also mention that there was LITERALLY no marketing or general public awareness of any kind surrounding this game. Only hardcore soccer fans were there.... that said considering the state of the MNT it might be better to keep things quiet.

[strobe_z]

quote:Originally posted by bleed

I'm an Edmontonian and was NOT at the game. It was a cold Wednesday night... come on.

I should also mention that there was LITERALLY no marketing or general public awareness of any kind surrounding this game. Only hardcore soccer fans were there.... that said considering the state of the MNT it might be better to keep things quiet.

Nice of you to share.

[nafnikufesin]

quote:Originally posted by River City

For the locals that were there (including all lurkers that don't post), please post what worked and didn't, how to recruit more people, etc.

I've been a lurker here for a long time and have only recently begun to post. My sister bought me tickets for my birthday, but told me it wasn't easy. I had made it known on my birthday wishlist that I wanted seats in the V section, not knowing the trouble my sister would have to go to to obtain them. In the end, she had to beg and plead her case to whoever she had communicated with in order to get the code to buy from Ticketmaster.

So my suggestion would be that if you want to recruit more people, don't make it so difficult for them. Presumably if someone knows that there is a Voyageurs section and actively seeks out to be in it, they aren't just some casual fan that will sit on their hands, or some enemy spy trying to infiltrate the section.

[CanadasBest]

Thanks for the feedback Nafnikufesin. I think we can all agree that the ticket distribution system is a work in progress, and we appreciate the feedback!

Ok, big big big big big shout out to River City and Canadian Traveller for organizing everything. Piltdownman and I arrived at the Airport to meet River City standing there and gave us a ride to Canadian Traveller's Condo. You guys did an awesome job with organizing everything and I know everyone that came out had a lot of fun. Thank you very much!

The match itself was great. There were a lot of Mexican fans there, but it was better than the Honduras game in Montreal in that regards. The Mexican fans too were far better behaved (In general) than the Honduran fans. There were a couple of wacko's, but we too had a couple of wacko's in our section, and nothing went down which was nice.

I managed to watch the game on TV back in the hotel in Edmonton last night, and for those of you that weren't there: When Gerba scored that goal he ran right by the Mexican supporters with his finger over his mouth. You saw it on TV, but they were focused in on Gerba so it wasn't really evident where he was in the stadium. He jumped the fence right in front of the Voyageurs. It was amazing.

I tell you guys I was really questioning my commitment with all the travel, but this game really rejuvenated my passion for our Men's program. The players went out of their way to show that they appreciated the Voyageurs and that's something that was missing in the first two home games. Not to say that I blame them though because of the results.

[River City]

Great feedback so far, and I don't want to jump in too much yet, but nafnikufesin, the only person I turned down for tickets was an ex-girlfreind of mine who wanted tix for Mexican supporters.

If she dealt directly with Ticketmaster, I know exactly the frustration she would have felt. Did she contact any Voyageurs in particular?

[nafnikufesin]

I'm not sure who she contacted. I directed her to this forum as a way to figure out how to get tickets in the V section. She didn't know my alias, not that anyone here would have known it anyway as I'd probably posted only once or twice a few years ago prior to her buying the tickets. In the end, she wasn't turned down, but commented that she felt like she had to jump through hoops and swear an oath to get the code. Could be her just exaggerating, I'm just reporting what I heard from her.

[Avram Grant]

quote:Originally posted by gwallace76

The match itself was great. There were a lot of Mexican fans there, but it was better than the Honduras game in Montreal in that regards. The Mexican fans too were far better behaved (In general) than the Honduran fans. There were a couple of wacko's, but we too had a couple of wacko's in our section, and nothing went down which was nice.

Interesting, and good to hear. On TV it looked almost as bad as the Montreal game was in terms of all the away support.

[piltdownman]

First off I want to thank the boys the Edmonton for being amazing hosts. They really went all out to welcome all of us into their very cold city But seriously, you guys did a great job.

The only thing I can fault are:

The parade route: I know it took us to the stadium but the stadium in Edmonton isn't in a very busy park of town. Maybe next time a march through downtown and then onto the subway would be better?

Beer lines: It took be 45 minutes to get a beer at the half. They were volunteers filling plastic cups from bottles and they weren't using proper beer pouring techniques (tilting the cup). You could tell the people had no till experience as they had real trouble with doing the change. Also when I decided to give up on beer and switch to hard bar, I was told after I paid that I had to wait my turn for my drinks because "it wouldn't be fair for me to get my drink before the five people ahead of me who had already paid". I couldn't believe that the lady would just stand there doing nothing waiting for the beer pourers to get these guys drinks before she would make mine because of "fairness"

* The CSA's lack of any Advertising about the game. The girl that joined up with me at the game said that none of her friends at UofA even knew about the game. Also my works Edmonton office didn't know about the game until I mentioned it. How do you expect people to show up to a event that no one knows about?

* That I spent all the time talking about football at the bar with you guys instead of paying attention to the girl I brought ... no wonder she left so early

[Andrew W]

First off, big thanks to the Edmonton organizers; River City for the tickets, and most everything else and Canadian Traveller for all the hospitality.

It was great meeting so many for the first time, plus meeting some of the Vancouver, Saskatchewan and Winnipeg contingents. Big huge props out to Fort York Redcoat for making the trek from Toronto. He stood right in front of me and we both shouted and sung our guts out all night.

Agreed with Pilt about the march length, but it was still fun. Maybe starting off in a pub or something. Other than that the enthusiasm was infectious and my wife and brother in law are now fully committed to the cause. She even broached the subject about planning future holidays around fixture dates!

Simpler song sheets of about two, three or four of the best songs or chants may be easier to garner cohesion in the section. The simple "Canada" or "Go Canda Go" chants or the shouting of player names are easy to pick up on but some of the songs are definately tougher.

As for the support, we ended up with a really nice full section plus the casuals even further behind us filling most of P and Q all the way to the top of the lower deck. Absolutely on television it would have looked like mostly Mexican support because they had a huge contingent there. It was a fun crowd and a good turnout for midweek.

Absolutely no buzz about the game in the city prior to kickoff as we were in town a day early and heard nothing on any of the "modern" rock station where the interested demographic would be listening, nor was there much in the way of billboard or print advertising plus the stadium seems so unwelcoming and un-Canadian with no Canada banners, CSA logos or anything of the sort. None of this is under out control, but just stuff I noticed.

As for where the games should be played, I don't know. However, from now on, I'll be hopping flights, driving or whatever to get there because of such a positive experience with this group. I hope I see you all again plus get a chance to meet the Eastern group in the near future whether that's in Toronto, Montreal, Boston, Caracas, I don't give a ****.

Let's continue to build this brand and not tear it apart by regionalism. Don't know, don't care where they're held, just know I'll be there from now on.

Awesome job boys and thanks for a memorable night.

[Moldobut]

quote:Originally posted by nafnikufesin

I'm not sure who she contacted. I directed her to this forum as a way to figure out how to get tickets in the V section. She didn't know my alias, not that anyone here would have known it anyway as I'd probably posted only once or twice a few years ago prior to her buying the tickets. In the end, she wasn't turned down, but commented that she felt like she had to jump through hoops and swear an oath to get the code. Could be her just exaggerating, I'm just reporting what I heard from her.

Man if I would of known your dilemma I would've told your sister to buy the cheapest seats in the house and move to the Voyageurs section since Commonwealth is so big and it's always for sure the tickets never sell out plus lukewarm fans never sit up front, and lastly there are very few ushers, and they don't seem to care to check tickets once you're seated.

sure this strategy wouldn't work in smaller stadiums where seating is sparse.

as for the game i think tomasz had some pressure to perform big with the chanting dedicated to him and i had put up a red poster on the rail 9 RADZ. I was surprised not more Cdn supporters were at the players bus when they left the stadium. got to take a pic with him and sign my 9 jersey.

In all the team were definitely in good spirits getting on the bus.

One way I think we can improve the chanting although the photocopies were great, is having someone with a loudspeaker cause most people next to me didn't know what was being sung.

[Cheeta]

quote:Originally posted by nafnikufesin

I'm not sure who she contacted. I directed her to this forum as a way to figure out how to get tickets in the V section. She didn't know my alias, not that anyone here would have known it anyway as I'd probably posted only once or twice a few years ago prior to her buying the tickets. In the end, she wasn't turned down, but commented that she felt like she had to jump through hoops and swear an oath to get the code. Could be her just exaggerating, I'm just reporting what I heard from her.

Not exaggerating. Not by much.

For Toronto & Montreal the promo-code was distributed to the V membership by mass e-mail. This did not occur with Edmonton as River City had taken on the task of underwriting the Supporter Section block of tickets.

Tried my best to get her to buy tickets in any other section and just "migrate" down to the Vs Supporter Section like everyone else who's interested dose but she was quite keen on buying tickets in the VSS.

So yeah, she had to do a bit of work to get the code and no, by rights I shouldn't have given her the code. But in the end you got official tickets in the Voyageurs Supporters Section for the October 15th, 2008 WCQ against Mexico at Commonwealth Stadium. Happy Birthday. Thank-you sis.

[CanadasBest]

Two things:

- Need Megaphones to start the chants going. This worked great in Montreal.

- Nametags, Nametags, Nametags. Every single V get together we always say "We need Nametags..." But nobody (including me) remembers to bring them.

[EdmontonSoccer]

The game was awesome and besides the voyageurs on the east side, the west side of the stadium was pro-canadian. The concessions sucked big time. I went to get a beer and gave up after 15 minutes at the half. Good thing because Raz scored as soon as I sat down. As for advertising, anyone at the U of A read a newspaper. I know the Sun had the game advertised almost everyday for a month

The field looked a lot better than the "Beckham" game. Don't understand why people would choose that game over this one as the level of soccer was twice of that of the Galaxy/Whitecaps. It was however pretty chilly out last night. Best 2nd half I've ever seen Canada play live. Very entertaining!

[Blue and White Army]

Some observations:

Cheers to River City for picking us up in the airport. He was expecting two; he got four. We turned his car into a "football special". We were so crammed in, I carried a snare drum on my crotch for at least 30 minutes. I may be infertile, so it's good that Sergio didn't charge money for the ride, or I might have had to consider my legal options!

Cheers to Canadian Traveller for the condo usage, and for putting out such a nice spread. I should have had some fruit, though, as I'm still feeling the effects of all that booze...

Bizarre how at Vancouver vs. Montreal in the Voyageurs Cup, we had a stadium swarming with RCMP, despite no away supporters... and yet when there's several hundred Mexicans from across North America at Commonwealth, there isn't a single bizzie to be found. It's a good thing that the Mexicans are relatively laid back and jovial, otherwise that pre-match "confrontation" just outside of the stadium would have kicked off. Big time.

Apparently some old fart complained to the security about us for being "too loud". And the clueless security dickhead duly came over and wondered why we had to be so noisy. Ummm... do you think this happened to the Mexican supporters in the crowd? Only in Canada... but at least the "sit down, shut up" culture is clearly an endangered species.

As for people not knowing the words/beats to songs: how about an online Voyageurs audio gallery, with mp3s of songs? I'm sure Cheeta would love to record all of those for us. Just buy him a bottle of booze and give him a mic.

P.S. I am the real Sven.

[ESG Shawn]

How about a cheers for all the non-Edmonton V's who made it down for the match. It was a pleasure to meet all of you, and hopefully we can put on a better show for the next match in Edmonton.

Here is a mixed bag of my thoughts of the match.

-Chants. We sang for 90 minutes, there were no real breaks which was great. Most of my thoughts have been posted above, we had two groups of chants going at the same time, mainly due to the split in sections. I know we voted on having the first 5 rows of two sections versus 10 rows in one section. I think next time, we should just try to pack an entire section rather than spread out over two. Also, as noted, we need to get more co-ordinated in terms of chant leaders.

-The march. I missed it, I couldn't get off of work, however I also agree with piltdownman's post above, we should do it through downtown next time and generate more traffic.

-Security Issues. I was with Sergio when we tried to enter the stadium. Our gate where we were supposed to enter was not ready, and security had an issue with the drums, all of which was cleared up prior to the match. We need to ensure this doesn't happen next time, as it was a rush once we finally got in the stadium to set up the banners.

-piltdownman, sorry about the girl. I know we were yapping your ear off about football, and then she left! Didn't even realize she was with you because we were all too into the discussion!

[Blue and White Army]

Disjointed chants: megaphones.

Problems w/ security regarding drums: get a printed letter from the CSA to show the 'roid monkeys next time around. Sheesh, the Mexicans can bring in an inflatible sex doll, but we get hassled for drums?!?