Utah Ruins Everything: US Men’s National Team Edition

EDIT: American Outlaws themselves have come out and claimed that the reports are false. I certainly hope this is true. I'm leaving this up just in case AO is just trying to do damage control, and because we hadn't done anything making fun of SLC's support at their games and it's worth having!

Hey guys, remember when all those Utah-based USMNT fan's called giving Colorado the game against Costa Rica a 'mistake'? How it would just be a Costa Rica away party? How they would never even sell out the game and the US would be sure to lose?

Conversely, remember when Utah was given not one, but two important US games in the same year?

Remember when one of the games didn't sell out and both were criticized as having some of the worst atmospheres in a long time for the USMNT?

Well, we had a good laugh at them at the time and were prepared to move on, but the American Outlaws have taken that situation and reportedly  used it to institute a dreadfully stupid policy wherein Seattle-based capos are going to need to be used at every US game from this point forward. Why? Because there was good atmosphere at the Seattle game earlier in the Hex. Massive Report did a fine editorial on the subject.

I'll just go ahead and say it: that's the dumbest goddamn thing I've ever heard in my life. The Seattle game against Panama had a great atmosphere. The place was packed and Seattle's AO chapter are also Sounders fans by and large, so of course it did. However, the game against Colorado had a great atmosphere as well, and we were scarcely working with any capos at all. Kansas City had a crowd 1/4 the size of that Seattle crowd last time they hosted the US — they will again when Jamaica comes to town, it's just the stadium size and CONCACAF regulations keeping them from being bigger — and were getting talked up as a potential future hub city for the USMNT, they were so good. Every single city except Salt Lake that has gotten one of those games has done a marvelous job with their own unique flavor of support. I've seen firsthand that there's a world of difference between AO Tampa and AO Denver in terms of songs and style of support, and that's perfectly fine as long as they show up and make the noise.

Columbus is a town renowned for its amazing atmospheres against Mexico. They can jolly well figure it out by themselves, as they have for the last decade. Even past them though, I think everyone else will be able to figure it out on their own as well. This isn't 1999 any more. We're not starved for someone, anyone to help the poor underdog US get fans and noise into their stadiums. When even some Seattle fans are convinced it's a dumb idea, it's probably a dumb idea.

Don't push Utah's screw-upery on everyone else, American Outlaws.

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