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The North End is a section within Hunt Park (officially titled Columbus
Crew Stadium). Specifically, the North End takes up the whole of Section
137 - right behind the northern goal. The North End is for (and we really
can't stress this enough) any Crew
fan who wants to stand, sing, or generally partake of a festive, rowdy
and enthusiastic atmosphere at a Crew home game. This isn't a closed group
of fans, so if you want to come down and stand with us (we don't sit down
during games), please feel free to come and join in!
On the other hand, this is not a section where you'd want to
take impressionable young children. In all honesty, some of the
language you'll hear goes beyond PG-13 and even R - so please
be warned that this is not a "family" section. If
this sort of language or rowdy/rambunctious behavior offends you,
please be sure to avoid this section.
This section exists for a number of reasons. One is that we all love
to make noise at soccer games. Whether that noise comes from beating on
drums, clapping, chanting or singing doesn't matter - we just tend to
be noisier than average when there's a soccer game going on. Why?
Lots of reasons. Partly because it helps the team play better, if you
believe players like Thomas Dooley and Alexi Lalas (both have gone on
record as saying they like it when fans make lots of noise). Partly because
we can make more noise, and more effective noise, if we're together in
one place rather than spread out in little pockets.
We're behind the goal for two reasons. First, the seats tend
to be cheaper there, so its easier for more of us to go to more
games (which is why throughout the world you'll see noisier fans
behind the goal) Second, we're behind the goal because those are
the seats that tend to fill up last - so by putting ourselves
here we make it less likely that we're going to be blocking people's
view by standing, or offending them with the shenanigans that
go on.
[We used to make a wisecrack about the North End being directly
behind the shootout goal - but thanks to Don Garber we don't have
to worry about that problem anymore :-) :-) ]
Are we better fans than the rest because we do all this? Personally I
don't think so - other fans have spent more money for better seats than
we have, bought more merchandise, or gone on more trips to away games.
Other fans may know the game better, having played it in high school,
college, or even professionally. There are lots of different ways to measure
"better". And lets face it - there's not exactly teeming hordes
of us soccer fans in Columbus right now. So the last thing we all need
is some sort of cockeyed oneupmanship among the fans that do exist.
So that's it - some more information about the North End. Please do
consider coming down if you want - its generally a good time and the people
here are actually rather nice. If you're looking for someone specific,
I'm the tallish-looking redhead (balding with a ponytail) somewhere near
row one, seat one.
Matt Bernhardt
(North End webmaster)
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