Well put. I couldn’t agree more.

Hell yes. I’ve only been a United fan for a few years, and this year has been tough but I won’t ditch em.

I agree that despite how dismal DCU have been, it has been a fun season so far.

One of my favorite sports memories is MLS Cup’97. Not only did DCU win MLS Cup but they did so in front of 57,000 fans at RFK. Further, it was pouring down rain yet almost all the seats were still filled. That was the day I knew DCU’s supporters were special.

I grew up in Ohio and had been to a few Crew games. I watched soccer when they showed it on ABC. I’d played the game since I was little, and loved it, but I was by no means a supporter. In 2004, I came out to DC to visit George Washington University to see if I’d want to go there for a Master’s degree. I stayed with a friend of mine from high school, and the 2004 MLS Cup was on. We watched it together, and it felt really cool to watch a team of the city I was in at the time win a championship.

I did move to DC to go to GW, and didn’t think that much more about it. I followed the team in the Express, but that was about it. My friend called me up again one day and said he had tickets to the playoff game against New England. We went, and it was a great time. The team lost, but I remember being mesmerized by the Screaming Eagles and the Barra Brava on the other side of the field. They never stopped! They kept singing and chanting, drumming and waving flags. Why wasn’t that the side of the field I was on?

In 2006, my friend joined the Screaming Eagles, and I would go with him to games. I’d always been a sports fan, but grew up in a smaller town without pro teams. It was an adjustment to realize that I could go down to the stadium and watch my team play week in and week out. I went to a lot of games, and finally joined the Screaming Eagles myself in 2007. I’ve gone to as many games as I can since then, and traveled to a couple of away games. This year, I started volunteering with the team on game days. It’s an incredible privilege to be in the player’s tunnels just before the game starts. Sadly, I’ve also been seeing the frustration and disappointment on their faces all too often this year.

There’s been great moments, like when I thought Christian Gomez had equalized in a playoff game against Chicago in 2007 and that DC United had made a Liverpool-like comeback in the second half. Being there for David Beckham’s debut in 2008, but seeing him upstaged by the Barra’s fantastic Ben Olsen tribute and Benny’s only minutes that he played all that season. Watching the 2008 US Open Cup and seeing the team hoist an actual trophy on the pitch, then drinking Guinness from the coffee pot and passing it around to the other fans, realizing it tastes like glory. And each and every time the singing gets loud and the stands start bouncing. People decry RFK, but that place is magical. We may not have the nicest stadium, or the biggest crowds, or the best team anymore, but I have never had a fan experience as wonderful as whenever I stand down there with the Eagles and the Barra and cheer my heart out for my team. Good times will return, and we’ll always have been there.

Trying to get in games against Houston, only it kept raining. Like, torrentially. The skies were green. The rains came, the pitch flooded, and the lights went out, but a handful of supporters (including myself) stayed out there as long as possible, singing away, calling for the beer man, and then having the beer man sprint down to sell us drinks.

Watching the USA-Costa Rica game there the day after Charlie Davies was injured in the car crash, holding up the #9 during the ninth minute, and then cursing Conor Casey as he skied a shot on what should have been a goal right at the end of that minute. But then the furious comeback and Jonathan Bornstein’s unlikely header in the fifth minute of stoppage time, eliminating Costa Rica and ensuring the USA won their group. The stadium went crazy.

First learning about the halftime mosh pits on the concourse.

Jaime’s penalty kick to give him the all-time leading scorer record.

Refusing to shake my friend’s father’s hand because he was wearing a Sounders jersey. He had come out from Seattle to the US Open Cup Final. He had bought me dinner when I was out in Seattle visiting, and I respect and like him very much, but I couldn’t shake his hand. Not until after the game. And showing off my jersey to the other visiting Sounders fans on the Metro, and then cheering as hard as I could throughout the game while those bastards in the upper bowl would periodically go silent.

Taking my mom to her first game at RFK, which also involved the march from Lincoln Park to rally for a new stadium. We were playing Toronto FC, and a few of their fans joined in. Later they unfurled a banner saying, “Keep United in DC.” Very nice.

And possibly breaking a few chairs in that poor, rickety stadium.

Don’t worry about your stadium situation, as long as you have fans like this you will be fine. SSS’s are nice but they aren’t everything - Dallas has an SSS and their fans are terrible, especially compared to DC’s fans.

Fan activism can also help find new owners. Soccer Silicon Valley organized a season ticket pledge drive in 2005 to try to convince AEG to keep the Quakes in San Jose, and even though that failed, they continued to be active even though we had no club and ended up hooking up with Lew Wolff and convincing him to buy the rights.