My first stop in Philadelphia is The Greeks, a pub in Narberth (a northwestern suburb) to meet with Sean, the secretary/membership officer of American Outlaws’ Philadelphia chapter, and Julian, the AO Philly Vice President. After we take in an exciting Germany-Ghana game (and eating a delicious cheese steak), the two guys decide to take me around the Philadelphia area and show me the city’s soccer scene.
As they drive me around, the talk turns to the organization they help lead: AO Philly. The chapter, founded in 2010, was headed at first by the original leaders of The Sons of Ben, the supporters group for the Philadelphia Union (which started playing in the same year as the founding of the Philadelphia AO chapter). Problems were numerous. They tried to do joint membership with Sons of Ben and AO (which is against the rules of AO national headquarters), and there was little ambition to expand beyond the small bar they met at or beyond the small membership they had. Due to this, AO nationals decided to let the chapter wilt into becoming, as one of the national leaders said to Julian, “one of the worst chapters in the country.”
Change started when someone for AO nationals spotted Julian at the Crossbar (the American Outlaws Philadelphia bar at the time), recording a podcast that he does for his website, thesoccerdesk.com. The man was impressed, and asked Julian if he wanted to be in charge of social media for AO Philly. Julian accepted. Together, he and the new chapter president, a man named Greg, decided that in order to get the chapter off its feet, they had to move to a bar big enough to hold more than 40 people. After looking around at various Irish bars in the area, the guys eventually settled on the local Fado.
Fado is known across the country as being a soccer-friendly bar chain. I went to the Seattle branch (they let minors in for US matches, so long as they don’t go into the bar area) for the Honduras-USA qualifier in 2009, and it had a wonderful, raucous atmosphere. The Fado in Philadelphia was no different. They were quite eager to become the new American Outlaws bar in Philly, even offering a bunch of drink and meal specials for members on U.S. game days. A “test run” was done for the first U.S. match of the 2013 Gold Cup, against Belize. It certainly wasn’t a resounding success, with only a couple of people showing up. However, as the team progressed through the Cup, AO Philly started exploding on Twitter and Facebook to get the word out about the USA’s performance. For the final of the competition (USA vs. Panama), the venue was packed. And that, according to Julian, was when they knew that “the chapter was back.”
American success on the field and a much better bar for watching games certainly helped the attendance at American Outlaws events (as well as American Outlaws membership), but there was still more work to be done. Greg and Julian started the process of incorporating the chapter, something that American Outlaws national headquarters likes a lot. Incorporating a chapter makes it an official non-profit company with the state, helps it with liability issues, gives it a respectability with bars, the city, and potential members that it cannot get any other way. The incorporation papers went through quickly, but more leadership was needed if the Outlaws were going to grow like they wanted to. Sean was recruited from the Crossbar pub to be the Secretary/Membership Officer, and Greg’s wife Julia was brought on as treasurer.
After the leadership was secured, it was time to start planning for the World Cup. Molly, Fado’s events coordinator was excited to help out with the plans. Watch parties for every game were to be held at Fado, and the AO chapter was able to work a deal with Fado, Misconduct (the soccer tavern across the street from Fado), the Philadelphia Union, and the city of Philadelphia to close down a section of Locust Street and put up a big outdoor TV for the USA’s second game vs. Portugal, a party which was attended by at least 600 people. In a generous move the Union allowed AO to have their name at the head of the event, even though the Union fronted most of the money to get the city permit to close off the street.
Overall, Sean and Julian were very happy with how far the Philadelphia American Outlaws chapter has come since they took over. Despite the restructuring of the chapter less than a year before the World Cup, both USA games so far have packed Fado to the rafters. There was even a decent turnout for the USA-Azerbaijan pre-World Cup friendly, which started at 10pm ET on a Tuesday night. Membership is up in the 400s whereas it used to be that they would only get a couple dozen to each game showing. In the cradle of the American Revolution, the world’s game is flourishing.
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