Alright guys so we should get on to the next couple steps here. We have a core group (small but its here) who want to see this happen, so now what. My experience tells me advertise, talk to your friends, talk to co-workers, let everyone know what we are doing here and what we want to see.

For some of us who are still in High School/College talk to your soccer teams, they would probably be most apt to want to watch higher level soccer. As well as Facebook groups work, we have to make sure to expand to all age groups. So its up to all of us to tirelessly bring this group up into conversation...but most of all when May 17th rolls around its up to us to drag our friends and their buddies out to the game if they like it or not.

Recently we have begun a campaign at UM-Dearborn to get students to athletic events. Our students are stubborn to support sports but we have slowly dragged more and more out to the games and they now realize it is a blast, we have increased our numbers from 7 at the start of the year to 75 last night at our last hockey game of the year. So if we can get our stubborn students out to the games we should be able to get soccer fans out to Pontiac. So spread the word, thats my advice for right now and lets see how this thing grows in the coming month. I still think its a good idea to have a meeting, but lets wait a couple weeks I suppose and see if we can draw in a few more guys in here.

Dragging college students out to athletic events (even the basic football/basketball games) boggles my mind.

Supporting college athletics and going to the games is one of the main parts of the college experience. Even if you're not into sports, at MOST colleges (no matter how big or small) the football game or the basketball game is THE place to be (usually). Most times it's an excuse to have a party -- and who doesn't appreciate THAT?

You should see the crowds at Temple University basketball games. I mean, I know John Chaney is gone, and the team isn't a national power anymore (maybe again one day, but the stadium is on campus, tickets are cheap (if not free)...makes no sense.

You know as an Athlete at Michigan - Dearborn it boggled my mind to that we had to drag these kids to the games. It doesn't help that we are mostly a commuter campus but the great majority of students live within 15 minutes of campus.

But everything you just said is like exactly what I tell them, seriously who doesn't want to go party? We have kids complaining all the time about not having a "college" life because its a commuter campus and I want to smack every one of them and be like go to a basketball game! UGH! anyways...yes its frustrating...but its turning around, and this group hopefully won't be so frustrating!

At my highschool they only support teams that are good. Excpet we had a soccer supporters club called the stallion battilon. we are the mavericks so it makes sense kinda. Anyway i have a couple friends that said they would come out i'm gonna try to get them on this website. What we relly need are some scarfs.

Scarfs will be a must have once we get this thing rolling for sure. A nice green and gold scarf would be kick ***!

so whats next?

Right now just keep talking to your friends, convince some of your buddies to become supporters. Lets be honest we have 3 months roughly till the start of the season, starting to really get crazy organized right now is sort of jumping the gun. I would like to know that this can grow, and it will and it may be slowly at first and thats ok. The key part will be when the season gets here to get your friends out, nothing is more convincing than the actual experience. That is my suggestion, the more we can get activity on the forums the better for now...lets pace ourselves. If anyone has a better idea feel free to give a shout out.

I think the key is getting everyone from all the other message boards on board -- developing that roster, and start exchanging ideas.

Once that happens, maybe someone can talk to someone at the club to see what kind of relationship can be developed from that.

maybe we should make a sign up thread?

I'll propose that we should have the first real Organizational Meeting for the supporters group on Saturday, March 29, at Ultimate Soccer Arenas, in conjunction with the college games that day (game times 10:00 a.m. and noon).

(I'll probably be on a business trip on the April 5 date, but you could have a follow-up meeting then if you want.)

If people can't make that morning/afternoon for the college games, we could make it that evening for the MLS openers on TV.

If you think we need a pre-meeting before that, suggest a date/time/location.

Agenda Topics (most will be discussions only, no binding decisions to be made):

Scope of the group: that pesky question of "Bucks only, or general-soccer group?"

Goals of the group. This could be drafted in the form of a "mission statement" or a simple list of goals.

Club structure and potential officers.

Sketch of a club charter.

Ideas for a logo for the group. (Maybe I can then get T-Shirt pricing from Go-Armadillo, to have some shirts ready by the May 17 opener.)

Funding, fundraising, club dues for idividuals/familes.

Any potential road bus trips?