Smoke Em If You Got Em
Here is a video a friend of mine sent me from the Toronto FC Academy match away to Hamilton Croatia last night. It is definitely worth a look. (Thanks Kevin!!)
For the fans that made the road trip to Hamilton to support the Academy lads I say well done. And for their sake these supporters are very lucky that they did not try that kind of thing at BMO Field. You see Toronto FC, unlike a number of other MLS clubs, does not believe that fans can be trusted to responsibly add to the fan experience by deploying smoke. If a fan tried to do this sort of thing at BMO the fan would be ejected, their season ticket would be revoked and they would likely be charged by Police.
Compare that to DC United where the club works with supporters groups to responsibly use smoke. Club and supporters have met to designate specific individuals to employ the smoke and they even provide buckets of sand so that the flares can be responsibly disposed of in a safe manner after they have been used. A friend of mine that is in a New York Red Bulls supporters group told me that the new Red Bull Arena in New Jersey has installed “boxes” of sand in front of their supporters sections that again are being responsibly used. In fact in New York the club even works with supporters to make sure that they use “approved” flares and smoke that have been signed off on by the local Fire Marshall!
Many fans of Toronto FC, yours truly included, feel that the fact that in many occasions the club has used smoke in their advertising is certainly disingenuous at best and dishonest at worst. It is time to grow up Toronto FC. For that matter Don Garber and MLS should step in and have all their clubs replicate the fan friendly and responsible policies of the Red Bulls and DC United. Fans can be responsible when using smoke and flares. Work with the supporters TFC to make this happen. It would be a great thing for everybody.
good post Tim. we also had a 1st half tifo that we are still uploading. big thanks from those in NEE and RPB that made the trip. the smoke made it hard to sing, but we were very loud.
also, big thanks to Hamilton Croatia….top notch CSL supporters.
Or…you could just use them anyways.
TFC is a shit organization that does everything in its power to make the game day experience worse and worse and all the fans have been forced to capitulate to their ridiculous rules because lighting a smoke bomb at a game like used to happen in 114 will land you charges of discharging a firearm.
Really, with the ridiculous rules and consequences for some harmless smoke bombs, is it really worth getting into trouble with the filth to make an atmosphere at a team with a serial record of losing matches and kicking itself in the balls virtually every week?
This team is not worth the price of smoke bombs and flares. The product is horseshit.
TFC Academy at least is competitve in the CSL and the kids deserve a little pyro.
MLSE is too busy making ridiculous hypocritical tributes to the punters that died at 9/11 and politicizing our football to give a fuck about listening to us.
Respectfully, what about people with asthma or other breathing problems?
If someone lights up a flare or two in my vicinity, it’s not too difficult for me to step away into fresh air. However, when used en mass across entire sections, the smoke and fumes become a very real danger to some people.
Let me repeat that: The smoke and fumes become a very real danger to some people.
I’m lucky in that I can tolerate quite a bit of smoke, but I know of many others that are not as fortunate. Why must they suffer? I fail to see how a medical condition makes them any less of a supporter simply because they are choosing the ability to breathe over the right for others to do as they please.