Photo by Pablo Maurer.Late last Saturday evening, I got a text message.
It was from a D.C. United supporter, and attached to it was a photograph of the weight room, buried deep in the bowels of RFK stadium.
“Doing some work,” the message read, and on one of the concrete walls of the room was a partially completed mural. Two of United’s supporters groups — the District Ultras and La Norte — had spent all day and night transforming the previously drab room into a reminder of their love for the club.
This is probably not something you’d see happening at any of the District’s other pro sports franchises.
The line D.C. United has drawn between its players and fans is a bit more grey than black and white. Many fans, supporters in particular, feel personally invested in the club and feel inclined to show their support by singing, dancing and jumping, sometimes going so far as creating “tifo” — large-scale displays often shown as the players take the pitch.
The players and staff often return the affection. Injured players have joined the fans on game day from time to time, and the team often organizes happy hours and charity events where fans and players can mingle, perhaps allowing the fan base a bit more of a personal investment in the club.
At no point was this more apparent than at a road playoff match in 2012. Some 700 fans had travelled to New Jersey through a blinding snowstorm, only to see the game snowed out. Still in uniform, right down to the cleats, United’s players left the field of play, scaling several flights of ice-covered steps to thank those that had made the trip personally.
Chris Pontius and Brandon McDonald ascended to the upper deck to salute the United fans who made the trip. Photo by Pablo Maurer.
“The gratitude of the players, it’s one of those things where you can feel is really genuine from them,” said District Ultras member Dennis Ridgway. “We’ve worked on tifo at RFK and had players stop by and watch us work and give thanks. It’s the little things like that. They go a long way.”
The club had approached the Ultras in the past, Ridgway said, suggesting that they display some of their work in the halls of RFK. The supporters, however, did them one better, offering to create a more permanent display.
“We have love for the club through thick and thin,” Ridgway said of the mural, “and love for the city as well. We feel like our love for the club should be unwavering. We aren’t out there on the field with the team, but we feel all of the joy and pain they do.”
“The club and city have always been intrinsically connected to me,” added fellow member Srdan Bastic. “That’s the magic of soccer. It’s like that in other sports, too, I guess, but it seems most apparent in soccer, maybe because of its working class roots.”
After snapping a few photos of the mural, I ventured down the hallway into what was once the Nationals’ batting cage. Spread out on the turf beneath my feet were several massive banners, supporters hard at work preparing them for tomorrow’s season opener.
“The creative side of our fan base has always amazed me,” United’s affable head coach Ben Olsen told DCist after training earlier today. “They continue to stay with us in good and bad times. It’s just another example, to us, of how much we’re being backed by the people of Washington D.C. and our fans in general.”
United’s other supporters groups — La Barra Brava and the Screaming Eagles — may also eventually do similar work beneath the stands at RFK. For now, though, players hitting the weights can enjoy the fruits of the Ultras’ labor.
