By Dmitry Mogilevsky

Summer and here, and that means a lull in meaningful football and endless transfer speculation. But more importantly, it’s time to renew, or start, you Chelsea In America membership!

Our Supporter Club and membership structure has gotten quite complex lately, and I wanted to use this note to write a good explanation of why we ask you to sign up, what that gets you and how you can best benefit from your investment in Cheslea In America membership.

But before I move onto memberships themselves, first an explanation of the hierarchy in Supporter Clubs that we belong to.

Local: Chicago Blues – Chicago Blues is our local organization for Chelsea supporters in Chicago. Chicago Blues is responsible for organizing and publicizing our local match day parties at AJ Hudson’s and Fado and other events at the City level, such as trips to Chicago Fire games, pick up games, etc. In 2013-2014 season, Chicago Blues were ran by two chapter co-heads, myself and Dan Gilligan. Chicago Blues, as an organization, is not recognized by Chelsea FC in any way (although our banner does hang at the Bridge). It’s merely a local chapter for coordinating supporters who live in Chicago and want to bond with other Chelsea supporters.

Regional: US – Midwest Supporter Club – USMW is the official supporters club that’s recognized by Chelsea FC. It consists of 8 local chapters around the midwest, namely Chicago Blues, Motor City Blues (Detroit), Bluegrass Blues (Kentucky), Iowa Blues (Iowa), Twin City Blues (Minneapolis), Kansas City Blues, St Louis Blues and the rather ambiguously named Midwest Blues. USMW is responsible for communicating with Chelsea FC about ticket orders for members, organizing certain regional events (like the planned regional meetup for next year), receiving and distributing merchandise from Chelsea FC and general work on getting the constituent chapters working together and bringing our members closer. Per Chelsea FC rules, as an official Platinum supporters club, USMW is led by a secretary, an assistant secretary, treasurer and assistant treasurer. For the 2013-2014 season, these people were myself, Andy Burbidge (from Motor City Blues), Michael Price and Josh Hampton (both from Bluegrass Blues).

National: Chelsea In America – CIA is an umbrella organization that encompasses USMW and several other regional clubs and helps coordination country-wide. CIA used to be the official supporters club, but we got too big and Chelsea FC has asked for us to break up into regions. CIA does bulk of the work in assisting the regional clubs with member registration and accounting, clearing payments and fund collection, inter-club organization, as well as organizing variety of national events such as the annual summer Vegas Conclave and coordinating any local efforts when Chelsea FC is vising the United States on offseason tours. The head of Chelsea in America is Beth Wild, and there’s a handful of officers who assist in various capacities.

Now that we’ve cleared up some things about how we’re organized, I’d like to explain how membership works. In Chicago, we operate roughly on the following membership hierarchy

Facebook Member -> Chelsea In America Member -> True Blue Member

Membership Facebook Member Chelsea In America Member True Blue Member To Join Simply join the Chicago Blues Facebook group here During membership signup period, fill out the Chelsea In America membership form here Fill out the membership on Chelsea FC website here Annual Fee Free $10 for adult

$5 for child

$25 for family (2 adults and up to 4 children) £25 per person (notice this is British Pounds) or more, based on type of membership Duration Indefinite 1 year 1 year Benefits * You can participate in MASSIVELY interesting discussions on our FB group

* You can (and are actively encouraged) to join us during our matchday watch parties at AJ Hudson’s and Fado

* You can participate in some raffles and giveaways (though you may be restricted from some)

* You can participate in almost any other “unofficial” event we help organize (unofficial here is defined as events that don’t directly involve Chelsea FC * Ability to participate in all US-based Chelsea In America member

* Usually, ability to buy tickets to any Chelsea FC summer tour tickets in the supporter section ahead of the general sale (this is subject to Chelsea FC rules and thus is not guaranteed – in the past Chelsea required members to obtain Affiliate status to take advantage of this).

* Access to Chelsea In America merchandise

* Better access to all raffles and giveaways of official Chelsea FC items

* Any special offers, events and access we manage to secure for our members.

* Other benefits, as outlined here * Access to all home and some away Premier League matches. See some conditions below

* Access to some Champions League knockout round matches. See conditions below.

* Access to Chelsea FC’s official secondary ticket market, Viagogo.

* Your True Blue Membership helps us achieve and maintain premier Supporters Club status which allows us to offer all these and other benefits! Other * Chelsea In America members who are not and have never been True Blue members are asked to signed up for Affiliate status with Chelsea FC. See the note on that below.

* By signing up for Chelsea in America you also automatically become a member of US Midwest Supporters Club. * True Blue membership is in addition to CIA membership, not replacement.

* Please note that in order to facilitate unhindered access to match tickets, you have to sign up for your True Blue Membership before July 31st.

So, what’s the deal with True Blue membership? Why is it important? Why should I get it? Why do you care if we get it?

These are great questions. The most important aspect of True Blue membership is that it gives you the ability to easily buy match day tickets through CIA. Chelsea tickets are notoriously hard to find at the last second, as every first time attempted visitor to Stamford Bridge who didn’t do his research and prepared ahead of time has probably found out. On the contrary, having True Blue membership while being a CIA member gives you a nearly guaranteed access to buying a ticket at face value. If you plan a trip to London, or if you even suspect that there’s a possibility you’ll end up in London due to work, family etc, we strongly urge you to get True Blue membership. The 25 pounds you pay are a small price to pay to avoid the heartbreak of coming to London and not being able to find a ticket to see the team you love. In the past, CIA members with TB membership have been able to get tickets to every Premier League home game they’ve asked (yes, includes against other big teams), vast majority of Premier League away games, and vast majority of home and away Cup games (except away leg of Champions League semi-final and Champions League final which are not available through this scheme). Please note that one True Blue membership entitles you to one ticket, so if you’re taking your significant other with you, they will need a membership as well, as would your children and friends.

What about Loyalty Points? – You may have heard that Chelsea membership operates on something called Loyalty Points. Rougly speaking, LP measure your commitment as a supporter. You get them for every game you attend, more so for less popular games. In order to buy tickets, you need a certain amount of LP. They’re not used up – once you have 5 LPs, you may attend as many games that require 5 LPs as you like.

Here’s the thing – as an international supporter, you’re not expected to accumulate dozens and dozens of LPs. 5 is all you need to attend any game covered under this scheme. And you get 5 bonus LPs just for signing up for TB membership by July 31st. Therefore, we strongly urge anyone who may use their membership for tickets to sign up prior to this date.

The only exception to this policy are domestic cup away semi finals which require 15 loyalty points, and continental cup away semi-final which requires 16. In order to qualify for these reduced LP requirements, you must be both a True Blue member and a member of an international Supporters Club. Those who are not international supporters would require the usual amount of Loyalty Points, which in the past has been over 100. Also please note that in order to get tickets through the supporters club, you must inform us that you have True Blue membership as soon as you get it. Chelsea do not pass this information to us, and if you don’t tell us, we won’t know and you won’t be able to buy tickets.

Ok, but I know I’m definitely not going to the Bridge. What’s MY incentive to get True Blue membership? – This one is harder. You may know that in the past True Blue membership gave international supporters free access to Chelsea TV, which is a great media outlet for following the Blues and was a beloved benefit that many used. This year, at the time of this writing, Chelsea FC have separated True Blue membership from Chelsea TV. We are still looking for a way to get Chelsea TV for free to our members, but I will not pretend that for now some of the attractiveness of True Blue membership for members who do not plan to visit London has worn off. So why get it? Well, one reason to get it is because in today’s highly connected and mobile world, one really does not ever know with full certainty that they will not end up in London this year. I went to London for the first time after college, rather unexpectedly, having already been a supporter of Chelsea for many years. This was during Jose Mourinho’s second year, and I could not get a ticket. This was devastating to me, and had that option been available, I’d have gladly spend 25 pounds to ensure this wouldn’t happen, as I’ve been doing every year now, even when I don’t have concrete plans to visit London. Another reason is that some people simply feel good giving the team a little money in return for official recognition as a supporter.

But the biggest reason is that you’re helping out your fellow supporters. Our great access to tickets, the signed memorabilia we receive for the club and pass on to the members, etc, is all possible because of our True Blue members. How so? Chelsea ranks all Supporters Clubs in following tiers – Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. US – Midwest is a Platinum club, the highest tier. This gives us highest priority access to tickets, best access to signed memorabilia and other perks. The classification of a club is based on the number of registered True Blue supporters who are members of that club. In order to obtain Platinum, a club is required to have 50 True Blue supporters. So, by getting that True Blue membership you’re helping ensure that US-Midwest stays a Platinum club now and in the future, when you yourself may stand to benefit from that status.

Finally, what about Affiliate Membership? We would love for you to become a True Blue member, but if you do not want or cannot, Chelsea FC still asks that you register yourself with them as a member of a supporters group. You can do that by completing the form here. It’s free and extremely quick. Please note that in the past, when there is a summer tour, Chelsea FC required people requesting tickets to those to be either True Blue or Affiliates.

Questions and Answers

To be added as questions are asked.