You’ve probably seen them. That ardent section of fans with fanatical vocal support, massive banners, and the unprecedented inability to ever shut up. They are the most passionate supporters in the stadium who consider game day as truly a full day event. It may seem like all fun and games (and in most cases it is) but it takes a massive amount of work to put it all together.

That’s the big question: how do you put it all together?

How do you start a supporters group from scratch? Starting a supporters group is a labor of love; it’s a large commitment and an even larger workload that you sometimes forget is completely volunteer. It makes you appreciate the people you have around you and it’s something we take very seriously. San Francisco Deltas CEO Brian Andrés Helmick said, “Fans are the heart and soul of a club,” so we must make sure the Deltas have a strong heart and soul to push our team to (hopefully) multiple league titles.

First Brainstorming session with some fantastic supporters.

I left our first true brainstorming session this week eager to get things started. Though a few of us have had meetings in pubs around SF, we never pulled it all together to make things official. The final group consisted of 11 fantastic Deltas fans with a few representatives from the Deltas Ops team to offer support if need be. We established our priorities and decided our plan of attack. During this session, it became clear that there were three priorities on everyone’s mind:

1. Identity 2. Organization 3. Fan Experience

What’s a supporters club without an identity? We needed a name, logo, (possibly) a mascot, and a culture. It’s hard to build a culture when your team signed their first players only a few months ago, but we have to start somewhere. That is why we will be hosting a fan party at the end of the month to vote on a Supporters Group name. We’ll have a signed Deltas jersey to raffle off and the head coach, Marc dos Santos will even be there for a Q&A session! Details at the bottom.

Before we could get to the fun bits, we needed some organization. We don’t want to over engineer things, but we need to clearly define roles and take ownership of our tasks. This is the foundation we need to build off and we want to do it right.

Lastly, and the most outwardly noticeable, is the fan experience. People care about their game day experience! Matt, one of our members, once said, “It’s not about the team performance. I want to hang with my friends and have a good time before and after the match.” This is the inaugural season, there will be bumps in the road and mistakes will be made, but we, the fans, will be there every step of the way and will have fun regardless of the results.

We’re not going at it alone. The Deltas Ops team has offered to assist in any way they can, but are adamant that this is our group and that we have the first and final say on everything. We have also reached out to the founders of The Tower Bridge Battalion (Sacramento Republic) and The Brickyard Battalion (Indy Eleven) to hear their ideas and challenges. Success is built on the shoulders of giants and we couldn’t have asked for better support.

Now, we could set some lofty goals: have our name be synonymous with the supporters of Portland, Seattle, or Indianapolis. This could happen in our first season, but realistically, we want to establish a good foundation and build from there. Once an identity and some organization is in place, we want to offer the best game-day experience in the NASL. We want to establish our membership, open clear communication channels between the fans and the Deltas Ops team, have frequent and consistent events every month for our supporters, and eventually build our philanthropy efforts to give back to the city we all love.

We are excited to get this project started. With your help, we will create an atmosphere to intimidate opposing players and one that will match the ambitions, both on and off the pitch, of the San Francisco Deltas.

Have ideas? Let us know! Come to our event on Tuesday, February 21st @ 6:00pm at Kezar Pub!

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