Crew supporters used to be scattered all around the House that Lamar Built. That was, until the club put in a huge concert stage after the 2007 season that facilitated a move to the Northwest corner of the stadium, effectively forcing the Crew’s supporters to sit together and unite in the newly formed Nordecke.  The team and fans came together under this new-look supporters section, and Columbus snagged the Supporters Shield and MLS Cup in the section’s first year.  Crew Stadium became a fortress.  The stars had aligned.  A few good, but trophy-less seasons followed and the Nordecke motored along and continued to develop.  The Nordecke had united in the best of times.

Fast-forward to the night of June 26, 2011. The Crew were on the field, taking it to a ten-man Colorado Rapids team and pounding them 4-1.  It was a great night to be a Crew fan, and strangely enough, the events in the stands were more of the story than the Crew’s big victory on the field.  Confusion and miscommunication between a Nordecke member and a security guard over the placement of the fan’s drum caused the fan to be escorted out of the section.  Then, with the majority of the section unaware of the exact details as to why the fan was escorted to the upper deck, nearly 90% of the Nordecke followed the refugee fan to the upper deck, forming the “Upperdecke”.  It was an incredible display of solidarity among the Crew’s three principle supporters groups: La Turbina Amarilla, the Hudson Street Hooligans, and the Crew Supporters Union.  The fans in the section, for the most part, had no idea why the man was asked to move, or whether the security guard was right in asking him to move. The fans of the Nordecke honestly didn’t care.  They just did what they thought was appropriate, which was to come together and move as a unit.  The Nordecke had united in the strangest of times.

Now the Nordecke has united in the worst of times.  The Hudson Street Hooligans got word this week that their ground-breaking, one of a kind bar, Hooligans Pub, would have to be shut down for the time-being in order to meet the City of Columbus code.  The repairs needed to get the bar up and running again are in the tens of thousands of dollars, and the Hooligans will be without a home for the foreseeable future.  After creating one of America’s first (and maybe only) supporters owned and operated bars, this is a setback to the growing supporters culture in Columbus.  Team officials joined supporters from all of the groups on Thursday to rally outside of Hooligans to present a unified front and to show resolve that Hooligans will open its doors again for Crew supporters.  Fans from the Crew Supporters Union and La Turbina Amarilla have reached out in support of the Hudson Street Hooligans.  The Crew Supporters Union has offered for their displaced Nordecke brethren to join them at their pre-game tailgate and other events.  As many in Crew Soccer Nation have put it, this is what we do.  We’re family.  It is times like these that remind us as soccer fans anywhere in the world that supporters don’t just exist to support their club. They exist, too, to support each other.

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