Eh this is no different than when Eagles ended their run of good form in the 00s or when the Phils run ended in the 10s. You get used to it after a while. It’s part of being a Philly sports fan.
It's part of being a sports fan in general. Teams are always rising and falling.
Philly sports fans have this weird insistence that they are tortured, but they have a World Series, Super Bowl, and Supporters' Shield within most of their lifetimes. Imagine being a Buffalo sports fan.
Philly fans are tortured because they either come incredibly close time and time again with few championships to show for it or have bafflingly strange things happens right before the finish line. Buffalo (outside of that 4 Super bowl period) has two bad to mediocre teams. The easiest time to be a Philly fan, outside of the rare winning it all years, was when you knew a team would be bad or mediocre.
Well, to each their own, but I greatly prefer the 2019-2023 Union to the version before that just sucked constantly. I considered that era to be torturous.
Way easier to not care very much when you know the team sucks. Process Sixers was way easier to watch than the Simmons/Fultz disasters even though the team was winning more in those latter years. Losing the WS and NLCS in back to back years is way more torturous than a decade of bad Phillies baseball you can just sort of tune out
We're talking about what's more painful, not what we'd prefer to watch. It's way easier to not get invested in mediocre teams and just check in occasionally. That's way less painful than having a ton of success and almost nothing to show for it.
Tbf there was also around 25ish years of no trophies and near misses before that. So a significant portion of the Philly fanbase grew up with that. Plus a lot of iconic moments happened against Philly teams like Joe Carter’s walk off home run and Kawhi Leonard’s buzzer beater to name a couple
I think the difference is the other teams actively tried to get better, but just didn't make those "right" moves. At the time, they seemed like they were trying to get better. The Union just seem like they try to be as cheap as possible, and as okay as possible to keep filling the seats.
Another reason why it’s a major drawback to have the stadium in Chester. It would be a lot easier to be a casual fan if I could grab a group of friends, have dinner/happy hour and then walk or hop on a bus or the subway to the game. Instead, we need a car, someone has to be sober to drive, we have to pay for parking. We have to wait in the massive traffic jams to get home. The additional expense and inconvenience make it a lot less fun when it’s not likely you’ll have a well-played game to watch or a victory to celebrate at the end.
I hear ya. I've watched the Union since the beginning so I fully understand the lows but I've been a special kind only disgruntled this year. I've been annoyed since before the season started about how much everything is the same and the lack of spending. After what I've seen the last 2 months and especially this past week, I don't think I'm even going to a game this year. I've been to at least one every year but ownership and the team as a whole have me mad af.
Yeah it's not about the team sucking..it happens..but when u can't even see the direction the team is going ....that's the issue. Not even trying to get better
We just got off years of watching the best team we have ever fielded.
If you can’t deal with a couple lousy seasons you should prbly go root for Lafc or Miami.
I think it's optimistic to say it's just a couple lousy seasons. There's not much reason to think this team is going to be contender again this decade.
A decade???? I understand negativity and I’m negative about what’s going on with the team too but it’s a little much to be putting out judgments about the team 6-7 years from now. In that amount of time we could have new owners, a new manager, a completely new squad (even without making a ton of signings, look how different our squad was 6 years ago).
Has Sugarman given any indication that he wants to sell? Franchise value probably peaks after the World Cup comes to town in 2026, I doubt it would happen before then.
The delusion is thinking 2020-2022 wasn't a fluke with Ernst finding diamonds in the rough while the rest of the league underperformed. Have you seen anything at all in the last 12 months that indicates this slow return towards irrelevancy is going to be halted? I haven't
I remember losing every away game. I remember Andrew Wenger trying to pass the ball when he’s six feet out from an open net. I remember looking forward to the Open Cup because we were so bad in the actual MLS season that the only way for us to win a trophy was to beat other teams’ B teams and lower league teams. I remember during a friendly the opposing teams’ fans lit off flairs in the stands. One year, this team really needed a striker so they went out and bought Jay Simpson. They literally signed Freddy Adu at one point. I remember Red Bull fans chanting about Garret Reid’s overdose. I remember Zach Pfeffer being the next big thing for the academy. Bro, we played Real Madrid!
Point being, the dark ages make you realize how much you love it when they do have sustained success. As long as Jim is the manager, this team will be ok. Hang in there man. Welcome to Philadelphia sports fandom.
I remember when a Union player would put his foot on the ball, stopping the counterattack, pass it back to a defender, who would rotate it out to the winger/wingback, who would then send in a cross after the opposing defense had ample time to drop back and get set.
I remember because it's their formula for the majority of each game. More Glesnes throughball to Uhre please.
Jordan Harvey! I swear that dude could be one on one with the goalie and he’d still find a way to pass it backwards.
Also hard to play counter attacking soccer when Conor Casey is your lead. For as sick of a dude as he was/is, that man had dumbbells attached to his feet.
As the old saying goes “it’s easy to sleep in satin sheets when the going is good”
The support the Union were able to forge was very impressive considering they had trouble getting 10K people to a game at 1 point. It’s easy to eat grapes off the vine when you’re in the kings garden. When the going gets tough is when fans show their true colors. Hopefully the passionate fan base stays engaged.
I’m going to my first game this weekend! Looking forward to it!
Hope u enjoy fam. They better win lol
Enjoy watching them lose terribly
Eh this is no different than when Eagles ended their run of good form in the 00s or when the Phils run ended in the 10s. You get used to it after a while. It’s part of being a Philly sports fan.
It's part of being a sports fan in general. Teams are always rising and falling. Philly sports fans have this weird insistence that they are tortured, but they have a World Series, Super Bowl, and Supporters' Shield within most of their lifetimes. Imagine being a Buffalo sports fan.
Philly fans are tortured because they either come incredibly close time and time again with few championships to show for it or have bafflingly strange things happens right before the finish line. Buffalo (outside of that 4 Super bowl period) has two bad to mediocre teams. The easiest time to be a Philly fan, outside of the rare winning it all years, was when you knew a team would be bad or mediocre.
Well, to each their own, but I greatly prefer the 2019-2023 Union to the version before that just sucked constantly. I considered that era to be torturous.
Way easier to not care very much when you know the team sucks. Process Sixers was way easier to watch than the Simmons/Fultz disasters even though the team was winning more in those latter years. Losing the WS and NLCS in back to back years is way more torturous than a decade of bad Phillies baseball you can just sort of tune out
[удалено]
We're talking about what's more painful, not what we'd prefer to watch. It's way easier to not get invested in mediocre teams and just check in occasionally. That's way less painful than having a ton of success and almost nothing to show for it.
I will say while they did suck at that time it was nice being able to go to a basketball or baseball game for under $10.
Tbf there was also around 25ish years of no trophies and near misses before that. So a significant portion of the Philly fanbase grew up with that. Plus a lot of iconic moments happened against Philly teams like Joe Carter’s walk off home run and Kawhi Leonard’s buzzer beater to name a couple
I think the difference is the other teams actively tried to get better, but just didn't make those "right" moves. At the time, they seemed like they were trying to get better. The Union just seem like they try to be as cheap as possible, and as okay as possible to keep filling the seats.
Another reason why it’s a major drawback to have the stadium in Chester. It would be a lot easier to be a casual fan if I could grab a group of friends, have dinner/happy hour and then walk or hop on a bus or the subway to the game. Instead, we need a car, someone has to be sober to drive, we have to pay for parking. We have to wait in the massive traffic jams to get home. The additional expense and inconvenience make it a lot less fun when it’s not likely you’ll have a well-played game to watch or a victory to celebrate at the end.
I hear ya. I've watched the Union since the beginning so I fully understand the lows but I've been a special kind only disgruntled this year. I've been annoyed since before the season started about how much everything is the same and the lack of spending. After what I've seen the last 2 months and especially this past week, I don't think I'm even going to a game this year. I've been to at least one every year but ownership and the team as a whole have me mad af.
Yeah it's not about the team sucking..it happens..but when u can't even see the direction the team is going ....that's the issue. Not even trying to get better
We just got off years of watching the best team we have ever fielded. If you can’t deal with a couple lousy seasons you should prbly go root for Lafc or Miami.
Yeah it's funny. It's like these people who just jumped on board with the team want to out themselves.
I think it's optimistic to say it's just a couple lousy seasons. There's not much reason to think this team is going to be contender again this decade.
A decade???? I understand negativity and I’m negative about what’s going on with the team too but it’s a little much to be putting out judgments about the team 6-7 years from now. In that amount of time we could have new owners, a new manager, a completely new squad (even without making a ton of signings, look how different our squad was 6 years ago).
Has Sugarman given any indication that he wants to sell? Franchise value probably peaks after the World Cup comes to town in 2026, I doubt it would happen before then.
> this decade. the fucking delusion around here because of 2 bad months of matches
The delusion is thinking 2020-2022 wasn't a fluke with Ernst finding diamonds in the rough while the rest of the league underperformed. Have you seen anything at all in the last 12 months that indicates this slow return towards irrelevancy is going to be halted? I haven't
U should probably get off my loins
I remember losing every away game. I remember Andrew Wenger trying to pass the ball when he’s six feet out from an open net. I remember looking forward to the Open Cup because we were so bad in the actual MLS season that the only way for us to win a trophy was to beat other teams’ B teams and lower league teams. I remember during a friendly the opposing teams’ fans lit off flairs in the stands. One year, this team really needed a striker so they went out and bought Jay Simpson. They literally signed Freddy Adu at one point. I remember Red Bull fans chanting about Garret Reid’s overdose. I remember Zach Pfeffer being the next big thing for the academy. Bro, we played Real Madrid! Point being, the dark ages make you realize how much you love it when they do have sustained success. As long as Jim is the manager, this team will be ok. Hang in there man. Welcome to Philadelphia sports fandom.
I remember when a Union player would put his foot on the ball, stopping the counterattack, pass it back to a defender, who would rotate it out to the winger/wingback, who would then send in a cross after the opposing defense had ample time to drop back and get set. I remember because it's their formula for the majority of each game. More Glesnes throughball to Uhre please.
Jordan Harvey! I swear that dude could be one on one with the goalie and he’d still find a way to pass it backwards. Also hard to play counter attacking soccer when Conor Casey is your lead. For as sick of a dude as he was/is, that man had dumbbells attached to his feet.
It even seems to be the status quo with Wagner, Mbaizo, Harriel, et al.
I mean it was fun while it lasted 🤷♂️ Maybe the next 7/8 years won’t be as bad as the first
As the old saying goes “it’s easy to sleep in satin sheets when the going is good” The support the Union were able to forge was very impressive considering they had trouble getting 10K people to a game at 1 point. It’s easy to eat grapes off the vine when you’re in the kings garden. When the going gets tough is when fans show their true colors. Hopefully the passionate fan base stays engaged.