Flags of Our Fans: Seattle, San Francisco, Atlanta, Miami
As we continue our whistle stop tour of our World Cup cities, we’re going to do four visits this month: San Francisco, Seattle, Atlanta, and Miami.
San Francisco is starting to grow as a soccer hub thanks to the arrival of their NWSL team, Bay FC, and the continued growth of Oakland’s pride on the pitch in the Roots/Soul, while their neighbors to the north in Seattle have set the standard for soccer fandom in the MLS. meanwhile, Atlanta has redefined what a soccer gameday could be since they’ve joined MLS in 2017 and Miami... well, they have Messi.
You couldn’t talk about four very different cities, yet they all share a similar storyline. All of these cities started with a deep underground culture for soccer fandom and a communal soul. That culture begins to blossom until eventually, the mainstream catches on and wants to join in on the fun.
Whenever that happens, it could lead to either an incredible explosion of this culture or an implosion leaving the scene sterile and corporatized.
As the world’s biggest tournament comes to these burgeoning hubs, how are fans trying to preserve the culture they worked so hard to make in the face of more mainstream attention?