Rapids legends on the left, last year’s playmakers and off-season acquisitions on the right (Dan Boniface, The Denver Post).
Soccer’s growing popularity in the U.S. can be measured by ticket sales, the sums being paid for Major League Soccer franchises, the number of pints downed before 10 a.m. on weekends at soccer-friendly pubs, expanding supporters groups backing clubs and country – and tifo.
Originally an Italian word for fervently supporting a local team, tifo is a choreographed display of support in the stands, usually organized by fans in the form of unfurled banners, placards and more.
In Major League Soccer, supporters in soccer-mad Seattle and Portland continually try to one-up each other in the tifo department – especially when the Cascadia rivals are playing each other.
In Commerce City, Rapids supporters group Centennial 38 has upped its tifo game over the past two-plus seasons. The effort at Saturday’s home opener was led by Oscar Mejia, a Denver native, husband and father who is working on obtaining an associate’s degree in architectural engineering.
Mejia, 30, said he started following soccer during the 2002 World Cup and “was amazed by the chanting and massive flags around the stadiums.” He was happy to learn Colorado had a professional club – the Rapids were founded in 1996 – and bought his first season tickets in 2003.
C38 unfurled a winner in the wind and snow Saturday at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park before the 2-0 win over the Portland Timbers. It did not escape the notice of team captain Drew Moor:
Fun night. Great result, great fans, overall great performance at DSGP. And the @C38sg TIFO was world class. #Rapids96 #OneClub
— Drew Moor (@drewmoor) March 23, 2014
We caught up with Mejia to learn more about this latest tifo and what it takes to pull this off …
Q: What were you trying to accomplish with the tifo, and why did you settle on this theme for the home opener?
A: We were honoring the legends of the club on the left side and on the right side of the clock the current team. The hour hand is pointing to MMXIV and the minute hand is just crossing the top to signify the beginning of the 2014 season. At first we were going to put just the Wall of Honor players on the legends side but decided to put the players that have been named all-stars. On the right side we put the big playmakers from last year and a few of the big player signings from the off-season. The flag was just under 6,000 square feet, just shy of our Mountain Roads tifo (from 2012).
Q: How much time did it take, how many people were involved, and where did you work on it? Is there a primary artist, and then others help out? How does that work?
A: We started painting on Sunday the 16th and finished the night before the game. The design took me about 30 hours. We had 20 to 25 people show up to help paint over the week. We have several artists in the group and we pick and choose designs that will work for a certain opponent or big game. We also work off each others’ designs and collaborate. This banner was painted in the stadium parking lot although we usually use warehouse space.
Q: How much did it cost and who pays for it? What is the banner made of?
A: This one cost about $2,500 for fabric and paint. The blood, sweat and labor are priceless. We pay for the materials using donations. You can donate at C38sg.com. We use muslin fabric, flat latex paint and spray paint on most banners.
Q: What is the most challenging part of pulling something like this off?
A: Hoping the design turns out as planned. Mother Nature is always an enemy – the weather with high winds or moisture. The most important challenge is making sure the tifo motivates the team.
Q: What kind of support do you get from the Rapids front office, and has the level of support changed over the years for fan-driven efforts such as this?
A: The front office supports C38 and understands the soccer culture around the world. At the end of the day everyone wants the club to succeed and win more cups. Our big hurdle right now is to allow us to use smoke bombs but that involves the Commerce City fire department.
Q: This tifo got a nice reaction in the stadium and on social media. What are past tifos you’re proud of and where does this one rank?
A: Mountain Roads is my personal favorite tifo but this one had more impact simply because of the complexity and detail of the art work. We as a group try to push the envelope every tifo and put Colorado on the map – not just in MLS but the global soccer map as well.
The “mountain roads” tifo before a 2012 Real Salt Lake game (photo by Corbin Elliott, provided by Corbin Elliott).
C38′s tifo before last year’s 5-1 trouncing of the Sounders (Eric Gorski, The Denver Post).
Another view of Saturday’s tifo (photo by Corbin Elliott, provided by Corbin Elliott)
Eric Gorski is a Denver Post staff writer, Rapids season ticket holder and member of the Centennial 38 supporters group. Follow him on Twitter here.