Rebuilding a Supporter’s Group after COVID
Part 1: Our Story So Far
In the lower leagues of American soccer, there is one resource more precious than anything else: people. Sure, all the fun designs and chants and other artful shenanigans have importance, but they are nothing without a semblance of popularity amongst a population eager to consume and make it a part of their livelihoods.
The history of outdoor soccer in Baltimore is no exception. From the Bays to Crystal Palace Baltimore to the Bohemians, there have been attempts to create a soccer club rivaling the success of other upstart clubs across the country. All these operations have run into the same problem, however, without any success. No matter what they did, how they went about it, or the degree of seriousness they approached it with, this problem never went away.
None of these clubs could draw people into their stadium.
A lack of people in the stands happened for several reasons. The Baltimore Bays were in the old NASL; a league with corny, Americanized branding that was too insecure to play the sport the way everyone else around the world did. CP Baltimore did not have a unique identity other than being a farm team to a mid-level EFL club overseas. Baltimore Bohemians, a rebrand of CP Baltimore, struggled to find a consistent venue in a semi professional league.
Different problems such as these served as obstacles to make our group, or any supporter’s group, happen. A mixture of inconsistency, insecurity, and instability.
When you look at our logo, you will notice something unusual. It says 2017. Not 2021, like the Twitter account that brought you here, but 2017. A bit weird that a group you never heard of until recently would claim to have such a history. Five years is a long time in American soccer as well. What gives?
There is a better explanation as to how we got our name in an interview we gave with Lower League USA. To summarize, we are the combination of three different supporter’s groups looking to do the same thing; grow soccer’s popularity in Baltimore.
It was an easy decision to make. We were going on eight years without professional soccer in our area and the last thing anyone wanted to do was diminish the hopes of it coming back. A Slack channel was made. A Twitter account was up and running. Everything was coming up Milhouse, as the saying goes.
The first two seasons at FC Baltimore matches picked up where the Bohemians matches left off. Few hundred people, on a given night, in a school stadium that did not want people drinking on its premises because students could be around during the summer months trying to learn or something like that.
The club’s yearly identity crisis did not help much either. First, they were FC Baltimore 1729, after the year of Baltimore’s founding. Then, it changed to FC Baltimore Christos when Christos FC, the local liquor store club, and darlings of the US Open Cup, came in and created a partnership between each other. Then, they had a makeover to match Christos in appearance, ditching their maroon for green. When Christos declared for USL2, FC Baltimore moved with them, ending their run in the National Premier Soccer League.
Our initial success as a group was small. While there was a core of us who went to every match, our numbers never grew the way we hoped. It was a high floor, low ceiling situation.
COVID happening made the situation worse. Having the entire 2020 season cancelled hurt any momentum we had to grow our presence. Some members, or regulars as we think of them, tuned out altogether. They moved away, started following one of the big clubs nearby, or got too exhausted/bored and started worrying about more immediate issues that needed their attention more.
Making matters worse was that one of the people who stopped caring was the guy running our old Twitter account. With no way to get the account back from him, we decided to create a new one from scratch. The old account still sits dormant as of writing this. We followed it as a means of paying tribute.
The banner picture is from before we were even Charm City Mob.
With the new account, we started being more vocal. With the 2021 season close by, we wanted to bring attention to it. There was free range to do what we wanted to make FCBC more popular. It was not like another group was going to come in and do the work for us. If anybody was going to give soccer supporter’s culture a pulse in Baltimore, it was going to be us.
And so, it began. We flooded, and continue to flood, our Twitter and Instagram pages with concept art ranging from scarves, banners, logos, kits, and everything else we can think to make. Whatever we could do to get attention, to increase our follower count, to get more people interested in the club, we were doing.
When the season ended, it was the end for FCBC. They merged into Christos FC, who are beginning play in USL2 this May. Christos also have a new stadium setup as well, moving into the Moose Athletic Complex in Glen Burnie. While we were worried there might not be seating at the new facility, the club has reassured us there will be. No matter how nervous we were about it, they kept reassuring.
Going into the new season, we see a big opportunity not only for us, or the club, but for Baltimore soccer as a whole. Leaving NPSL for USL is a step up in competition. We no longer have to worry about winning 13–0 matches and getting refunded because the visitors could not bother to field 11 players. Now we get actual competition from organizations trying to make it through a full summer season without being a dumpster fire. A true step up.
We might not be working with much, but we are working. As slow as it has been, we at least come together on common ground.
