A Shift in This Journey

An early entry in this blog mentioned about the history of my interest in tifo displays and overall supporter culture. I recently reflected upon my journey with those influences that have motivated me to create atmosphere. The journey began in the mid-late 1990's when Serie A was being shown on SportsChannel Ohio. I would admire the work of the choreographies, banners, flags and the unified songs, and overall passion shown be supporters from most Serie A clubs. This motivated me to create banners for the Columbus Crew, but I really never had a knowledge on how to make them big, or as detailed. All of my work was done freehand since I wasn't aware that projectors could make the job easier. But after a while, due to crackdowns on supporter culture (due to fan deaths, racism, etc.) and matches that to me were losing in excitement in style, I would somewhat lose interest in Serie A, and TV companies in the States would also somewhat due to a massive monster looming.

Enter the decade of the 2000's, a time in which the English Premier League set the world by storm with it's exposure. Clubs were expanding their "brand" all over the world and with this expansion came TV packages that would have the world see exciting matches. I fell for the bait myself and would admire the supporters and the amount of passion they would show. The one thing that this league did not have though was the displays that I saw in Serie A. If there were displays, it was for massive Champions League or Cup matches. There came about rulings in the government on down cracking down on supporters standing in the all-seater stadia. This would hamper the atmosphere severely in some cases and cause moments of silence even in some EPL matches. By now there had been several leagues being broadcast not only from Europe but Latin America also, which showed the fervor from the barra bravas and torcidas.

As I type right now, I have fallen almost to a love with the Bundesliga supporter culture. The grounds are always full and there always seem to be a vocal din with visuals from home and away supporters. The use of two-stick flags (doppelhaltern) has been inspirational to the point that the next few months, my aim is to create as many as possible for the Nordecke.