This Supporters’ Forum was the first forum where there was an open session after the closed session.
Closed Session
Dallas Beer Guardians
Security issue from Saturday, April 29th match: Proper protocol, proper solutions, and going over the policies. (This also has an impact on El Matador and Lone Star Legion). A situation happened in Saturday’s match against Portland. As the match progressed and questionable calls were made, the intensity grew.
After a particular call, a water bottle, and cups filled with beer were thrown onto the field. Once these people were found and ejected by security, particular security staff members were being verbally abused by language and gestures from people in the Beer Garden. At that point, the security team were being told that any fan involved with using foul and abusive language in the form of chanting was to be ejected from the Beer Garden. A total of 5 people were ejected. Of those 5 people who were ejected, 2 received a criminal trespassing ban for 30 days and 1 was arrested for public intoxication.
The main issue at hand was that no one in the Beer Garden was notified about security enforcing the no foul language policy in regards to excessive chanting. In their minds, people were being tossed for doing something that they have always been able to do. The Dallas Beer Guardians came to the Supporters’ Forum with some questions from their members. If you would like to know how those questions were answered as well as their statement to their members then please feel free to click here.
What has come out of this agenda item is a clarification of the Code of Conduct policy. Any racial, offensive, and gender remarks is an automatic ejection as is any tossing of items onto the field or fighting. While the MLS has a strict foul language policy, FC Dallas will be turning a blind eye as long as the language is reactionary to the game itself. For example: should there be a terrible call and the fans start chanting at the ref foul language then this will be deemed as allowed. For more details on the policy, please click here and go to Code of Conduct.
For Supporters’ Groups: Should any foul language be used in chants that are not reactionary to the game then security will notify Joe Bellow, Supporter Liaison Officer, that the policy is starting to not be followed. At this point, Joe Bellow will then come to Supporter Leadership and let them know that security will start to have to eject fans from the match should the chants that are not reactionary to the game continue to happen. Supporter Leadership will then tell everybody they can, that the chanting must stop or ejections will start to happen. Should someone be ejected, then that person (as long as they are not being arrested) may be allowed to use their phone to let the people that they are with know what is happening. Should they not be allowed to use their phone, then security will flag down an usher that will then notify the party that was with the person who made the offense. This also has an effect on El Matador and Lone Star Legion as well because the policy still applies no matter what the language is. DBG also made the statement that under no circumstances should anyone touch a security member or police officer. In addition, Don’t Cross The Line flyers that were supplied by the MLS will be passed out to anyone entering the Beer Garden or section 120/121 and this will show a sign as a warning to people that have never been down in those respective areas before. Should any other questions arise then please feel free to contact your respective Supporters’ Leadership.
Procedure for Houston away fans and how that will look for the match on May 28: This topic was brought up due to some of the recent issues that had happened this season when other Supporters’ Groups from other teams attended FC Dallas matches. These issues were addressed and the Front Office is looking to help make sure that those issues do not happen again. All Supporter Leaders agreed that they would want the same thing for their respective group when traveling to another stadium. As far as the Houston away fans are concerned, the same protocol that has always been enforced on them as well as other team’s Supporters’ Groups will occur. Communication with their Supporters’ Leadership of Houston and the FC Dallas Front Office has already begun taking place. For the match on May 28, the Houston Supporters will be sitting at the top of section 131/132. For more information on the procedures, please contact your respective Supporter Group Leadership.
El Matador
El Matador seat location for 2018: As we look on to 2018, one of the big questions was where is El Matador going to relocate to? El Matador currently sits in section 120/121. Starting in 2018, those seats will be a part of the new Hall of Fame seating. In no means was El Matador forced to relocate, but decisions by El Matador Leadership felt that it was in the best interest of the group to relocate to a section that was more comparable to what the members were paying for their 2017 season seats. El Matador went to the Front Office with their requests. Their main requests were some place where kids would still be allowed to sit with them, no chairs, as they prefer to stand, and a place where they can still drum. Three locations have been suggested and El Matador will continue to work with the Front Office on finding the best location. The three locations are under the video boards on the northeast or northwest stage. The other location is the bleacher location on the east side of the Beer Garden and making that designated area a 21 and under area. Discussions are still being made between El Matador Leadership and the Front Office and this decision should be made within the next week.
Lone Star Legion
Will be going where El Matador goes for the 2018 season. Agenda item mentioned above pertains to Lone Star Legion as well.
Front Office
Tifo and banner policies- There was a tifo that was brought into the Beer Garden at the match on April 29. The tifo was not pre-approved and all Supporters’ Groups have been warned that they must have any signage to be approved before a sign, banner, flag, or tifo is brought into the stadium. This will be done by members of the Front Office stopping by the tailgate prior to the match. They will look at the items in question and if approved, the item will be admitted into the stadium. Security will also do its part by making sure that unapproved items are not brought into the stadium. Should you have an item that you would like to bring in, then make sure you have that item at the tailgate.
Open Session
This meeting was mainly conducted by Beer Guardian Leadership. Everyone that attended this open session had the chance to bring any questions that they wanted to the table and Beer Guardian Leadership did their best to answer those questions. If they were not able to answer those questions, then members of the Front Office did their best to answer those questions.
A gentlemen mentioned that when he was ejected at the match on Saturday , he was asked for his ID. The person trying to take the ID was trying to take a picture of the ID using a phone. This made the gentlemen uncomfortable and so he refused. Per MLS policy, should an ejected fan refuse to present their ID then they will be charged with criminal trespassing and this will result in a 30 day ban at not only Toyota Stadium but any other MLS stadium within that 30-day window. The reason an ID is taken is based on FC Dallas reporting to MLS a number of the people who were ejected. The information on the ID itself is only kept at FC Dallas unless that person is subject to a ban, which at that point the photo will be released to the league.
Another gentlemen mentioned that a police officer on Saturday was about to eject the wrong person. He asked if there is was a way for the security to huddle up with the officer in order to make sure that they are going after the correct person who made the offense. Bucky Deichert, Director of Stadium Operations and Security, also mentioned that there are cameras down in the Beer Garden but that using those cameras is not always 100 percent foolproof.
Another gentlemen had several requests. First he asked about the sound system and to see if there was a way to test dead spots. The Front Office will look into this as another fan mentioned that in the same seating area it was hard to hear as well. He also asked about why we do not show the clock after the 45th and 90th minute. This is strictly due to league policy and this also the same reason that some replays are not shown. He also asked about the bleachers particularly the front row support bar of the Beer Garden. The Front Office mentioned that our maintenance team just got done walking the bleachers and found no issues. Should any one see an issue, please send a picture of the issue to Supporters’ Leadership and then they will send that to the Front Office to correct.
A lady mentioned that there is a view obstruction of the video board in the Beer Garden. How the video board is now is that on the outsides of the video board are the social media feeds and sponsorship feeds and on the inside is the live feed of the game. She asked if there was a way to fix that. The answer is yes and no. The video boards are pre-programmed to display images the way that it is currently. It would be very difficult to re-work the current setup. Next season there will be brand new video boards on the opposite ends and it will only be an issue in certain areas for this season. This was where this topic was left at.
Finally to end the recap, two members of the Season Member Advisory Board attended the open forum. Some of the suggestions that they made were ways for fans outside of the Supporters’ Groups to be involved with the Supporters’ Groups. With that in mind, Season Members apart of the Advisory Board will be passing out flyers with Supporters’ Group chants to fans in sections outside of the Beer Garden. The Season Member Advisory Board as well as Supporters’ Leadership are hoping that with this initiative that more fans outside of the designated Supporters’ areas can become more involved with the chanting. The Front Office is also going to be looking to see if there might be a way to get the FC Dallas Girls to not be in front of the Beer Garden but in other sections in order to get more people pumped up for the matches.