Dark Clouds Brewing New Fans All Season Long

Supporters Group Holds Free Beer Movement Night Saturday

Generating a large fan base is important for any sports team, but this concept is not always as easily implemented as one might think. American soccer leagues have been fighting to gain access to fans for years, and The Free Beer Movement is one group that has been making strides in the right direction.

The Free Beer Movement is a grassroots fan movement began by Austin, Texas, soccer fan Daniel Wiersema. The FBM’s website and blog, thefreebeermovement.com, won a 2011 Texas Social Media Award for its ability to link soccer fans and rally support across a diverse fan base. The whole idea is to build support for U.S. soccer using one simple, brilliant concept: “One Beer at a Time.”

The movement encourages soccer fans to bring friends, family and co-workers to their first game and buy them a ticket and a beer. Having a beer in hand seems like a pretty nice incentive for newcomers to get into the spirit of soccer, and the Stars drew a season-high crowd of 2,019 Saturday night against FC Tampa Bay, thanks in part to the efforts of their supporters bringing friends along.

“The whole idea is to entice people to try out professional soccer in this country,” said Paul Demko, long-time member of the MN Dark Clouds, the Stars supporters’ group. “What the movement does is bring in the skeptical people by using free beer as a sort of bait, and hopefully the new people have a good time and come back.”

One of the more difficult parts of gaining new fans is getting people out to a game in the first place, and the Free Beer Movement seems to have figured out the perfect way to do so. After all, what better incentive is there than a free beer? The Dark Clouds will pose that question all summer long, as every tailgate at NSC Stadium in 2011 will stick to the Free Beer Movement’s central idea that newcomers drink free. New fans at Stars’ games are invited to drop by the tailgate west of the stadium to meet the Dark Clouds and claim a beverage.

“If you give out free tickets people might not use them, but they will come for beer,” said Dark Clouds member and soccer fan Teresa Petersen.

Although the already-fans of American league soccer don’t get the benefit of a free beer on game night, it’s still important for them to bring along newcomers. The important thing is that American soccer is gaining the attention that it greatly needs.

“There are a lot of people from the U.S. who watch European leagues, and this is a way to bring people out to local soccer games,” said Erik Erickson.