bluesletter feb 2015

8/9/2019 Bluesletter Feb 2015

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Winter Issue 2015

NOTES FROM THE CHAIRWOMANBeth Wild

First of all, my best wishes to each of youand yours for the new year. May it bringjoy, health, and success! Like any year,this season will have its ups and downs.And I don’t know about you but when Ihave those downs, I put my head downand get through it, because I know thebad times won’t last!but neither will thegood. So celebrate when you have thechance and look forward to that next turnin the road. And always stay more

positive than negative.

When membership finished for theseason, those of us that keep the gearsworking were not done. We have to auditthe numbers with Chelsea, clean up thedatabase, and start thinking about thenext season. So I thought I might give youan update on all the stu# that’s beengoing on behind the scenes and willcontinue…

The website has been secured and we arein the process of finalizing a few things

on the back-end, as well as keeping itpopulated with new articles, new blogs,and all of that. It’s a slow process as all ofthis is done with volunteer hours, but ifyou haven’t been there in a while, GOCHECK IT OUT!

We are still in process of integrating thedatabase with other things so that we canbe more e$cient with delivery of emails,sharing data with Chelsea, and that kindof thing. It has been a monstrous taskand we’re all hoping it will be done soon.

We have already started to think aboutnext season!the member gift, the cardand streamlining the process foreveryone. Fingers crossed.

Along with that, we have welcomedCampo Retro as a sponsor, and if youhaven’t checked them out yet, PLEASE DO.They’re the best place to get retroChelsea kits and more. Whether you’vebeen following for decades or just startedfollowing the Blues, those past kits are a

great way to show your support.

And don’t forget the three sponsors thatwere included in your member kit.Colonial Distribution brings the ChelseaFanzine, CFCUK, right to your door. (Ipersonally can’t imagine not having that!)And then The English Pork PieCompany!and, man, is their foodDELICIOUS! Now that we’re deep inwinter, nothing’s better than a hot pie! So

please check out the coupon and trythem. Also Custom Made Names, a greatplace for custom framing. Unfortunately,they don’t have a website as it’s a smalloutfit, but the work they do is awesome.So if you have some stu# languishing inyour closet that needs to be framed,check them out.

We also have been told about a few newapps for iPhone and Android, High 5being one that looks like a cool one.Again this is all on the website for you tocheck out in the members’ section.

And speaking of the members’ section,remember your password is on yourmember card. There’s loads of new stu# (free stu# at that). We’ve includedgraphics for you to download to yourphone, tablet or laptop for wallpaper, orprint out and hang up. We’ve also justreached a deal with Chelsea Stickers tobring their great stickers to us. All of thiswill be available right there on ourwebsite. It’s a great deal with a fantasticselection. We’ve also put everything onsale in the Megastore, and most of it at

ridiculous prices with FREE SHIPPING. Weneed to clean out the closet, so go checkit out!

And don’t forget we have our Facebooksite, our Twitter feed, and a newInstagram feed as well. And you can finda link to the Chelsea in America Podcaston the website as well, or follow us onTwitter and Facebook for more interaction

We’re Happy to AnnounceOur Latest Signed Ball & JerseyWinnersfor the Southeast Region!

! Jon Summerfield of th

Beach Blues was our TrueBlue Winner of a 2013Season Signed Jersey

! Parker Orlowski of th

Georgia Blues is our YoutWinner of a 2013 SeasonSigned Ball

! Kara Werndli of the

Southeast Blues was ourAdult Winner of a 2013Season Signed Jersey.

All winners were chosen atrandom. Congratulations to thoswho won!

continued on Page 2

• Notes from the

Chairwoman

• Drawing Winners

• Vegas Update

• CIA Dream Come True

• Chapter News

• How Chelsea Found Me

• Turning a Red State Blu



PAGE 3

REGIONAL CLUB NEWS AND UPDATESOC BLUES

The SoCal contingent of OC Blues were infull force for the holiday period. BoxingDay brought 40+ in at O’Dark:30(4:45am) to our home, The Olde Ship, forthe Hammers. The annual 5:59am

singing of “We’re gonna drink in aminute” was heard as it’s illegal to servebefore 6am in CA. It’s always fun to be acouple pints in before sunrise at 6:50am.Two morning’s later vs Southampton waseven bigger as we SoCal’ers got arelatively comfortable 6am start. Betweenthe two, the holiday fixtures are alwaysfun as old faces drop in for their annualcall up. With the Olde Ship sta# planning to behung over and not opening for NewYear’s Day, the OC Blues made our own

crosstown trek 15 miles ‘north’ to the49’r Tavern in Long Beach where ourfriend Trent opened early for what turnedout to be the ‘Debacle at White HartLane.’ For the excellent turnout of “51” inattendance, we can all now answer thefamous question ‘Where you were whenyou were sh*t?’ At the 49’r Tavern! The holiday window closed with the FACup and a return to our ancestral roots.Yes, we were at the Olde Ship. But the‘throwback’ back to the dark ages backwhen the OC Blues were formed by the

Original 8 (Wrayman, Danny, Cruzer,SteveO, Hubie, Irish Tom, BrianZ and BigJohn) was our gathering to ‘listen’ to thematch radio feed in the ‘west end of theShip.’ Impressively, we out-numberedand out-cheered the two ‘red team’contingents that actually had live TVfeeds for their matches. Special OC Blues congrats to Austin/Amanda and Hubie/Khara on the arrivalof their new little ‘Blues’ and to Big Dave/Anabel on their nuptials in December.

Well done you OC Blues!

TWIN CITY BLUES

The Chelsea In America chapter in greaterMinneapolis/St. Paul, MN, (Twin CitiesBlues) hosted a New Year’s watch party at

Brit's Pub in downtown Minneapolis. Brit'sis a quintessentially English pub and theo$cial gathering place for Chelseasupporters in the Twin Cities. No matterthe day, time or competition, you canalways find Blues cheering on their teamat Brit's.

Typically, the pub closes for New Year’sDay, however, after discussions with theirmanagement, an agreement was made toopen their doors just for football fans.Bar service and complimentary co# ee andpastries were o# ered. This was a gesture

greatly appreciated by our chapter as thealternative would have been to meet up atanother downtown bar frequented by lattedrinking folks who like wearing red.

To make the day more special, and as athank you to our members who signed upwith Chelsea in America for the 2014/15season, a drawing for prizes was heldwhich included a very special grand prizefurnished by our regional club, theMidwest Blues. Long time CIA and TrueBlue member Josh Pust was the bigwinner of a football signed by 14

members of the 2013/14 Chelsea team.Worthy spoils for a truly worthy Blue.Congratulations, Josh! The Twin Cities Blues, headed by ChadHarris and Kim Moredock, would like tothank all of our members for what isproving to be another exciting yearfollowing our club. We are lucky to havea great place to watch footy and a greatcommunity of Blues fans that includes 40CIA members. Many of us are on a firstname basis and don't hesitate to call each

other friends. We enjoy sharing our loof Chelsea and maybe a few pints. Chto Chelsea In America and CFC! KTBF

OKC BLUES

The OKC Blues had a smashing Boxing

Day! We were happy to have some "CiBlues" in town who apparently moved OKC in June and just found our pub. Onumbers are growing – so watch out!

BELTWAY BLUES

The Beltway Blues Crew shows o# thenew scarves at the Hull match.

NBC SPORTS GIVES CIA SOME LOVE!

We were happy to see the Bluegrass BMotor City Blues and other CIA chaptefeatured on NBC Sports in a shot from

DC match last summer. Represent!



PAGE 4

HOW CHELSEA FOUND ME by Mike Dutter, Chicago Blues

Let’s go back for a moment to theSummer of 2014. The Dutter house isgearing up for what is sure to be anotherterrific year for Chelsea Football Club.

The strip is bought, the fixture list hasbeen digested, online content is beingjealously sought and quickly devoured asthe number of days until kicko# getssmaller and smaller… The precedingdescription is similar, I’m sure, to theaccounts of thousands of other Chelseasupporters on the West side of the Pond.Thousands. It still strikes me today as Ithink about that. There are nowTHOUSANDS of Chelsea in America.

The amazing thing about that is that itseems like it was only yesterday when Icould count on two hands the number of

American Chelsea supporters of whom Iwas aware. When I first became connectedwith Andy Burbridge (2005), it seemedlike we were part of a handful ofsupporters who had somehow found eachother - Blue shadows in a red world ofPremiership football support in the US.Finding a spot to sit at the pub was noproblem back then, and the identificationof one part of the bar as ‘Chelsea Corner’meant that that’s where all three Chelseasupporters sat every week and madeclever jibes about the red-clad lemmingswho populated the rest of the pub.

Things since then have changedmassively. Chelsea are seeminglyeverywhere in the US, as the Chelsea inAmerica ranks continue to grow, and theClub’s investment in this country bearsfruit with regularity. It’s pretty amazing tothink about all of the individualintroductions that people in the UnitedStates have had to Chelsea in the timethat’s passed since those early days.Some have found the Club through travel,others via family members with ties to theClub…..friends, expanded TV Coverage,

FIFA video games, cultural fascination…somany ways to find one’s self among theluckiest supporters in the world. As wemake our way through another greatseason, I’ve been asked to share myaccount of how it happened for me, sohere goes. Here’s how Chelsea foundme…

2001 was a big year. I moved to Chicagoto mark the end of my sports medicinecareer and launch the beginning of my

sales career. I had been hired on by acompany that sold corporate hospitalityat global sporting events, and I wasequally excited for my new city and mynew job. The company that a# orded methat opportunity was London-based, but

they had o$ces all over the world, andthat being the case, they’d sentsalespeople from HQ to their variouso$ces around the globe to gaininternational experience!50 of whichwere in the Chicago o$ce. They had aunique hiring profile, this group…fromwhat I could tell, they hired onepersonality type, and the o$ceenvironment and corporate culturereflected that perfectly. It was basically abooze-fueled locker room with expensivesuits. I showed up for my first dayknowing 2 people in the entire city. I left

that day at 5pm with 150 new closefriends.

Over the course of that summer, I becamepretty tight with a group of expats amongmy new colleagues who shared my love ofStella, laughter, and questionable

judgment after 10pm. I won’t bore youwith the stories, but su$ce it to say thatwe made this city our own, and we lovedevery second of it. As Summer began togive way to Fall, I started to hear an awfullot about breakfast at a pub downtown,Fado. With the social calendar I was

keeping at the time, there was no chanceof me setting my alarm on a Saturday orSunday morning, so I largely ignoredthese conversations.

Inevitably, one day it happened….theconversation turned to football. I vaguelyremember saying something to the e# ectof “don’t talk to me about football…Iwent to Ohio State – I know what footballis and is not”. Keep in mind that at thattime in my life, I had watched fewer than

ten soccer matches total – ever -including the 1994 World Cup. I hadseen MLS in the years that followed thWorld Cup, and I was not impressed

with what I saw. I couldn’t possibly beless interested. As we gave our versioof what we believed the mostappropriate use of the term ‘football’was to be, I came up with the brightidea that I’d take this crew on a roadtrip to Columbus to see a game andprove my point. They couldn’t get theheads around the idea that 105,000people would want to watch a bunch o“students” play a game, but once I’ddescribed the tailgating scene they wee# ectively convinced that this plan hamerit. A few weeks later, we were onour way…a pretty decent roadtrip,

actually. We had 5 hours of road tocover and about 150 CDs (rememberthose?) to choose from en route. As wcrossed the Indiana/Ohio border, onethe boys jokingly suggested that he wgoing to shout for Purdue that day. Idismissed that notion immediately andlet him know that he was not just anOhio State fan that day, but he was alsan Ohio State fan until the day he diesYou pick your teams once…you die withose teams. That is how it works. Onthe laughter in the car subsided, hehappily agreed under one condition –

the spirit of turnabout, I would jointhem at Fado the following weekend tsupport Chelsea. It’s possible that healso mentioned that Fado served beer 8am. Deal.

Fast forward 8 days. I had begrudgingheld up my end of the bargain, wokenup with a ridiculous hangover, andmade my way to Fado. I walked into thpub and found the fellas, already a fewpints deep and showing no ill e# ects osleep deprivation. I grabbed a seat,mumbled something about breakfast

the bartender, and gratefully acceptedthe pint of Stella that had been kindlyordered prior to my arrival. The matchhad nearly started, a home tie withBlackburn, and one of the boys startedbringing be up to speed on what toexpect…they loved the club, but hatedthe owner (who had apparently boughthe lot for 1 years prior), the team

would invariably thrill you and break

continued on Page 5



PAGE 5

your heart on a regular basis, and if Ididn’t like singing that I’d need to startliking it. I was still of the mindset that Iwas only being polite and holding upmy end of our arrangement – not really

expecting that this random Sundaymorning would have much of a lastingimpact beyond a lousy Monday. Thematch started, and the conversationchanged immediately. Loose jokingturned to looks of concern, occasionalshouts, and hilarious songs thatseemed to come from an endlesscatalog. After 5 minutes, I barely noticeany of that. I was transfixed by what Isaw on Fox Sports World’s broadcast onthe grainy screen above the bar. I hadnever seen anything like it. The fanswere insane. It was like college football,but with 10x the hate. The game didn’t

stop for a moment, with rough tacklesand speed everywhere. Some short guywith a huge mouth named Zola seemedto be the crew’s favorite, but he’d hadan o# day. At halftime, the managerbrought on a Scandinavian-type namedEidur who seemed pretty good. After acouple hours of this new experience, I’dstill yet to see a goal scored, but I washooked – forever, as it turns out. Thedye was cast, and I was now Chelsea.

No one had to remind me to be at thepub the next week – or any week since,

really. In the years that have passedsince that bleary-eyed weekend, I’vebeen unbelievably fortunate. I’ve seenChelsea on American soil on severaloccasions, I’ve lived in the UK andenjoyed the luxury of a season ticket inthe West side of Shed Upper (sat next tothe very same aforementioned friendswho had since moved back to London),I’ve met some of the legends of Chelseapast and present, and best of all I’vepassed my love for Chelsea to my son.When he gets older and someone askshim why he’s Chelsea, he’ll have to

respond something along the lines of“my whole family supports Chelsea….nochoice in the matter.” Hopefully his sonwill say the same.

Moving to Nebraska 21 years ago I did

not think that I would ever be amongstreal football (soccer) fans again. Ofcourse, Lincoln NE is the home of theNebraska Cornhuskers and the people inthis state are rabid college football fans.When the Huskers play at home Memorial

Stadium it is the 3rd

most populatedplace in the state – after Omaha andLincoln! However, in the last 5 to 7 years,fans of the beautiful game, especiallyfollowers of the EPL,have beenmultiplying at aglorious pace. Going

out and about inLincoln or Omahathese days, it’s notunusual to see fanswearing EPL colors –a number of Bluesfans and of coursethe obligatorytasteless red shirtsworn by Man U, Arsenal, Liverpool fansand so on. Husker fans wear red too butthat does not seem to have as adversee# ect on me as say a Gooners shirt!!

Much of the credit has to be given to theAmerican Outlaws (AO), that wonderfulgroup of fervent fans who follow the USNational Team. AO started here in Lincolnabout 7 years ago and that group hasdone so much to raise the profile of thegame, not only locally but nationally.Through their e# orts EPL watch partieswere started in the last couple of yearsand even though numbers are small rightnow, just the fact that we can gather at alocal watering hole without being treatedlike second class citizens is so refreshing!I came to the States in 1980 and any of us

who have been here for a long time I’msure remember the lean years when therewas virtually no football on TV. Living inSeattle in the early 80s I remember that

the only football on a regular basis on

was 1 hour of German Bundesligahighlights on Sunday afternoons on thPBS channel!

It has been great watching the increaspopularity of the game in the past fewyears. Living in the Midwest for so lonhave felt like many other futbol fans inthis region, laboring to promote ourwonderful game and turn people towa

the light and goodnthat is the EPL. I usto go around Lincothe early 90’s and

hand out fliers urgipeople to call theirlocal cable and sateproviders to demanthe FOX SoccerChannel be madeavailable. It was sofrustrating seeingother parts of thecountry enjoying th

channel but after what seemed like aneternity the FSC was available in theHeartland. This was somewhat similarthe waiting period for Boddingtons anTetley Bitter to get to this part of thecountry!

What in the past seemed like isolated individual e# orts to help promote ourgame, have now been rewarded by whappears to be an explosion of supportamongst both American fans andtransplanted ex-pats like myself. I amlooking forward to growing the Nebrachapter of CIA and hopefully meetingother members in the future. My plan to make some road trips to watchweekend games with other CIA membin places close by such as Iowa, Kansa

City or Dallas to cheer on our beautifuBlues! Come on, Chelsea! Give us all awonderful trophy-laden season!

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE?TURNING A RED STATE BLUEby Martin Banyard

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bluesletter feb 2015

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