Tonight may be the most important match of a very trying season for DC United (and I certainly expect to see anyone without a good excuse there!) but I’m going to ask each of you to turn your attention to next year for a moment, especially those of you who have season tickets, half-season plans, or get tickets regularly in the Nest.

Longtime Nest dwellers certainly recognize how different the “loud side” of RFK is from 10 or even 5 years ago.  A great many more fans who aren’t in the supporters sections now stand for a full 90 minutes, and they occasionally start songs that spread into the supporters sections.  The supporters sections themselves are louder, more visual, and more raucous than in the past.  The Screaming Eagles have added elements to the Nest over the past few years – the big drum, flags, the giant jersey, and occasional tifo displays – to keep pace while at the same time maintaining our traditional approach to both assigned seating and enforcement of some of the traditional stadium rules.

As the rest of the loud side gets louder, its part of our role as a supporters group to push the envelope, to get louder and more passionate, to keep setting the standard for supporting DC United.  To achieve that goal, I’m assembling a committee to discuss and recommend the best ways for our club to push the Nest forward beginning next season, and I’d like to ask for 4 or 5 volunteers who are not currently in club leadership but are season ticketholders or half-season planholders in the Nest to be a part of that committee.  My hope is that the committee will discuss issues regularly over e-mail and meet a couple of times in September, and try to have all work done by October 1.

For those of you on the fence, please know that this is an opportunity to heavily influence a central element of the club going forward – not only to implement new ideas but, perhaps, to prevent ideas that might go too far from being implemented.  All opinions will receive equal weight and all options are on the table.  If you are interested, please drop me a line at paul@screaming-eagles.com.

Thank you so much and Vamos United.

-Paul Sotoudeh
Screaming Eagles President