MLS Playoffs: Traveling Support For Conference Finals

There are four teams left in the 2014 MLS Playoffs and both away teams this weekend will have plenty of supporters on the road. Over in the Eastern Conference, the New England Revolution is traveling to Harrison, NJ to face the New York Red Bulls. The game is to be played on Sunday, November 23 with kickoff scheduled for 1:30pm EST.

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The New England Revolution will be providing bus transportation for the first leg. This is not something that happens a lot and most supporters group shy away from accepting any assistance from the front office.

Revolution President Brian Bilello had this to say:

"“We understand the importance of travelling supporters and the energy that they give the team on the field so we are more than happy to assist so many of our fans in getting to Red Bull Arena for this important game. This is the first time that our club has reached the Eastern Conference Championship since 2007 and we know our fans want to be there for both the home and road legs of the series and will help them do so.”–courtesy revolution soccer"

It is pretty generous for the Revolution to do that for their fans. It is a bit of a road trip from Gillette Stadium to Red Bull Arena, 214 miles to be exact according to Google Maps. The Revolution have provided up to 12 buses for their fans to travel to Harrison this weekend. That translates to just over 1,100 fans at Red Bull Arena for the first leg of the Final.

Brendan Schimmel, Executive Director of The Rebellion had this to say:

"“It’s a ton of work being done behind the scenes by leadership in both supporter groups and a huge focus for the front office to make sure the players have the best possible support at Red Bull Arena There’s an ongoing dialogue and a flurry of emails constantly throughout the day with supporters group leadership and the front office working all angles and logistics.”–courtesy empire of soccer"

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Now on the other side of the country, the Seattle Sounders travel to Carson, CA to take on the Los Angeles Galaxy. The game is to be played on Sunday, November 23 with kickoff scheduled for 5:00pm EST.

It’s not as many supporters as the Revolution are sending but the Sounders will have 700 Rave Green clad supporters cheering them on. 550 of those tickets were sold through the Emerald City Supporter (ECS) and the other 150 were distributed through the team.

If my memory serves me correctly, that is about as many fans that travel to Portland or Vancouver for the Cascadia Cup matches. That is pretty impressive. It is also the last away match of the year for the Sounders regardless of what happens. If they advance to MLS Cup, they will host the match as they have the best record overall during the season and were winners of the Supporters Shield.

Have fun down there in Southern California. See you on November 30th.