An underdog supporters group inspired by “The Sons of Ben” in Philadelphia springs up in Detroit with the goal of getting an MLS team. Crazy? Maybe. A long shot? Certainly. But is the Sons of Ben story and the new Philadelphia team something that could happen again, this time in the Midwest? Are these the “Sons” of the “Sons of Ben”…?

Recently, amidst all the Bizjournal and MLS-rumors reportage on MLS expansion (Miami, Montreal, Portland, St. Louis, Atlanta, Ottowa, and Vancouver), I met a very different group of soccer supporters who are just as committed to being awarded an MLS team someday. Sure, this group isn’t a collection of wealthy investors, but these guys are rich in other ways, and they’ve already started building a grassroots soccer supporter movement inspired by the Sons of Ben that many cities would be envious of. These are the Motor City Supporters, and this is their funny, brave and inspiring story…

More after the jump

Andrew, Marc and Tavio look like any other Columbus Crew supporters getting ready to stand in the Nordecke and cheer for their first place team, the Columbus Crew. Wearing the yellow and black of the Crew and huddled on a small patch of grass outside Crew Stadium, they sip Natural Light and kabbitz MLS with their fellow Crew Union and Hudson Street Hooligan supporters who gather for the traditional pre-game brews and kick-around. But in many ways, Andrew, Marc and Tavio are quite unique because they aren’t from Columbus. In fact, they aren’t from Ohio at all. Andrew, Marc and Tavio have driven 6 hours from their homes in Detroit Michigan to watch the one passion that brings them all together; soccer. Their mission on this night is support their “local” MLS team, the Columbus Crew, in the loud and proud style of the Nordecke - which itself has grown into a tremendous home field advantage this year. But the longterm goal of these three founding members of the “Motorcity Supporters” is to build a group large enough to attract the attention of the MLS.

Tavio explains, “We’ve all been soccer fans since we were kids, and we met while going to the local USL PDL Michigan Bucks games. We were part of a small group of fans that attended games religiously. Fed up with the quiet atmosphere at games we decided to form “The Herd,” a supporters group with the goal of creating a raucus home field environment for the team. In just four months our group has grown from just six (pictured below) to over 50 people, chanting, singing, and cheering our team. We’ve totally changed the atmosphere at Bucks games, and in the process we’ve unexpectedly found a big group of fellow supporters of the game. Growing larger, we thought maybe it wouldn’t be so crazy to mimic the Sons of Ben in Philadelphia, and show our support for a Detroit MLS team that doesn’t exist, with the goal of eventually getting an MLS team…

The Sons of Ben?

“Oh yeah, the Sons of Ben are the benchmark. They had the success that all related team-less supporters groups are striving to duplicate. That group succeeded, and now they will have a team in their own backyard in a year and a half. Obviously, we will look to create our own identity as a Detroit group, taking ideas from other groups and using our own methods, but in the end, a team is what they have, and a team is what we want.

How’d you pick the name Motorcity Supporters?

“We went back and forth on a couple things, but Motorcity Supporters was the simplest and just seemed to fit. To get the word out and grow our membership, we decided to start a Facebook page several months ago and now we have over 180 members. To share information with fans across the country, we started a Bigsoccer forum. Most recently, we went live with the Motorcity Supporters online site.”

Tavio continued, “All of these things are to grow our group so we can have a team in Detroit. TMC has travelled to Toronto and Columbus this year. We are going to the Michigan vs Michigan State game (University of Michigan has a supporters group of their own we want to check out, known as the M-Pire). One of our members, Josh Hakala, will be doing the color commentary for this game. This winter, the Detroit Ignition open their first indoor season, and we plan to be there. We’ve started organizing Detroit area watching parties for US National Team games and big EPL games at the Claddagh Irish Pub in Livonia (an official US soccer pub). Hey, we even started a Flickr account and are looking at Cafepress for our own scarves and shirts.”

But Detroit…? Do you really expect to ever get an MLS team?? What kind of history of soccer is there in Detroit? And isn’t the economy in shambles up there?

“Ha! Have you ever heard of the World Cup??? Sold out the Silverdome in 1994! How many World Cup 94 cities don’t have an MLS team now? Only Detroit and Orlando. Detroit is really a city overlooked by the game…

“Have you heard of General Sports and Entertainment of Rochester, MI? They bought Derby County in England in January. There are potential investors in the area. Did you know that Detroit’s population is in the Top 10 in the US? ….And we already dislike Chicago! Oh, and the USWNT will be playing at Ford Field in Detroit on December 17th, the first time the women’s team has been in Detroit since 1993 and we are looking to reserve a block of tickets..”

Andrew steps in “The 1994 World Cup in Detroit is the real reason that I am as passionate about soccer as I am. While soccer had been the sport I played on the weekends and my activity of choice it was not until I saw the second of my two games there that I changed. My aunt was working the event so naturally we got FREE tickets to the games! I was only 13 at this point and this was an all consuming desire to see the US play. That was not in the cards for me however as I never got the tickets for this. The first game I went to was when Switzerland demolished Romania. It was not really all that exciting for me as I was WAY up top and could barely see anything amongst the 80,000 or so fans. It was the Russia Sweden game that was the real reason…

“For my birthday gift I managed to get two tickets in the 10th row right behind the goal and boy was I in for a treat. This was the pivotal game in the group as whoever won this game made it on the next stage. There were so many chances and so much intense action in the second half I was enthralled in the game. The drums banging, the crowd cheering and roaring is an experience that will always be with me. This is the kind of experience that I want to have in my backyard all season long and the major reason I love soccer so much today.”

Tavio added, “Some people think it’s rather strange supporting a team that doesn’t exist. Until we drag them out to an event - then they love it.”

What about the Crew supporters here in Columbus, what do they make of your group?

Tavio laughed, “The Crew supporters are generally well-wishing, supporting the idea. While, yes, they hate Michigan with a passion (and demonstrated so in a chant battle after the last game), they like the idea of us getting out there and making a statement, and hope for us to succeed.”

You guys have done a lot of work, I say. I had no idea there were soccer fans in Detroit. Still, don’t you think it will take a lot to get the attention of MLS or a local wealthy investor, with so many other cities vying for teams?

“…We understand that this is a major challenge we’re undertaking, and it’s a long road leading to who knows where, but we took it up because we didn’t feel like waiting around for something to happen anymore….” says Tavio.

“We feel that if we don’t go out and make a statement ourselves, the opportunity may never come…”

The big investors will always get all the expansion headlines. But these are the kids who grew up going to World Cup 94 and caught the soccer bug, then later saw the Sons of Ben score an impossible victory. Is this a giant soccer movement sweeping the US? Maybe not, but keep your eyes open to see what happens….

Image via Celind, SBI, Soccerlens, thebucksherd, backdrops