We kicked off the 2015 season on Sunday, February 22nd with our Annual General Meeting!  A huge thanks to everyone who came out (~50 of you!) and a special thanks to Richard Nightingale and the Riverhounds Front Office, for providing not only the venue, but a full buffet & beverages for everyone.  Much like the Oscars later that night, our meeting ran over its allotted time, but for all the best reasons.  It was jam-packed with discussion and information, all of which we’ll try to summarize for you here!

Riverhounds FO Q&A

Riverhounds President Richard Nightingale began our meeting by introducing himself, Head Coach Mark Steffens, and owner Tuffy Shallenberger.  Richard and Mark did most of the talking, passing the metaphorical “talking stick” back and forth as the questions from the Steel Army members warranted.  The Q&A section lasted over an hour, the contents of which are best outlined below:

• Richard has plans to tear out the seats to the left of the flagpole (if you’re looking at it head-on from the field) in our section and put in a terrace-style standing-room section.  This will be our new home for the 2015 season as it is not only extremely conducive to the type of party we like to throw behind the goal, but it’ll get our gorgeous faces on camera for the Youtube streams of each game.  There is also a pretty big plan in the works in regard to our section, but unfortunately we need to keep quiet about that until some approvals have gone through.  It was discussed and voted on at the meeting, though, so we’re hoping that we get the OK to announce it soon!
• Mark spoke about his playing style, how he likes to focus on possession & not having just one primary goal-scorer on the team.  He also went into a bit of detail about some of the great players they’ve signed but need to keep under wraps until things are finalized.  Sorry we can’t share more here, but you’ll be finding out soon, I’m sure!
• The bar within the stadium is undergoing a renovation!  Henceforth referred to as anything but “the Bistro”, the new sports bar will have more of a pub feel.  A new wooden bar has been ordered, several beers will be on tap, and good times will be had.  They’re going for something a bit more “warm English pub” and a little less “prison cafeteria” this time around.  Drywall is up & the revamp is moving forward steadily.  Richard says we should be able to enjoy its offerings by the home opener and that every away match will be streamed from within.
• The Riverhounds marketing strategy was brought into question by a member of the Army & Richard accepted that they haven’t done the best job with that in the past and even currently.  He acknowledged the need to reach out to college students and do an overall better job of marketing the gameday experience.  Honestly, with the free drink vouchers they are offering with Supporters Section season tickets, our section should be pretty packed this season.  The problem is that i haven’t seen it marketed anywhere but directly to us, so no one else knows about it.  I suspect this would be a great selling point & hopefully word will spread.
• A few other plans were unveiled to us but we need to keep those out of print until they’ve been solidified, unfortunately.  I think we can say that there may be another medium on which to view a few matches this season, without getting too cryptic.

SA Board Presentation

After an encouraging Q&A with Riverhounds brass, your Steel Army Board Members took over to present our outline for the 2015 season.

We began with discussing the 2015 Membership Package.  You already knew that you’d be getting a scarf, two SA 2015 patches, a 10% discount on SA merch, and a membership card. But on Sunday we were finally able to unveil the discounts at local businesses you’ll get by flashing that membership card…and we think you’ll like it.

As you can see, your membership card will get you the following:

• 10% off merchandise at the Pittsburgh Riverhounds Pro Shop
• 10% off your food bill at both Piper’s Pub and The Pub Chip Shop
• $2 off of your purchase of 18 holes of Footgolf at Cabin Greens

The discount information will be available on the Speakeasy portion of our blog at any time.  

There is always a possibility we will be able to add more discounts throughout the season, all of which you’ll be entitled to as membership card holders.

 Merch

We’ve also got big plans for Steel Army merchandise this year.  Another t-shirt pre-order will happen, the design is TBD.  We’ll have at least one (maybe two!) koozies to house your alcoholic beverages, some stickers, and perhaps our most exciting new venture – an embroidered jacket.  The idea is to produce a quality black jacket, similar to those worn by the assistant coaching staff of the team.  The Steel Army logo will be embroidered on the left breast (still in conceptual stage) and your initials will go on the right.  We can order these by the dozen, and if the interest level at the AGM is any indication, it looks like we could be ordering them very soon!  More details to come on this as we are still working out the details.

Events

We are putting together the details for another Steel Army Footgolf outing, to be held during an away-game weekend in May or June.

Watch Parties:  Richard stated that all away games will be shown at the newly remodeled pub (the un-bistro) within Highmark Stadium.  We are definitely planning to be at the first one on April 11th, ready to drink and cheer on the boys from afar.  Our plans for other watch parties this year aren’t set in stone just yet.  May 23rd and either August 22nd or 28th are a couple of other dates we had in mind to put together a watch party of our own.  We are keeping our options open as far as locations go, but if all goes well at the new pub at Highmark, we may end up making that our home base for 2015 watch parties – we’ll see!

Away Trips:  This is the big one, folks.  Our first away trip of the season will be on June 27th to Rochester, NY.  The trip includes a bus to and from Rochester and your ticket to the game.  As always, BYOB…but you’ll have plenty of money to spend on beer because the cost of this trip is pretty amazing.

You read that correctly.  Richard Nightingale has offered to foot the bill for the entire away trip to Rochester.  And you don’t have to worry about us running out of room for you on the bus, because, as Richard put it, “if you fill six buses…I’ll pay for six buses.”  We are already accepting refundable deposits to reserve your spot on this glorious trip.  The only requirement being that you must be a paid member of the Steel Army to participate.  ARE YOU EXCITED YET?  After the announcement we sort of went around the room and heard from various members who went on past away trips, recounting their experiences about how great it was.  I believe it was Espo who said (and I’m paraphrasing here), “there’s no greater feeling than going into a stadium with a big group where you know everyone hates your guts.”  We like to make things hard on the other team & their fans at home – so you can imagine how much fun we have doing it from behind enemy lines!

There is also a potential trip to Harrisburg lined up for the last game of the season, September 19th.  We don’t have the details worked out for that just yet, but there’s an added incentive to go this year, because…

We’ve finally got a PROPER DERBY this year!

It is for this reason that we must bring our A-game to every Harrisburg match this season.  We want to hoist the first ever Turnpike Cup!

Other Events: Richard has graciously offered the facilities at Highmark Stadium to us whenever possible, and we plan to take him up on his generous offer!

Keep an eye out on the FB for Steel Army Kickball and a Pick-Up Soccer match at Highmark Stadium!  Dates are still being determined, but we’re all pretty excited to throw on some cleats and run around on the pitch.

TIFO

The first rule of TIFO is that you don’t talk about TIFO.  If you’re unfamiliar, TIFO is basically a large display of passion and enthusiasm put together by the supporters for their team.  Typically this is in the form of a gigantic banner, smoke, etc.  TIFO is always a secret, to be unveiled at the match only.  Our TIFO has gotten bigger every year and this year is certainly no different.  Here are the dates we’re looking at to paint/put together the TIFOs for this season.  We have three TIFO projects lined up so far:

• 3/21 – Home Opener TIFO
• 5/23 – Rochester Away Trip TIFO
• 6/21 – Independence Day TIFO

Please note:  These dates are the days we will be painting and putting things together – they are NOT the dates of the matches.

We always need help doing TIFO – the more the merrier!  It’s a great day to hang out, get to know people, and best of all, you’ll know the secret before it’s unveiled at the game!  We’ll have more information and events on FB as we get closer to the dates.  So get your paint brush (please, bring your own brush!) ready to go…our first TIFO Day is approaching fast!

Tailgating

As always, tailgating is a huge part of the gameday experience for us.  There is always a plethora of food and drink to go around, good chats to have, and just an overall good time with friends.  Maria heads up our tailgates, cooking up amazing foods and deserts, and always has a cooler full of Jell-O shots to pass out.  She is flanked by several over Steel Army members who whip up treats to feed us all, and for that we are very appreciative.  It’s been asked many times, “what can I do to help?” so here’s what we suggest.  It’s pretty simple, and most everyone already does it; If you come to the tailgates and enjoy some food and drink, bring something with you the next time you come!  It’s a community where we’re all dependent upon the kindness of one another.  If you’re not a master chef, no worries!  Feel free to contribute monetarily if that’s more your thing.  There will be a donation jar this year for this reason.  All we ask is that you keep in mind that the people who provide snacks and drinks are doing so with money from their own pocket & time from their lives.  Give ’em a proper “thank you” and keep the karma train rolling along!

Financial Update

To keep things transparent, Bryan provided everyone with the details of last year’s finances as well as this year’s current budgetary state.  Here’s what he presented:

Bylaw Amendments

We voted on a couple of amendments to the bylaws during the AGM as well.  The details can be found below.

Amendment #1: Conflict of Interest

“No Member shall be permitted to run for or hold an Officer position if he or she is employed by or holds a leadership position in the Pittsburgh Riverhounds organization or any organization directly affiliated with the Pittsburgh Riverhounds. This includes, but is not limited to, USL, youth academies, and other supporters’ groups.”

Amendment #2: Financial Agreements

“Financial agreements between the Steel Army and other organizations or businesses for services rendered to Members of the Steel Army must be documented by a written financial agreement approved by Members of the Board.”

 

Steel Army Board Member Election

We also held an election for the two Member Representative slots on the board which are up at the beginning of every year.  The Steel Army is proud to welcome Jordan Styles and the re-elected Josh Brokaw!  Congrats, guys!

 

#UNLEASHtheSCARVES

We leave you today with a challenge that’s been issued to all of The Steel Army.  Help us take over the city (and beyond!) with the hashtag #UNLEASHtheSCARVES.  We want to see as many pictures as possible with famous statues (and whatever else you can think of) wearing our Steel Army scarves!  It could be this year’s new scarf, last year’s scarf, the bridge scarf, the old school 2008 scarf, the incline scarf, ANY Steel Army scarf.  Throw it on, snap a picture & tag that sucker with #UNLEASHtheSCARVES so we can see where you’ve been.  Get creative!  We’ll re-tweet/share our favorites & at the end of the season we’ll do a nice little roundup with some prizes for the best pictures.  What are you waiting for?  #UNLEASHtheSCARVES