Click picture for large version

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Rivalries 101
The Southern Derby
By The Fans, For The Game

Summer. For the kids, and many families in the US, it means a break from school. And Soccer Camps. And soccer games.

What it has not yet come to mean to many soccer families is celebrating their love of the game by attending matches and supporting their local professional teams. Resolving this has provoked page of discussion across all of the internet sites, boards, and forums that promote the sport and provide those of us with a passionate love of the professional game an outlet to share and exchange our views.

A few months ago, a playful exchange born of the friendly rivalry between fans of the Charleston Battery and the Atlanta Silverbacks, leading to "raids" of each others online Fan Forums on the USL Discussion Zone board, and extending to pull in fans of the Raleigh Capital Express, led to inspiration. And the suggestion that members of Charleston's Regiment Supporters Club, Atlanta's Blue Army, and Raleigh's X-Fans take the friendships developed through the forum exchanges and e-mails a step further, to a collaboration. And come up with a way to hopefully use the rivalries between the three fan clubs to raise the profile of our teams, and provoke more interest in the three communities.

Thus was born the idea for a competition among the three teams, within the frame of the regular A-League season, with a Rivalry Cup as the prize. Cooperative fund raising among the three Clubs and the assistance of a-league.com (our first sponsor) led to the purchase of a trophy, also known as the Fan Club Cup

The Fan Club Cup.

Plans for the Southern Derby Inauguration are underway. A six game home and home, to be scored by the 3 points, for a win, 1 for a draw, 0 for a loss system widely used throughout the world. Beginning Wednesday, June 28th with the Battery's visit to the Express in Raleigh, it will encompass all of the remaining scheduled regular season matches between the three clubs. The final match of the competition, by pure coincidence, is Raleigh's return visit to the Battery, which is also the Battery's last home game of the regular season.

In addition to proving the Cup, the three Fan Clubs have worked together to try and organize and encourage roadtrips to attend the Derby matches at each others venues. This has included exchanging information on host hotels in the three cities, and efforts to arrange group rates and/or discounts for traveling supporters.

The majority of the planning process was conducted , over several discussion threads, in the Charleston Battery Fan Forum at usldiscussion.com, where all interested or curious have been, and are, welcome to read all of the details of the Southern Derby. Comments and thoughts are also welcome.

It is our hope that a long tradition is born . It will grow in support and stature over the years as all good traditions and rivalries do.

Kit Hofen
aka Groomie
Charleston Battery
Fan Forum Hostess