Chicago Soccer Community Corner: Support Your Local

Editor’s Note: Welcome to Chicago Soccer Community Corner, our new regular Thursday series for local supporters’ groups to promote themselves and keep the community up-to-date on their activities. This week we kick off with Chicago Local 134, the main supporters group for the Chicago Red Stars.

Thank you to Hot Time for giving us this space to bring the Red Stars’ supporters community to light. Chicago Local 134 is the official, independent supporters group for the Chicago Red Stars. We were founded in 2009 in preparation for the inaugural Red Stars season in the WPS. We’re anxious for the new season to start and on the whole we’re pretty excited about The Trade.

We’re called Chicago Local 134 in honor of the city’s rich union history and to commemorate the original supporters’ section for home matches, Section 134. These days you can find us in The Harlem End, right where you’d find Section 8 for Fire matches.

We’ve been growing over the past few years but we’re always looking for more fans to join us at Red Stars matches. We know we haven’t hit that critical mass yet that makes it easy to blend into the crowd, but know that our section is the most fun place to watch the game.

Some things we’re excited about this year:

• Sam Kerr’s golden touch
• 10 night home games (at least 6 more than last year)
• Our new draft picks (especially the Pac-12 Goalkeeper of the Year Emily Boyd getting to train with Alyssa Naeher)
• A full season of Yuki Nagasato on the field & her magical Instagram stories off the field
• Sam Kerr’s backflips (we’ve already committed to down our beers after the first one, or as Red Stars owner Arnim Whisler coined: #KerrChug)
• Longer tailgates in the North Lot this year, starting 3 hours before game time
• Breathing new life into our songs and chants
• The big doubleheader with the Fire on 3/31 (more on that next week!)
• And...did we mention Sam Kerr?

We’ll get into the details of the doubleheader next time, but we’ve got some good things cooking with Section 8 Chicago. The Red Stars season officially kicks off at Houston on the 25th and you can watch with us at our home bar in the city, A.J. Hudson’s Public House. In the meantime, find us on Twitter, Instagram, and our website.