CARSON, Calif. – The Angel City Brigade, LA Riot Squad, and Galaxians bring the passion and emotion to StubHub Center every weekend, but this season, they went above and beyond even when the LA Galaxy were away from home.
Determined to help Galaxy fans across Southern California and beyond watch their beloved club alongside other supporters, members of the club’s supporters’ groups banded together to stage dozens of watch parties.
Through social media and publicity on supporters’ group podcasts, the number of watch parties grew as Galaxy fans from all over flocked to the events. Angel City Brigade president, Angel Figueroa estimates that several thousand Galaxy fans have attended watch parties throughout the year.
“We all had specific viewing parties before that were hard for everyone to get to, but we decided to partner with several bars across Southern California and see what happened,” he said. “I reached out to Riot Squad and Galaxians for support, and we created this unified program. It’s helped us grow stronger.
“And honestly, it helped that both groups underwent leadership changes and it made it easy to organize a plan. We were able to establish something new.”
Carlos Chavez, the president of the LA Riot Squad, who described the change in leadership of both organizations as a ‘fresh start,” believes that the viewing parties are even fostering a greater camaraderie between the two groups.
“This is all grassroots. We’re the ones on the phones talking to managers and organizing these for everyone,” Chavez said. “And because we’re combining our parties, it’s helping friendships grow between members of both groups.
“It’s made our travel more fun, and we’re one big family now, or at least we’re getting there.”
As they seek to grow their reach, even more, watch parties are being discussed in locations all over California and even out of state.
“We’re still growing,” Chavez said. “Week by week, we’re trying to get everyone aware of our parties and hopefully by next season, we’ll have a refined procedure for getting the word out so we can get more people to come.”
