Times Square has been the setting for viral fan activity during this World Cup, from the Norwegian mass elliptical rowing session to Germans jumping up and down while wearing culturally insensitive headgear. On Friday, the day before the Three Lions face Panama in their decisive Group L fixture, it was surely England’s turn to seize centre stage. As various news crews waited at the junction of Broadway and 42nd Street to capture the moment, however, the only visible presence was two blokes holding up a flag of St George with “Seaham Harbour” written on it.
“We don’t usually do dances or anything like that,” explained Joe, one of the flag bearers, who hails from Florida via Sunderland and says he works for Nasa in crowd control. “We just like to do arm curls, as we call it, and have a good time.” He mimes the specific curl, it is the kind that moves a glass from bar to mouth.
England fans – only 10,000 are expected to travel – are going under the radar at the World Cup, with little of the media attention that has followed other nations. Much of this is good news, because it means there has been no trouble. To this point there has not been a single arrest of an England supporter in the US in the three weeks that they have been here. The only friction, and even this was perfectly polite, came in Boston earlier this week when some bar owners made it clear they’d rather be serving the Scots.
Joe is also right, however, in that English fans do things differently. That becomes particularly clear when you compare their behaviour to that of other nations who have hit the Big Apple. While many European countries have a central fan group that organises marches to the ground or even matchday chants, England do not. On Friday, the only event laid on for the support was being organised by Sports Direct.
A ticketed watch-along for the evening’s matches, the event was to be held in the basement of the downtown bar Carragher’s, where the Sky Sports pundit once held a stake and, according to staff, still records podcasts. Mike Ashley’s sportswear company has put its name to a number of dos in fact – first in Dallas, then Boston, now NYC – and have paid for the BBC podcaster and fake Sunday league manager Steve Bracknell to drive around the States in a bus. It says it is the only company doing any such activity, which is eye-opening given the ubiquity of corporate sponsorship at this World Cup.
With free tickets and the promise of a T-shirt if you let the in-pub barber give you a Beckham mohican, the Sports Direct event was sold out. But most England fans looking for a gathering were off to the darts instead. In a remarkable feat of programming, the US Darts Masters is taking place at Madison Square Garden this week. The first day’s play was rammed with England fans belting out Chase the Sun and that number looked only set to increase on Friday.
With tickets sold out even on resale sites, the darts won’t be cheap. Jack, from Oldham, has been in the US for three weeks. He’s watched every England game since the initial friendlies in Florida and has also travelled to Los Angeles and Kansas City to take in other matches. He says he is trying not to think about his budget.
“It’s kind of on track, but I think this weekend it’s going to go out the window,” he said. “I’m going to the darts tonight, so that’s going to be a fortune.” Then there’s the next day to think about, where drinks at matchday stadiums can set you back $20 each. “You have a few in the ground and before you know it, that’s like 50 quid just disappeared. But you just don’t care. The buzz is there, the adrenaline is there and you just … deal with it when you get back.”
Jack said he had already booked flights that would cover the rest of the tournament all the way to the final, if England were to progress from Group L as winners. “Obviously the Ghana draw was a scare,” he says. “But the price of flights has just been going up and up.”
This is another factor that separates supporting England from some other nations – the expectation of travelling deep into the tournament. The Football Supporters Association, once again providing its embassy service for fans, has been sharing information about how to eat and (crucially) drink cheaply in New York City, as people try to preserve funds. The answer for many has been to stay elsewhere. Hoboken and Jersey City have proven as popular a destination as Manhattan, and an awful lot cheaper. England’s New York minute may not have happened yet, but if things go well on the pitch against Panama, there will be time for that yet.