The Idea of the Free Beer Movement

U.S. Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati speaks to U.S. supporters

(including the American Outlaws) in Chicago. He might have been taking about this....

The idea is simple: invite your friends to a soccer game, buy them a beer. There... you've done it! You're now a participant in the Free Beer Movement.

You watch soccer at home, in bars, at the stadiums, you might even have enough physical stamina to play the sport itself. Now it's time to take what you already do and share that love of this sport with others.

In the United States, for a number of Americans, the verdict is still out on soccer. We have no doubts of our own passion for it, but for millions of others they remain underexposed to the sport. Rather than have Jim Rome's and other old-school soccer-hating media-types define OUR sport to others, we must become the voice for soccer. We are ambassadors of our sport.

There are many ways one could do this, but the Free Beer Movement subscribes to the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) philosophy of life. What's more simple than a free beer?

Use your passion, use your knowledge, above all use free beer and expose the underexposed to soccer. Once they're in the door of the bar, the gate of the stadium, or just the comforts of your hope you've got ninety minutes for soccer to entertain and for you to educate that newbie.

Will every person you bring into your soccer home (be it your actually home or pub or stadium) become an instant fanatic? Probably not. The point isn't to indoctrinate these "soccer newbies", but to introduce them to what you love and help them develop and nurture an appreciation for the sport.

Beer and soccer. Looks pretty good together, huh?

Consider this: if each Free Beer Mover (that's you!) brought ten people to various games throughout the year and bought them free beer, that is most definitely ten people that would not have watched a second of soccer otherwise. If even one of those people became a true-blue soccer fan, that's one more person to be added to the rolls of the soccer faithful that would have NEVER touched the sport before if not for your free beer intervention.

It is a win-win situation for all involved! You're already watching and going to games (and probably drinking beer), so why not have some more company? We've all seen or been to games with either empty seats or them filled with too many of our opponents. Now is our chance to fill them with future fans.

A silly idea leads to serious economic support behind American soccer. More fans in the seats means more cash on hand for clubs to invest in marketing, stadium improvements (or building one!), academy programs, and player signings.... all things that increase the quality and attractiveness of our domestic league.

Being a soccer fan and supporting the game is nothing to be ashamed about. Too often, we soccer fans, are content with being that sporting outsider, supporters of a niche American sport. Outcasts among the ignorant. IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THAT WAY! Soccer is the world's game and the fastest growing sport in the United States. We have a viable domestic league, an exciting National Team headed to this year's World Cup, and fans as dedicated and passionate as any other sport in this country.

The Free Beer Movement is not only a philosophy for growing the game, but an organization that wants to empower American soccer fans to take pride in their version of the global game.

Being a soccer fan does not have to be solitary life. Show your colors, define your passion, share it with friends over free beer and grow the sport in this country to where it is on par with the rest of the world.

"Invite your friends to a soccer game, buy them a beer".

It's a simple idea with big implications.

Help build American soccer one beer at a time.

And it starts with you.

Support the Movement. Get the Free Beer Movement T-Shirt. Only from Objectivo.com

Free Beer Stories

Allison - Pittsburgh, PA:

Shamelessly trying to get a bumper sticker...

This is a picture of me with my buddy Jon. Jon happens to live with three other guys, all pretty huge soccer fans, who form part of a group that will travel pretty far to watch a U.S. National Team game (at least as far as our student budgets will allow).

Members of this group have also been known to ask bartenders for Man U flags hanging behind the bar, and think that this video is perfectly appropriate to show at parties. It's not that Jon isn't supportive, he just doesn't get enthused about soccer. So we decided to invite him to a local pub to watch the Everton/Man City game a few weeks ago and supplied him with beer.

I won't lie -- I don't think he's an official convert, but it's a start!

Free Beer Stories: MLS Cup in Seattle

From Shawn Wheeler, Seattle, WA:

Last summer, when I found out the MLS Cup would be in Seattle I started giving Matty Biggs from Constantly Offside a bunch of shit that he'd have to come up for the match, and that if he did I would buy our tickets. When he finally booked his flight a month before the match, I found us some pretty sweet seats on Stubhub and snatched them up.


Not being a big soccer fan, I wasn't sure quite what I was getting myself in to but Biggs promised me a free beer and a sticker, so we headed downtown for the 5pm game about 11am. A quick apparel stop (scarves and sweatshirts galore) and we were ready to get started on some drinking. Within about 4 blocks of the stadium are some of the best bars in Seattle, so Biggs and I had our day lined up pretty quick. A shot of Patron at Elysian Fields (home of the Emerald City Supporters), a Smithwicks at Fado (home of Gorilla FC), Manny's at Swannies (home of the North End Supporters), then I got serious and killed a few jack and cokes at FX McRory's (please note, Biggs drinks water on game days and someone had to drink his share of the booze).


We marched to the stadium with the INSANE La Barra Real and we could only try to keep up with their enthusiasm.


Instead of entering the game, we turned around and marched back to FX McRory's (Biggs wanted more water and I made up for it again) and saw the RSL drummers some more:



Finally head in to the stadium and the Galaxians are in the south end of the stadium, La Barra Real is in the north end and Sounders fans have packed the area between. Biggs and I went for a walk to compare the volumes, I'm not sure if my ear drums have fully recovered yet from this epic drum:


It's finally game time, and Biggs and I make our way back to our seats and much to my surprise the SSFC fans are standing... for the entire game... when our team isn't even playing. So Biggs and I excitedly took our spots and begin to hurl insults at Beckham and friends.


After a thrilling 90, then 120 minutes, Biggs and I had some of the best seats in the house for PKs:

After the game, sitting in Swannies with the remaining NES crew I come to the realization that this is infinitely more fun than any other sporting event we have in Seattle. Mariners baseball games are as boring as you'd think baseball would be, Seahawks suck and tickets are insanely expensive, and our Sonics have been shipped to Oklahoma. So that day, it was decided that the Sounders had a new fan.



I've got my season tickets reserved for next season, behind the south goal right next to the GFC and ECS. I went ahead and bought 2 tickets, planning to introduce as many friends as possible to the glory that is the SSFC, giving them a Free Beer and a game to enjoy. Hopefully their first experience with professional soccer is as impactful as mine was!

Found Free Beer: Minneapolis, Minnesota

Free Beer Movers Nick (in the Fulham jersey) and Jon ("photographer") were at McMahon's Pub in Minneapolis, Minnesota for yesterday's English Premier League action representing the Movement.



If you're looking to joing the FBM fun at McMahon's we can get you in touch with the Free Beer Boys up there!

Free Beer Stories: Leslie from Houston

Free beer does it again:

"I convinced my boyfriend's friend Dane to attend his first Major League Soccer game; a 2009 MLS playoff game between the Houston Dynamo (duh) and the Seattle Sounders on 11/8/2009. Bought him some beers, the ticket, and loaned him a scarf! Now he wants to come to more games during the 2010 season! Success."

- Leslie

Jaime, David, Leslie, Dane (the newbie)

Thanks for sharing your "free beer story'. We'll have a FBM sticker in the mail soon to reward you for your efforts.

Everyone else... we want to hear your success stories and well. Send an e-mail to us with your stories and pictures and you can be handsomely rewarded as well.

Constantly Offside and the Free Beer Movement at MLS Cup 2009

Editor's Note: Our friend Biggy from Constantly Offside wrote to us a few weeks ago asking for a bunch of our stickers so he could represent the Free Beer Movement when he went to MLS Cup 2009 in Seattle. "On one condition," we said. As long as he was introducing the sport to soccer newbies then we could reward him with a stack of FBM stickers.

Biggy brought soccer newbie Shawn with him on the journey from San Jose to Seattle and they represented the FBM and American soccer in style. Here is Biggy's "free beer mover" story:

Day One

So we pretty much took the Free Beer Movement everywhere we went in Seattle.


Saturday we hit the Seattle Underground tour, and we found even gnomes and gremlins like free beer. Probably because they generally don't use US currency, so beer for free is their only option.

We then hit up the gift shop and among all the sweet signs there was a warning for free beer!

We headed down to Pike Place to scope the sights and even the pigs were all about the FBM, and honestly who could blame them. It is hard to drink though if you are made of metal, so we kept the beers to ourselves and they kept the swine flu in return.

Our friend at the sports shop on Pier 57 was all about the FBM, he even stashed his sticker right by the register, which is pretty legit. I was impressed at all the jerseys they had on sale, particularly the Sounders gear that dominated the store. Surprising coming from San Jose but it's awesome what soccer is doing in Seattle.


Day Two


On gameday I got my buddy Shawn involved in the movement by hooking him up with a free beer as it was his first professional soccer match. He likes soccer now almost as much as he likes beer. He likes beer a lot, so that should tell you something. I bought myself a tasty refreshing cold one as well just so I could be one of the cool kids.



Of course, the NES (North End Supporters) are all about soccer and beer, so they wanted in on the action as well. Some fine fan support out in Seattle.

Then we got in a different sort of Free Beer Movement, the Free Beer related Wristband Movement, which is solid.

We found an RSL fan from LA at the bar, and he embodied everything we were all about all weekend, unfortunately he already bought his beer.

Many stickers were given out, many beers were enjoyed, and we really hope RSL downed at least one beer outta that bad boy.

The FBM x Constantly Offside were just part of the epic movement that is the MLS and American Soccer, in general. Cheers from Biggy at Constantly Offside dot com! Make sure you get to an MLS Cup in the near future, one of the greatest experiences of my life for sure.

Found Free Beer Movement

We're everywhere!


Well.... not quite yet, but through your efforts we can be. We've been sending our FBM stickers to all corners of the nation and now we're starting to see them pop up in some pretty cool places.

If you've already got one (our Free Beer Movers) we want to see where you've put it; your car, your computer... we dunno... your cat? Drop us a line with where you've plastered the FBM and we'll post it on our site with our new feature called "Found Free Beer Movement".

If you don't have one yet then send us your free beer stories and pictures (with your mailing address) and we'll drop one in the mail for your efforts on behalf of the Free Beer Movement.

The Free Beer Movement Hall of Fame

GRAND OPENING!!!!!!!!

[This the transcript from the FBM Hall of Fame webcast that was televised on ESPN360.com. Missed it? I'm sure it will be on the site, archived, soon enough...]

Dear Honored Guests, Various National News Media Outlets, the Free Beer Movement Board of Directors.... yes, I see you, hi mom:

Drinking beer and being a soccer fan go hand in hand, but often times we forget that the people we watch on the field are just as big of fans of drinking as we are in the stands and in front of the TV.

Their tireless commitment to consuming alcohol parallels our own with the added responsibility of performing at a high level on the pitch. These honored souls commitment to excellence should not be confused with our commitment to drink as it is obvious we are all just sad sacks of shit.

We are gathered here today to announce a new day in soccer history. Today, the Free Beer Movement Hall of Fame opens to the general public. This will be the virtual home for all of te greats of the soccer world that have not only performed admirably on the field, but also in the watering holes around the globe.

We at the Free Beer Movement are prepared to induct several high-profile individuals into the "Free Beer Movement Hall of Fame" and with that prestigious place in history also comes the title of "Honorary Free Beer Movement Member" ("Free Beer Movers").

Becoming an honorary member of the Movement is kind of like those Ph. D's that university hand out to celebrities and politicians all the time. The real people put in all the work (Movers pay for all that beer and host Match Day and students study constantly) and they get the the big, fancy titles with no work at all.

There is one exception to that comparison and that is the fact that our honorary members HAVE done something, both on and off the field. They are known for their ability to withstand 90+ minutes of punishing pressure and THEN go out and get stinking drunk for hours on end.

These are our "honorary members" of the FBM.

Every once in a while we'll induct a new honorary member into the FBM Hall of Fame based on their on-field presence and/or off-field drinking exploits. Plus, we'll save some space for a few drunkards from the wider soccer-world as well.

Today is a great day for soccer and alcohol, for they have always been close compatriots, but never before married in such a glorious idea.

Today we announce our first induction. Please raise your glass for .......