"Denver is the soccer city": Inside the 14ers, Denver Summit FC's supporters group

Amanda, the 14ers' membership director, was on a flight home when she signed up the people in her row.

She wasn't the only one. Allison, the group's officer of funds, has done it too. So has Emily, the 14ers' community liaison, who recently talked the two strangers seated next to her into coming to the Summit's Pride game.

"That's what we're about," Emily said. "We're trying to bring as many people in as possible to experience just this magic that has been created. And the first step is reaching out, or happening to bump into one of us on a plane."

The 14ers are Denver Summit FC's supporters group. They're the people beating the drums, waving the flags and leading the chants in section 14. Eleven games into the club's first season, the group has already marched fans into every home match, painted two tifos and fed thousands at its tailgates. Not one person who runs it is paid.

Emily and 14ers president Megan sat down with The 5280 Pitch at Soccer Post Denver, near Jason Street and Mississippi Avenue, across from where Santa Fe Yards will be built. Kevin Vicente, who runs the store, calls it the 14ers' clubhouse. Drum practice and tifo painting already happen there.

"The crazy person in their friend group"

Neither of them started as a soccer person.

Megan has been a women's sports fan for as long as she can remember. She may have caught some of the 99ers, but the 2015 World Cup is what hooked her. After that, she watched the national team come to Dick's Sporting Goods Park a few times. "I couldn't believe I could get amazing tickets for like $30," she said. "To be able to watch professional women's sports in your hometown is just an unreal experience that I want everyone to have."

Emily's family was a hockey family. She made her school's soccer team in eighth grade and sprained her ankle in the first game. "That was the end of that," she said. "So that's about the extent of my soccer experience." A college roommate, one of her best friends, got her paying attention to the World Cup and then the NWSL. When Denver's bid came together, she was all in.

Megan said every women's sports fan knows the before.

"I think anyone who's a fan of women's sports has had the experience of being like the crazy person in their friend group who is like, I found this one bar that will play the game for us, and they said they might be able to turn on sound," she said. "And to have the experience just totally flipped on its head and have it be celebrated, and people want the group to show up."

She has loved seeing who shows up. She considered herself a diehard until she met the group's real diehards. "They have taught me way more," she said. The group has fans who know every contract and every training report, people who have never been to a professional game of any sport, kids coloring signs at tailgates, and women in their 70s and 80s. "I think we even had a 90-year-old at the last tailgate," Megan said. "I don't want to be too corny, but that is the overwhelming vibe."

"A love letter to the players"

The 14ers' roots go back to before Denver had a team at all.

Emily describes the group as the third version of Denver's women's soccer supporter culture. First came For Denver FC, the grassroots group that helped put the bid together with Rob Cohen and the other investors. It held watch parties at Number 38, partnered with the 99ers and Lady Justice, and helped find investors. Its members were there to meet the commissioner the day the bid was accepted. Some of them became minority investors in the club.

Next came the Denver NWSL ambassadors, who were around for a few months "when we had the color green but not much else." The 14ers formed that September and elected a board that October. There are five board members plus a president, and officers who run the day-to-day. The board brought Megan in as president after the group already existed. Nobody is paid, Emily said, "in any way, except immense pride and joy, if I must say."

A supporters group is more than a cheering section, she said. "There is an element of social justice that also comes through everything that supporters groups are meant to do," Emily said. "The role of the supporters group is to advocate for the players and advocate for the fans themselves." That means standing with the NWSL Players Association on players' rights and fair pay. It also means watching the club.

So far, she said, Denver hasn't given them anything to watch for. "They haven't given us a reason yet to get upset, which we're really excited about, right? And it's going to stay that way," Emily said. "Every move that they have made to make sure our players are healthy, happy, taken care of, their families are supported, they've absolutely gone out of their way to do."

The most visible part of the job is the tifo. Megan explained the word. "Tifo is an Italian word, and it means anything that the fans are doing collectively, visually, in the supporter section or around the stadium," she said. For the 14ers, that means large handmade paintings. They've done two so far, and they want more hands. Because the group started so late, she said, it has leaned on more established NWSL supporters groups to catch up.

Emily called a tifo "a love letter to the players, a love letter to the community." It's "demonstration through art that is completely handmade," she said. That means hand sewing, hand ironing, hand painting, hand taping, and a projector to sketch the big ones out.

The tradition comes from European football. Emily pointed out that some stadiums in the UK and Europe put plexiglass along the supporter sections "because things get rowdy." The American version leans more toward community. In Denver, the group has gotten a lot of help from the Rapids' supporters group, Centennial 38. C38 members have come to the tailgates, lent equipment and cooked. "We couldn't have done it without them," Emily said.

"Give what you can when you can"

Asked about the highlights so far, Megan started with the tailgates. She credited Jolene, the head of tailgates, and her committee. "I think we've had easily 5, 10,000 people run through our tailgates in just the three games," she said. "People have come and joined on the spot because of the tailgates."

Members can also present the player of the match award on the field after home games. The plaque was designed by a 14ers member and is handmade in Colorado by a master woodworker, customized for each player. "Everyone who's gotten the opportunity to do it has expressed how this was a once-in-a-lifetime moment," Megan said.

The group has marched fans to every home match so far, starting with the opener at Empower Field. The drums, flags and chants come from the spirit team, which Emily said has put in "quite literally blood, sweat and tears." Nobody needs experience to join them. The drummers will teach anyone who shows up, and the chants are posted on the 14ers website.

The group also doesn't want that energy stuck in one section. Plenty of members are older or have small kids and can't stand for 90 minutes. A supporter-section ticket isn't required to be a 14er, and anyone can sit in the section. "It's going to be loud. It's going to be fun," Megan said. "We want anyone who wants to come celebrate the Summit to feel welcome."

There's more coming. The 14ers will march in the Pride parade at the end of the month, right behind the Summit but as their own independent group. Their Pride shirt came from a community design contest that drew 10 submissions and 956 votes. Members got first access to the club's free tickets for the Utah game, ahead of season-ticket holders. A 14ers Fest is planned at Soccer Post, under the mural by local artist Shaina Leaf, with pickup games, mini tifo making, a DJ, a photo booth and, Emily said, possibly the cotton candy machine. Details will come later. Next year, the group wants a bigger presence at road games.

For anyone curious, Emily's advice was to come as they are. "We want you to be able to come to the space of the 14ers as you are and give what you can when you can," she said. "And a lot of that is just showing up." The group is at 14erssupporters.com, on Instagram and on a free Discord. It also hosts a watch party for every away game, at bars including the 99ers, Lady Justice, DNVR, Joe Willy's and Trashhawk.

Megan wants people to know what this year is.

"This is Summit's rookie year. We're going to play in three different stadiums. It's been wild," she said. "And I just want us to plant the flag in the ground of, Denver is the soccer city. Not Denver is a soccer city. The energy is high, and we're in it for the long haul."