There are only TWO bars used in Philly. The freehouse where we meet and Pistolas is doing it's own thing, they're nothing to do with us. We were an offshoot from the Horsham group because it's 45 minutes away and that doesn't suit everyone. NYC has several bars, does it not? 11th street is the central one and I believe there's another one right nearby, I'm sure some folk go the ones in Brooklyn or the other locations because they may prefer it, or it may be local to them. This is just a similar idea. Right now I'm trying to get some details so I can talk to the other groups about consolidation but ultimately I can't force anyone to do anything they don't want to. And it may be that we go it alone, but I at least need to try and talk to them first. We can continue this discussion offline if you want to.
New York is a city of 8 million people, an absolute world class super-city, so you can't really compare NY and Philadelphia there. And NY has tons of Liverpool fans, but even in that case ultimately there is only one official bar that everyone knows where to go to. Anyone can go online or go on the official site and look up "LFCNY Official" and see the 11th Street Bar and go there and have a good time. Everyone who's ever been there knows that it is THE place to be for a good atmosphere watching the Reds in NYC, especially if you're visiting from the UK or from out of town. No confusion, even if someone eventually wants to do their own thing, be more local, or gets lured to another bar/group. Philadelphia is just too small to compare it to and they don't do that kind of thing in Boston or DC.
We should create our own group modeled after LFC Boston or LFCDC; our own group, with our own bar, and our own atmosphere, and just forget about the rest, forget about what we can't control. We create the kind of group and atmosphere that makes our bar THE place to watch the match and where everyone is simply compelled to join us if they want to have a good time. That will never happen if everyone just continues to do their own thing, or if nobody cares where everyone goes.
And whatever bar we do pick has to see itself as a Liverpool bar as well, not just a "Premier League" bar. I simply do not enjoy going to the Victoria Freehouse to have some knucklehead, who's decided to support Swansea or Newcastle or Leicester for the day because he thinks they're cool, standing behind me during the match giving me and the team shit the entire time while everyone just stands there in silence. It's just not fun.
