Winter Issue 2015

NOTES FROM THE CHAIRWOMAN

Beth Wild
First of all, my best wishes to each of you
and yours for the new year. May it bring
joy, health, and success! Like any year,
this season will have its ups and downs.
And I dont know about you but when I
have those downs, I put my head down
and get through it, because I know the
bad times wont lastbut neither will the
good. So celebrate when you have the
chance and look forward to that next turn
in the road. And always stay more
positive than negative.

When membership finished for the

season, those of us that keep the gears
working were not done. We have to audit
the numbers with Chelsea, clean up the
database, and start thinking about the
next season. So I thought I might give you
an update on all the stuff thats been
going on behind the scenes and will
continue

The website has been secured and we are

in the process of finalizing a few things
on the back-end, as well as keeping it
populated with new articles, new blogs,
and all of that. Its a slow process as all of
this is done with volunteer hours, but if
you havent been there in a while, GO
CHECK IT OUT!

We are still in process of integrating the

database with other things so that we can
be more efficient with delivery of emails,
sharing data with Chelsea, and that kind
of thing. It has been a monstrous task
and were all hoping it will be done soon.

We have already started to think about

next seasonthe member gift, the card
and streamlining the process for
everyone. Fingers crossed.

Along with that, we have welcomed

Campo Retro as a sponsor, and if you
havent checked them out yet, PLEASE DO.
Theyre the best place to get retro
Chelsea kits and more. Whether youve
been following for decades or just started
following the Blues, those past kits are a

great way to show your support.

And dont forget the three sponsors that

were included in your member kit.
Colonial Distribution brings the Chelsea
Fanzine, CFCUK, right to your door. (I
personally cant imagine not having that!)
And then The English Pork Pie
Companyand, man, is their food
DELICIOUS! Now that were deep in
winter, nothings better than a hot pie! So
please check out the coupon and try
them. Also Custom Made Names, a great
place for custom framing. Unfortunately,
they dont have a website as its a small
outfit, but the work they do is awesome.
So if you have some stuff languishing in
your closet that needs to be framed,
check them out.

We also have been told about a few new

apps for iPhone and Android, High 5
being one that looks like a cool one.
Again this is all on the website for you to
check out in the members section.

And speaking of the members section,

remember your password is on your
member card. Theres loads of new stuff
(free stuff at that). Weve included
graphics for you to download to your
phone, tablet or laptop for wallpaper, or
print out and hang up. Weve also just
reached a deal with Chelsea Stickers to
bring their great stickers to us. All of this
will be available right there on our
website. Its a great deal with a fantastic
selection. Weve also put everything on
sale in the Megastore, and most of it at
ridiculous prices with FREE SHIPPING. We
need to clean out the closet, so go check
it out!

And dont forget we have our Facebook

site, our Twitter feed, and a new
Instagram feed as well. And you can find
a link to the Chelsea in America Podcast
on the website as well, or follow us on
Twitter and Facebook for more interaction

continued on Page 2

Notes from the

Chairwoman
Drawing Winners
Vegas Update
CIA Dream Come True
Chapter News
How Chelsea Found Me
Turning a Red State Blue

Were Happy to Announce

Our Latest Signed Ball & Jersey
Winners
for the Southeast Region!

Jon Summerfield of the

Beach Blues was our True
Blue Winner of a 2013
Season Signed Jersey

Parker Orlowski of the

Georgia Blues is our Youth
Winner of a 2013 Season
Signed Ball

Kara Werndli of the

Southeast Blues was our
Adult Winner of a 2013
Season Signed Jersey.

All winners were chosen at

random. Congratulations to those
who won!

PAGE 2
Continued from Page 1
with the podcast.

Ive been asked whether there will be a

Vegas trip this year. Yes, of course! We
are still negotiating a date and deal, but
keep the middle part of June open and
COME TO VEGAS! We always have a
great time, and this year will be no
different.
And then theres the BIG questionwill
there be a summer tour? The answer is I
dont know for sure yet. But honestly I
think there is a better than average
chance there will be. Where in America
will it be? Not a clue. But what I do know
is this: when we do have information,
an email will be sent announcing the
details. So please MAKE SURE YOU
MAKE @chelseainamerica.com A SAFE
DOMAIN IN YOUR EMAIL
PREFERENCES so you get the email. Of
course we will post information about
the email being sent on Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram and the website as
well, so stay tuned.

And that brings me to my final point.

We have already been told by the club
that tickets from the Chelsea allocation

will be restricted to members, and more

importantly to members that are
registered with the club. So as per the
email that was sent over the holidays, if
you have not registered and sent in your
number, PLEASE GET ON THAT. If you
are True Blue or were the last couple of
years, you are already registered with
that number. However, if you did the AF
link earlier this season (before
December) we need you to follow the
link on the email that was sent in
December. And of course if you are
unsure, you can always contact your
chapter head or me for more details. But
please if you need to do this (and fully
more than a quarter of the club does)
get it done.

OK, I am sure there is a ton of other

things I could tell you, but Ill save that
for later so you can have time to look at
all the things Ive mentioned. In the
meantime, enjoy the newsletter, stay in
touch via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,
and I hope to see as many as possible of
you in Vegas or hopefully during a
summer tour this season.

CAREFREE

Beth

Chelsea Make a CIA Members Wish Come

True
InNovember of
2012, JT and the
boys welcomed
Nathaniel Boneto
Stamford Bridge
through the Make
A Wish program.
Nathaniel, nowan
18 year old
member of the
Music City
Blues,isfeeling
well enoughto head tocollege at
Chattanoogaeven though he's still
undergoing treatmentfor a brain
tumor. He met the entire team,
(including Roman!) and watched the

match from the

players' family
suite in the corner
where the Shed
End meets the
West Stand. It was
a great day out in
London. Nathaniel
will be studying
business and
marketing with
the purpose of
working in sports marketing. He
hopes to eventually intern at the
club with an eye toward working
there on a permanent basis. Let's
wish him luck!

VEGAS BABY!
The 3rd Annual CIA Vegas Bash is
confirmed for June 10-15. More
details and hotel reservation link to
come very soon. Come for all 5 days,
or just for the weekend, but mark
your calendars and make your way to
Vegas! It has been a great event, full
of fun, laughs, drinking and well
everything else, as they say . . . what
happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
Whether there is a summer tour or
not, which we are not sure of yet, this
is a great way to celebrate the end of
one season and the beginning of the
next. Hope to see you there!

Our Newest Sponsor Campo

Retro Has a Special Deal for
CIA members!
Visit www.camporetro.com and use the
Chelsea in America exclusive promo code
CIA20 at checkout to save 20% off each
purchase.

bluesletter team
A huge thanks to everyone who helps
make the Bluesletter possible!
Editor: Josh Hampton
Layout: Jamie Edwards
Graphics: Raciel Diaz
Chairwoman: Beth Wild

REGIONAL CLUB NEWS AND UPDATES

OC BLUES

Well done you OC Blues!

TWIN CITY BLUES

PAGE 3

other friends. We enjoy sharing our love

of Chelsea and maybe a few pints. Cheers
to Chelsea In America and CFC! KTBFFH!
OKC BLUES

The SoCal contingent of OC Blues were in

full force for the holiday period. Boxing
Day brought 40+ in at ODark:30
(4:45am) to our home, The Olde Ship, for
the Hammers. The annual 5:59am
singing of Were gonna drink in a
minute was heard as its illegal to serve
before 6am in CA. Its always fun to be a
couple pints in before sunrise at 6:50am.
Two mornings later vs Southampton was
even bigger as we SoCalers got a
relatively comfortable 6am start. Between
the two, the holiday fixtures are always
fun as old faces drop in for their annual
call up.
With the Olde Ship staff planning to be
hung over and not opening for New
Years Day, the OC Blues made our own
crosstown trek 15 miles north to the
49r Tavern in Long Beach where our
friend Trent opened early for what turned
out to be the Debacle at White Hart
Lane. For the excellent turnout of 51 in
attendance, we can all now answer the
famous question Where you were when
you were sh*t? At the 49r Tavern!
The holiday window closed with the FA
Cup and a return to our ancestral roots.
Yes, we were at the Olde Ship. But the
throwback back to the dark ages back
when the OC Blues were formed by the
Original 8 (Wrayman, Danny, Cruzer,
SteveO, Hubie, Irish Tom, BrianZ and Big
John) was our gathering to listen to the
match radio feed in the west end of the
Ship. Impressively, we out-numbered
and out-cheered the two red team
contingents that actually had live TV
feeds for their matches.
Special OC Blues congrats to Austin/
Amanda and Hubie/Khara on the arrival
of their new little Blues and to Big Dave/
Anabel on their nuptials in December.

The Chelsea In America chapter in greater

Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN, (Twin Cities
Blues) hosted a New Years watch party at
Brit's Pub in downtown Minneapolis. Brit's
is a quintessentially English pub and the
official gathering place for Chelsea
supporters in the Twin Cities. No matter
the day, time or competition, you can
always find Blues cheering on their team
at Brit's.

The OKC Blues had a smashing Boxing

Day! We were happy to have some "Cinny
Blues" in town who apparently moved to
OKC in June and just found our pub.Our
numbers are growing so watch out!
BELTWAY BLUES

Typically, the pub closes for New Years

Day, however, after discussions with their
management, an agreement was made to
open their doors just for football fans.
Bar service and complimentary coffee and
pastries were offered. This was a gesture
greatly appreciated by our chapter as the
alternative would have been to meet up at
another downtown bar frequented by latte
drinking folks who like wearing red.
To make the day more special, and as a
thank you to our members who signed up
with Chelsea in America for the 2014/15
season, a drawing for prizes was held
which included a very special grand prize
furnished by our regional club, the
Midwest Blues. Long time CIA and True
Blue member Josh Pust was the big
winner of a football signed by 14
members of the 2013/14 Chelsea team.
Worthy spoils for a truly worthy Blue.
Congratulations, Josh!
The Twin Cities Blues, headed by Chad
Harris and Kim Moredock, would like to
thank all of our members for what is
proving to be another exciting year
following our club. We are lucky to have
a great place to watch footy and a great
community of Blues fans that includes 40
CIA members. Many of us are on a first
name basis and don't hesitate to call each

The Beltway Blues Crew shows off their

new scarves at the Hull match.
NBC SPORTS GIVES CIA SOME LOVE!
We were happy to see the Bluegrass Blues,
Motor City Blues and other CIA chapters
featured on NBC Sports in a shot from the
DC match last summer. Represent!

PAGE 4

HOW CHELSEA FOUND ME by Mike Dutter, Chicago Blues

Lets go back for a moment to the
Summer of 2014. The Dutter house is
gearing up for what is sure to be another
terrific year for Chelsea Football Club.
The strip is bought, the fixture list has
been digested, online content is being
jealously sought and quickly devoured as
the number of days until kickoff gets
smaller and smaller The preceding
description is similar, Im sure, to the
accounts of thousands of other Chelsea
supporters on the West side of the Pond.
Thousands. It still strikes me today as I
think about that. There are now
THOUSANDS of Chelsea in America.
The amazing thing about that is that it
seems like it was only yesterday when I
could count on two hands the number of
American Chelsea supporters of whom I
was aware. When I first became connected
with Andy Burbridge (2005), it seemed
like we were part of a handful of
supporters who had somehow found each
other - Blue shadows in a red world of
Premiership football support in the US.
Finding a spot to sit at the pub was no
problem back then, and the identification
of one part of the bar as Chelsea Corner
meant that thats where all three Chelsea
supporters sat every week and made
clever jibes about the red-clad lemmings
who populated the rest of the pub.
Things since then have changed
massively. Chelsea are seemingly
everywhere in the US, as the Chelsea in
America ranks continue to grow, and the
Clubs investment in this country bears
fruit with regularity. Its pretty amazing to
think about all of the individual
introductions that people in the United
States have had to Chelsea in the time
thats passed since those early days.
Some have found the Club through travel,
others via family members with ties to the
Club..friends, expanded TV Coverage,
FIFA video games, cultural fascinationso
many ways to find ones self among the
luckiest supporters in the world. As we
make our way through another great
season, Ive been asked to share my
account of how it happened for me, so
here goes. Heres how Chelsea found
me
2001 was a big year. I moved to Chicago
to mark the end of my sports medicine
career and launch the beginning of my

sales career. I had been hired on by a

company that sold corporate hospitality
at global sporting events, and I was
equally excited for my new city and my
new job. The company that afforded me
that opportunity was London-based, but
they had offices all over the world, and
that being the case, theyd sent
salespeople from HQ to their various
offices around the globe to gain
international experience50 of which
were in the Chicago office. They had a
unique hiring profile, this groupfrom
what I could tell, they hired one
personality type, and the office
environment and corporate culture
reflected that perfectly. It was basically a
booze-fueled locker room with expensive
suits. I showed up for my first day
knowing 2 people in the entire city. I left
that day at 5pm with 150 new close
friends.
Over the course of that summer, I became
pretty tight with a group of expats among
my new colleagues who shared my love of
Stella, laughter, and questionable
judgment after 10pm. I wont bore you
with the stories, but suffice it to say that
we made this city our own, and we loved
every second of it. As Summer began to
give way to Fall, I started to hear an awful
lot about breakfast at a pub downtown,
Fado. With the social calendar I was
keeping at the time, there was no chance
of me setting my alarm on a Saturday or
Sunday morning, so I largely ignored
these conversations.
Inevitably, one day it happened.the
conversation turned to football. I vaguely
remember saying something to the effect
of dont talk to me about footballI
went to Ohio State I know what football
is and is not. Keep in mind that at that
time in my life, I had watched fewer than

ten soccer matches total ever including the 1994 World Cup. I had
seen MLS in the years that followed that
World Cup, and I was not impressed
with what I saw. I couldnt possibly be
less interested. As we gave our versions
of what we believed the most
appropriate use of the term football
was to be, I came up with the bright
idea that Id take this crew on a road
trip to Columbus to see a game and
prove my point. They couldnt get their
heads around the idea that 105,000
people would want to watch a bunch of
students play a game, but once Id
described the tailgating scene they were
effectively convinced that this plan had
merit. A few weeks later, we were on
our waya pretty decent roadtrip,
actually. We had 5 hours of road to
cover and about 150 CDs (remember
those?) to choose from en route. As we
crossed the Indiana/Ohio border, one of
the boys jokingly suggested that he was
going to shout for Purdue that day. I
dismissed that notion immediately and
let him know that he was not just an
Ohio State fan that day, but he was also
an Ohio State fan until the day he dies.
You pick your teams onceyou die with
those teams. That is how it works. Once
the laughter in the car subsided, he
happily agreed under one condition in
the spirit of turnabout, I would join
them at Fado the following weekend to
support Chelsea. Its possible that he
also mentioned that Fado served beer at
8am. Deal.
Fast forward 8 days. I had begrudgingly
held up my end of the bargain, woken
up with a ridiculous hangover, and
made my way to Fado. I walked into the
pub and found the fellas, already a few
pints deep and showing no ill effects of
sleep deprivation. I grabbed a seat,
mumbled something about breakfast to
the bartender, and gratefully accepted
the pint of Stella that had been kindly
ordered prior to my arrival. The match
had nearly started, a home tie with
Blackburn, and one of the boys started
bringing be up to speed on what to
expectthey loved the club, but hated
the owner (who had apparently bought
the lot for 1 years prior), the team
would invariably thrill you and break

continued on Page 5

PAGE 5
Continued from Page 4
your heart on a regular basis, and if I
didnt like singing that Id need to start
liking it. I was still of the mindset that I
was only being polite and holding up
my end of our arrangement not really
expecting that this random Sunday
morning would have much of a lasting
impact beyond a lousy Monday. The
match started, and the conversation
changed immediately. Loose joking
turned to looks of concern, occasional
shouts, and hilarious songs that
seemed to come from an endless
catalog. After 5 minutes, I barely notice
any of that. I was transfixed by what I
saw on Fox Sports Worlds broadcast on
the grainy screen above the bar. I had
never seen anything like it. The fans
were insane. It was like college football,
but with 10x the hate. The game didnt
stop for a moment, with rough tackles
and speed everywhere. Some short guy
with a huge mouth named Zola seemed
to be the crews favorite, but hed had
an off day. At halftime, the manager
brought on a Scandinavian-type named
Eidur who seemed pretty good. After a
couple hours of this new experience, Id
still yet to see a goal scored, but I was
hooked forever, as it turns out. The
dye was cast, and I was now Chelsea.
No one had to remind me to be at the
pub the next week or any week since,
really. In the years that have passed
since that bleary-eyed weekend, Ive
been unbelievably fortunate. Ive seen
Chelsea on American soil on several
occasions, Ive lived in the UK and
enjoyed the luxury of a season ticket in
the West side of Shed Upper (sat next to
the very same aforementioned friends
who had since moved back to London),
Ive met some of the legends of Chelsea
past and present, and best of all Ive
passed my love for Chelsea to my son.
When he gets older and someone asks
him why hes Chelsea, hell have to
respond something along the lines of
my whole family supports Chelsea.no
choice in the matter. Hopefully his son
will say the same.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE?
TURNING A RED STATE BLUE
by Martin Banyard
Moving to Nebraska 21 years ago I did
not think that I would ever be amongst
real football (soccer) fans again. Of
course, Lincoln NE is the home of the
Nebraska Cornhuskers and the people in
this state are rabid college football fans.
When the Huskers play at home Memorial
rd
Stadium it is the 3 most populated
place in the state after Omaha and
Lincoln! However, in the last 5 to 7 years,
fans of the beautiful game, especially
followers of the EPL,
have been
multiplying at a
glorious pace. Going
out and about in
Lincoln or Omaha
these days, its not
unusual to see fans
wearing EPL colors
a number of Blues
fans and of course
the obligatory
tasteless red shirts
worn by Man U, Arsenal, Liverpool fans
and so on. Husker fans wear red too but
that does not seem to have as adverse
effect on me as say a Gooners shirt!!
Much of the credit has to be given to the
American Outlaws (AO), that wonderful
group of fervent fans who follow the US
National Team. AO started here in Lincoln
about 7 years ago and that group has
done so much to raise the profile of the
game, not only locally but nationally.
Through their efforts EPL watch parties
were started in the last couple of years
and even though numbers are small right
now, just the fact that we can gather at a
local watering hole without being treated
like second class citizens is so refreshing!
I came to the States in 1980 and any of us
who have been here for a long time Im
sure remember the lean years when there
was virtually no football on TV. Living in
Seattle in the early 80s I remember that

the only football on a regular basis on TV

was 1 hour of German Bundesliga
highlights on Sunday afternoons on the
PBS channel!
It has been great watching the increase in
popularity of the game in the past few
years. Living in the Midwest for so long I
have felt like many other futbol fans in
this region, laboring to promote our
wonderful game and turn people towards
the light and goodness
that is the EPL. I used
to go around Lincoln in
the early 90s and
hand out fliers urging
people to call their
local cable and satellite
providers to demand
the FOX Soccer
Channel be made
available. It was so
frustrating seeing
other parts of the
country enjoying that
channel but after what seemed like an
eternity the FSC was available in the
Heartland. This was somewhat similar to
the waiting period for Boddingtons and
Tetley Bitter to get to this part of the
country!
What in the past seemed like isolated and
individual efforts to help promote our
game, have now been rewarded by what
appears to be an explosion of support
amongst both American fans and
transplanted ex-pats like myself. I am
looking forward to growing the Nebraska
chapter of CIA and hopefully meeting
other members in the future. My plan is
to make some road trips to watch
weekend games with other CIA members
in places close by such as Iowa, Kansas
City or Dallas to cheer on our beautiful
Blues! Come on, Chelsea! Give us all a
wonderful trophy-laden season!