MGoCommunities, an idea.

Submitted by MGoPietrowski on

One of my favorite things about Michigan football Saturdays is the feeling I get when I walk back into my living room after grabbing a fresh beer and see my friends all together. I absolutely love bringing people together, more than anything in the world. 

I've been wanting to start an MGoClub or M Club or whatever here in Evansville, IN for the past two seasons, because I see an uncanny amount of Michigan license plates, car decals, hats and shirts around the city. I want to meet new people and enjoy this great thing with them.

I know it's literally unfeasible to have a seperate thread for every city (especially those the small size of Evansville) destroying the board, but is there anyway we could create something on the blog, or even just use this to organize some kind of MGoClub? 

I really like the model the American Outlaws have, where there are local chapters, with someone heading up each chapter. I wouldn't want to get any $ involved the way they do with dues and paying for tailgates, I just want to hang out. You know, meet up at a bar once a month during the offseason, catch Football, basketball and hockey games together. 

Hell, you might be like my dad, content just watching games by yourself, or with only the people you've been watching with so far. There's nothing wrong with that. 

I'd rather connect. What does the blog think? 

My email address is [email protected] and I'd love for those of you interested in chairing, or leading your own cities local chapter to let me know. We can get a list together of contacts, and maybe even expand our "michigan bar locator" a bit. 

 

EDIT (OP) : So far, there has been alot of positive feedback and ideas. Here's the plan. CRex, or someone, mentioned using social media (i.e. facebook) to get this beast rolling. 

Step 1. Check on facebook to see if there already is such a group for your desired area. We don't want to be harshing anyone's gig, you know.

Step 2. If there isn't one, create it, and invite your current Michigan buddies on Fbook. Call it whatever you want, but for uniformity's sake, use the term MGo in it. I hope/suppose this is okay with Brian, Dave Brandon, and what not. 

Step 3. If you're the one spearheading the effort in your city/region, please send me an email at the aforementioned address, with the following. Your name, the region, your email or contact info you're comfortable with, and the url link to the facebook group page. We'll see if we can't get a list together for the blog.

Step 4. Remember to set the blog's homepage as Mgoblog. 

 

Mgodemigod Brian, if you see any problem with this effort, let me know. 

 

I'm totally down for any other ideas or commentary you guys have on this. 

 

EDIT #2: Lots of good stuff in the thread. Please remember to connect with me via email at [email protected] once you get the ball rolling.

 

goblue_jb

August 6th, 2012 at 9:26 PM ^

if you're in stamford, you can definitely join up with the NY club, Westchester County club or Fairfield County club... :-)  you might want to sign up for the relevant email lists (can do so from each club's website, link here) to hear about events that arent too far away.

as a NYC heads up, the club is holding a preseason football event next wed aug 15th w/ Brian and TomVH... if you can make the the ~40 min trek on metronorth should be a fun one...

MGoPietrowski

August 6th, 2012 at 10:53 AM ^

My idea would be to get the "head" of each cities chapter together, and then once there is a list, give it to Brian to post under MGoBoard or Useful Stuff, whichever is more appropriate.

wolverinestuckinEL

August 7th, 2012 at 3:20 PM ^

The problem is you need to have a large group and find a place willing to give you the space and piss off the Sparty fans around you.  I have wanted to put this together for a while, I know there are enough people in the area, but most watch the games at home because it is such a miserable experience watching them at any good sports bar in town.  I might know a bar in the area that would do this, if enough people were interested.

CRex

August 6th, 2012 at 10:59 AM ^

http://alumni.umich.edu/get-active/clubs-and-affiliates/local-clubs

They're surprising diverse and everywhere.  I was even to find a local in a midsized Chinese city to hang with for a game.  Even if you aren't an alum, you're typically welcome at the Michigan friendly bars where people meet to watch games.  Having us set up a parallel community seems like an odd balkanization.  Although maybe we need a secret handshake or something to mark we're from MGoBlog.  

Otherwise just do a Google Doc al la our ticket exchange program, only one for local meetups.  Alpha by state and then sublists of cities.  

CRex

August 6th, 2012 at 11:18 AM ^

I wish you the best, but if our massive alumni association can't get you an active group in your city, I'm not sure if MGoBlog which contains only a subset of diehard Michigan fans can do it.  

I'd email the alumni group at the nearest city to you and ask.  It could be they're a more of a regional force and they can pass you on to a local guy.  Ex: PA has a Philly Regional Club and for the big events everyone on the east side drives to Philly, but there are local gatherings at bars in Lancaster, Harrisburg, etc.  

goblue_jb

August 6th, 2012 at 9:29 PM ^

FWIW,  the alumni association has what they call 'spirit groups' for areas without large enough populations to support a full club structure - you might want to reach out to them... not sure the process necessary to get it going, but the advantage for doing it is you get the support/resources of AAUM.

UMich87

August 6th, 2012 at 11:24 AM ^

I find a large portion of the alumni association to be poorly informed on football, and I blame it on MLive, the DetNews, Freep and Bleacher Reports.  You can wear yourself out and grit the enamel right offf of your teeth in a conversation with some of these people.  I'll still be at the kick-off dinner, though.  I just won't talk to anyone.

mGrowOld

August 6th, 2012 at 11:33 AM ^

Nail meet hammer.

Boy did you ever express that correctly.  Living here in the Cleveland area I've gone to few functions (none lately) but the general understanding of the game seemingly consisted of "Woo...we scored....woo!" and "Do you like RichRod?  I think he might suck.  Would you like some more wine?"

It reminded of the scene in "The Big Chill" where the Michigan game was on........

justingoblue

August 6th, 2012 at 12:02 PM ^

after being an MGoAddict for a decent amount of time, I feel like this even if I'm talking to an Ohio or ND fan or something (about their own team). There are a ton of people here more versed in ND's depth chart and off-field issues than a lot of season ticket holders in South Bend. Here, it's normal and accepted behavior, in the outside world, apparently it's "obsessive" or some stupid term like that.

maizenbluenc

August 6th, 2012 at 12:00 PM ^

some of the Alumni association crowd are completly non-informed - they don't even read MLive, et al. There were these olden days when if you lived somewhere other than Michigan, you were only going to get a snapshot in an issue or two of SI.

Thank God I live in the information age ... and thank Brian for creating MGoBlog

BOX House

August 6th, 2012 at 11:27 AM ^

I know we have the map of Michigan-friendly bars, but it kind of neglects the metro-detroit area. Anyone know of any good bars outside of Ann Arbor for Michigan games? Obviously all bars in the area will be showing the game, but I'm wondering if there is a Duffys-type Michigan bar around. 

LSAClassOf2000

August 6th, 2012 at 11:43 AM ^

I wouldn't mind an MGoGroup which, in my case, roughly mirrors the boundaries of the University Of Michigan Club Of Downriver (defined as south of I-94 and north of the Monroe county line, between the Washtenaw county line and the Detroit River). As others have mentioned, it ends up being difficult to hold a conversation about really any of the varsity sports at the alumni functions because of where a majority of people get their information, so watching games with them can sometimes be a rough experience if you actually want to talk about the plays and the players. I would actually be willing to help facilitate this for, say, western and southern Wayne county.

Jon06

August 6th, 2012 at 11:59 AM ^

You should start a local alumni club, since they have all kinds of infrastructure ready to go, and then host MGoEvents through it. People who are unhappy with their local alumni clubs should just ask the people in charge to host an MGoEvent. I think Brian said he was giving talks at a couple of alumni clubs, so you could try to get them to bring him in to get people interested in the blog, too. This seems like a more feasible longterm strategy than founding competing groups.

smithjt

August 6th, 2012 at 3:12 PM ^

Hey guys,

After lurking on the board for a while, I finally decided to create an account and post.

I'm a student at U-M in Ann Arbor and could use your guys' input on a project I'm working on with a few other students. We're building a platform that would enable sports fans, their friends and others to connect online to watch games and shoot the sh*t together. It'll be accessible on computer, tablet and smartphone. Our goal is to create the kind of fun, familiar environment you might normally find at a neighborhood sports bar or tailgate.

We're largely building this platform for passionate, committed fans who, like many of you, may be scattered across the country or "out of market" and who would enjoy watching and discussing their favorite teams with others--virtually.

Anyway, I'm sure you guys have tons of ideas about what might work/not work about this. We're going to be focusing much of our attention this fall on serving Michigan football fans.

I don't want to hijack this thread, so if you could contact me offline, that'd be great.

[email protected] or 314.827.4126

Thanks in advance!

Josh