RAPIDS DESCENT
I. A BEAUTIFUL GAME
On February 22, 2010, Richard Bamber moved to Denver from Surrey County, England, an affluent woodland area attached to London’s southwestern flank. Having never lived outside the queen’s purview before, he immediately began searching for something that might help him acclimate to life in the States—and found the British Bulldog, a pub on the edge of downtown that serves English beer and a decent order of fish and chips. Any reticence about the place disappeared the moment he opened the door and discovered the dim lighting, pressed-tin ceilings, and, most striking, “the table”: a roughly four-by-six-foot chalkboard showing the standings of England’s Premier League. “It was obvious,” Bamber says, “whoever was running the place really cared about soccer.”
The Bulldog’s then general manager Jon Forget was betting that in a sea of Broncos, Nuggets, and Rockies bars, a pub that prioritized soccer would stand out. So he opened at 5:30 a.m. on Saturdays to show Premier League matches live and covered the interior of the place with scarves and jerseys. When outsiders popped in and asked to switch the TV to the Rockies, the bartender would point to the lights of nearby Coors Field and say, There’s your baseball. Go and watch your game.
Around the same time, Forget (pronounced “For-jay”) was starting a fan club for the Colorado Rapids, Denver’s MLS team. The idea was to attract supporters of rival European sides to the Bulldog in the mornings; then, once those games finished, everyone would change into burgundy and go to Dick’s Sporting Goods (DSG) Park to cheer on the Rapids together. They called themselves the Bulldog Supporters Group, and the Rapids seemed thrilled to have them. Then head coach Gary Smith attended the group’s launch party, and Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE), the Rapids’ ownership group, printed T-shirts that bore the club’s emblem—a shield with a bulldog in a bobby cap—at a discount.
The Bulldogs rented buses for games, charging for the roughly nine-mile rides to and from DSG Park in Commerce City, and hosted tailgates before matches. After, they’d come home singing songs: He runs as if his boots were lead / Conor, Conor! / He puts a razor to his head / Conor, Conor! / He used to play in Germany, but now he’s back at DSG / Conor Casey! / Rapids number nine! Sure, the level of soccer on display was more bush league than Premier League, but for Bamber, who had held season tickets to the Premier League’s Crystal Palace in London and traveled to World Cups, the Rapids provided an opportunity to enjoy the camaraderie and atmosphere of live soccer. Season tickets were cheap, too.
Even with prolific striker Conor Casey and his goal-scoring compatriot Omar Cummings, the Rapids finished at 12-8-10 that year. The team squeaked into the playoffs, though, and suddenly—almost mysteriously—couldn’t lose. Colorado beat Ohio’s Columbus Crew FC in the first round on penalty kicks. In the second, Cummings completely missed a pass and the ball still somehow bounded into the goal for the game-winner. Then it was off to Toronto for the MLS Cup final against FC Dallas.
With only a week to prepare, the Bulldogs scrambled to arrange itineraries
