FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The screen saver on New England Revolution president Brian Bilello’s laptop captures one of his favorite memories from his 15 years (and counting) with the club.
It’s a wide-angle shot of head coach Jay Heaps on the field at Red Bull Arena, fist raised in celebration, saluting the 1,250 traveling supporters who had just cheered the Revs on to a 2-1 victory in the first leg of the 2014 Eastern Conference Championship.
“That was a really special moment for the club, to have those fans there with that energy level,” Bilello said, noting that Heaps has the same image on the wall of his office at Gillette Stadium.
The Revolution provided transportation to and from Red Bull Arena for that playoff match – paying for 20 busloads of supporters to travel roundtrip to New Jersey – and the passionate response from fans triggered a spark of inspiration, a sort of A-ha! moment for the front office.
“That kind of inspired us to really think about it,” Bilello said. “Could we do that for more than just a playoff game? Could we make it a regular piece of our culture?”
The short answer, New England’s staff soon concluded, was yes. For both the 2015 and 2016 seasons the club sold a special season ticket package for supporters who occupy The Fort – the Revs’ official supporters section – which included a ticket to a road game against the New York Red Bulls and roundtrip transportation.
The response was significant, as approximately 450 fans acquired tickets to each of the Revs’ visits to Red Bull Arena in 2015 and 2016 through The Fort ticket package. Those were notably larger groups of traveling supporters than had previously visited Red Bull Arena for regular-season games.
But the Revs knew it could be bigger, so this year, as part of their brand new Season Memberships, the Revs offered an opportunity for all fans to include a road trip to either Red Bull Arena or Yankee Stadium in their season membership packages, not just those sitting in The Fort.
“We heard from a lot of our regular members that they’d love to have that opportunity to travel, as well,” Bilello said. “We thought through it and said, ‘Why would we just limit it to our supporters groups and people with supporters season memberships? Why not open it up to everyone?’
“The more fans that we have traveling to support the club, the better it is for the players, the better it is for us competitively, the better it is for our fans and being more engaged with the club. So for us, it was a pretty easy decision.”
The result of that decision will be clear on Saturday night, when approximately 1,000 traveling Revolution supporters will fill the rafters at Red Bull Arena, and once again on August 20, when the Revs will send approximately 500 fans to Yankee Stadium for a meeting with New York City FC.
“What we wanted to do for these closer trips was make it a more approachable, standard thing for fans that have maybe never done that before,” said Bilello. “We know that away trips can be such a big piece of the evolution as a fan with the club, and we wanted to make that as simple as possible, for as many members as possible.”
New England’s season membership packages – which offer fans a choice between the road trip or a “meet the team” event, in addition to an exclusive members only jacket – are unique in professional sports, and Bilello says it’s all about providing the Revolution’s most loyal fans with access to the experiences that matter most to them.
“We’re trying to make a commitment to the fans for all that they commit to us in terms of their time and their energy,” Bilello said. “We wanted to commit back to them to say, ‘We understand what you want to do and we want to be as supportive as possible for our fans.’”
In return, the Revolution’s fans have continued to show their commitment to the club in record numbers, as season memberships are up for a sixth straight year. Nowhere will that be more evident than at Red Bull Arena on Saturday night, with around 1,000 traveling supporters singing and chanting for the Revs.
“Seeing another year of growth out of the members is great,” Bilello said. “We want to thank them for their support for the club.”
