Getting the Chicago Fans Together
Alright, so I had this idea floating around for a while. I’m a big Chicago Bulls fan, right? And I figured there must be others around here too, even though we’re not exactly close to Chicago. So I thought, why not try and get a little group going? A sort of unofficial fan club meet-up.
First thing, I had to actually find these supposed fans. It wasn’t like there was a big sign anywhere. I started pretty small. Put up a flyer at the local community center notice board. You know, the old-school way. Then I dipped my toes into the online world. Found a couple of general sports forums and a local social media group. I just posted a simple message, like, “Any Bulls fans around? Thinking of watching the next game together somewhere.” Kept it casual, didn’t want to sound like some corporate organizer.
Got a few bites, maybe four or five people responded over a week or so. Not exactly a stadium crowd, but hey, it was a start. So the next step was picking a time and place. This was trickier than I thought. Needed a place that would actually show the Bulls game, preferably with sound. And it couldn’t be crazy expensive, just a casual spot. After checking out a few local sports bars online and calling one or two, I settled on O’Malley’s Pub downtown. They had a bunch of TVs and promised they could put the Bulls game on one of them for us.
So I messaged the folks who replied, told them the plan: O’Malley’s, next Tuesday night, tip-off around 7 PM. Just show up, grab a drink, watch the game. Simple.
The Meet-Up Itself
Come Tuesday night, I got there a bit early. Felt kinda awkward, just sitting there waiting, wondering if anyone would actually show. The first guy arrived, then another couple. In the end, we had a total of five people, including me. Not bad for a first try, I guess.
We grabbed a table near a smaller TV. Getting the game on took a minute – had to flag down the busy bartender. Then the sound wasn’t working on that specific TV for some reason. Classic. We ended up just watching it without sound for the first quarter until they fiddled with it and got it working. Minor stuff, really.
- Introduced ourselves, talked about how long we’d been Bulls fans.
- Shared some favorite Bulls memories, mostly Jordan era stuff, obviously.
- Actually watched the game, cheered, groaned. You know, fan stuff.
- Had a couple of beers, some shared appetizers.
It wasn’t some wild party. Pretty low-key, actually. Just a few guys hanging out, watching basketball. By the end of the game (Bulls lost, naturally), we exchanged numbers, talked about maybe doing it again sometime.
Overall, it worked out okay. It wasn’t a massive success story, didn’t suddenly become the president of a huge fan club or anything. It was just… nice. Getting a few people with a shared interest together. Took a bit of effort, sure, putting up flyers, making calls, coordinating. And yeah, it felt a little weird putting myself out there. But sometimes you just gotta try things out, right? See what happens. Maybe we’ll do it again next month. We’ll see.