Anti-Vergara plane banner flown over stadium during SuperClasico

The plan to protest the stewardship of Chivas USA owners Jorge Vergara and Angelica Fuentes was carried out last night, as planned, during the SuperClasico. A group of MLS fans on Reddit conceived and launched a project to fly some sort of message over the stadium to circumvent increased restrictions on permissible signs used by the club's Supporter Groups, particularly the Black Army 1850. After apparently receiving $715 for the protest, the digital banner was flown during halftime, with the following scrolling message: "FUERA VERGARA! #VERGARAOUT."

While the UniMas broadcast made mention of the sign, the local Galaxy broadcast did not. In the stadium, the sign was visible, although the scrolling nature of it meant some people were apparently unsure what it was supposed to say. As one commenter noted last night on this website, some fans weren't aware of the sign at all until somebody pointed it out to them.

Our own ELAC mentioned that there was an increased police presence at the game last night, including two LA County sheriff helicopters flying over the stadium prior to the match. Although we discussed the possibility that the increased police could be due to it being a rivalry game, he insisted police visibility was unusually high on the night.

Still, the protest and the issues surrounding Chivas USA were the talk of social media at halftime last night, so it likely raised awareness about the problems at the club.

I asked the Black Army 1850, who were involved in the campaign, for a quote, and they provided the following statement to share:

First of all we would like to thank all the supporters that stand with us, we would like to thank all the supporters that donated and lastly thank Jack [McNamara] for putting the idea together. We love our club, we love OUR FO and OUR players.

Our protest in the stadium was silenced by our current president Jose David, so thanks to supporters around the league our protest took to the skies. If Vergara is not going to fix our club in all aspects, then we want him OUT. Our Club, Our City, Our supporters deserve better. We want change on the field and in the operational aspect, Local TV broadcast, marketing locally of our club, no policy that excludes anyone.

The plane banner is still being discussed today, and perhaps for some time. No word on future protests of this sort or any other variety.

Were you at the match? What was the reaction in your section?

What do you think? Leave a comment below!