Vancouver Whitecaps fans have put up with a lot this year. From season ticket prices, to policies that, on the surface, seem like they might be designed to limit the influence of the Southsiders (the club denies this), it's been a long year.
And that's before you factor in the losing, the firing of a popular manager, releasing of popular players (for reasons hard to understand) and... Well you get the idea.
However, the greatest injustice was likely felt last night when some fans were greeted by this:
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
(Hat tip to Nelson Santos for posting it. Follow him on Twitter at Grandstander1)
At least it wasn't red.
To be clear it was a promotion by BMO and not by the club itself. And not all the fans received their 'gift' with TFC branding on it - those given out were a select few misprints. Still, one would hope that someone would have vetted it before it got in the hands of fans.
It also speaks to an important lesson for sponsors. Although all sports have logos and colours that are important symbols to fans, soccer in many ways takes that a step further. Clearly giving out something with the wrong team's name on it is a major error. Even getting the colour wrong will offend many soccer fans - you still hear Canadian fans complaining about the fact that BMO handed out blue merchandise before Canada played Honduras in Montreal.
Any goodwill that might have come from the promotion was lost by a basic failure to understand the culture they were operating in.