There are no limits to the different ways that Houston Dynamo FC fans demonstrate their devotion to the team. However, as most Dynamo fans will tell you, there is perhaps no better way to be a fan of the club than by signing up for a Dynamo 365 Membership.
Each game, the Club honors one of these fans by designating them as our Member of the Match. This season, we want to go even further and will be highlighting the stories of each of these members.
For the 2022 season opener on Sunday, February 27, the Member of the Match will be William Fleming, a Houston-area electrical technician that has been a Member since 2008. According to his daughter Laura, Fleming’s connection with the Dynamo started as soon as the team relocated from San Jose.
"My dad had us in soccer growing up, so we've been fans of the sport our whole lives,” Laura said. “And then the Dynamo, when they moved here from San Jose, we were immediately excited and became huge fans. We started going to the games in the 2006 season and then we decided to get the Membership in 2008, and we just love it."
Laura, who is an accountant in the tech industry, has been by her father’s side at Dynamo games since the beginning. And while their love of the game is at the heart of their fandom, she says that coming to Dynamo matches has come to mean much more than just that.
"When we were in Robertson, we were right behind the goalie. We just loved the community, how the players would always talk to us, how they would hang out after the games,” Fleming said. “It's always been really close knit. The fans that we sit by, we've known them for almost 15 years now and it's kind of become our family."
The Flemings have truly seen it all through their years as Dynamo fans. They are hopeful that the return of William’s favorite player to the GM role will usher in a return to the Dynamo’s winning ways.
"My dad, his favorite Dynamo player is Pat Onstad. And our favorite Dynamo memory is when we won back-to-back championships. Having playoff games in Houston, just nothing compares,” Fleming said. “We're looking forward to the new team, the new organization, even the Academy, I know we're getting a lot of new coaches and new players for the Academy. We're just really excited about the new front office and the new coaches and the new GM and everything."
