A lot of the Houston Dynamo Members of the Match this season have been Dynamo fans since the day the team first moved into Houston’s Robertson Stadium from San Jose. This week’s featured Dynamo 365 Member is relatively new to owning season tickets, but is perhaps one of the most rabid fans of the team.
Blake Williams moved to Houston in 2011, when he was a manager at a local videogame store for many years. When one of his fellow branch managers called him randomly, Williams didn’t know what to expect.
According to Williams, "One day out of the blue, one of the store managers that managed a store close to mine called me up and he's like, 'Hey I have an extra ticket to the Dynamo game. Do you want to go?’"
Williams had grown up playing soccer in his native North Carolina since he was three years old. It had been many years since he had followed the sport closely, but he figured he’d give it a shot anyway. Now, he says he hasn’t missed a game in over three years.
"It's become a ritual for us,” Williams said. “We go play ping pong before the game. We go to the game. We stand, we shout, we cheer, we raise our scarves."
While Williams might not have known it then, he actually attended that first game with unofficial Dynamo royalty. The branch manager that invited him to the game was named Drake Wolpers, the brother of Dylan Wolpers, who is (in)famous for having his birthday message pop up on the screen during a Dynamo vs. Minnesota United stream, a production gaffe that has led the two clubs to dub their matchups the ‘Dylan Wolpers Derby.’
"His brother, Drake Wolpers, is the guy that invited me, because his dad has season tickets. From my understanding, his dad was the second person to buy season tickets when they became a team in 2006,” Williams said. “So he's front row, midfield. That was the perfect experience for my first Dynamo game. Since then, I was hooked."
When Williams says he’s hooked, he really means it. As a result of his membership, he has been able to decorate his house, or at least part of it.
“We've done a lot of the special ticket events where you get stuff like a special pint glass, or a scarf,” Williams said. “Those have always been awesome. I have so much Dynamo memorabilia in my house now, I have my own little Dynamo shrine."
In addition to the free giveaways, Williams has also taken advantage of the Dynamo Fire Sale, which offers exclusive first access for Members.
"We do take advantage of the points that we get for buying seats on the Orange Rewards app. I've gotten a couple of the mystery boxes and got a bunch of jerseys and swag. We've done the rally tunnel experience a few times. We participated in the fire sale auction. We went and spent about $1,000 on older Dynamo merch, which is great."
