Sons of Ben president discusses protest march

Before Sunday's Union game against D.C. United, the Sons of Ben marched in protest from their pregame tailgate to the stadium. They raised a banner which read "UNION FANS DESERVE BETTER," and carried a coffin whose interior depicted Union CEO Nick Sakiewicz with the inscription "NICK SAKIEWICZ SERIAL FRANCHISE KILLER."

I detailed the protest in my story for Monday's Daily News. As part of the story, I talked with Sons of Ben president Kenny Hanson about the frustrations that his organization expressed. I couldn't fit all of Hanson's remarks into my print story, so I wanted to post more of what he said here.

Those of you on Twitter may have seen signs of rising frustration among members of the organization in recent days. You may also have seen that not everyone agreed fully on how best to express that frustration. Hanson told me that any such differences are relatively minor.

"I think that there is a division in the way that people wanted to make their frustrations known, but in terms of divisions within the group, other than the way people want to support, I don't think divisions exist," he said. "As a matter of fact, I think it's stronger now than it was at this time last year."

With the Union having won just one of its first 11 games this season heading into Sunday, it became clear that the time had arrived to act.

The protest ended at the stadium gates, as the Sons of Ben had promised when it was first announced. In a statement Sunday morning on its Facebook page, the organization said: "Inside PPL is where we show support for our team. That support will not change – win, lose or draw."

Still, it was a rare sign of organized dissent from a group that has long been among the Union's most fervent backers no matter the results.

"It was clear that this was something our membership wanted," Hanson told the Daily News at the group's pregame tailgate. "People are frustrated, but I think that a lot of our members still support this club, and they support the team that's on the pitch. We'll continue to support our team inside PPL Park."

One of my questions to Hanson was about whether there is any particular direction in which the Sons of Ben's members are casting blame. While the protest focused on Sakiewicz, Hanson told me that a lot of parties are in the crosshairs for criticism.

"Some people are pissed at the players, some people are pissed at the coach, some people are pissed at Nick," he said. "Some people are pissed at the lack of investment that the investment group is willing to put in. So I think it depends on who you ask about where it went wrong."

As the Union's largest and oldest supporters' club, the Sons of Ben are impossible to ignore when they make a collective statement. That was proven by the large number of local and national journalists who reported on the protest, as well as the mention that the event got on Fox Sports 1's national broadcast of Sunday's game.

I concluded my conversation with Hanson by asking him how much influence he thinks his organization has in forcing change from the Union. He offered me a long and thoughtful answer:

I think that's hard to say. You don't really know until you leverage that. I would say that I think, in the city of Philadephia, that we are in the forefront of supporters, and I think I agree that it's our responsibilty that when our members request something, that we evaluate those things.

There's also a lot of times when there are unknowns that a lot of people aren't aware of that we have to take into account, and it would be irresponsible of us to act in a knee-jerk type of way. We decided this last week. We didn't want to make it public until today, but there were people that knew. I think our influence is pretty deep. We have over 2,000 members sitting inside PPL Park...

I believe that the [Union] organization cares what this [Sons of Ben] organization thinks. I think the Philadelphia Union - look, they know that we're not happy. Anyone that says that they don't care, they do care. Now, that doesn't mean that they're doing things that we see publicly that are showing us they care, but it also deoesn't mean that they're not.

I don't want to speak to what they're doing or not doing, because I don't know. Contrary to popular belief, we're not that close with them. We have a good relationship, because guess what? When you work with someone every day, you want that relationship to be positive. But in no way, shape or form are we holding back things we're doing because of anything that people might think we garner or receive out of the relationship. Because in reality, we're a standalone organization.