A little over a year ago, the section of Dick’s Sporting Goods Park dedicated to the loyal Colorado Rapids fan group was empty.

The Rapids supporters group, Centennial 38, had staged a walkout, leaving behind signs that read, “The badge, the players, the fans deserve better.”

The once unwavering group devoted to Denver’s Major League Soccer team had purposely abandoned the special seating section for the first time since it was founded in 2013 after the team’s lowest-scoring season in its 28-year history.

Now, around a year and a month later, the Centennial 38 group met in the stadium’s breezy parking lot Saturday morning to paint a new section-spanning banner: This one celebrating the team’s first playoff berth since a conference semifinals loss in 2021.

The banner will be raised at the start of the Rapids’ home playoff game against the LA Galaxy next Friday to show the group’s dedication and support.

Friends, family and tifos

Soccer — or fútbol to those classy, traditional fans — is the most popular sport in the world. But, in the United States, it sits around the seventh most popular sport, hiding safely below the likes of golf, NASCAR and hockey, according to World Atlas.

That doesn’t mean the fanbase isn’t strong, especially in Denver.

On Saturday, the banner the fans painted is considered a tifo — a traditional soccer fan display that was coined in the late 1960s in Europe. The fan-created artwork is named after the Italian word for “typhus fever,” which can cause delirium.

Basically, the fans are crazy. Crazy for their team. Crazy enough to paint a nearly 40-foot-long banner on a Saturday morning.

And while Centennial 38 wouldn’t consider themselves delirious, per se, they are a passionate community built during years of mediocre results on the pitch.

“It’s just community. It’s super cool to see random people that you see on game day morph into people that are integral to my day-to-day life,” Mason Andrade, a head member of the group, said on Saturday.

“We’ve really created a community that, obviously revolves around the Rapids, but is more than that. Some of these guys, who I didn’t know before, came to my wedding. My best friend, who I met through here, was my groomsman.”

Andrade, a Denver native, began going to Rapids games by himself around 15 years ago. He noticed the different fan groups and slowly assimilated into the growing community.

By 2013, the groups came together to form Centennial 38, which has become the lifeblood of the Rapids fanbase, holding tailgates, tifos, events and even forming a nonprofit, The Oar Foundation.

“There’s a couple different flavors of fans,” Austin Reynolds, a member since 2021, said. “You’ve got folks that have been around forever and aren’t super interested in supporters’ culture, like burning a weekend in a parking lot painting a flag. Then you’ve got the supporters, like us. Then you’ve got people that aren’t affiliated with a group but want to party with us. We’re the rowdy, obnoxious ones.”

Reynolds was an FC Dallas fan when growing up in Texas, often coming out to away games in Denver because “an away day in Denver is a party because of Centennial 38.”

When he moved to Denver in 2021, he hit up some Centennial 38 friends he had made over the years and jumped in, becoming a part of the group.

“It’s way more fashionable to dump on the MLS and go sit in a bar somewhere at six in the morning and pretend like you’re from London. But here, I’ll spend my weekend helping paint this display,” Reynolds laughed.

To Reynolds, the work and community the group has built is important to the future of MLS fandom. The league has only been around since 1996, leaving plenty of room for American culture to build its own form of fandom.

“We have an opportunity here to really form what traditions will become here,” he said. “In England, they’ve have 100 years worth of sacred traditions. We’re sort of authoring what our traditions will be every week.”

Excitement in the stands

Prior to the walkout display hosted by the group last Sept. 17, the supporter’s section of the stadium had always been filled with cheering, tifos and positivity.

The poor display by the 2023 team sullied the enjoyment for a bit.

“Toward the end of the year, it felt like a job,” Andrade said of game days, in which he starts preparing around eight hours before kickoff.

The team came dead last in the western conference with just five wins.

The supporters knew something needed to be done.

“Everybody got on board to help us illustrate and send a pretty loud and clear message,” Reynolds said.

In a letter after the walkout, the group took aim at Kroenke Sports & Entertainment as well as the club’s spectator facilities.

“It is very telling that the most recent Forbes valuation estimates the Rapids at $350 million, yet the expansion fee for new MLS owners is reported to be $500 million. The Rapids are valued less than clubs that don’t even exist, or just exist in name only,” part of the letter said.

In a response, the club’s Alternate Governor Josh Kroenke said that the organization was working to improve its facilities and on-the-field results.

The club then hired a new coach, Chris Armas, prior to the 2024 season.

The team upped its wins to 15 and 50 points, barely squeaking into the playoffs — but still an improvement.

The team also made it to the 2024 Leagues Cup semifinals, a tournament involving leagues from Mexico, Canada and the United State.

“Last year was rough, but we showed up to every game,” Andrade said. “Coming from a really dark time in the club’s history, we have seen a really good turnover. It’s just nice. We come out to every game no matter what, so it’s nice to start at a positive.”

“When Armas showed up, he’s carrying this baggage and reputation of failure,” Reynolds said. “He actually came and met the supporters. He was shaking hands and people were asking him some pretty tough questions. He just took it on the chin and was pretty candid about what his plans were. Everything he said has come true.”

“There’s a lot of excitement in the stands.”