According to soccer support group Sons of Ben, not having an official team to support did not mean you couldn’t go to games and raise some ruckus, writes Kyle Grantham for the Wilmington News Journal.

The group, that was founded 11 years ago on what would have been Benjamin Franklin’s 301st birthday, had one mission from the start: to bring a professional soccer club to Philadelphia.

Long before it was announced that Philadelphia had been awarded a Major League Soccer team, the group would visit neighboring MLS games promoting their colors and trying to get people to take notice.

When Talen Energy Stadium in Chester became the home to the Philadelphia Union a few years ago, the Sons of Ben finally had a team to call their own. The group, which has over 2,000 members, is one of the most active in the league, spending entire games chanting and singing to support their club.

“We want to be loud, we want to be brash, we want to be obnoxious,” said Bill Gusler, the Sons of Ben’s Philanthropy Director. “We want our team to love us and other teams to be like, ‘I don’t want to play there, I hate going there’”

The team has repaid their fans’ support with strong efforts at home this year and remaining in contention for a playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.

Read more about the Sons of Ben in the Wilmington News Journal here.