History of the Atlanta Ultras
The beginnings of the Atlanta Ultras go back to 2011, after several years on hiatus, our club Atlanta Silverbacks FC finally returned to league play.
That is when our movement began, with 4 dedicated and stubborn supporters. At the time the only organized group of support came from a group called Westside 109 (section 109) so that is where we temporarily made home.
It did not take long before we had taken over the front part of that section. At this time we had not taken the moniker of ultras. The season continued with us improving and changing the overall atmosphere, by the 2012 season it did not take long before there were major disagreements between us and the old WS109 group.
In April of 2012, after handful of conflicts it was decided we would take up our own home in section 101 as the Atlanta Ultras. By late season 2012 we had grown in numbers and became the main source of support. We always have a good time at home and on the road, this has lead to some league sanctions and a 3 match ban from attending at our own section.
The ban was for the first 3 matches of the 2014 season, with only 4 home matches for the first half of our split season! We have also had individual bans of our members the longest being a year. Like most FOs they love to use us for promotion pieces but then try to restrict our support!
Since the beginning we have made away matches a priority. Because cities are so spread out in the U.S we will drive 11 hours to attend a match! Our shortest trip being 5 hours. We always bring our passion and ultras spirit to the away terraces which has gotten us a “friendly” escort out of the stadium more often than not. In the U.S there are not many ultras crews. Being in a second division U.S league many supporters groups act tough or have tough sounding names but really are all talk and image.
In addition to living our club 24/7 we do community work, every year we will reach out to families in need and we try and donate our time at local homeless shelters. In our short time we have had a great influx of members. Our story is just beginning so we decided that it is a good idea to formally and clearly put together our crews fundamental principles.
The AU is anti-racist, anti-homophobic and anti-authoritarian. This includes but not limited to any individual or organization that may work to suppress, hinder or destroy our way of support, or the freedoms of our members. We are a non political crew meaning that we will not endorse or work for a political party or intentionally promote any political ideology other than Anti fascist or Anti racist. We will not require or ask our members to follow a certain political view. We stand united for our common purpose, we stand our ground and support our team through thick and thin.
