The Twin Cities has two different organized supporters' groups for Minnesota United, and the two have very different cultures.
The Dark Clouds are the venerable, long-running group, whose very name is a play on the Minnesota Thunder, which ceased to exist under that name in 2009. Next-door at the stadium is the more recently formed group called True North Elite, whose members are younger, brasher and more in keeping with edgier supporters groups that have formed around other Major League Soccer teams. While each is dedicated and, from a distance, might appear to be the same, each offers a noticeably different way of following the Loons.
The Dark Clouds have been around since 2004. More than anything, the group strives to be offbeat — and funny. The group heckled opposing players for years by yelling "You dive like Jamie Watson," dating back to a U.S. Open Cup game in 2005 when Watson, then a forward with Real Salt Lake, proved a touch too light on his feet.
When Watson, now a sideline reporter for United, came to Minnesota five years ago, the group — which displays national flags for the nationality of every player in the squad — marked the team's new arrival by hanging a nautical "diving" semaphore flag alongside the rest of the national flags.
"The Dark Clouds culture evolved partly in response to some of the dumber tough-guy posturing that you sometimes see in supporters groups," says Jim Oliver, the group's president. He noted that one of the group's friendliest features is doing its best to connect with and host visiting fans that have made the journey to Minnesota.
"You're more likely to see someone who identifies themselves as a Dark Cloud carrying a puppet or dressed as a dinosaur, and that's just due to years of people trying to think up things they've never seen in a soccer game before, " Oliver said.
In contrast, the much smaller True North Elite group was founded in 2015. Its members pitch themselves as more serious about the gameday experience.
"We set out to be a bit more intense on match day and make that our focus," says Nicolas Bisbee, one of the group's founders. "We [and the Dark Clouds] complement each other well; they bring the numbers, but we bring the noise."
