The New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer don't consider it a bribe, but rather an incentive.
The league has been plagued this season by chants of "You Suck A--" during goal kicks at multiple stadiums. The MLS has issued directives at fans to stop or else they will face consequences, but to no avail.
So the Red Bulls are trying the opposite approach, according to SI.com.
The MLS organization - one of four teams SI.com reports as trying to get rid of the "YSA" chant - has notified its three top fan groups that the club will pay each group $500 for every game that is played without the "YSA" chant at the Red Bull Arena's South Ward.
The fan groups - the Empire Supporters Club, the Garden State Ultras and the Viking Army - will be paid only in $2,000 increments, SI.com reports, meaning that the "YSA" chants must be absent for four games before the Red Bulls start writing checks.
The Empire Supporters Club seems to have bought into the obscenity bribe. In a message it forwarded to SI.com, it told its supporters, "We can use this money for reimbursement for nearly anything we do, from buying batteries for the megaphone to offsetting costs for bus trips."
The Red Bulls approach so far isn't getting support from the rest of the league. The one other MLS team to go public with its denouncement of the chant and appeal to the fans to refrain from using it, according to SI.com, is Real Salt Lake.
It will not resort to paying fans to stop using the obscene chant.
"We're trying to appeal to our fans' sense of class," a Real Salt Lake representative told SI.com. "We've got this 'Believe' chant that is awesome. We are the only club in the 100-plus year history of American soccer to have a team anthem created by one of its own fans. We think that raises the bar a little bit. We think we should try to hold ourselves to a higher standard and not use 'YSA.' "
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