Club’s ardent supporters express discontent over Riverhounds-Chick-Fil-A promotion

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Count in numerous local Pittsburgh-area soccer supporters as the latest in sharing discontent and expressing concerns with international fast food restaurant chain Chick-Fil-A, after the Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC announced they would be selling the company’s signature chicken sandwiches at Saturday’s match vs Loudoun United FC at Highmark Stadium

Shortly after the Riverhounds SC shared information about the promotion on its social media platforms, a number of fans immediately expressed discontent.

 

The announcement created a divided response on social media platforms among fans and followers of the team.

Many die-hard fans and some of the groups that support the club, including the Steel Army, Iron City Front and the fan-based podcast Mon Goals, each uniformally

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expressed their disappointment with their favorite club’s decision to align itself with Chick-Fil-A.

The members and friends of the ICF group are angered and disappointed by the recently announced partnership between the @RiverhoundsSC and Chik-fil-a,…

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— ⚒IronCityFront🌾 (@IronCityFront) July 16, 2021

Inexcusable move on the @RiverhoundsSC part….you want to call yourselves "inclusive" yet you'll take money that comes from a company that is openly anti-LGTBQIA.

— Soccer Historian RP (@soccerwriter_rp) July 16, 2021

We have proclaimed that Black Lives Matter and Love is Love. Those are values that we hold dear and @RiverhoundsSC partner, Chic-fil-A, is opposed to those values. This partnership should end immediately. Pittsburgh has an abundance of local restaurants to support and work with.

— Mon Goals (@mongoals) July 16, 2021

 

 

Friday afternoon, Pittsburgh Soccer Now reached out to the Riverhounds SC club officials for a statement, and was informed a formal response was expected to come from the club.

Club President Vic Gregovits had previously expressed excitement for the promotion in a team’s release.

“We are excited to collaborate with the McKnight Road Chick-fil-A, as we continue to build partnerships that will enhance all aspects of the fan experience on Hounds game days,” Gregovits said.

The Hounds have planned to make Chick-fil-A menu items available beginning with Saturday’s match, and offered at all home matches except for those played on Sunday.

For more than a decade, Chick-fil-A has been in the headlines and run into issues, with the LGBQT community, mainly due to its charitable endeavor, the S. Truett Cathy-operated WinShape Foundation, which has donated millions of dollars to organizations seen by LGBQT activists as hostile to LGBQT rights.

Often activists have called for protests and boycotts, while supporters of the restaurant chain and opponents of same-sex marriage  there in support of the restaurant.

National political figures both for and against the actions spoke out and some business partners severed ties with the chain.

The most recent incident which has sparked further outrage directed toward Chick-Fil-A, came when the University of Notre Dame is faced backlash over a decision to add a Chick-fil-A on its campus in South Bend, Indiana.

Notre Dame students objected to a possible Chick-fil-A on campus, citing the company's “history of antagonism toward the LGBTQ+ community” https://t.co/N1UNaJBuTM

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) July 16, 2021

Adding more fuel to the fire, Senator Lindsay Graham made a statement that he “will go to war for the principles Chick-Fil-A stands for.”