Major League Soccer debuted in the United States in 1996 and though Philadelphia is a top five market with storied sports franchises, it was not awarded a team. Ten years later it still didn't have a team so a band of die-hard Philadelphia soccer fans did something crazy: they formed a supporters group fof a team that didn't exist. Naming their group after famous Philadelphia Benjamin Franklin, they called themselves the SONS OF BEN. They had one goal -- bring professional soccer to Philadelphia. Hoping to expand to 100 members by the end of a year, they soon had 1,500 drum-banging, song-singing followers. Together these Sons of Ben started a movement that helped bring into existence the Philadelphia Union, changing the Philadelphia soccer landscape forever and helping to revive a struggling community abandoned by government, business, and its neighbors.
