Thursday 22 March 2007

Own Goal?

Is the Premiership in danger of alienating the new breed of consumer it sought to replace the original terrace brigade?

To the average eighties football fan, his team were the champions for his local area and represented him nationwide, however, the club chairmen thought differently, realised the potential of their cash cows and made a decision that would revolutionise football, they formed the Premiership. The subsequent partnership with Sky and rapid escalation of transfer fees, player salaries and admission prices proved, to them at least, that they were correct.

However, the signs over the last few years have suggested all is not well, the die-hards who would travel to Shrewsbury on a wet Wednesday were pushed out in favour of the corporate pound, their children, unable to attend matches, have grown up without the same fervour or passion for the team. Whilst the corporates and success supporters have come to realise that up to fifty pounds a ticket when ‘their’ team aren’t winning isn’t that good a deal and are voting with their feet.

You don’t believe that football’s in trouble? Well look at Blackburn’s attempt to get fans back by reducing prices and think back a couple of weeks to the attendance of twenty six thousand at St. James Park. When even Geordies are starting to boycott the FA Cup then you know the game’s up.

Premiership chairmen should take note but fed on a diet of self-congratulation they won’t even notice. Only when they finally take their snouts out of the trough will they realise that they’re the only people left in the ground. If they then wonder where everyone’s gone then maybe they should look in the pubs first, because that’s where both the atmosphere and the real fans went.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe you should start supporting chelsea, no JCL's at the bridge, or tourists or prawn sarie munchers, just honest to goodness local boys.
Seriously, you're bang on, Kenyon and Abramovich though are confident that even when the real fans baulk at 45 quid a ticket they'll still sell out to the above, even better for them is that day trippers and JCL's spend a fortune in the megastore unlike the bloke who goes every week with his mates. I think the bubble will burst eventually, solve the problem by putting a 30 quid cap on tickets.

Rivs said...

You could be onto something there Tel, a 30 quid cap for adults and £15 for kids would make it at least a bit more affordable for the average family. It's not like th clubs would miss the money either with the vast amount of TV revenue they're going to make from the new deal.

Common sense - it'll never catch on!

Anonymous said...

I think we all know the death of the atmosphere is down to seating. Bring back the terrace and the JCL's will understand what its all about.

Anonymous said...

Good point about the FA cup attendance at St James park this season.

Many Newcastle fans would rather win the FA cup than the league so 26,000 against Birmingham shows a big problem.

Mind you I wished I had stayed away in the end.

Daz said...

If we go back to the old days does that mean that now i'm older i can piss on the legs of younger kids who i could chin?
And will they bring back the birds who walked around the pitch at half-time throwing bags of crisps into the crowd.

Anonymous said...

Totally agree..but society has moved into the 21st Century way of £ & PR rather than 'Sportsmanship' & 'Loyalty'. We have to make the most of a bad job - keep the game alive!