Fans Focus
In this section we bring you articles written by North End fans on many subjects, some North End related, others just football related.
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Don't Ask Who Tolls the Bell
'Sparkler'
Monday 12th November 2007
It's all our fault. Don't complain about footballers being paid a lot of money. Many of us who moan the most are the very people who make it all possible. Us season ticket holders for Premiership and Championship Clubs, we owners of replica shirts, of club baseball caps and of team scarves, us subscribers to Sky TV, it's all our fault! We are paying for the lifestyles of people like Wayne Rooney, Teddy Sheringham, and their lovable celebrity girlfriends, especially if we buy any of their endorsed products. I won't accuse anyone of reading OK magazine but if any of our families buy it with our hard earned cash, we must add that to our list of fund raising efforts on behalf of the modern professional.
But don't blame the footballers. If the money is available to them, why shouldn't they take it? And if any of us say "there's no loyalty these days," lets just put ourselves in a similar situation at our place of work. Whatever line of business we are in, if a rival employer comes along, perhaps through an employment agency, and says:
"I like your work. I've been watching you for some time. You are particularly quick and decisive in everything that you do. You are just what we need at our place. I can offer you seven times what you are making with that second grade outfit that you are with at the present. How about coming to work for us?"
"No thank you. I have been with this firm since I was a boy. They gave me my first chance and I am devoted to their customers."
Perhaps that's how we would handle it but I suspect not. I think we would be off like a shot! "Where do I sign" is more likely to be the response.
Now that the TV money has gone up again for this season, perhaps we could have expected admission prices to come down. Well in some cases that has happened but only because some fans have been priced out of the market. Where clubs have frozen or reduced prices they have claimed to be enlightened and to have done it for the sake of "their loyal fans." I suspect not. They will always try and get the best price that they can for their tickets so that they can compete for the best players by bidding up their wages!
The very big clubs such as Manchester United may lose a few fans but they needn't worry. The have a waiting list for season tickets. The replacement customers, who are well enough off to pay the premium prices, are actually more valuable to them. They can even afford the prawn sandwiches!
Sadly, many of the people who are the most passionate, even daft about their teams, are being replaced by a new kind of silent majority. The grounds are increasingly populated by people who think that it is undignified to shout and curse, sing and cheer and generally show such feelings as they may have.
So where are the lost fans going? In the worst cases, shopping. Others sit at home on a Saturday afternoon, morosely watching the scores come in and getting annoyed at the banal nonsense spouted by ex-players in their new role as pundits. Others may even go and watch a team in a lower division where the prices are not quite so high. But that is hard to do. Crazy as it may seem, a real fan can feel disloyal about patronising another football club, even a lowly placed one, if that club could be remotely considered as a rival to their own.
But there is an alternative.
Welcome to Fulwood Amateurs!
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