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Floral tributes to Dainton Connell at the Emirates statium |
Football’s fine line between cashing in and mugging off
In the quest for quick profit, is Arsenal forgetting its oldest fans? Former Highbury regular Antony Sutton thinks they are
FOOTBALL belongs to the fans. That may seem an odd thing to say when the game is awash with billions of overseas and TV money, but at the end of the day if you took fans away from the game, or the game away from the fans, you would have an empty shell, devoid of passion and emotion. And nobody would want to buy into it.
As football fans we are seen as a captive audience, and, increasingly, an affluent one. Products line up to be associated with big clubs and big competitions in the knowledge that fans’ allegiance to their club would extend to their product – be it a mobile phone, a beer or a betting chain.
The game is expensive today, no doubt about it. Quality like Cesc Fabregas doesn’t come cheap and as a master craftsman he deserves to be rewarded for his skill like any other professional. Clubs have the right to maximise revenue streams and to look for alternative sources of cash, but there is a thin line between cashing in and mugging off.
Arsenal’s attempts to register the trademark The Gooners is a case in point. They were right to introduce and trademark the club crest because around that, as well as the team, they develop the brand but when they start infringing on the fans ‘space’ they get into dangerous waters.
Look at it from the fans’ perspective – and I’m talking the 40-somethings that makes up a large amount of today’s support. Things change and we have seen a lot – too much to catalogue here – but for many the whole ‘culture’ of going to football has been redefined and loyalty seems to be measured by the money you spend and not the extent and passion of your support.
Our demographic has seen a lot taken from us in the name of progress. Gone are the days when we could turn up and enter any part of the ground we wanted. You think that’s not important? Our freedom to choose has been taken away and for many of us, being with your mates on the terraces was an essential part of the football experience – enjoying the banter with like-minded souls and not worrying about upsetting the pink hated new breed whose dainty ears are offended by the coarse language of the young and the working class.
Then the North Bank was taken from us. It was a rite of passage; as you grew up you progressed from the Schoolboy’s Enclosure to the North Bank. The End, as Tom Watt called it in his excellent book of memories. It meant something to be on there with thousands of like-minded souls, cheering on your team, jeering the Metropolitan Police Band, whistling the Make Money girls and giving Peter Shilton grief.
After the North Bank we progressed to the Clock End to be near to the away fans. The Clock End reckoned they were cooler, more mature than the North Bank but at the end of the day we were still the Arsenal. We imbibed certain values and conventions that became part of our folklore. There was Badger, the cage, roasted peanuts man and Denton (Dainton Connell). There were The Gooners, and though not everyone could be a Gooner, we took pride in that chant home and away. It was a unifying call, it was an Arsenal that was for the club but beyond it.
Of course one day the Clock End was taken from us as we upped sticks to our new state of the art stadium.
The Clock, perhaps symbolically, remains outside the stadium outside the club. The board, who claim to be custodians of our club, who claim to have our values and traditions at heart, who saw the chance to make a few bob from a redcurrant shirt we once wore, lacked the foresight to incorporate the Clock in the stadium design. We have a bowl and 60,000 fans but no focal point. No ‘end’ we can call our own
As a company we are well run and football needs to be a business, not some rich guy’s plaything. But the company needs to understand, not just pay lip service to but really understand, the fans. Not just those in Club Level quaffing champagne and feasting on finger food, important, nay vital though their money is. For many, the callous disregard shown by the club towards a terrace legend who passed away recently, combined with trying to hijack the name The Gooners, was the final straw. It was a kick in the teeth not just to thousands. We’re talking fans whose links to The Arsenal go back generations. We’re talking fans who have children and instill the values of Chapman, George and Bergkamp from Day One. We’re talking the heart and soul of the club that existed long before we had baby Bentleys, WAGs and prawn sarnies.
When the profit has dried up, when the TV companies go elsewhere for the quick profit, when the mobile phone companies and airlines decide football is no longer a viable proposition what will happen? Many of the new breed will jump on the new media-created bandwagon and football will be left with big new stadiums and empty seats.
They will then turn to the working class who have always been there but stayed quietly in the shadows during the boom years that priced them out of their club.
* jakartacasual.blogspot.com |
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