Does Football Still Need Spectators?

[Bluewolf]

Coronavirus and the death of football as we know it.... 

It is sometime in the future and the biggest football clubs in London have merged to create London United. The story is the same in Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow. Wasteful rivalries have been overcome, replaced by a more lucrative unity. The Premier League has morphed into a Europe-wide super league and London are due to play Madrid City.

Matches may take place in empty stadiums, but the digital experience is a huge improvement on the old, highly dangerous way of consuming the product. A range of atmospheres is included in every TV package, while a little extra buys the full immersive option. The London-Madrid clash is already a bestseller. Football has never felt more alive.

When the Premier League started back in 1992, the supporters of the day knew it was going to cost them, and not just financially. Rupert Murdoch flashed his cash, the big clubs sold live TV rights to subscription channel BSkyB, and the foundations of New Football were established. Year Zero was created, the history of the last century shunted into the shadows. Not long after, a wave of media professionals spotted a nice earner, their disdain for the people’s game and the country’s biggest newspaper mogul forgotten, as they began telling anyone who would listen how much they had suffered for their favourite club.

New Football was always going to mean New Fans. The business vision of freshly built stadiums lined with private boxes, hospitality suites and megastores selling mountains of merchandise needed another sort of customer. A more upmarket clientele. The current lot were rough and ready and never going to spend heavily, but those driving these changes still needed the traditional supporters in the short term, and so were keen to justify their actions. They were doing this for the fans. All-seater stadiums were essential and any price rises would be minimal. They only wanted to help. The clubs would look after us.

The supporters loved these terraces. They were cheap and cheerful and we could stand with our friends. It was easy to create an atmosphere and, despite the propaganda, CCTV had already banished trouble from inside the grounds. Even so, the great ends were demolished, admission prices soared and long-term loyalists were driven out – the young, the elderly, families, the hard-up – their places taken by New Fans, tourists, sightseers, corporates.

Many genuine supporters kept going of course, but today they are charged small fortunes for tickets, with match days and times set to suit the television audience, constant rescheduling adding to their problems. They are bombarded with orders, told what they can and can’t sing, the words they are allowed to use, when to stand and sit, and increasingly what they should think. Call it regeneration, call it gentrification – behind the nice words and beaming smiles, the end result is always the same.

 

It can’t be denied that the money, which has flooded into the English game, has brought benefits. It has attracted some of the best players in the world, and they perform on pristine pitches, while huge improvements have been made behind the scenes. The Premier League is a dynamic, exciting competition, even if only a tiny number of clubs stand a realistic chance of winning it. The stadiums have also been greatly improved.

All this is true, but something much deeper has been lost. The Premier League is like a mini-version of the European Union, and the commercialisation isn’t confined to England. It is part of the wider globalisation process. The European Cup – once a knock-out competition for genuine champions – has been turned into a hybrid league and cup tournament designed to increase revenues, a halfway step to a European league. That is the long-term mission. The dream.

Today, as the country struggles to get through a pandemic, and millions worry about their health and their jobs, and with spectators banned from attending matches, TV finds itself with an even tighter – albeit accidental – monopoly of who can and can’t see a live game. Silly money is being asked to watch a one-off match, the Premier League looks to increase its power, small clubs in the divisions abandoned in 1992 go out of business.

At first, the media made much of how the crowds were missed, but that seems to have faded, and do the clubs even need spectators now, seeing as so much money is coming in from other sources? Maybe these people are worth more watching from home, and it doesn’t matter where in the world someone is if they can tap in their PIN, so perhaps the pandemic is speeding up the digitisation process.

This could be a small part of the New Normal – the masses with little choice but to sit in front of their screens as their recorded voices are fed back to them, the stands turned into advertising hoardings, VAR acting as a robot referee, bland pedalled as the new exciting, London and Madrid preparing to kick off.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/coronavirus/do-clubs-even-need-spectators-now-coronavirus-and-the-death-of-football-as-we-know-it/ar-BB1b3npn?ocid=msedgntp

[Smiley Culture]

Proper tinfoil hat stuff. 

[Stan]

Doesn't bear thinking about football without match-going fans. A hollow reality.

The moment fans are allowed back in to stadiums on a grand scale like it used to be will be a glorious moment. Fans have to continue to rebel against the PPV shite the big companies will continue to peddle. 

[Asura]

I've never been to any european league games but only to some of the MLS games locally in the US, so I get it that the experience is not the same. But I dont even feel like watching the european league games this season on TV due to lack of fans. It doesnt feel the same and its like watching a pickup game on the streets. Fcuk anyone who thinks fans arent needed. 

[Berserker]

Of course it does, watching any sport without fans is far from the real thing. It's actually becoming hard for me to watch the teams i like in empty stadiums, no emotion, no passion at all, it's boring really. Specially on here where the atmosphere is half of the game, takes away all the epicness. I fondly remember the 2015 Libertadores final, rain pouring down like Poseidon had set his sight on El Monumental, our fans signing like crazy, goals that fit the venue, it was perfect. Without fans wouldn't have been nearly the same, even the 2018 final in Madrid was lame when it comes to epicness and atmosphere compared to it and some other matches like it due to not being hosted here despite the importance of the result because of the rival and rivalry.

[JoshBRFC+]

I watch games much much much less as it's just boring. It will never ever ever be good without fans. We make the sport, as we do with any sport.

Also fake noise is awful, i'd prefer silence and hearing their voices and the manager going mad and swearing.

Boxing and UFC have been better than football without fans.. hearing the shots etc is brutal at times. 

[Stan]

Just now, JOSHBRFC said:

I watch games much much much less as it's just boring. It will never ever ever be good without fans we make the sport, as we do with any sport.

Also fake noise is awful, i'd prefer silence and hearing their voices and the manager going mad and swearing.

Boxing and UFC have been better than football without fans.. hearing the shots etc is brutal at times. 

I hate when commentators apologise for this in football. Literally no-one is offended or needs someone to say sorry for someone else swearing in sport like football.

 

I enjoyed the reactions of the players in the golf. Don't usually get to hear it so clearly, if at all.

[Pyfish+]

Football needs fans. It's not just about the going to football but the social aspect of it too. Having a pint with friends or family, experiencing the highs and lows together...

[Smiley Culture]

One of the best bits of live football the further down the leagues you go is being able to listen to players, coaches and the referee. It’s often inaudible shit they’re spouting but it’s occasionally funny or insightful. 

[Honey Honey]

17 hours ago, JOSHBRFC said:

Also fake noise is awful, i'd prefer silence and hearing their voices and the manager going mad and swearing.

Personally I find it hard to stay awake without crowd noise. Silence + Steve Bruce football is a recipe for an afternoon nap.