Football is a business. Increasingly so. A day doesnt go by when someone doesnt trot out the cliche about football not being what it was 10 years ago, 10 years ago they said the same thing, it is evolving all the time. But most of that change is seen on the football field, in terms of styles of play, in terms of application of the rules ("that would never have been a foul 10 years ago"), in terms of the number of foreigners in the league, the quality of football, the attitudes of the footballers and how accessible they are to fans.
How much has the experience of being a fan changed? And in particular, fan loyalty? There is one thing to put in here that falls into a similar category to the examples above: you hear that, back in yesteryear, when children were seen and not heard and you could leave your front door open and not fear being robbed, people used to go and watch whichever local team was playing at home, be that United or City, Liverpool or Everton, Arsenal or Spurs. Now football is more tribal, and with it there is, perhaps greater loyalty.
I have always found this a really interesting question because it is fundamentally related to the way football operates as a business. For a market to work, "consumers" have to be free to shop around. That keeps businesses - suppliers - honest. If Brand X is better than Brand Y, you buy Brand X, and that gives Y the incentive to improve, either on quality, on price, on something else or a combination of things.
And back to football. Perhaps a subsequent phase in the evolution of football will require "fans" or "supporters" will need to become more "consumers of the product that is football".
There are several things going on in football right now that keep leading me back to this thought. The older one is the whole Glazer thing, that is a bit outdated now, most people dont care about it much any more, even those of us who did a few years ago. But this is the context in which I first started thinking about this, many years ago. It is all well and good sitting in the stands wearing Green and Gold. The club would take taken more notice (whether that is a good or bad thing is another discussion) if fans had taken their business elsewhere. Some did, to FCUM. But this was a difficult step for many to take.
As I said, this is all a bit passe now. But the thought came back to me in recent days because of the way people have responded to the Van Gaal regime. More than a few "why dont you piss off and support City" comments have been thrown around in the last few weeks. This is usually said in anger. But is there a serious underlying point?
If it is true that United has honourable traditions in the way we play football, and if that is the reason a section of fans support the club, is there a chance they will drift away - especially if the change is enduring? If people are paying to be entertained, and if another team is playing more entertaining football than we are, are they entitled to take their custom elsewhere? It seems a stretch at the moment, because of fan loyalty. But would football benefit if this attitude evolved in the way other aspects of the sport have? It would certainly encourage clubs to pay more attention to what their fans want if they were fighting to retain their support.
Things are never quite so neat, but you could in theory see a team develop a win at all costs strategy, and another develop a beautiful football strategy, and then fans could pay their money and make their choice. No more arguments about "winning versus style" on the terraces or in chatrooms, because people could vote with their feet.
Having said all this, I cant see it happening, certainly not the neat, market-purist vision I just outlined. But stranger things have happened. Evolution is a slow but incredibly powerful force and sometimes where you end up can seem very strange compared to where things started. But it is also unpredictable. I think fan loyalty will evolve but it is probably impossible to predict exactly how.
I think the first stage of it though is increasing dissatisfaction with the Premier League. I might be completely wrong but this is just the evidence I have seen with my own eyes. This is best exemplified by two good friends of mine. The first is a Chelsea fan. He moved out of London and decided to start going to watch a lower division local team, partly for practical reasons and partly because he found Chelsea increasingly boring - not only in terms of football style, but the whole "Top 4" dominance and predictability thing.
The other is a more interesting case. He is a Swansea fan. After the Swans got into the PL he was initially ecstatic. But gradually he has drifted away from the club. He still nominally supports them but he just doesnt care like he used to. He feels disconnected from the club, it is harder to get tickets, the atmosphere is less fun and he finds he just doesnt care about it like he used to. Probably partly it is down to age and other priorities, but he insists it is more fun supporting a lower league club.
What I find interesting in both these cases is they are, in a sense, an inversion of glory hunting. Both people drifted away from their clubs (though they would both describe themselves as fans or supporters of the clubs they grew up following) because success turned them off. They wanted something smaller scale that they could feel more connected to. It wasnt about winning or even beautiful football, it was about a sense of belonging. I think for a lot of people the PL has become too corporate and they feel distant from it.
I dont know whether this is a trend or just something that happened to two friends of mine, coincidentally. But it has given me the sense that the money that continues to pump into the PL, while making it bigger and more powerful all the time, will also contribute to its demise. So the most immediate threat to fan loyalty will perhaps come from increasing apathy. United fans wont leave to become City fans in search of entertainment. But they might stop going to watch United. And they might start taking their kids to see their local side.
It will be interesting to see whether and how loyalty among fans has evolved in 10-20 years.
How much has the experience of being a fan changed? And in particular, fan loyalty? There is one thing to put in here that falls into a similar category to the examples above: you hear that, back in yesteryear, when children were seen and not heard and you could leave your front door open and not fear being robbed, people used to go and watch whichever local team was playing at home, be that United or City, Liverpool or Everton, Arsenal or Spurs. Now football is more tribal, and with it there is, perhaps greater loyalty.
I have always found this a really interesting question because it is fundamentally related to the way football operates as a business. For a market to work, "consumers" have to be free to shop around. That keeps businesses - suppliers - honest. If Brand X is better than Brand Y, you buy Brand X, and that gives Y the incentive to improve, either on quality, on price, on something else or a combination of things.
And back to football. Perhaps a subsequent phase in the evolution of football will require "fans" or "supporters" will need to become more "consumers of the product that is football".
There are several things going on in football right now that keep leading me back to this thought. The older one is the whole Glazer thing, that is a bit outdated now, most people dont care about it much any more, even those of us who did a few years ago. But this is the context in which I first started thinking about this, many years ago. It is all well and good sitting in the stands wearing Green and Gold. The club would take taken more notice (whether that is a good or bad thing is another discussion) if fans had taken their business elsewhere. Some did, to FCUM. But this was a difficult step for many to take.
As I said, this is all a bit passe now. But the thought came back to me in recent days because of the way people have responded to the Van Gaal regime. More than a few "why dont you piss off and support City" comments have been thrown around in the last few weeks. This is usually said in anger. But is there a serious underlying point?
If it is true that United has honourable traditions in the way we play football, and if that is the reason a section of fans support the club, is there a chance they will drift away - especially if the change is enduring? If people are paying to be entertained, and if another team is playing more entertaining football than we are, are they entitled to take their custom elsewhere? It seems a stretch at the moment, because of fan loyalty. But would football benefit if this attitude evolved in the way other aspects of the sport have? It would certainly encourage clubs to pay more attention to what their fans want if they were fighting to retain their support.
Things are never quite so neat, but you could in theory see a team develop a win at all costs strategy, and another develop a beautiful football strategy, and then fans could pay their money and make their choice. No more arguments about "winning versus style" on the terraces or in chatrooms, because people could vote with their feet.
Having said all this, I cant see it happening, certainly not the neat, market-purist vision I just outlined. But stranger things have happened. Evolution is a slow but incredibly powerful force and sometimes where you end up can seem very strange compared to where things started. But it is also unpredictable. I think fan loyalty will evolve but it is probably impossible to predict exactly how.
I think the first stage of it though is increasing dissatisfaction with the Premier League. I might be completely wrong but this is just the evidence I have seen with my own eyes. This is best exemplified by two good friends of mine. The first is a Chelsea fan. He moved out of London and decided to start going to watch a lower division local team, partly for practical reasons and partly because he found Chelsea increasingly boring - not only in terms of football style, but the whole "Top 4" dominance and predictability thing.
The other is a more interesting case. He is a Swansea fan. After the Swans got into the PL he was initially ecstatic. But gradually he has drifted away from the club. He still nominally supports them but he just doesnt care like he used to. He feels disconnected from the club, it is harder to get tickets, the atmosphere is less fun and he finds he just doesnt care about it like he used to. Probably partly it is down to age and other priorities, but he insists it is more fun supporting a lower league club.
What I find interesting in both these cases is they are, in a sense, an inversion of glory hunting. Both people drifted away from their clubs (though they would both describe themselves as fans or supporters of the clubs they grew up following) because success turned them off. They wanted something smaller scale that they could feel more connected to. It wasnt about winning or even beautiful football, it was about a sense of belonging. I think for a lot of people the PL has become too corporate and they feel distant from it.
I dont know whether this is a trend or just something that happened to two friends of mine, coincidentally. But it has given me the sense that the money that continues to pump into the PL, while making it bigger and more powerful all the time, will also contribute to its demise. So the most immediate threat to fan loyalty will perhaps come from increasing apathy. United fans wont leave to become City fans in search of entertainment. But they might stop going to watch United. And they might start taking their kids to see their local side.
It will be interesting to see whether and how loyalty among fans has evolved in 10-20 years.
