The Club and The Fans

[martin]

Good post Brian, though I feel that the horse has firmly bolted on most of the issues you raise. Admittedly, there are certain things we as fans have less control over in this regard, in other areas, however, we can make an impact: don't buy the tat, don't buy the poor food and drink and, ultimately, don't attend the games if they induce such misery on almost every level. As for, to quote the current ludicrous buzz phrase, 'getting your Villa back', forget it.

[hawkeye]

i think we can see where this is going, i was in chicago when the Ice Hokey team were in the finals best of 7 against Philidelphia, the wife of a friend said, do you think its a bad thing to get behinf the Blackhawks now, meaning she had not a clue that Chicago even had an ice hokey team before they were in the final, before they were projecting Go Blackhawks  on the buildings, before every local radio and tv station were doing in depth stories on every member of the team.
Randy Venky thinks that is how you sell sport, that is what he knows.
His record would sugest that he is not that great at sport mangement

[robbo1874]

If you take the price of a game at, say, £30 (and that is cheaper than most games) and add up what you spend you get £1350 over a 45 game season. Multiply that by 40 seasons as an example. You get £54000. Over that period you have managed to pay one month's wages for one player. Now see how insignificant you are!

shit, that point has really hit home how they're overpaid and how we're just consumers now, if we leave, then the club don't care, as long as someone else shows up.

A short while ago I would have completely agreed with this point. However my wife bought me a copy of the secret footballer for Christmas, which I am still reading. Whoever he is points to the fact that most of the money in the game comes from Worldwide tv revenue (which I suppose anybody who subscribes to sky contributes to). He also argues that club owners are equally to blame as players for agreeing to the ludicrous wages they earn. When you look at it, it's tv that has brought about all the changes to the game that most of us dislike. The thing is though, I and everybody I know who is serious about sport, subscribes to sky or foxtel, so who is to blame ultimately for it?

[Steve R]

The only real gripe I have with the current board is that whilst there have been many fine initiatives, they haven't really been able to mobilise the vast numbers that follow Villa but don't - or have stopped - paying in on match day.

It has bugged me for a number of years that a club once admired for the numbers that showed up seems to have real problems filling what is now a modestly sized ground.

If there is one thing I expected from an American owner it was the ability to put bums on seats. For whatever reason it just hasn't happened. There seems to be a fair degree of good intention, and Villa seem to be better than most but there has been no real innovation nor anything that really captures the imagination or truly engenders the feeling that we are a part of the club.

Forty odd years ago being asked to show up with a paint brush to help spruce the place up seemed like a gift. That is what I call inclusion. Today, I am not in the slightest bit tempted to come out of my cave to wave a fucking flag around.

Now that may be me, and to an extent I'd have to accept that it is. But the journey out of the third division has always seemed much better than the destination we have been pissing around in since 1993.

[bruisedshins]

Football is a commodity to be sold to "fans" like any other form of entertainment. Fans as such are to be treated as consumers, people to be advertised to in order to take what cash they have. It's the same in society as a whole, people are supposed to be fragmented, atomised, split into groups such as consumers, commuters, home owners, scroungers, homeless etc. Thankfully most people still don't define themselves by how they're referred to on the news or treated by companies.

There's a very interesting article here about how the owners at PSG commercialised the club and it's an extreme example of what is happening across the board.

http://theclassical.org/articles/paris-is-earning

[Mortimer's Bear]

Brian, just wait until we start playing music every time we score next season...

[TonyD]

Brian, just wait until we start playing music every time we score next season...

It could be a long wait..............

[Gaztonniller]

Its not the Villa its society in general, people accept it because they expect it. Its normal to be treated as a consumer these days and soon, if not already, kids will grow up knowing no different. The past isnt coming back. What you need is a tardis. If you find one will you give me a shout please.

Because I have seen more change than many others I probably feel it more acutely but the present malaise through the club from the owner right down to the performances on the pitch seems rooted in the relationship which the club now has with its supporters.

Most areas of leisure and entertainment have been affected by american style marketing, detrimentally in my opinion.   Football is no different and I think Villa is probably more typical than most of the effects of marketing of the game as a"product" because we are owned by an American and the people he has chosen to run the club reflect his ideas and his business background.

In short, we, the fans, have become regarded as a crop to be harvested.   Money was put into the club by the present owner when he bought it from his predecessor and that capital investment was it.   A farmer spends money on seed corn and fertilizer then stands back and awaits results.   If the crop is patchy, he puts down a bit more seed or a bit more fertilizer and awaits the harvest.

Everything I see at Villa these days makes me feel less like a lifelong fan and more like a unit of consumption.   I hate the endless mail shots to my home trying to sell me over priced tat.   I hate the cost of the drinks.   I hate cost of the food and its quality.   I hate the cost of the programme and its banal content.   I hate the volume of the public address system.   I hate the stupid music played on the public address system.   I do not want a flag.   I do not want a scarf.   I hate the stupid, deafening demands over the public address system to "get behind the lads in claret and blue". I hate the bloody stupid flag waving over the players. I hate the daft and meaningless giant plastic ball racing at half time. I hate the instant public address system at the full time whistle advertising programmes for sale or upcoming games when I want to cheer or applaud players who have done well. I hate the boring cliches which we are fed by successive managers about bad performances. I hate players who are playing badly feeding puffs to the tabloids in order to polish their own tarnished reputations on the advice of their agents. I hate the wall of silence which surrounds the club on matters which really are important to us like are we going to buy in players or not, what exactly is wrong with Richard Dunne, why is Ron Vlaar out for twelve games and counting, what is happening to Makoun, why did we roll over and let Martin O'Neill take us to the cleaners, why does Paul Lambert look so bored every time we take a battering.   The list of things a loyal fans wants to know goes on and on but all we get are free flags and adverts for upcoming games.

I want to get back to the way it used to be when we were a family, a tribe, an army of claret and blue who just wanted to see games of football on our ground in Aston.   A family with an unbreakable, unshakeable bond with each other and the club, not a herd of flag waving, brain dead consumers to be sold rubbish (including the football) and to keep coming back regardless of how we feel about the treatment we get.

Oh come on!! Its not so bad, and a bit more entertaining than the other stuff happening on the pitch at the moment.

[Mortimer's Bear]

Brian, just wait until we start playing music every time we score next season...

It could be a long wait..............

For the introduction of music or for a goal?

[Witton Warrior]

The thing is though, I and everybody I know who is serious about sport, subscribes to sky or foxtel, so who is to blame ultimately for it?

I take your point robbo but I am serious about the Villa and utterly refuse to give my money to these bastards...

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

The thing is though, I and everybody I know who is serious about sport, subscribes to sky or foxtel, so who is to blame ultimately for it?

I take your point robbo but I am serious about the Villa and utterly refuse to give my money to these bastards...

This

[bertlambshank]

"I can't emphasis enough how important it is to get the fans behind us next season."
Paul Faulkner 05/06/2012.

[PaulMcGrathsNo5Shirt]

I've been a season ticket holder for many years, but gave it up when they appointed McLeish. Not because he came from Bordsley Green, but it showed exactly the disregard the club had for the fans. Add also the the ludicrous kick off times to suit the arm chair fan, the stupidly high wages of arrogant, and the obnoxious multi millionaire footballers - enough was enough.
I've still watched the Villa, either down the pub on a dodgy satelitte channel or online at home. I love the Villa, and always will.
Despite the lack of season ticket I've taken the lad who is 6 to the home games this season against Everton, West Brom and Norwich. Despite not winning one of the games he knows the names of the players and wonders why Bannan can't pass the ball to one of his team mates. He has the huge Villa Badge poster on his bedroom door, the glow in the dark shirt, he goes to school in his Villa hat, Villa scarf and Villa coat. He tells his Man Utd supporting mate at school that 'I support the team my Dad supports, and we get to the games.'
 
After the League Cup Semi Final draw I took the gamble of buying us half season tickets, my Dad died before he had the chance to take me to Wembley, I wanted to take my lad to Wembley to see the Villa. The following day we surrendered to Chelsea in the most inept performance I have ever seen from a Villa team, we didn't go to the Spurs home game as we had a family party on the evening (stupid kick off time) but watched on tv at a relatives. The lad wasn't happy. We went to the Wigan game, full of anticipation and excitement, man and boy on our first season ticket experience. Again the players didn't turn up. For the Ipswich game I had to practically drag him out of the house to go to the game. "Why don't you want to go today mate?" was my question, his response "Dad, it's boring, I know we are rubbish, but the players don't even try hard" - Ok he's 6, and doesn't really get it, but to me it was heartbreaking. The matchday experience is something they talk about a lot at the Villa, and he knows that we have to lose to be able to enjoy winning. For Paul McGrath's sake though the Villa aren't making it easy for me are they?
 
Football these days is shit, we're not supporters, we're customers, the club will fleece every single penny they can out of us. Yes the ticket office staff are brilliant, yes the manager in my eyes is trying to go about things the right way but we really don't stand a chance of really doing anything other than win the league cup - and only then it is because the bigger teams than us aren't that bothered. (Remember when we were one of the bigger teams)

The best season I ever had following Villa was the season we got relegated, the away trips were superb, great laughs, and we made the best out of the situation we were in. I'm not a snob, I don't expect us to be a top club, I just want our owner to show a degree of consideration to the fans who fork out fortunes for the club. Comments above about the lack of information about players injuries etc are bang on. Vlaar, Dunne, Makoun to name but 3. I guess they're too busy sending us emails telling us about the club shop sale/ticket offers/programme sales etc.

Tomorrow, I'm concerned the lad won't want to go again. After the fucking shambolic performance at Bradford on Wednesday I'm not going to force him like I did either. Poor kid.

Still, I suppose Randy is ok though isn't he? after all he won't hurt a millionth of the hurt we all feel when we watch the shit served up by the players in recent weeks.

[newtonsballs]

If you take the price of a game at, say, £30 (and that is cheaper than most games) and add up what you spend you get £1350 over a 45 game season. Multiply that by 40 seasons as an example. You get £54000. Over that period you have managed to pay one month's wages for one player. Now see how insignificant you are!

shit, that point has really hit home how they're overpaid and how we're just consumers now, if we leave, then the club don't care, as long as someone else shows up.

A short while ago I would have completely agreed with this point. However my wife bought me a copy of the secret footballer for Christmas, which I am still reading. Whoever he is points to the fact that most of the money in the game comes from Worldwide tv revenue (which I suppose anybody who subscribes to sky contributes to). He also argues that club owners are equally to blame as players for agreeing to the ludicrous wages they earn. When you look at iI and everybody I know who is serious about sport, subscribes to sky or foxtelt, it's tv that has brought about all the changes to the game that most of us dislike. The thing is though, , so who is to blame ultimately for it?

The people I know who are serious about sport are playing it not sitting on their arses watching it.

[Pat McMahon]

If you take the price of a game at, say, £30 (and that is cheaper than most games) and add up what you spend you get £1350 over a 45 game season. Multiply that by 40 seasons as an example. You get £54000. Over that period you have managed to pay one month's wages for one player. Now see how insignificant you are!

shit, that point has really hit home how they're overpaid and how we're just consumers now, if we leave, then the club don't care, as long as someone else shows up.

A short while ago I would have completely agreed with this point. However my wife bought me a copy of the secret footballer for Christmas, which I am still reading. Whoever he is points to the fact that most of the money in the game comes from Worldwide tv revenue (which I suppose anybody who subscribes to sky contributes to). He also argues that club owners are equally to blame as players for agreeing to the ludicrous wages they earn. When you look at iI and everybody I know who is serious about sport, subscribes to sky or foxtelt, it's tv that has brought about all the changes to the game that most of us dislike. The thing is though, , so who is to blame ultimately for it?

The people I know who are serious about sport are playing it not sitting on their arses watching it.

A lot of people manage to do both.