Are we still supporting a 'club'?

[anton hillman]

I've been going down the Villa since my first game against Burnley on April 22nd 1967 (we lost one nil). I remember all the miseries of the next few years and then the nirvana of the ones that followed, culminating in Rotterdam. I have been a season ticket holder on and off since 1971 depending on work commitments. In the early days I remember seeing Mick Wright drive down the Trinity Road on match day in a Ford Cortina. I also remember getting off the no 11 bus at Witton alongside another passenger, Villa forward Dave Simmons who was promptly swamped by little kids (including me) after his autograph. Days gone by for sure and I am now a 60's something who is finding it harder and harder to relate to the antic behaviour of grossly overpaid professional footballers, who by and large ply their trade for a business rather than a 'club'. For many years Villa Park was a second home to me and my mates. We felt a real sense of belonging towards our club. I hate to say that this feeling is now starting to wane for me and I believe that I am paying to see a franchise operation such as they have in US football and baseball. Sad days for some perhaps but maybe time to recognise the new world? Maybe we are now customers rather than supporters?

[Steve67]

Sky have a lot to answer for. I fear, it will only get worse and the gap between the haves and that have nots will get worse until there is a break away.

[Nelly]

I often used to tease Glory Hunters that supporting their clubs must be akin to supporting Apple or Samsung. I don't think Villa are there yet but I guess if we become successful again it'd be a slippery slope.

Also, it's odd. I think there are bigger, more historic clubs in the Championship than there are the Premier League. Unquestionably we as a club do belong in the top flight but I'd much rather play Notts Forest, Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday and clubs of that stature than some of the well-run but ultimately boring clubs there now. Obviously they are there on merit, so respect is due.

[Ads]

You're just old is all. We get this whimsical musing a lot on here. You associate the best times of following the club with your youth. Whether we were successful or not isn't relevant to that youth=enjoyment equation. The older you get, the more things change and the further from that ideal you've built up.

It will happen to us all if we live long enough.

[anton hillman]

You're just old is all. We get this whimsical musing a lot on here. You associate the best times of following the club with your youth. Whether we were successful or not isn't relevant to that youth=enjoyment equation. The older you get, the more things change and the further from that ideal you've built up.

It will happen to us all if we live long enough.

Good point on the nostalgic musings of 'age' but believe me, as a youngster I didn't always 'enjoy' supporting the Villa, it was something that I did because Villa was my 'club' with all the emotional attachment that came from that. My question is not around the 'good old days' but whether or not  in 2016, should we be we engaged with the teams that we follow as 'supporters' or as 'customers'? Is it a product or does it remain a live or die thing...? I get the feeling that the new breed of owner would rather pitch it as a product.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

Couldn't agree more anton!
I started going in 1960ish - dragged down there by my brother - but following The Villa is what the family did - no question! For obvious reasons we were/are staunchly Villa, but we were a Hockley/Aston family and took pride in our local club...Frank Snr and his three sons (Frank Jnr and Amos played for Villa, Dennis for Worcester City) were all born in Aston.
I now see grown men and kids wearing Barcelona shirts and wonder wtf is going on...simply support the most successful club that exists and ignore roots/where you live!?
Newby is spot on - Sky etc have a lot to answer for and now we are not in the PL it becomes even more obvious - the whole of football in this country is geared to the PL - and only the top 4/5 teams at that - the rest are just fodder for the TV cameras and audiences sitting at home watching it wearing their CiŁy/Utd/Chavski/Arse/Liverpool shirts (Leicester don't count because they were a one-season wonder).
And I can't help but agree with Nelly. It now seems we are playing "proper" teams - Forest, Wednesday and Leeds etc at proper grounds where genuine supporters come out in droves to support their local team (Bristol City on Saturday was a good example), not just numbers randomly turning up at any PL ground to watch a "top" side beat an also-ran for the benefit of the "match-day experience"!
I'm pretty sure that fans of a certain age of all clubs - Man CiŁy and Kiddy Harriers - feel exactly the same.
When you're winning it's ok; when you're not it hurts, keeps you awake and makes you question wtf happened to common sense.
But life wouldn't be same without The Villa - as we would like to know it - would it?

UTV!   

[edgysatsuma89]

I've meant to have already enjoyed some of this?

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Villa is like an extended family. Despite losing so many generations along the way, there's still plenty there to keep the club alive. The day we get half decent, we'll rock the world. Whilst I love and respect the Big Dogs from years gone by, it's the Puppies that keep this club going, through these tough times.

Last season was as ugly as it gets but our fans were brilliant. The only thing, honestly, that brings me back. We talk about former players, great moves, goals, etc but nothing will ever beat the sight of Villa fans celebrating. I can watch the greatest Villa goal 100 times but 95 times it will be to watch the fans going mental.

We're everything that I love about football; but most of all we're still traditional, which is some achievement since 1992.

[wittonwarrior]

Villa is a family - we don't always like them but we love them.

Supporting the Villa is not an option for most of us. 

Forget the bad moments and there have been  plenty, we remember the good. 

I just hope that Dr Tony keeps his enthusiasm going  and we can once again build  to be the best, we  did  this under Saunders so why not now.

[Louzie0]

Villa is a family - we don't always like them but we love them.

Supporting the Villa is not an option for most of us. 

Forget the bad moments and there have been  plenty, we remember the good. 

I just hope that Dr Tony keeps his enthusiasm going  and we can once again build  to be the best, we  did  this under Saunders so why not now.

I'd like to endorse the post above.
Especially the bit -

'We don't always like them, but we love them'.

[pbavfckuwait]

I think in the next 10 to 15 years, if not sooner, we will get our wish of having football back to being more grass root, the current Sky deal is not a big enough carve up for the (use the word with hatred and will not name them) Super clubs, I predict within the timescale given above, that a break away of European clubs will happen, FIFA. UEFA, will exist but in a totally different form and the Champions league will engulf areas like Asia, Middle East.

Crap viewing numbers for early rounds of the Chumps league, non existent for the 96 game UEFA cup, will allow the Murdochs of this world to lead Super clubs by the hand to the next promised land. I saw a figure quoted somewhere , that one of the pre season tournaments brought in more viewing figures world wide than some early Chump league games.

Glad I am nearly 60, as this appears as appealing as putting red hot needles in my eyes.

[brian green]

Ads and Frankieboy both make insightful observations.  On the one hand it is an age thing but on the other hand there is a big factor of inevitability about it.  The older you are the pain of watching Jimmy Dugdale's miskick on the Holte End goal line and get us relegated fades and Dwight Yorke juggling a ball when he was supposed to be forking the puddles on the pitch remain sharp.

The inevitability is more difficult to rationalise.  I was born into a Villa family.  My grandfather did not quite make it into the team but went on to captain Stourbridge and Bloxwich Strollers.  My uncle George made it onto the Villa books but died of appendicitis before getting a first team game.  My grandmother was Howard Spencer's cousin.  It was inevitable that I would travel the road I am on.  Being the rebellious little sod I was my first game was at the Sty to see them draw 3-3 with Grimsby.  The following week I made my first trip to Villa Park and saw us draw 2-2 with Huddersfield. 

Do I regret how much of my life has been consumed by the Villa?  Sometimes.  But when I went to my brother's funeral, saw the claret and blue flowers and spent  six or seven hours at his wake talking non stop about Villa with a hundred or more of my wider family it sort of made sense.

[martin o`who??]

I fear that most top-flight Football fans unknowingly support a Business rather than a club, we are increasingly seen as stakeholders in that business whether we like it or not. There is a phenomenon in business known as "Churn" where a business is quite prepared to lose customers because they know they will just pick up dissatisfied customers from other suppliers therefore maintaining market share by default, that will not happen in football because fans just don't switch allegiances so easily - and they would do well to bear that in mind.

[Witton Warrior]

We support an idea, a myth, a gossamer creation of the imagination based on selective memory and psychic scar-tissue. We enact the rituals and when the outcomes are not what we want we sacrifice the Kings to nourish the story - we're just football fans after all...

[brian green]

Nice metaphor WW.   Especially the deep need for rituals of one form or another deep in the human psyche.