And UTI99, re. fans, customers and the Sky generation – it’s companies like Sky who have been responsible more than anyone for replacing fans with fickle customers. The big money they’ve brought into the game has turned the top clubs into global brands with customers worldwide, the vast majority of whom never actually attend a game.
Plus, the way TV income is distributed has widened inequality in football, and forced into administration many small clubs like ours, who now really struggle to keep up.
Local fans have become even more important to these clubs, as they are an important source of income where TV money is relatively small. So, the clubs should be working hard to attract and keep them.
But, there’s a feeling that SUFC is not doing this; that it’s taking them for granted, angering and alienating them by saying they talk crap, they’re morons, or ‘who cares’ if they leave after 60-odd years, etc. etc. And as if that weren’t enough, season after season we have witnessed a standard of football rarely seen outside public parks.
Now, for all kinds of reasons, the days of fans suffering in silence have gone. Even ours, who are now planning a protest, which will certainly attract regional and quite possibly national attention.
I don’t know if all this is a lesson they teach in the business schools, but it’s one the club would do well to learn before it’s too late. But, maybe it already is.
