Posted by Cajun Claret on 7/10/2003, 5:14 pm, in reply to "Crowds"
The way we support a football team has changed over the years, Chorley, it seems to me.
Although I'm out of the country now, up to leaving in Oct last year, I reckon I was fairly typical of fan habits. Sure, I went thru a period in late 70s-early 80s of never missing any matches, despite never living in Burnley, doing anything to get there - hitching etc, plus would certainly have been a banned-for-lifer if current regulations had been imposed then. But times and lives change. Influences of family, weekend work, finances lead to a period when matches had to be more selective. But having lived/worked in many parts of the country including Fylde, Staffs, London, Southend, Carlisle, York, and met fellow Clarets in those areas, going to the Turf was always a social occasion for me. I knew I could see certain mates in various pre-match pubs, then I could drift around parts of the Longside before kick-off to see assorted friends from nationwide before standing with the usual crowd for the game. Then the Longside went, and there are people I used to talk to that I have never seen since, although I presume they sit somewhere in the ground. As an occasional fan due to Saturday work and finances, I could never sit with people I wanted to, or even those I travelled with who had season tickets, and the game as a social occasion was ruined for me. Although people have the right to support their team as they wish, sitting on my own next to people who are more interested in the contents of their flask and sandwich box and complain about me leaping to my feet to shout "come on you Clarets" is not to my liking. It's a passionate game, how can stewards expect us to sit quietly like mice?
Of course the cost of matches is prohibitative as well, no matter how ardent a fan. Taking my youngster along to a game changed the way I watched - from the 'family stand' - and was a very expensive day out when compared to other entertainment. Football on a Saturday now has many many more entertainment rivals than existed when I first started going as an 8-yr-old in 65.
I know money is the key factor in football today, but droves of fans have now been lost to the game, have got out of the habit of going, largely due to the huge entrance costs and forced seating. The overriding factor to me in getting more people thru the gates is the entrance money - that was certainly the main limiter in the number of matches I attended thru the 90s when my children came along and I lived a two-hour drive from Turf Moor.
I was back in England for a week and saw the Forest and Bradford matches, and really a minimum 16 quid to get in is staggering. The only pre-match or half-time entertainment you need is maybe junior 5-a-side games, or penalty competitions.
The atmosphere at the Turf is indeed awful nowadays, cos everyone is split up, and certainly crowds of 10,500 - or even 6,500 - could generate great atmospheres in pre-seat days.
Also, with this board, too easy to get out of the habit of using it. Rarely check it out nowadays cos only seems like it's you that uses it now - nothing personal.!
Well, seems like I've rambled a bit, bit will post it anyway.
Any road, let's keep the faith, and keep the claret flag flying wherever we may be.
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