I posted on here at the beginning of this season, asking where the missing thousands had gone. It was apparent after a few games that something was affecting the attendances. My initial thoughts were that the novelty of being in the Championship had worn off after the first season, which ultimately ended in disappointment. I also thought that it may be down to some fans thinking that this season wasn't going to be as successful as last season ( I was one of them). However, it's none of these things. It's something that has happened to many clubs and it's down to increased televising of games (red button).
Apparently, the Championship clubs get £100k per televised home game from the TV companies. So, if gates are say, 3,000 down for a particular match because it's on telly, then you take that number, 3,000 and multiply it by an average cost of a ticket (bear in mind some are free, some are concession, so let's take £20 as being an average price, just for sake of argument), that's 3,000 x £20 -=£60,000 loss on gate receipts. But Sky have given the club £100k - so the club are quids in! Why should the club worry if attendances are down, if they are being compensated for it and making more of a profit on that than they would by fans coming through the turnstiles?
As I pointed out on another post in the past few days...this is the thin end of the wedge. I think that TV will eventually kill the game, as we know it, for those supporters who like to go and watch it live. But there's another disturbing aspect to this as well, and that's the new generation of folks that are growing up today and their obsession with "screens". Screens, whether they be phone or ipad or X-box or PS4 and (to a lesser extent) TV, dominate many young people's lives. I heard something the other day on radio I think it was, and they'd asked young people what their idea of a perfect day was, and the majority referred to activities involving watching screens of some sort of other.
It reminds me of a book I once read at school, about the future, called, "The Machine Stops" by E. M. Forster. It tells the tale of human life in the future where people's lives are ruled by a machine. People live in isolation. They don't travel anywhere and they communicate via the machine. Eventually, the machine collapses and brings the whole of human civilisation down with it - and the two central characters in the story realise, just before they die, that connection to the natural world is what matters and living their lives, subservient to the machine, was a huge mistake.
What has any of this got to do with increasing the capacity at Bramall lane? Simply this, I'd love our club to remain a "proper" football club. We are a bit unusual in so much as we depend more on supporters paying at the turnstiles than any other club at this level. So, let's try and hold onto that, and let's make the most of it. Let's make it a really exceptional matchday experience for our fans attending the game. Let's fill the place to the rafters and attract even bigger crowds - because to do so will be to zig, whilst most others are zagging. And that might just be the thing that saves the game of football for the common man.
