Quiet Ground

[blinkpip]

Have all the loud mouth Swindon nutters been banned? I say this because to compared to last season it's been very quiet whether we are winning or not.
I think giving all are opponents lots of chances doesn't help. But, will it ever goner be loud again this season. (expect the Bristol City game).
 :?

[Spencer_White]

Some cant afford it anymore so stay in the pub.

Some left for pastures new (like me).

Some stayed, but that right side is so full nowadays that its difficult for them to get together, espaicially when they arrive at 3.05pm. So they are spread in with normal fans. Thats what the aisle standing was about really, trying to stay together. The scarfers dont get the stupid 'made up on the spot' songs. They whisper things to each other like 'whos Bradford?' or 'why dont they sing songs about the team all the time?' or 'why do they have to swear so much?'. But the stupid songs made it. They made people laugh and get involved.

Bans are not really an issue. Swindon probably have 50 bans now, but they are sometimes the really mental lads who just grind their teeth during games and cant be bothered to sing either.  

Bristol City LDV. Therein lies the future. The Townend has peaked and will not get back to what it was until (1, prices come down. 2, the kids get bored and go somewhere else).

[Johno]

mate i agreed with most of that... but when you say 'kids' you probably mean people like me. and i join in every chant and get involved, so no harm surely!?
but there are people when you look around do sod all.... the town end is now rubbish in comparison to what it can do.

[Spencer_White]

No mate. Lads like you are quality Town fans and I know there are loads of 15 year olds who support the club and will continue to support because they really really have a passion for it. I was travel club myself back then with my Swindon shirt with 'red army' written on the back (dont tell anyone that, Im a bit embaressed about the Red Army bit). Most important thing is your Swindon. I get pissed with the ones who look at me like Im an absolute idiot with their Chelsea or Newcastle shirts on (and to me it doesnt matter if the shirt is Man Yoo, Spurs or Coventry, point is it isnt Swindon, STFC's all I care for). One of the burger bar girls tried to chat me up the other week, asked me who my Premiership club was I told her I couldnt give a fuck for the Premiership because Swindon was all I wanted. Not suprisingly she looked at me like an absolute idiot and I didnt get her number (didnt want it anyway, dappy, but fit, cow).

The reason I generalise (unfairly) like I do is that a football crowd needs a balance. We need the right numbers of young kids, women, teenagers, oaps and working class men. But sometimes I feel like clubs have been given a dictat whereby they are told they dont want lads my age who work and drink. If they need new supporters they need more fammillies and more kids and more women. And I say to myself hold on, lads aged 15 to 40 still make up the vast majority of our crowds. Why cant we give discounts to lads in factories and pubs? Make the first move if you like. Because at the moment STFC the football club is very far removed from Swindon Town the working mans town that the football club was set up to represent in 1892. Fact is that if you get working lads together with something they care about then the results can be fantastic. Like football was in the 1970's or those 1985 Milk Cup games that OST talks about or a Jam concert in 1981. Cant blame me for wanting a bit of that back for my generation can you mate? Hope you want some too.

Course there are reasons that football has gone in the direction it has. Theres not a day goes by I wish that Heysel and Hillsborough hadnt have happened because they will cast a shadow over football for the next 60 years. But wishing they hadnt have happened doesnt really help, because it was inevitable (in hindsight) that they would happen someday somewhere. I guess I just like football dangerous because it makes me feel alive. But I know in 20 years time I will feel differently.

[sonicyouth]

But sometimes I feel like clubs have been given a dictat whereby they are told they dont want lads my age who work and drink. If they need new supporters they need more fammillies and more kids and more women. And I say to myself hold on, lads aged 15 to 40 still make up the vast majority of our crowds. Why cant we give discounts to lads in factories and pubs? Make the first move if you like. Because at the moment STFC the football club is very far removed from Swindon Town the working mans town that the football club was set up to represent in 1892. Fact is that if you get working lads together with something they care about then the results can be fantastic. Like football was in the 1970's or those 1985 Milk Cup games that OST talks about or a Jam concert in 1981. Cant blame me for wanting a bit of that back for my generation can you mate? Hope you want some too.

Do you not think that the reason for this is partially to the decline in industry and therefore the true working classes? I agree that football clubs seem less interested in the typical supporter nowadays but football has become a business now, and who will spend more at a game? The family of Dad, Mum and 2.4 children who will buy a programme, burgers, drinks, chocolate, sweets, load up on merchandise etc or the single young bloke who goes to the pub before the game then sings his heart out for the team? It's not that the club doesn't care, it's just they know where their financial priorities lie, whether that's wrong or not is an entirely different subject.

People like yourself and a lot of the people on this forum are the true hardcore fans, nothing will change that but in a time when football is becoming more and more of a business it's inveitable that the emphasis shifts from the way it was to the most financially viable option, i.e. families.

[Spencer_White]

Whereas 30 years ago young working class lads used to say work on the rail works now they pack boxes or drive forklifts or make computers. Theres been a shift from heavy industry to tertiary industry, but they are still working class. Still poorly paid, even if our standard of living today is twice what it was in the 70's.

I know I am fighting the tide. And fuck me is it a struggle, but I know its worth it and Iv got to try. Otherwise the experience of going to a football game in Britian will be basically the same as watching an NBA game in Denver or whatever.

Its part of our culture and its slipping away. Club doesnt help charging the prices it does. I would say football is too much of a business, even now. Whats the point of a club if half of our potential fans stay away because of the prices. It works for the Premiership. It has failed disastrously for us. Change it. Swindon should be 'supporting its supporters' ,that was the motto on the Man City ticket when we played them 3 years ago in the Cup and it impressed me.

If you are a fellow Town fan then Il do my best for you. Does the club take the same attitude towards us?

[sonicyouth]

If you are a fellow Town fan then Il do my best for you. Does the club take the same attitude towards us?

No, but like I said the finances of this club take precedence now and the average footy fan aren't going to spend nearly as much as a family with 2 kids hungry for burgers and merchandise.

It's a shame but it's the way footbal lis unfortunately.

[Spencer_White]

You are right. And I fucking hate it.

[sonicyouth]

The way the club has changed it's emphasis on who is important or families who come to football?

Whilst I think it's a shame the club cares more about who will spend the most money, I don't feel any animosity towards people who want to make football a family day out of whatever. It's not their fault.

I don't think football will ever become a franchise like American sports though, there's far too many people like yourself who will keep the spirit and tradition of it alive.

[Spencer_White]

I do because this season has been such a boring damp squid of a season and I want change. Its not all their fault but they are involved. Its a football wide thing, not just Swindon. Look at the other post about whether it was fun going yesterday?

Im too much of a nutter to sit back and watch it mate. Cant stand it.

I know I am wrong, theres holes in my argument.

I would prefer 1985 to US style sport. I dont care if you think Im a bad person or if you think I am foolish. But its an emotive issue. Quality debate all the same.

[sonicyouth]

No, no, I agree with you. Last season I couldn't sit and watch us, I was up and down out of my seat every five seconds, shouting my head off and talking bollocks. Yet I don't know what happened, this season I'm just so apathetic. I sit at football with my arms folded barely bothering to move, it seems to be the whole of the ground though. I used to enjoy screaming like a spastic at football but the ground feels so...soulless.

And that hurts because after last season, it's difficult to comprehend the change.

[Simon Pieman]

I do agree with SW in a sense that back in the day there seemed to be more passion in football

[Johno]

No mate. Lads like you are quality Town fans and I know there are loads of 15 year olds who support the club and will continue to support because they really really have a passion for it.
 Because at the moment STFC the football club is very far removed from Swindon Town the working mans town that the football club was set up to represent in 1892. Fact is that if you get working lads together with something they care about then the results can be fantastic. Like football was in the 1970's or those 1985 Milk Cup games that OST talks about or a Jam concert in 1981. Cant blame me for wanting a bit of that back for my generation can you mate? Hope you want some too.

.

of course i have only taken abit of what you said mate has it was long. i agree with it all though. i do havea passion for the club and have since i was 5 or 6. of course i can understand that people your age would want it the way it was, and actually i would too, cause it sounds like it was brilliant, but unfortunetely i don't think it will happen again, but ifit did come back, then i would love it.
im one for going ape at footie matches, i love chanting, supporting the team etc... and fotball at the county ground at the moment is pretty boring except city and sheffield wednesday this season.
if the town end does go, then what would happen then hey?

[Simon Pieman]

Every1 would have to pay extra to sit in the side and less people would go

[Johno]

exactly.... that would be the end for atmosphere really, people would prefer the pub.