Thetownend.com

I saw this article and thought it was very telling - a fan whom I can identify with.

I know that there's a chap on this forum who said he wouldn't bother going if we got to the PL (for the record I think I know where he's coming from), and after reading this article I can't think that it's worth 'selling out' to get PL status. There are a few clubs in the PL that I don't mind - Norwich and Swansea are two that spring to mind, but I wouldn't want Swindon to become a franchise like the majority of the rest....

Anyhow, if you can be arsed I think that this is a good read,

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/apr/17/cardiff-city-promoted-died-last-summer

An article in the guardian, hardly surprising it's geared up in this way, is it? Cardiff will attract more supporters than it loses. It's still in the community, not like it's been moved milrs away. My link with Towns runs deeper than the colour of their shirts, or who owns it.

They'll attract more "followers" but lose "supporters"....there will be a price to pay if - or more likely when - they end up falling down the leagues. Disrespect club traditions at your peril...

People become supporters over time, if they have no historic links to the club. If I was offered success on the pitch, but we changed our kit to blue and our nickname to the bluebird, I'd rip their arm off. I'd still have the history and the memories.  I'd also be watching winning football in the present.
Football should be about striving for success and improvement.  Sometimes that means compromising.

Ok, but what if it meant changing to yellow and adopting a bull as a badge if it meant success on the whim of one rich man...?

Is he so rich that the prize for the half time draw was a night with all of the Saturdays?

I can think of 120 million reasons why the Cardiff owners won't give a flying fuck about that.

They are £83m in debt right now.

Even with the £60m they'll get from the PL, less whatever they blow on players and their wages, Cardiff appear fundamentally fucked (financially).

It's only 3 years since they were in court fighting a winding-up order.

I don't really get the point of this article, one person's opinions.
He probably didn't approve of the move from Ninian Park either.

Football clubs are essentially part of the entertainment business, the players don't represent Towns, they are paid to play for a club.

I hope the other Cardiff fans who walked away were the ones who used to damage as many cars as possible on the way to the County Ground from the station

and every supporter should have an opinion on 'their' club. I think the point is that he thinks that the soul of his club has been forsaken for the prize of the PL, and that for him, it's not worth the price....

Personally, I wouldn't want Swindon Town FC to be renamed 'The Swindon Crazybulls', change our insignia to a Bull and have an identikit plastic stadium and a corporate match day experience just to get PL football.

With regard to the Cardiff fans - I remember them smashing up cars prior and after a FA cup game - t'was proppa scary. I'd forgotten about that - absolute cunts Cardiff (still see where this fan is coming from though).

Infamy, infamy, they've all got it in for me.

Let's not forget they'll now be playing Swansea next season, their bitterest rivals, who'll they'll be even more pissed off at because they won promotion last season. Urinals have been pulled off walls, cars smashed, riots broken out over the years.

I was glad I'm no longer in Swansea when they announced the change to red for Cardiff. Wearing my town scarf about would have been interesting, I got enough stick on the day they beat Arsenal...

Interesting point - for me I wouldn't want to lose all that was traditional about the club. I do understand that to progress you have to compromise sometimes, and if STFC did change our colours, name, stadium etc., would I still support them? I can't say until that happens....


But the success Cardiff have got has come at a price of £80 mill in debt and a change in the fundamentals of the club. We at Swindon started getting cold feet at £15 mill debt (or whatever the figure was). We were at the mercy of a single rich investor who could pull out at any minute....

That said, I suppose I would be happy if a rich benefactor came along and gave us at Swindon free money......

The interesting part for me was that he essentially sounds gutted that Swansea have done it properly and better- not full fan ownership but a significant percentage. I'd love Town to do something similar- although perhaps Power/Emell/Trust was that chance.

On reflection, the only tradition that would bring my support into question would be location.  If we moved out of Swindon, ala Franchise, then I would call it a day and have no affinity towards the new club.  Everything else would be a ballache, but in reality, our stands won't last forever, our kit will change as will our badge and we might even change a bit of the name.  None of that would really make me stop, the club would still exist and be "Swindon".
As soon as we move out to say Membury/Leigh Delamere/Chippenham/Newbury etc, that would be it.  iT's not my home town, which is essentially the reason I support the club.
What would intrigue me is how out of towners would feel, people who never lived here.  To be honest, I don't really get how you guys end up supporting the club - in a good way.  What is it about the club that makes it the one you would support?

How out of town rob? I lived in Cirencester. Swindon was my local league club. So essentially the same reasons as you.

Agree about moving out of Swindon ending us being Swindon, hence ending my support. County ground is in a great location, but I'd survive if the club moved within the Town

I think even Bassett would tug at the heart strings.......maybe that's too far, and I'd actually still carry on.  Ciren would be a big no no though.  That's a different Town and County.  I think we are talking a few miles really, so not a big radius.

I honestly can get my head around how you end up supporting Swindon.  I can see why fans with no league club in their home town would choose a big club.  I've got no emotional tie to Ciren for example, so if Swindon didn't exist and Ciren was a league club, I can get my head around wanting to support them, I think I'd go an watch the easiest club to get to in London on the train or something (big one that is).

I think I class as an 'out of towner'- I live about an hour and a half away. I support Swindon because it's a family thing. I wouldn't call myself a Moonraker, having grown up more in Dorset, but my dad is, and he got me and my elder sibling hooked on the club from an early age. I'm named after a certain Mr. Shearer, so it was kind of inevitable...

I personally think moving the club out of Swindon would be abhorrent. From the outside, the town is a shithole with no real attractions, and hoiking out a major reason for people to go there would properly cripple the place. I can't really get my head around the club moving away from the CG, as I don't think they should, but if there was a good reason/properly decent development option that was elsewhere in the Town, I think I'd survive. It is Swindon 'Town' after all. We don't want to do a kassam/ricoh/franchise and relocate miles away in some 'orrible industrial complex with no soul anywhere nearby. The Liberty Stadium in Swansea is actually a good example of somewhere that has balanced the practical need to build a new stadium on an industrial estate with having a closeness to town. Thinking about it, I do think Swansea should be the new 'pattern' for making a club work. They're safe in the prem, have a decent-ish youth system, great new stadium, semi-fan ownership, etc.

Different to a lot of other teams, I think our club's redevelopment is intrinsically linked to the improvement of the town. As I've said, there's not a lot else that draws in the crowds in Swindon, and the town itself is actually well placed in the middle of a 'dead ground' of decent football teams (Brizzle doesn't count, Reading are going down, Southampton are pretty much the closest team that will definitely be Premiership next year, and with Coventry's problems god only knows). It's possible that a load of 'floating fans' could be drawn to new investment/development, particularly if we're in the Championship next year.

Cardiff have done something that works in the short term, we'll see how they're doing 5 years down the line. I can actually seeing them being alright, they're still in the city, still a Welsh club, improving their marketing links in the far east. If they don't go mental and start spending £30m on players, I reckon they'll be alright.

Sorry I meant how out of town would you need to be to be classed as an 'out of towner'.

But you reply was more interesting. The distances of Cirencester, Chippenham would be a no. Moving to a greenfield site on the outskirts (e.g j16) I think would be dissapointing for multiple reasons, but we'd still be Swindon town.

Ok, I can see why someone from Bassett would support Swindon, it's practically a suburb now.
Cricklade - 50/50, they probably think they are nothing to do with Swindon, but are, same for Highworth.  Once you go beyond those, I'd say you were an "out of towner".  At that point I can imagine myself choosing rather than having no choice.  I know I am wrong, and there all sorts of reasons, but my point was geared towards whether the fanbase would in fact "care" whether it was in Swindon or 15 miles away and whether that would depend on where you were from and why you supported the club.

I would rather stay at a ramshackle County Ground then move to a soulless pit in the middle of nowhere. If we were to build a new ground I would want 4 separate stands, and a bit of character. Wouldn't want to end up with a Keepmoat. I still think the way forward is redeveloping the County Ground, all we need at the moment is a redeveloped Townend, if we did that it would probably take our capacity up to 17/18k.

Yep. Redevelop the TE (even just ripping the seats out and replacing them with safe standing when it gets approved would be a good start if we're being cheap about it), replace Stratton with a proper, roofed stand that we can stick the away lot in, and we'd be well on our way to having a 20k capacity. Internal remodelling is really all that really needs to happen with the DRS and Arkells, just to make them look slightly less grotty (it's happened to some extent in the Legends Lounge and the 'posh' bits of the Arkells already).

Well, if you are taking a straw poll, as an out of towner now living in town it very much matters to me.  Swindon are my club. 15 miles isn't Swindon. That answer would be the same if I lived elsewhere.

I am from and live in Devizes. The location of the ground is important as it forms such a big part of the match day ritual, from where you park to the routes you walk to the ground, what pubs/chippies you use. I also think the most of us have to walk to the ground from where we park is also part of the experience - you meet and have a shared experience and conversation with total strangers, including away fans.

I have very little interest in the town of Swindon and the only thing I go there for is football - even then i'd choose 10 aways over one home game……..but if we ever moved out of the town, i'd be done.  I’m not even sure why I think like this, but I do.
 
A great article, but unfortunately anyone agreeing with the author is very much in the minority.  At the end of the day, the Premier League TM and all the shite that comes with it will win. 

Supporting town was probably the only thing I could rely on until my death bed, but it’s articles like this that make me realise there’s a high chance I won’t be watching town in 20 or 30 years.  Football is a horrible business and I fully expect to be shafted at some point soon. 

Now this is pessimism to rival Mr Reg

Some brilliant posts on here.

I think a lot depends on the first PROPER match you attend either on your own(as i did) or with a friend or parent...after my first match i was hooked...the atmosphere, smell and the whole experience as a youngster had me spellbound.

If i had gone to watch another team instead of Swindon....maybe i would have been hooked on them.

A move to Chippenham would work for me.........

 :sofa:

Exactly the reason I'm a town fan.  As a proper out-of-towner it was pure chance that my first game as a young kid was at Swindon due to my old man getting a couple of free tickets.  I was hooked thereafter but I assume if that first game had of been at Pox, Reading, whoever then I'd probably be a fan of them

Same. I have no personal/family links to the Town other than the support for its football club.

Thanks dad.

Same here, probably in more extreme circs than most!! My uncle took me to the first game of the 94/95 season against Port Vale, the season after relegation from the Prem. Been going ever since & have had a season ticket since 96/97 & all despite being a proud Welshman with no links to Swindon at all!! My nickname at home is Swindon, u'd be amazed at how many people here look out for our results on a Saturday, mainly to take the piss!!

Haha, not my nickname but I would often be called Swindon when playing football (fellow out of towner)

Weird isn't it?! I was born and bred a Calney and in about '84-85 when I was 10 I used to watch Points West or (whatever it was) and they used to show City, Rovers and Town. My first instinct as a young lad was to support all three local teams as I was West Country and proud! I didn't know any better - and to be fair my parents had absolutely no interest in football so I didn't know it was not the done thing to support 3 teams!

Anyhow, I happily carried on cheering on all three clubs, but started becoming more interested in Swindon because it was the closest big town to Calne - and in '86-87 I switched to following Swindon alone. Good choice methinks, as when I went to 'big school' in Calne, there were many other Swindon fans and in '89 I went to my first game with the family of one of my mates at school - Swindon v Bristol City and we lost 1 - 0 to a Junior Bent goal.

The Stratton Bank was packed and I hardly saw a thing! But I was hooked. Never looked back since.

So I've got no real links with Swindon except through the football and the occasional shopping trip! Weird to say it but I identify with the town though and would feel unable to support the club if it moved out of town (i.e. to a different town not just edge of town).... No one ever said being a football fan is rational.

I'm a calneite too, a friend of mine used to go too in the early 80's with his dad and I wondered why. I used to be an armchair fan in the late 70's to late 80's; then I got off my arse in 89 to see us stuff the pox 3-0 and never looked back.