Swindon Town in the community

[jb]

They used to do soccer schools up St Joes school during holidays, they still doing them?

[TheDukeOfBanbury]

Interesting comments here.

Not being a native Swindonian. Does a community spirit actually exist in Swindon ?

If you go to Newcastle for example you can feel the community spirit and pride around being a Geordie. Is Swindon regarded as a Commuter Town with little identity.
I have to say apart from football I have little to do with visiting Swindon. No relatives or history.
I did however earlier in the year go into the Town and went into the old GW train works and enjoyed the history.

I guess more could be done with the younger generation. It is difficult changing the attitude and culture of parents.
What could be done ?

[Ardiles]

Interesting points, but I'm not sure it's so black & white.  Many of the 32,000 that turned up at Wembley were derided as being part-timers...and unfairly so, in my view.  There were thousands of people there that day who hadn't had much to do with the football club up until that point, but who turned up simply because they lived in or around Swindon and 'their' team was playing.  That demonstrates that there is at least some community spirit left in town.  In fact, one of the reasons I love the club is its ability to bring people together.  Where else in Swindon do you get thousands of people gathering together getting behind a team/body/whatever called Swindon?

Community isn't what it was for several reasons - Swindon is no longer a one industry town and mass media means that our best friends are, these days, less likely to live in the immediate vicinity.  But it's not completely dead either.

[Ardiles]

Corrected for you...

He now is looking forward to the Crewe game and Mrs Duke the Duchess Of Banbury is coming to the Pox game to sample an atmosphere at a footy match.

Its down to the parents 

[Reg Smeeton]

Interesting comments here.
Not being a native Swindonian. Does a community spirit actually exist in Swindon ?

I'd say community spirit in Swindon was quite vibrant....always loads of things going on, which are very much run at a local level.  Depends how much you want to get involved...

As to recruiting kids....very difficult, the club does a lot, but you can't beat a bit of success.

When my kids were little, one was keen the other not....so I got 2 season tickets, one for the keeno and a spare he could give a mate....the deal being that he had to spread it about ( my thinking was some of these lads might become fans...none did)

[leefer]

Interesting points, but I'm not sure it's so black & white.  Many of the 32,000 that turned up at Wembley were derided as being part-timers...and unfairly so, in my view.  There were thousands of people there that day who hadn't had much to do with the football club up until that point, but who turned up simply because they lived in or around Swindon and 'their' team was playing.  That demonstrates that there is at least some community spirit left in town.  In fact, one of the reasons I love the club is its ability to bring people together.  Where else in Swindon do you get thousands of people gathering together getting behind a team/body/whatever called Swindon?

Community isn't what it was for several reasons - Swindon is no longer a one industry town and mass media means that our best friends are, these days, less likely to live in the immediate vicinity.  But it's not completely dead either.

Agree at many of those points,lets hope as i say that the Italian brings the town together once again in a big way.

[Ardiles]

Amen, brother.

[Doore]

Interesting points, but I'm not sure it's so black & white.  Many of the 32,000 that turned up at Wembley were derided as being part-timers...and unfairly so, in my view.  There were thousands of people there that day who hadn't had much to do with the football club up until that point, but who turned up simply because they lived in or around Swindon and 'their' team was playing.  That demonstrates that there is at least some community spirit left in town.  In fact, one of the reasons I love the club is its ability to bring people together.  Where else in Swindon do you get thousands of people gathering together getting behind a team/body/whatever called Swindon?

Community isn't what it was for several reasons - Swindon is no longer a one industry town and mass media means that our best friends are, these days, less likely to live in the immediate vicinity.  But it's not completely dead either.

Very well put.  To add to this, I think its the case in most areas - remnants of close communities do remain, but as people move about more, and set their sights further afield, it is natural and inevitable that local links erode over time.  It often takes "big occasions" such as the playoff final to remind people of these links. 

[Samdy Gray]

You could all just take a look at the FITC website and find out exactly what it is they do.

http://www.stfc-fitc.co.uk/

[yeo]

Chap I work with is a Coach for stfc soccers schools / in the community stuff and theres been loads of cuts in this over the past few weeks.Not to worry though Reading have Spurs have happily filled the void.

[wiggy]

The centre of excellence are sniffing around my youngest lad, who plays in goal. I have been thinking long and hard about it, and have decided that even if they ask I won't put him in. He is just coming up 9 years old, and really enjoys playing with his mates in the local team. If they ask again when he is about 15 it would probably be a different answer, but right now I don't want to put him in a position where he can't play other sports.