Losing the love for the Albion

[InsaneSociety]

Would this thread have ever been started if we had lost to anyone else aside from "that lot" ? I know how depressed everyone must be, but come the start of August, let's hope that whoever we have at the helm, we are all on the same side, supporting the team, the club with renewed vigour. Remember, a club is for life, not just one year in the premiership!

 

[fcportaloo]

Agree with OP - but rather than "losing the love for the Albion" it should read losing the love for football in general.

Money is absolutely destroying the game and it seems rather than the FFP fixing it - it's going to mean football clubs are going to squeeze even MORE money from the fans, turning this experience into even MORE of a plastic ,commercial one - losing touch of what's really important & enjoyable about football even more

People hate hearing this, but we should really aspire to be like Germany - Cheap tickets, terracing in modern stadia, great atmospheres, great football, plenty of home grown players -etc

This

 

[Cheshire Cat]

We are all plastic now - really.

 

[GoldWithFalmer]

We are all plastic now - really.

 

[GoldWithFalmer]

I think he was just loving the fact that he supported the albion. I have spent 50 years of loving the albion whatever the team , venue or result. It's called being a fan.
It's more to do with the difficulty some of us fans have with the way the game and its infrastructure have changed that is turning us off.

In all seriousness,being at Withdean and Gillingham blinded us to the truth,ok we witnessed it to some degree at away matches,but week in week out for 14 years,we were effectively living in a dream world,away form the changing face of British football..

 

[Pavilionaire]

If Poyet hadn't thrown his toys out of the pram all would still be well. And if Hammond had scored at Selhurst...

 

[W.C.]

Nostalgia's not what it used to be.

 

[stss30]

On your bike then.

 

[twickers]

Have you been seeing another club?

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

Bye. Dont need fans like that anyway

You take every chance to be a boob don't you. The guy gives an honest, decent, personal appraisal of how he feels and your considered response is this? I think you've missed the point entirely - and I'm entirely unsurprised.

 

[Pretty pink fairy]

So there I was, 16 years old and the fixtures have just been released, games such as Darlington away, Wycombe away, Brentford away and the real biggun away to Orient will be my future for the next 9 months, dreams of Pompey or Palace in the cup were also possible, what more could you want....it was going to be a hell of a season and I'd go anywhere to watch us. High points of fun away travel knowing we were going to watch div 3 comedy football with tea bars and £2 burgers, terracing and affordable entrances, we were the 'BIG' fish in the smallest of ponds, outsinging and out partying our opponants and on very rare occasions out playing them, these were the days where football was fun, grounds were old, tatty and the experience was hardly smooth and slick, Brighton were shit and I loved every minute of it but as with anything in life, I dreamed like so many others for more, I dreamed of once having a ground as beautiful as what was then the 'Alfred Mcalpine stadium', I cant say I ever thought it would happen............

13 years and the dream has been realized and if I'm honest, I loved it for about 6 months but now the club that I loved, the club that I would have walked 70 miles to watch instead of jumping on a double decker bus to go to, the club which I wanted so so so badly to succeed is just that to me now, a club, a business, a modern day money making machine that gets large numbers through the door, but somewhere within that change over, somewhere in all the quick success and 20,000+ new or returning fans that have emerged, something has dramatically changed and the 'Amex effect' isn't what I dreamed, isn't what I for-saw for my special club and I'm not sure how much longer I'll be part of it. Lets be realistic, it needed to change...I'm fully aware of that, I'm certainly not one of those who wanted us to always be the big fish in the lower leagues but it appears to me, the higher up you go, the more plastic it becomes, the more expensive it becomes and the more theatre like it becomes and that isn't the game or experience that I grew up loving, I had my fix of what the higher level was like from other fans on the trains coming back from the games and also on MOTD if I could get back from Darlington in time!

The most hilarious thing is, we lord it over teams like Palace with their run down ground with wooden seats, a drum and a tacky old school feel about it, but theres something 50x more real about that experience than the same dreary songs being belted out by the amex faithfull as they run up the exit stairs on 80 minutes and head for their train after adding nothing to the day and escaping without being noticed. I know we're very lucky, we have a wonderful chairman who has invested heavily into a wonderful arena to watch football and I may sound it but im most certainly not ungrateful in the slightest, it's just not working out for me personally and I was as avid as they come. Maybe its an age thing or maybe it's modern day football at the higher level in all seater staduims but as I've said, this isn't the great club & game it once was.

I met a pompey fan the other day, I said to him "Bet your gutted about another relegation" "No he replied, why would I be, I get to visit grounds I've never been to, take thousends away and take over small shit hole towns and basically get back to the game I fell in love with" I walked away thinking, my god he's so right.

It's all well and good moaning about the club/ground/expiereince but what can be done, what would make this more appealing, as I cant be alone in this feeling?

For me, terracing would bring a bit of banter back, bring fans closer together and make it more of a laugh to go to football, somewhere along this journey I've stopped laughing at the albion home games, I don't really look forward to them, that usually still thankfully occurs at away games which haven't lost the full edge and the future for me will proberly be just away games as home games just don't do it for me.

Slate me, ban me or ignore me, it's my view but I'll always follow the albion as they once were everything to me, maybe it's healthy that they just aren't what they used to be.

this blokes said what i've been saying for a while now, SOME OF YOU LEMONS ON HERE NEED TO GET A GRIP AND WAKE UP TO SANITISED FOOTBALL , it's shit and has ruined the football experience simple as that , GREAT IF YOU'RE A WERTHERS ORIGINAL or a HAPPY CLAPPEY jcl ,TAKE YOUR PICK YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE, time to reclaim football too it's right full followers
regards
DR

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

this blokes said what i've been saying for a while now, SOME OF YOU LEMONS ON HERE NEED TO GET A GRIP AND WAKE UP TO SANITISED FOOTBALL , it's shit and has ruined the football experience simple as that , GREAT IF YOU'RE A WERTHERS ORIGINAL or a HAPPY CLAPPEY jcl ,TAKE YOUR PICK YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE, time to reclaim football too it's right full followers
regards
DR

It'll never happen. That is unless some areas of standing are reintroduced. That would up the north stand atmosphere considerably. But those days off the past will never return.

 

[twickers]

this blokes said what i've been saying for a while now, SOME OF YOU LEMONS ON HERE NEED TO GET A GRIP AND WAKE UP TO SANITISED FOOTBALL , it's shit and has ruined the football experience simple as that , GREAT IF YOU'RE A WERTHERS ORIGINAL or a HAPPY CLAPPEY jcl ,TAKE YOUR PICK YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE, time to reclaim football too it's right full followers
regards
DR

In all seriousness it's a very good thread. We can't have it both ways.

I've sat with my daughter and watched the policy in action as a man was escorted out for shouting aggressively at the opposition. Nothing offensive, but aggressive. The undercover security sat next to us. It would have been acceptable behaviour at Withdean, almost expected, but at the Amex it's deemed un family friendly.

Where do I stand on that? I agree it's the way forward. We lose a so called die hard fan...a rightful follower...maybe. We gain three of my kids. My wife, friends and others who never joined me at the games in the days where our terraces comprised of near autistic shouters are now willing to come and that gives us a sustainable model for revenue through season tickets, merchandise, food and drink etc.

The bottom line is there are no rightful followers. Any new kid who gets to come and watch a game and gets hooked in the Albion for life is just as important as a Goldstone die hard. Any fair weather Arsenal fan that decides to spend his or her ticket money on us for a change on a weekend is welcome.

Werthers originals, happy clappers, silent excitables whoever they may be very much have a grip...they are making choices and when they choose Albion they are making a good choice, a choice that supports our long term future and neither you nor anyone has a right to call them or us lemons.

 

[teaboy]

In all seriousness it's a very good thread. We can't have it both ways.

I've sat with my daughter and watched the policy in action as a man was escorted out for shouting aggressively at the opposition. Nothing offensive, but aggressive. The undercover security sat next to us. It would have been acceptable behaviour at Withdean, almost expected, but at the Amex it's deemed un family friendly.

Where do I stand on that? I agree it's the way forward. We lose a so called die hard fan...a rightful follower...maybe. We gain three of my kids. My wife, friends and others who never joined me at the games in the days where our terraces comprised of near autistic shouters are now willing to come and that gives us a sustainable model for revenue through season tickets, merchandise, food and drink etc.

The bottom line is there are no rightful followers. Any new kid who gets to come and watch a game and gets hooked in the Albion for life is just as important as a Goldstone die hard. Any fair weather Arsenal fan that decides to spend his or her ticket money on us for a change on a weekend is welcome.

Werthers originals, happy clappers, silent excitables whoever they may be very much have a grip...they are making choices and when they choose Albion they are making a good choice, a choice that supports our long term future and neither you nor anyone has a right to call them or us lemons.

There was always a place for that type of supporter. Seats were available, and 'family stands' are nothing new. It's just there isn't a place for the other supporters now. I'm not suggesting that you have one or the other, but it's perfectly possible to cater for both. Clubs, and modern football in general, have chosen to ignore what a large part of their fanbase want whilst dictating what the 'choices' now are.

 

[SIMMO SAYS]

From being a Goldstone 'Die Hard' from the early seventies to being a 'returning JCL' since the Amex I think I have a foot in both camps. I admit I missed out seeing a lot in between while bringing up four kids and all that goes with self employment (working every weekend!) However I've never lost my love for the Albion.The many away games I have been to in the last two seasons brings back the memories of the edginess/fun/singing/hang-overs of the Goldstone years. The Amex is chalk and cheese to what it used to be like, and with that comes that slightly corporate feel. I have 'done' the 1901 club twice this season and enjoyed it even tho I was surrounded by people looking at their mobiles for the whole game. We can never go back to what it used to be but those moments like in The Hikers after a big win makes up for all the crap stuff. What has worried me is the amount of money involved now with millions of pounds going out of the game to chancers and spiv agents. Oh---I hate those fecking clackers

 

[twickers]

There was always a place for that type of supporter. Seats were available, and 'family stands' are nothing new. It's just there isn't a place for the other supporters now. I'm not suggesting that you have one or the other, but it's perfectly possible to cater for both. Clubs, and modern football in general, have chosen to ignore what a large part of their fanbase want whilst dictating what the 'choices' now are.

True, good point.

 

[CT1]

Brave post which I sympathise with

 

[portslade seagull]

Take a season off and come back refreshed the year after

 

[Kent Gull]

Supporter since the 70s and couldn't agree more with byf1.

 

[Westdene Wonder]

Its correct to say we had some poor home games this season when we had plenty of possession but only drew, the reason being that the possesion was mainly in our half and our opponents were quite happy to play along, at Withdean if there was another game at home within a short time say Sat to Tues and you could not face a repeat effort you could miss out,this is the handicap of a season ticket you cant vote with your feet,infuture I will purchase a ticket only when I feel I will receive satisfaction,its good to feel that once again I am in control of when I attend a match.