“[Doctorow says]… ‘Even the most locked-in user eventually reaches a breaking point and walks away, or gets pushed.’ I don’t know if that’s true for football clubs the same way it is for tech platforms.”
I mean, that's kind of the thing though. FC United of Manchester hasn't been able to turn itself into more than a tiny club with a small fanbase, while Old Trafford sells out every weekend. The Glazers don't have to care about it.
This is true, but unfortunately I don't think there could be easily an equivalent in America in the instance of the NFL or NBA (Baltimore got their NFL team back by "borrowing" Cleveland's). For some people like FCMU's supporters, money is not the only thing important in life. I know I would be happy to support lower league or non-league football rather than the top flight because it would be a far more personal connection to the club. That's something the Glazers will never understand.
Great stuff Grace. Radcliffe always struck me as a bit of a chancer, so if I were a Utd fan I'd not have a huge amounts of confidence in it being significantly better. Better, maybe but only by degrees. But the thesis is sound: as a Chelsea fan were at stage two. We've become a 'finance club'. Of course Clearlake want to win on the pitch but they're finance people who see things through a financial lens. And whilst winning is a very good way to make money, my own worry is they'll see the massive chunk of prime real estate as being the easiest route, with Chelsea Pitch Owners and easier problem to solve than the on pitch related ones that are stacking up. How depressing.
“[Doctorow says]… ‘Even the most locked-in user eventually reaches a breaking point and walks away, or gets pushed.’ I don’t know if that’s true for football clubs the same way it is for tech platforms.”
Some of them have walked away, to be fair:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.C._United_of_Manchester?wprov=sfti1
I mean, that's kind of the thing though. FC United of Manchester hasn't been able to turn itself into more than a tiny club with a small fanbase, while Old Trafford sells out every weekend. The Glazers don't have to care about it.
This is true, but unfortunately I don't think there could be easily an equivalent in America in the instance of the NFL or NBA (Baltimore got their NFL team back by "borrowing" Cleveland's). For some people like FCMU's supporters, money is not the only thing important in life. I know I would be happy to support lower league or non-league football rather than the top flight because it would be a far more personal connection to the club. That's something the Glazers will never understand.
Great stuff Grace. Radcliffe always struck me as a bit of a chancer, so if I were a Utd fan I'd not have a huge amounts of confidence in it being significantly better. Better, maybe but only by degrees. But the thesis is sound: as a Chelsea fan were at stage two. We've become a 'finance club'. Of course Clearlake want to win on the pitch but they're finance people who see things through a financial lens. And whilst winning is a very good way to make money, my own worry is they'll see the massive chunk of prime real estate as being the easiest route, with Chelsea Pitch Owners and easier problem to solve than the on pitch related ones that are stacking up. How depressing.
Football fans will walk away. It just takes longer and they come back quicker.
Newcastle lost 25% of their season ticket holders at the end of the Ashley era.