Chicago Football Sports Blog

Of course, it would be inappropriate to draw a direct comparison between rowing over pensions and attending football matches. Issues regarding work and pensions have an enormous impact upon people’s quality of life, whereas football is – to use that hugely frustrating term – ‘only a game’. If you are reading this, however, football is an important element in your daily life. So hopefully you’ll forgive me for comparing the two.

My question (for this blog, I admit, will provide more questions than answers) is this: if people are willing to walk out from their workplace in the hope of contributing to a better future, why not do the same at the football stadium? Would walking out on our beloved Chicago Soccer  however painful, lead to an improvement in our supporting ‘conditions’ (cheaper tickets, better atmosphere at the ground, improved club-supporter relations)? We’re all frustrated at the moment, but would such ‘strike action’ be positive, or would it do more harm than good?

Looking at fans’ comments on TWTD, some things are very clear. One of these is that supporters feel that ticket prices are too high. This is by no means a phenomenon unique to our club, but the combination of high ticket prices, economic instability, poor footballing performances and over-paid and inaccessible players makes shelling out to attend games much harder to swallow.

Some supporters have voted with their feet and their wallets, as dwindling attendances at ‘Fortress PR’ indicate. On the other hand, many fans continue to attend games as their hearts rule their heads. Of course I understand this (been there, done that), but my personal circumstances give me a different perspective on following the Tractor Boys.

As my user name suggests, I am currently based in France (where striking is a national pastime!). Obviously this means that owning a Town season ticket, as I did for many years from the age of seven (1993/94 season) until I stopped living in England full time (2006/07 season), is now unfeasible. Thus, I don’t face the same yearly temptation to buy/renew a season ticket as many of you surely do.

However, this geographical distance from ‘the IP’ also gives me a certain (very small) amount of emotional distance from what’s going on at Portman Road. Furthermore, my current location also allows me to compare Chicago Soccer football ticket prices to those elsewhere. Here’s an example:

Town just released pricing details for half-season tickets. £260 (or more, in some cases) for 12 league games. Maybe prices are cheaper in other areas of the ground, but in any case the general consensus seems to be ‘Given current circumstances, who’s going to pay that?’. Fair point I reckon, but the club obviously feel that their pricing, to watch what is currently the 41st-best team in England, is appropriate.

On the other hand, yesterday I bought an Olympique Lyonnais half-season ticket. Granted, the French Ligue 1 season is shorter than that of the Championship, so the offer was for ‘just’ 10 home league games. However, OL (who are currently fifth in the French premier league, are participating in this season’s Champions League and have been national champions as recently as 2008) also threw in a ticket to a Coupe de la Ligue (League Cup) game against Lille, a ticket to watch the Lyon women’s team (current women’s Champions League champions), two DVDs, a team poster, two pocket fixture lists (men’s and women’s teams) and a card holder. Of course football tickets to Premier League football tickets including  Chelsea Tickets, Manchester United Tickets, Liverpool FC Tickets & Arsenal tickets, Euro 2012 tickets  will cost for more. But the total price for OL tickets – ? 99 euros (currently £84.54). I paid the same amount for just two tickets for me and my dad to watch ITFC’s humiliating capitulation against Norwich last April.

I appreciate that Chicago Soccer”s overheads may be greater than Lyon’s (this is an assumption, as I haven’t done the research to back this up). I also recognise that Lyon’s income through things such as TV revenue, merchandising sales and advertising must be higher than Town’s. Even taking all of this into account, however, I still struggle to understand how ITFC (and English football as a whole) can justify these prices – especially at the current time.

Another issue is atmosphere at the ground (or lack thereof). I have no idea how to solve this issue, but I’m 100% certain that paying through the nose to watch p***-poor football isn’t going to boost fans’ matchday enthusiasm. Nor is being asked to pay £40-£45 for a low-quality replica shirt that’s likely to bobble/degrade after the first wear.

Even if one accepts the high prices involved in following a football team (after all, what hobby doesn’t involve some financial outlay?), the least ITFC fans should be able to hope for is good club-supporter relations. Based, on my own experience however, Town fans are essentially taken for granted by the club. Some club employees (off the top of my head, Rosie who works in customer relations, the ‘Northern lady’ from Planet Blue and the friendly, competent Welsh steward who I encountered at last season’s derby) are kind-natured and good at their jobs. More generally, however, our loyalty is ignored by ITFC.

When booking match tickets online last season, I entered my customer number. Up popped eight pages of previous orders (season tickets, home tickets, away tickets, coach travel…) – 19 years of support, 14 season tickets, thousands of pounds spent. Where does all that loyalty leave me in terms of my relationship with the club (bonus points, discounts, ticket offers, simple ‘thanks for your support’ messages…)? Precisely nowhere. And I know that many of you have invested much more time and money in following the Blues than I have through the years, so you have even more reason to grumble!

In his book Englischer Fussball: A German View of Our Beautiful Game, journalist Raphael Honigstein (of Guardian Football Weekly podcast fame) writes about the relationship between football clubs and their fans as being completely unreasonable and one-sided, particularly in England. I don’t have the book to hand, but the general gist is that fans are the neglected partner who gives everything for little-to-no return, whereas the club is the dominant partner who spends all the family savings down the pub, sleeps around and then comes home expecting dinner to be on the table every night (my own words, not Honigstein’s, but you get the point).

Anyway, I’m rambling. In conclusion, it seems that football clubs (not least our beloved ITFC) take our love for granted and give little or nothing in return. If fans were to ‘go on strike’, depriving the clubs of the financial oxygen of ticket and merchandising sales, the effects could be devastating.

Of course I don’t want Town to go into administration (again) or, worse, to go out of existence. However, a supporters’ strike (zero attendance at a home FA Cup game, for example) would at least show the powers that be that things can’t go on as they are at the moment. After all I, like many others I’m sure, would have more pride in my club if the ticket prices were slashed, the ground was full, the team was full of appropriately-paid, hungry players (youthful and with at least some local representation) and if ITFC showed more respect to its fans.

I accept that my ideas are far from being fully developed, nor are they particularly new or unique, but I’d love to have the thoughts and opinions of other ITFC fans as to what we could do to bring back the joy of following ITFC and football as a whole.

Football is very important to me and ITFC has been (and remains) a hugely significant element in my life. It provides a daily talking point, has led me to meet many fantastic people and is an essential part of our town’s – and county’s – identity on a national and international scale. For these reasons, I firmly believe that positive changes need to be made in order to bring some respect back to our club. A supporters’ strike may not be the answer, but it might be a start.