What actually is a football club?

[threespires]

If we didn't have a single fan we wouldn't have a business to call a club.

Owners can change but fans will always be here.

I'm not convinced of that you know. With the advancement of technology I think it will be entirely possible to dispense with ordinary in attendance fans within a decade and still have a successful "product". Whether they choose to do that is another matter. Fans may still exist but not in the form that we currently thing of them/ourselves.

I think the general answer to the OP's question is "not what it used to be".

 

[Whether or not]

In simple terms, a football club is a business and fans are customers. But unlike any other business, the customers will keep turning up even when the product on offer is crap, time after time, and feel a deep sense of identity and loyalty to the business. It makes little sense when looked at like that. But I know if somebody asks me how I define myself, the first thing in my head is that I am a blue, before nationality, occupation, anything.

 

[mexico1970]

I'm not convinced of that you know. With the advancement of technology I think it will be entirely possible to dispense with ordinary in attendance fans within a decade and still have a successful "product". Whether they choose to do that is another matter. Fans may still exist but not in the form that we currently thing of them/ourselves.

I think the general answer to the OP's question is "not what it used to be".

Respect your opinion mate but... and here's where we differ. I don't believe that football will expand IMO it's dying it's becoming a soulless entity and people are going to start to see it.

If it doesn't pull its finger out of its arse it's going the same way as the gladiators went, somewhere in ancient history there was a bloke/woman who turned to their mate and said "that's not very nice" and the rest is history.

 

[M23 Citizen]

A football club is an entity that represents a part of the history and culture of the city it is situated in. It serves the purpose of giving the citizens who live there a football club that represents them in the sport they love.

No matter who owns the shares of any football club at any one time, the football club belongs to the city it’s in and its citizens.

Shareholders, board members, managers, players and all other staff come-and-go, but there are always two elements that have always been there and will always be there at every football club - the city and its citizens.

Shareholders and board members might be under the impression that the football club exists to create revenue for the shareholders, but it is the shareholders and board members who are there to create a football club that enriches the history and culture of the city it’s in for its citizens to enjoy and be proud of.

 

[threespires]

Respect your opinion mate but... and here's where we differ. I don't believe that football will expand IMO it's dying it's becoming a soulless entity and people are going to start to see it.

If it doesn't pull its finger out of its arse it's going the same way as the gladiators went, somewhere in ancient history there was a bloke/woman who turned to their mate and said "that's not very nice" and the rest is history.

Actually that's a really interesting point, will it make itself so repulsive that it either has to restrain itself or risk creating it's own doom?

I suppose my pessimism is that there's now fair portion of football fans around the world that don't really conform to to our conception of a football fan, they don't follow a particular team or hop between the mega teams and in some cases are more attached to individual players than clubs, they like the EA version of football as much as the carbon based one! If they can sufficiently monetise that type of fan then the traditional type of fan is no longer required at all. So it becomes (more) soulless as we understand it but it just ends up appealing to a different audience.

I hope your version of things where there's sufficient push back that they have to restrain themselves is the more accurate view of the future.

 

[calumdown]

But unlike any other business, the customers will keep turning up even when the product on offer is crap, time after time, and feel a deep sense of identity and loyalty to the business

in theory.
but nothing in life is guaranteed.
what if some horrid scenario happened.

extremely unlikely, granted,
but what if down the line it comes out that several first team players and management were members of a paedeophile ring.
the chairman found out and hushed it up.

i'm pretty sure we'd all stop supporting the club,
but the club would still exist, wouldn't it?

 

[mexico1970]

Actually that's a really interesting point, will it make itself so repulsive that it either has to restrain itself or risk creating it's own doom?

I suppose my pessimism is that there's now fair portion of football fans around the world that don't really conform to to our conception of a football fan, they don't follow a particular team or hop between the mega teams and in some cases are more attached to individual players than clubs, they like the EA version of football as much as the carbon based one! If they can sufficiently monetise that type of fan then the traditional type of fan is no longer required at all. So it becomes (more) soulless as we understand it but it just ends up appealing to a different audience.

I hope your version of things where there's sufficient push back that they have to restrain themselves is the more accurate view of the future.

Whatever happens, if there's a nuclear war and only the two of us remain we will always have the common ground of York away :)

 

[calumdown]

No matter who owns the shares of any football club at any one time, the football club belongs to the city it’s in and the citizens that live there. Shareholders simply own the shares, not the club.

what if the shareholders simply decide they don't care any more?
what if they make everyone redundant,
pay off all the players and staff,
and knock down the stadium?
it's theirs to do whatever they want to do with, isn't it?

 

[M23 Citizen]

what if the shareholders simply decide they don't care any more?
what if they make everyone redundant,
pay off all the players and staff,
and knock down the stadium?
it's theirs to do whatever they want to do with, isn't it?

If a shareholder ever thiught about doing that, you’d hope that the governing body of the league/country that club is from, possibly with help from government, maybe an independent regulator, would impose sanctions and fines on the shareholder before it ever got to that.

Then maybe say that shareholder has to then sell their shares to someone else and deem them as unfit to own shares of the historical and cultural entity that a football club is.

 

[calumdown]

If a shareholder ever thiught about doing that, you’d hope that the governing body of the league/country that club is from, possibly with help from government, maybe an independent regulator, would impose sanctions and fines before it ever got to that.

Then maybe say that shareholder has to then sell their shares to someone else and deem them as unfit to own shares of the historical and cultural entity that a football club is.

mate,
if the scenario i posed actually happened to us,
the way things stand at the moment with the charges and shit,
i'm pretty sure all the other premier league teams would happily wave goodbye to us.