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Here’s a hypothetical question we all know the answer to. Why is it when football clubs err it is always the fans who must suffer?
If you yelled out ‘money’ from the back then you win a prize but it should be pointed out too that making a profit is not the root cause every time. On occasion it’s more metaphysical than that. On occasion it’s because they simply don’t give two flying f***s about any of us.
Take Tottenham’s ground farce as a prime example. The supporters have played ball from the moment the club announced that it intended to rebuild White Hart Lane: they compliantly filled in the numerous surveys and in a broader sense wholly bought into the vision, acquiescing to a period of limited transfer spending and this during an era when Spurs are just a couple of players shy from becoming a dominant force in top flight football.
They have publicly defended the club’s name at every turn, even when it became increasingly apparent that this was not going to be a new spiritual home but rather a ludicrously expensive edifice built for commerciality. This summer they shelled out in their droves the obscenely hiked-up prices for season tickets.
How were they rewarded for such unwavering loyalty as the completion date passed and a calamitous delay set in? Were they spared the fall-out as much as feasibly possible? Well let’s see. With at least two games now rescheduled for Wembley it became necessary for Spurs fans to purchase new tickets despite having already paid for the fixtures to take place at the new stadium. To compensate for this the club have promised to reimburse fans with credit notes in the future.
How utterly reprehensible and furthermore avoidable this is. First the club cock up their completion date necessitating fans to initially pay out twice for one ticket. Then they are charged more for the privilege. There is taking fans for granted and then there’s openly treating them with disdain. Neither is acceptable. Both apply here.
But it only gets worse because amidst the chaos of the missed deadline the lack of communication – surely the basic right of every fan not only due to their emotional investment but their actual financial investment too – has been little short of abysmal. A shambolic autopay scheme for cup games has prompted widespread confusion while the date and venue of their clash with Manchester City in late October remains clouded in uncertainty.
Concerning the latter it is not only Spurs supporters who have been grossly inconvenienced. Confirmation that the ground will still not be match fit for the fixture was publicly made available just two days after Sky moved the fixture to a Sunday afternoon and with Wembley in use that weekend for an NFL game that leaves us with the unique situation of a televised Premier League game that presently does not have a kick-off time or indeed home.
There is a very small chance that the Tottenham board discovered that their white elephant will not be able to meet all safety criteria for the City game on the very day they released that information. Let’s not give them the benefit of the doubt on this but let’s at least include it as a far-fetched possibility.
Far more likely however they knew beforehand but didn’t want to miss out on the lucrative TV rights for such a high-profile encounter and once that was secured it was only then they released the news. In the meantime of course City fans had snapped up costly train tickets, tickets they were now worthless.
In a straight choice between missing out on a lot of money or costing fans a lot of money which way do you think a modern-day club sways? There are no prizes for guessing that one.
The delayed opening of the new White Hart Lane has been a botch job unbecoming of a cowboy builder dragging out an extension and rumours abound that the situation is far worse than even reported.
There have been unsubstantiated claims that only 35 of the 300 fire alarm loops work and even with 50 men on the job (some of whom are electricians on hugely inflated wages) the ground won’t be open for business until early 2019. Partly due to Brexit meanwhile the overall cost of the stadium has risen close to one billion pounds while the prolonged delay has resulted in the Premier League bending their rules that stipulate that a club cannot play at two different home stadia in a single season.
The whole thing is a mess frankly and to some extent the club are deserving of some sympathy because a positive move has turned into an extremely costly PR disaster that in all likelihood was beyond their control.
For their absence of respect towards their own fans however they are deserving of nothing but condemnation.
[brid autoplay=”true” video=”279706″ player=”12034″ title=”Watch Danny Rose To PSG or Schalke”]
