That 'matchday experience'

It's a horrible expression which immediately invokes images of a self-satisfied Katrein Meire swanning around the Valley in the hour or two before the match with a host of bodyguards and sychophants telling her that her latest ill-conceived novelty would soon have the tills ringing. Imported by marketeers, especially since the success of the Premier League, it's allowed big clubs to milk their increasingly gullible supporters whose demographic profile has continued to evolve higher up the Wanker Scale largely at the expense of the traditional working class family support that was once the bedrock of all clubs.

If we are honest, for many of us a matchday was always about more than the 90 minute struggle at the Valley. What drew us back game after game wasn't just the sparkling football and famous victories, but the few pints in the pub before and/or after the match, meeting up with a load of like-minded mates. It was gossip, banter and laughter. The back-slapping and the piss-take. The configuration of grounds encouraged free association and you could roam to say hello to other mates as well as those you stood with religiously. For the more avid supporter, away games added another dimension and helped strengthen the bonds with other fans which made home matches all the more enjoyable. 

Looking back on the gradual loss of interest over the last ten years, our footballing decline has obviously taken a lot of the fun out of it, but I think there's a lot more to it than that. We have never been glory boys have we? Success has always been relatively fleeting and most of us have always been more accustomed to disappointment.

Going as a teenager or in my early twenties, I bought a season ticket which was affordable and whilst we blamed the Glikstens for our historic failure in not keeping up with Arsenal, the status quo they presided over largely meant that ownership was a brief topic of conversation. That became a huge issue from 1985 when it threatened briefly to close the club but we eventually recovered under better ownership and after the return to the Valley concerns largely faded away until Richard Murray sold up to Jiminez and Slater, since when ownership has become as much a topic of conversation as how the team are doing and invariably for all the wrong reasons.

The matchday scene, focused around the dozen-plus pubs and clubs dotted around the Valley but in-line with pubs everywhere, a bumper Saturday taking twice a month during the season hasn't been enough to prevent their number dwindling to four (The Royal Oak, The Rose of Denmark, The Bugle and the The Anchor in Hope). That's meant they tend to be busier than ever at peak and prices have risen too - £6 a pint in the Oak. It's become so bad that most of my cohort now either rarely bother (driving to the game instead) or they drink further afield and train it in for kick-off. Some had reluctantly decided to endure the Fans Bar or whatever it's called now in the Covered End. Moaning non-stop about the poor service, duff selection of beer, stingy chip portion etc, the completely unnecessary move to plastic or cardboard drinking vessels in recent weeks has seen them join the exodus to Greenwich, Blackheath, Plumstead or Abbey Wood pre-match. 

As regular readers may know, I live locally and I moved here in 1987 because I spent so much of my social time in SE7 that it made sense. In that time matchdays in and around the ground have changed so much. I would regularly walk up to the station before 12 to put a bet on and decide where to have my first pint. I would be stopped several times en route to the Bookie by Charlton mates who wanted to catch-up and let me know their plans for the day. I would encounter wide-eyed away fans, often wanting to know where they could get a drink or recommendations of where to eat or go after the game. 

On Saturday I walked around to station after 12 and saw no-one I know other than the regular burger seller, the independent merch seller and Nick from the Museum. Business is down and we all acknowledged that 'it's not what it used to be.' As is more usual now, I didn't see a Lincoln fan and was back home by 1pm.

The hopelessness of the season is much to blame but even with a successful season, the matchday experience around the ground has been diminished forever. The Club can do more but it can't sell all it's existing capacity for hospitality at the moment and it's limited even we are doing well and fans are ready to spend more. Clubs are also 'corporate' and that's not what most fans want around their matchday. 

Going to football doesn't really get any cheaper and we have had poor value for money in recent seasons - this year being the worst in memory. Just getting to games has also become harder and more expensive. A mate called in on me at 1pm. He lives in Eltham but had driven and parked on Woolwich Common to avoid ULEZ costs and walked down from there so one pint was his limit. I guess that is an even bigger issue for our travelling fans from Kent who are faced with a long walk after a long drive if they own an older car and want to avoid the penalty. Parking too is getting harder as the local authority pushes ahead with ever more controlled parking schemes.

The cost of living issue is really going to bite in the coming months and the Covid-related bill for the billions spent and the billions wasted will need to be paid back over the next twenty years at least, so the longer term picture is not looking great either. That 'matchday experience' will need to be far better, more affordable and more available if it's to support better attendance at games. I really can't see how it changes as things stand and an uninspiring season ticket offer on the back of a season of derided 'freebies' is only going to see numbers slip further. 

Football runs deep and supporters are more durable than most think but we have had a long period of steady decline that we have to arrest. An imaginative offer may have sparked more optimism and hope but we have fluffed that and need to find something else. Mumford and Sandgaard told us recently that they acknowledged the mistakes of this season and that they would be proof-checking future decisions with trusted supporters. The evidence is that those supporters were clearly ignored over the season ticket deal.

The spotlight will now focus on who we bring in to strengthen our squad and also, for once, just how many do we get rid of, because too many of them have proven beyond any remaining doubt that they aren't good enough and we won't move forward until they are gone.