This article reflects on the evolution of match-day experiences at top-tier English football clubs, highlighting the shift in atmosphere over the past two to three decades. The author draws on personal experiences attending Newcastle United matches, comparing the vibrant, traditional fan culture of the 1980s to the current climate.
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There is no doubt that the atmosphere at elite English football matches has changed significantly over the last two or three decades, as global and commercial forces have impacted heavily. Additionally, high ticket prices, a high corporate presence at matches, and a seeming necessity for clubs to act as a tourist attraction with a global reach to fans on match days, are all factors that have led to a sanitisation of traditional crowd atmospheres at matches.
The loss of the terraces has been detrimental in preventing more vocal fans from gathering together in mass groups as they did in that bygone age when people would intermingle and move about the terraces, getting to know others and ‘the rules’ of the terrace culture. People of different backgrounds and localities would be readily accepted by others if they behaved in the ‘correct’ manner and added to the atmosphere in the ‘correct’ way.
In the wake of the inquiry into the disaster, the Football Supporters Association had the foresight to argue against all-seater stadiums, principally because it believed clubs would use them as a platform to raise prices. Lord Justice Taylor rejected this, suggesting “it should be possible to plan a price structure which suits the cheapest seats to the pockets of those presently paying to stand.”
Indeed, in commenting on what both Lord Justice Taylor and the FA had said, the Football Task Force stated, “Without question, the issue of concern for football fans which was raised most often by fans’ groups we met and in our public forums was ticket prices. There is a genuine and deeply held belief that football is pricing some fans out of the game, and deterring new ones from attending because of ticket price inflation. This view has been substantiated by our commissioned research.
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