Sometimes the best part of going to see your team isn't the game itself.
The long walk to the ground walking past kids, parents, grandparents, friends - nodding at that bloke you see every week but have forgotten their name. The smell of burgers, onions and pies evaporating into the air encompassing all else. Kicking a can along the same street you did when you were holding your parent's hand. The hum of the crowd before a match; energy, expectation and excitement, creating a buzz that nothing can compare to. The stink of the toilets and fags at half time quickly getting pushed out by the delightful oder of lager perambulating it's way into your senses. That feeling after the game of joy, anger or worry- but never despondence. 18000 people leaving their very different individual lives who come together and basque in the collective emotional soap opera of what it is to support Bradford city.
Whenever people ask me who I support, like any true fan, I reply immediately, proudly and truly - bradford - ...before they have even finished asking the question. My first ever game was Villa at home in 1999, in the premier league, but in all honesty it feels like I've never supported a premier league club. City fans my age will relate to this having never really experienced relative 'good times' up until the past 5 years. I'm not just about to write 20 cliches about two administrations and 18th in league two, but you all get the picture.
So why do I support Bradford? (Christ I ask my self that question a lot!). Well.. is it because my mum works in Bradford and when I was 3 she got cheap tickets through her work because we were in the premier league? Obviously the pull of going to see Liverpool, the class of 92 man united, arsenal etc I guess is there - but why am I still going? Why did I go when we were crap?
It's that first paragraph. It's all those little intangibles that add up to the whole experience- it's tribal, a branding for life, a cult you can't escape. Something that gets so wrapped up in your identity that you couldn't imagine it any other way. It's what tells you to tell your girlfriend on holiday that you need find wifi to text your mum, when we all know you're going on BBC sport to check the scores.
What would life be like without it? Or indeed supporting another club. Maybe all fans could spout similar recollective monologues on what it is to support their club but, even though everyone says that their club is different- we all know only some are....
I sometimes imagine what it would be like to support a premier league giant. I guess maybe some fans of those clubs would nostalgically say he remembers the smell of caviar when getting out of the limo when he was a kid but let's not stereotype..! Although some fans wouldn't enjoy that association - which is kind of the point..
A lot about the premier league is great, but a lot of it is far from savoury. It makes me sad when I see £1000 season tickets, or £60 on the day prices alongside £80 replica shirts, (before you've even got a bloody name on the back!!).
In any case - when you go to a lovely clean stadium, scan your barcode in the machine and walk through an emaculate turnstile, it doesn't feel the same. I hate the feeling of being comfortable in my padded seat, watching well rehearsed passing moves to the soundtrack of the clicking of tourists smartphones. I like supporting a club where I can go get signatures afterwards and interact with human beings - not to get ignored by a so called celebrity wearing big headphones and a ridiculous tracksuit.
I feel like this kind of setting doesn't generate the same emotional attachment a 'normal' club can create. We support a team where a 3 year contract means we love the player and he's going to stay!- not, let's whack a hefty release clause in there so we can sell him...?!
The goal of every sporting team is to achieve the best it can as it is inherently an elitist and competitive competition. The goal is to reach to top of your profession- but out of the whole football Pyramid, only a few can be right at the top. Football especially is transitional and periodic. Some clubs rise as some clubs fall, but more often than not they rise again. What must not be done is to try rush this process or try artificially manipulate it through wreckless spending. There can't be 92 'global brands' who win the premier league every year...
The main thing here is that in the mad modern day game, we don't loose the soul that has given the game its success to date. The reason why it is so popular isn't because the stadiums are huge with carpet like pitches, tasty food and air hostesses ushering players out of the tunnel -- it's the belonging of being at the heart of a community, following a team in your collective image. NOT a dreamed up business model driven on marketing and making money.
Bobby Robson once said -
"What is a club in any case? - Not the buildings or directors or the people who are paid to represent it. It's not the television contracts, get out clauses, marketing departments or executive boxes. It's the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city.
It's a small boy clambering up stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his fathers hand, gawping at that hallowed stretch of turf beneath him, and without being able to do a think about it, falling in love."
CTID.