Are you a fan or a customer?

[Binfield Royal]

Today v Wolves was awful IMHO and I left feeling that I had wasted my afternoon.

There was some news coverage this week about whether those who support a football team are fans or customers.

My interpretation of a fan is someone who spends money on tickets and merchandise, week in, week out, not caring whether the team do or dont show the same level or passion and loyalty as you do.

A customer is someone who pays money and expects something in return in terms of quality of whatever we are buying - in this case, entertainment in the form of sports viewing.

I have felt for some time that our current crop of players do not give their best on the pitch. I think they do enough to justify their (very generous) wages but they do not give 100% every week. Maybe 90% on average which will not get you promoted.

So currently, if nothing changes soon, after 20 years, I probably wont renew my season ticket. This, i think makes me a customer.

Will you continue to pay £500 - 600 a year to Reading, regardless of the entertainment value because you feel a sort of tribal loyalty to the club, or would you decide "enough is enough" if you weren't enjoying it any more?

[AthleticoSpizz]

I have gone from fan to customer

But not for any of the reasons that you say.

I threw-in my ST when $ky tv (etc) got interested in us, time after time our fixtures were moved from the convenient Saturday 3pm slot to God knows when.

My work and things mean't that I'd miss pre-paid games.......nowadays I just pick and choose and accept the occasional freebie.

As for the games themselves....the onset of maturity means that I don't over analys nor get too upset about things these days. It's better VFM that way.

[RoyalBlue]

The club treat us like customers and try to get as much as possible out of us so shouldn't complain when we respond as customers and complain about the quality of the product we have paid for.

In contrast, go and watch teams lower down in the pyramid (and also women's teams) and you are first and foremost treated by players and management as a supporter - any contribution you also make as a 'customer' is greatly appreciated and acknowledged.

[Pandoras Box]

Good thread. Firstly I'm pretty new to the RFC experience- about 5 years. The first two years I'd fret about the result, be livid at an away match if we lost to a far better team. Take a couple of hours to calm down after a crap match. Now, it's ugh shite game, 3 pts lost , so what. Yeh, last minute goal again Ho hum. Anyway to return to the post.
My job is at senior management level within customer service.
Customer satisfaction is regarded as how much you manage and exceed customer expectation.
My expectation of RFC is to win against middle to lower table, to be able to pass a simple ball, to give 100%, to at least make me feel I have had my money's worth.
And in that respect I don't feel as if I have had customer satisfaction and therefore it ain't good enough - for MY expectation. Everyone has a different expectation.
So the answer is (for me) I was a fan but have been slowly turned into a customer simply because they can't deliver what I would like.

[percy_freeman]

Good question.
I didn't go today, for no other reason that none of my mates wanted to go. Does that make me a customer? I support Reading FC, have done sine 1968, Been to at least 1 game every year since. some years I have done 25 games, others 2. I moved to Spain for two years and still managed 2 games each year. The last few years, I do probably half the home games and try to do at least a couple of away games I'm not a fan of SKY TV changing our games to Thursday, Friday, Early, Late or anything other than 3pm on a Saturday and that is the only reason I am not and never have been a season ticket holder.I think of myself as a fan,

[Gunny Fishcake]

Having watched the team all my life and been a season ticket holder the last thirty years I'm definitely a fan but being a fan means nothing to todays football club . Only customers contribute to the income of the club . In any other business if a customers is not happy they go elsewhere. We fans can't because we're born with our club and stuck with them . Of course if no fans or customers turned up every Saturday there would be no football club unless things changed to please the customers but that's never going to happen . I'm a fan for sure but bloody hell its hard at times like today and most of this season.

[Royal Ginger]

The two are not mutually exclusive. I go every week, buy a shirt every year and will continue to do so. I desperately want Reading to succeed. However if I'm not entertained I do feel cheated. I don't expect to win every week, but I do expect to see an adequate return in effort for my season ticket investment.

[WAZZOCK]

Royal Ginger, are you "oi oi ginger Roy"?

[Lower West]

My expectation of RFC is to win against middle to lower table,

There's no right to beating another team. From your job you'll know that finding the right players for the team takes time. Takes training. Takes coaching. Also the members of your team will have off days. Along with making mistakes.

Football for me is a great release from the day job. It's a soap opera. So I'll watch whatever.

[leon]

Both
Now piss off

[CountryRoyal]

Technically we're both.

[Sutekh]

Both. And I like the new board design positioning the radio buttons as far away from the options as possible.

[Ian Royal]

Both
Now piss off

+1

[Royal Ginger]

Royal Ginger, are you "oi oi ginger Roy"?

I am not. Slimmer, older and less of an offensively ginger barnet.

[Huntley & Palmer]

Watching football is just a form of escapism to me. It allows me to forgot about real life, have a few beers and chat some rubbish with friends .The end result doesn't really matter to me as much as it used to.

People that expect to be entertained should go and watch something else really, similarly anyone that moans about players that don't try hard enough or show enough passion. Football moved on from this stage many years ago

[multisync1830]

We're all customers since Sky saw an opportunity to exploit peoples brand loyalty.

I heard an interview not long after Sky entered football whereby the bloke said something like "The average person in the UK spends 35% of their leisure time watching TV but less than 10% of disposable income doing it. We aim to narrow that gap"

They introduced a lot of razamataz to up the 'entertainment' aspect so given the costs it's reasonable for people to expect to be entertained. It's showbiz now like American sports. Some may regret the passing of the old days and ways but the public gets what it deserves and those who bought Sky on the back of watching football (and the FA for selling out ) are to blame.

[tmesis]

People that expect to be entertained should go and watch something else really, similarly anyone that moans about players that don't try hard enough or show enough passion. Football moved on from this stage many years ago

I don't think fans expect to be entertained. People know football comes with no guarantees, and there will be good games, average games, and some right bore-fests.

The problem is that it seems that the majority of games for about two or three years have been awful and boring, and fans are now turning up expecting the game to be crap, and expecting us to score at most one goal.

In the last year we've played 24 home league games. The results have been...

L 0-2
L 0-1
L 0-3
W 2-1
D 1-1
D 0-0
L 0-1
L 0-1
L 0-2
D 0-0
D 0-0
W 5-1
L 0-1
W 2-0
W 1-0
D 1-1
D 2-2
W 2-1
L 0-1
W 1-0
L 1-2
W 1-0
D 1-1
D 0-0

A record of 7 wins, 8 draws, 9 defeats.

Out of those 24 games, we failed to score in half of them.

We scored a total of 19 goals, and 5 of those were in one game. We didn't score more than two in any of the other 23 games, and in those 23 averaged just 0.6 goals a game.

Fans are just getting a bit tired of coming away from the Madejski talking about what a crap game it was.

[percy_freeman]

Fans are just getting a bit tired of coming away from the Madejski talking about what a crap game it was.

Or is it customers.........

[The Royal Forester]

Assuming that fan is an abbreviation of fanatic and the definition of that is "someone who has an obsessive interest in a particular activity", we can be both. You could be a fan of a pop-star but not go to see them perform live on stage, but if you went you would be a customer. It seems to me that any one can be a fan whether, or not, they go to see them a team play. But, if you go to a game, are you then a customer and/or a supporter? After all, you are then giving them money, to help support the club

[AthleticoSpizz]

I guess, as a customer.....you can take it or leave it, as a fan you cannot

I have become a customer