Cod Almighty | Diary

If it's a new beginning then I don't want to know

29 July 2015

Hi. It's been a while since I did this. Back then I wore the pseudonymical mask of Idle Diary. These days, let's just talk on first-name terms. I'm Si. It's good to be back.

Back then, when I last did this, it was the earlier days of the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition.

Back then, we were told to embrace localism. Things needed to come from grassroots level.

Back then, all three years of it, we barely sought funding using the internet on a recognised platform on the scale that abounds these days. Sure, there was a bit of it, but not as prevalent as it is these days. About ten years back we tried to 'crowdfund' £2,000 for a Fans' Day. It was hard.

But now, crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, it's unmissable – in my emails. In my Twitter feeds. Whenever I read the Verge or some such. There's respite: no-one has yet sent me a suggestion by SMS. I haven't seen a printed or TV ad suggesting I should fund something. But give some Soho ad agency time and they'll be on that.

Yeah, so I work in the digital/tech 'sector', so I possibly see this more than you, but still, there's just more of it. Isn't there? And for every Mr Bingo effort, there's all sorts of wanton shit. Just go to the Kickstarter home page and browse a little and wonder what the fuck, what the fuck is that, and HA HA HA HA – what the fuck?! They've raised funding?!

Back then, that ten years or so back, we didn't have that for Fans' Day. We just had a web page, cashed in a favour with the Grimmo Telegraph (might have been Stuart Rowson, probably David Pye), got a little coverage, and emailed lots of people. Back then, there was none of that "when we reach our funding goal we'll do this" and setting up some "stretch goals".

So, where's this going? On the train a few weeks back I heard someone moan away that "back then, there was none of that 'demonstrate demand to demonstrate need'".

Bollocks. It's been around for years in football. Years.

Exhibit one: season ticket sales. For years, as long as I've been writing about Town on the internet – so starting when I first cobbled together the Fishy back in 1998, and then probably every summer after that for about 12 years – the club has given us updates on season ticket sales, the promise being that strong sales will give the club the resources it needs to fund a successful team.

Back then, until about ten years ago, Steve Wraith would say the club has sold so many, and there was always some wag on a messageboard (the Fishy's? Is it still going?) who'd do the math. And I'd shrug and be like "who knows, eh". And go and do something productive.

(I await the day the club creates this season ticket info as an open Google doc for us all to see, by the way. Make interesting data, no?)

But even back then, in essence football clubs have always been crowdfunded projects. Steve would say how it'd be great to get 1,500 season ticket holders, and keep the enthusiasm up, and people ordered season tickets in a mixture of fervour and relaxation.

I couldn't care that Town maintained their 100 percent record in pre-season last night, coming from behind to beat Peterborough United 2-1. The players got a good run-out. Our team scored more goals than the other team. It counts for little to me, other than "an exercise".

I am in the minority, sorry. I cannot deny there's a "feel good" around the club at the moment.

Last night just aided a rise in the "feel good". But how do we measure it? Can we measure it? We can measure crowdfunding because… deep down everyone is a bean counter. But measuring this feeling? What is it? Hope? What measure can we put on that? Smiles on faces walking down the Grimsby Road?

The laziest measurable would be sentiment analysis on social media (with all its limits), with the likes of Matt Dannatt pretty much purring on Twitter a good example. There's a lot of that about. I browse the #GTFC hashtag and am happy for the happy people. If only there were a sentiment analysis for everybody's feelings, not just the ones they decide to openly share, eh. But it's great to have a positive vocal -ority. (Not sure if it is a minority or majority.)

And here's a thing: I think the close-season crowdfunding was amazing. Truly. I've done loads of that kind of thing over the years, for all sorts of reasons (I was recently described as a "great civic entrepreneur" by the chief exec of Leeds council, so I might be alright at it), and was blown away at the response from Town's supporters. And the people who set it up and did it? Truly awesome. And some people I know who are into the "grassroots" stuff (and know their shit), they've been amazed as well. The perception of the whole thing has been just so… positive.

But I am mindful of crowdfunding. I work in a world where money is "raised" and money is "spent" and… There are plenty of crowdfunded things that have turned out disappointing. There are some that haven't even arrived. I've backed my share. A couple of years back I backed a heart rate tracking band called Olive, which seemed an ace idea at the time, but was pulled recently due to tech advances in the more established tech products such as Fitbit's. A shame, but it's a competition out there.

Having money and spending the money wisely aren't the same thing. Spending money in a competitive field? Another stretch altogether.

In the same way, the club has that money – but making sure it is spent "right"? That's another thing as well.

The first league game is a week on Saturday. As a season kickstarter the club's supporters have done amazing, to raise that sum and the mood. But what matters: how it's used – and how the team fares when the real competition starts at Kidderminster on 8 August. Why?

Back then, in the past, it seems a long time since Town have repaid our investment. I hope this season, as I hope every season, brings an end to that.