Cod Almighty | Article
by James Parrott
12 May 2009
The subject of a lower league football club and its relationship with its fans is one that has fascinated me for a while. The differences between the awful experiences at home to Chester early in the season and Brentford months later, with the home games against Lincoln and Gillingham, are a good place to start.
I have noticed that some of the more casual elements of the fan base are easily disheartened, and any indifferent form seems to set the dissenting voices off. The Chester game was sparsely attended as the ticket prices and the winless run were too toxic a combination for many. This has become a fact of footballing life. Hardcore support is admirable but it comes at a real price.
The Brentford game represented a low point as, yes, the crowd were less than positive, but I'm sure that many felt that the club was on an irrevocable descent and could react no other way at that time.
It was hurtful to me and I was too cold and wet to do anything other than shiver. Those that still had the energy to yell clearly could express nothing other than anger. It wasn't ideal, but it is human nature.
The late season home games showed that there is a way of getting people into BP, and that when the place has an atmosphere the team responds.
Here is where I feel the club has erred. The extra attendance feels like people rallying around a sick relative they never usually visit. They do care, but it takes a crisis to make them realise it.
I have often read articles wherein Mr Fenty implores greater attendance. I would like to know what steps he and the club have taken to reach out to the public in ways other than special offers when we're desperate.
Does the club make repeated contact with the newest generation of football fans? Do they send players out to local schools to give lessons and enable young kids and teenagers to get to know the people in our shirts? If they do, great. Do they go back again and again in order to really make the club special to youngsters as it is to many of us?
The club should invite schools to send classes to visit BP regularly. The place may at times seem like a slum but it is home. Get them used to it early, get them interested, get them coming to games. Give away family vouchers to schoolkids (this would probably have to be in limited numbers) to children at a different school each game. It won't hurt the club. BP is half empty for every game.
I don't think the answer lies in charging a fiver per home game. The reality of our financial situation rules that out. It is something that needs addressing though. £16-plus is a lot to see Peter Bore prove he doesn't understand the game he's paid to play or something like it, goes the argument. It is more than just a flippant, throwaway line.
The club is something that should be at the heart of a town like Grimsby. The English lower league model seems to me to be heading towards oblivion, and sometimes it seems that the relationship between a club like ours and its fans can be adversarial, if it rises above indifference.
I believe that the answer is to show Grimsby and the surrounding areas that Grimsby Town is important, a source of real pride to all and not just four thousand people.
People need to feel wanted, and football is a game that is enhanced by tight emotional bonds. Make people feel loved and you'll make them love Town. It works abroad. Properly thought out and executed, it can work here too.
This is my utopian sketch of the ideal relationship between a small town and its football club. It's not perfect: it's just how I feel.