As participants in the contemporary state of football supporter culture, we are in many ways bound by the will of corporations. In North America especially, sport has been built around franchising; a concept I frankly despise. Franchises are profit driven subsidiaries of even larger, profit driven entities. Franchises are McDonald’s and Tim Horton’s restaurants. My football club should not be a franchise.
Regrettably though, this is the way of modern football. The “50+1” ownership model, that works well in Germany, will not be adopted anytime soon by MLS. We are thus forced to deal with a climate of apparent disconnection between the boardroom and the terraces. For football fans in Toronto, we are left in purgatory by the way corporate ownership treats the game-day experience, independent to each sporting event our city hosts.
Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star released an insightful article on the change of “philosophy” that MLSE is bringing to the new Toronto Maple Leafs’ season. A plethora of fan freebies, expensive investments in on-ice projection systems, even a strategic approach to the choice of music or underscored drum thuds to conduct crowd chants. There is a new level of attention to detail when it comes to in-game operations on hockey night.
In that article, Reid Black, Senior Director of Marketing for the Leafs and Marlies was quoted saying: “The best game presentation is where the crowd takes over. If you look at soccer in the English Premier League, game presentation is just the crowd noise. We would love to get to that point.” Football fans are therefore the benchmark of the match-day passion that MLSE seeks. Subsequently, it’s worthwhile exploring the one MLSE franchise best equipped to emulate the supporter experience they most admire.
There are two key demographics MLSE need to please on game-day: the corporate partners and the fans (arguably in that order). Let’s consider the corporate obligations first. Every aspect of the game has been branded. Feel free to include what I’m missing in the comments below. Toronto FC plays at “BMO” Field, using tactics learned at the “KIA” training center, all on pitches maintained with “Scott’s Turf Builder”. Come early to the “Budweiser” King Club for drinks, check Twitter for the “Expedia.ca” projected starting lineup, and eventually the “Sokoloff Lawyers” list of injured players. Oh, at half time now some bloke with a fake mustache flogs “Pizza Pizza”. And am I the only one who misses the “Esquire” added time?
I could go on. Through all of the above though, MLSE have done a commendable job at keeping the actual act of watching the match, free of too many frills. This may be a byproduct of the fact that our sport has no commercial breaks, but whether by default or by choice, the club has managed to monetize game-day operations without intruding too much on the actual 90 minutes that football is being played.
However, this is where we return to that state of limbo I mentioned. Less is more in football. We don’t want cheerleaders with t-shirt cannons or a mascot in the stands. The club has made the correct assumption that we can generate our own atmosphere. As such, they’ve designated a supporters’ section where standing is permitted and flags can be waved (for the most part). This is far from job done though. Football supporter culture needs to be protected inside the stadium to avoid the atmosphere being sterilized.
Club employees aren’t required to assist in generating atmosphere, but this doesn’t mean that us fans are completely able to run the show. Remember, we support a franchise, thus we are privy to restrictions laid out by the club. There have been tightened security measures for many years now, very much restricting supporter showmanship to the designated supporters’ sections. To make matters worse, this portion of the ground no longer houses solely the vocal and passionate.
Previously, I referenced the shout for the potential benefits of a general admission section at BMO Field; creating a place to help band together likeminded supporters who will get their section bouncing. The current state of affairs though will not be solved by that alone. Those who engage in the match day experience more passively need also to be directed to other places of the ground. With the impending stadium renovations, and the inevitability of current Season Seat Holders being relocated slightly, this is the best time to have that conversation.
There are so many different kinds of fans that go through the BMO Field gates. Firstly, perhaps a family section could be designated, hypothetically in the north end. From there, if we’re going to isolate the loud and proud fans, corporate ticket allocations need to be relocated out of the supporters’ section. Similarly, measures need to be taken to try to prevent daytrippers from defaulting to the south end simply because it’s the cheapest ticket out there.
A simple solution here would be to make the supporters’ sections off limits in public sales and restricted only to people who buy either season seats, or packages for multiple games. The places intended to generate atmosphere should be prioritized for fans committed to attending matches.
This is where we can borrow from existing practices in English Premier League, something that MLSE apparently has admiration for. Season Seat Holders could be issued preloaded cards instead of paper tickets. Just swipe at the gate and you’re good to go. The main benefit of this system is the effect it would have on negating third-party ticket sales. Sites that buy tickets and resell for profit surely won’t be able to pass around their SSH card for every game.
Furthermore, unless they plan on entrusting their card to a stranger, cardholders wouldn’t be able to list a dozen games on Craigslist or StubHub and only attend the matches they choose to go to. This could have a ripple effect to improving the accountability of Season Seat Holders. How many times has BMO Field been a quarter to half-empty but reported as “sold-out” come the 80th minute? If you can’t make it to the match, you can still get rid of your ticket. I’ve been to games in Europe where through a club-mediated site I was able to have tickets assigned to me at face value pricing. The SSH card was simply deactivated for the day, and I picked up my unique tickets at Will Call the day of the match.
These are suggestions; possible ways to nurture the potential of the supporters at BMO Field. The truth is, our club can no longer “sell” the supporter experience. Toronto FC advertisements popping up online and around the city used to feature photos of fans representing the club colours. Some photos seemed staged, but it was that excitement of being part of the crowd at a Toronto FC game that was the selling point. Now, our selling point is the “star” players, with club branding reinforcing the value of Defoe, Bradley, Gilberto, Jackson and De Rosario’s faces.
Not unlike the Leafs, Toronto FC needs a “philosophy” change. The supporters can create the atmosphere without club intervention. What we need though is improved accommodation for the multitude of unique demographics purchasing tickets, in order to keep the supporters’ section as true to its name as possible.
Have an opinion on general admission at BMO Field or other ways to revitalize the atmosphere?
Leave a comment below or tweet me (@Eric_RNO).
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