Friday, 23 June 2023
Customers
Why aren’t football supporters referred to as customers?
Major football clubs are entertainment businesses. Their customers pay at the turnstiles or buy a season ticket like customers of the local leisure centre or cinema. They buy food and drink at the ground and overpriced goods at the club store. They are customers of the football club.
Not that it matters much, but it is interesting how changing “supporter” to “customer” brings out an aspect of the relationship between supporter and club. It’s an aspect which is obscured by the word “supporter”.
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8 comments:
When I was living in London, they changed the tannoy announcements so that they stopped referring to "passengers", and started talking about "customers". "Customers wishing to access the Piccadilly Line should proceed..."
When they were talking about delays caused by people jumping under trains, though, they talked about "persons". Even though those persons had presumably paid to jump under trains.
Sam - it seems to be a modern obsession, messing around with names and so much part of life we only notice the ludicrous new obsessions. I think I'd be tempted refer to those suicide "persons" as something else. The driver and those having to clear up afterwards must remember it forever.
I'm going to quibble. While people going through the turnstiles may be better described as customers there are many supporters who never pay a penny but still 'follow' the club.
Now you could argue that many football clubs are all about getting the money in, all the professional ones are businesses, but without the 'supporters' they would not be able to generate enough interest in their 'brand'.
If someone goes to a cinema or theatre, they are a customer of the theatre, but not necessarily a supporter of the film actor or production participants. They merely wish to be entertained. Sports fans will usually be customers of a stadium owner purely because they are supporters of a particular team. If that team is playing in a different stadium, they then become customers of that stadium, yet remain supporters of their team. And that is the difference.
I believe I have that correctly.
Penseivat
I'm wondering if our experience is enhanced by being called customer, person or honoured guest.
DJ - yes that's a valid quibble. An attraction of referring to paying supporters as customers is that it brings this out. Some people consider themselves to be supporters of a club without ever going to a match. Maybe they tend to be customers of a TV sports channel.
Penseivat - I suspect sports fans see themselves as supporters whatever the situation, although they might see themselves as customers of a food outlet within the ground. In the end I suppose it's just an interesting interplay of words which emphasise different aspects of the same relationship.
James - I prefer honoured guest but never insist on it.
The big clubs make so much from sponsorships and the telly that the customers at the match are important only for producing background noise to enhance the broadcasts.
dearieme - I bet that could be done by computer too.
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