General The problem with success

I'll be honest, being a young chap, the best I've seen OUFC was... Well, last season. I'd love a little flirt with the Championship and Prem, but to me the Championship has always been a far more entertaining league. The Prem to me has lost its soul - players with no clue of the history of their club earning more a year than half the fans in the stadium put together, managers lasting 3 months after winning their team promotion before getting sacked, then Big Sam being brought in to "steady the ship", VAR disallowing goals after a 10 minute break because the attackers left bollock was a millimetre ahead of the defender, and most of the top ten being decided before the season even starts... It's just not football and lacks everything that makes the game special. If we got promoted to the Championship and became one of those clubs that has a cheeky flirt with promotion and relegation, maybe gets Prem football once or twice I'd be pretty content. I think it's possible to be in the Prem and keep the soul of the club, but the ones that have are the ones who have dropped down to the Championship a few times, not the ones who've been up there for ages or bought their success.
 
The Football League MUST sort this out. First of all its outrageous profiteering and second of all when the Premier League is capped at £30 it just highlights the ridiculousness.
Let's be honest, whilst £30+ is ridiculous for Championship football, they are hardly profiteering - do any clubs in the Championship turn a profit? Norwich perhaps and maybe the odd other club. They charge £30+ because they can and they are largely overspending to reach the promised land!
 
FSA ( football supporters Association- formerly FSF) had a campaign by the name of Twenty is Plenty a few seasons ago now ... a campaign to try to cap tickets for watching live football in England at £20

Obviously the greater the numbers backing such a campaign the better chance it has of succeeding
the proverbial apathy of course is a major factor too...

FSA are free to join.... lots of benefits for football supporters too...link to FSA ...

 
Ticket prices This one doesn't concern me too much, but the price of tickets at Premier League teams is ridiculous.

Disconnect The higher up the leagues you go the more of a disconnect you feel between yourself and the club you support.

VAR This is the one thing that would see me stop attending live matches.

Commercialisation I don't want a cannon firing t-shirts into the crowd, cheerleaders, "light shows" and all the other Americanised crap Premier League teams often do these days.

Feel free to tell me I'm a pessimistic, but I'd be interested in other fans views if Oxford ever did get to the Championship/PL.
Of the four categories mentioned, VAR and increasing commercialisation are the two that annoy me most. VAR slows the game down far too much and final decisions are often marginal. Scrap VAR and accept that 'live referees' occasionally make mistakes, as they've always done. You'd hope that the scrapping of the ESL would signal a slowing down of commercialisation, although I suspect a similar animal will emerge in a few years' time.

I wouldn't imagine increased ticket prices - even £30+ per game - would have much effect on OUFC's gates, but should OUFC have a sustained period in tier two, no doubt 'glory hunter' numbers would increase, and some longer-standing fans might feel their loyal support has been hijacked.
 
Don't worry Wandering Yellow, I do not think away fans will be allowed into any EFL grounds until well into 2022 & VAR is sure to be seriously modified or given the boot very soon. I reckon there is going to be a seismic "shift" across the game as a result of the ESL fiasco & ticket prices, salaries etc. will all come under the spotlight.
 
I do agree with much of this. I love the feeling I get knowing my attendance has a direct impact of atmosphere. Without trying to blow my own trumpet, i'm one of the few that tries to keep a chant going as long as possible, even if it's just me and one or two others, until the rest join in.

I love spending silly money in the club shop because "it all goes to the club".
I love the way people ask why on earth I support oxford and not a prem team.
I love getting a nice greasy cheeseburger from the van outside the east stand and eating it in my seat an hour before kickoff.
I love watching Rosie do the half time entertainment, it wouldn't be Oxford without it.

Then again I do believe that championship football and a complete stadium would lead to a much more enjoyable match day experience. Better quality football and higher attendances.

I consider myself to be a core supporter even if I don't go to every away game and I have only been supporting Oxford since 2010.

Without our playoff success in the conference I would still likely not support anyone. So it's not all doom and gloom if we have the odd 'glory hunter', you never know they might just fall in love with our club just like I did.
 
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Don't worry Wandering Yellow, I do not think away fans will be allowed into any EFL grounds until well into 2022 & VAR is sure to be seriously modified or given the boot very soon. I reckon there is going to be a seismic "shift" across the game as a result of the ESL fiasco & ticket prices, salaries etc. will all come under the spotlight.
PGMOL rate VAR as having gone "7 out of 10" and I see no signs of it being booted. Really ruined the sport I love at that level, sad.
 
Championship is the league to be in my opinion, some real big clubs that bring big followings, no real tinpot clubs with the exception of Wycombe this season, and some really quality football without the nonsense of things like VAR.
 
Championship is the league to be in my opinion, some real big clubs that bring big followings, no real tinpot clubs with the exception of Wycombe this season, and some really quality football without the nonsense of things like VAR.
For now. They have floated the idea of a cheaper VAR for use in the Championship and EFL. Worries me a lot, two of my mates former ST holders at Prem clubs packed it in because of VAR.

I'd be lost without footy at the weekend 😞
 
For now. They have floated the idea of a cheaper VAR for use in the Championship and EFL. Worries me a lot, two of my mates former ST holders at Prem clubs packed it in because of VAR.

I'd be lost without footy at the weekend 😞
VAR is OK, they need to implement it properly - only use it for genuine offsides and offences, not silly cases where an attacker's eyebrow is ahead of the defender or the ball brushes his sleeve just before he scores the goal of the season. Use some common sense.
 
VAR is OK, they need to implement it properly - only use it for genuine offsides and offences, not silly cases where an attacker's eyebrow is ahead of the defender or the ball brushes his sleeve just before he scores the goal of the season. Use some common sense.
I'd agree, limit its use, apply common and get decisions made quickly - the technology can be of benefit if used properly and shouldn't just be disregarded. All different sports played at different paces I know, but the likes of cricket, rugby and tennis have all benefited from technological advances (not without their own difficulties admittedly).
 
VAR is OK, they need to implement it properly - only use it for genuine offsides and offences, not silly cases where an attacker's eyebrow is ahead of the defender or the ball brushes his sleeve just before he scores the goal of the season. Use some common sense.
Said all along send Var and the sat dishes to the scrap heap and give the game back to the fans. But for the constant nick picking and chastising of officials by the pundits for all those years we wouldn't be in the mess we are today.

If players managers staff were not forever in the face of officials back then and just accepted decisions the game would have been fine
 
I'm not really sure where to post this thread, so I decided to put it in the boardroom section, admins, feel free to move it!

Let me just start this thread by saying I would absolutely love it if we got promoted this season, and of course I desperately want us to win every single game.

But, I'd be lying if I said I didn't have some concerns about what on-the-pitch success could bring.

Problem One: Ticket prices

This one doesn't concern me too much, as I still think I could afford to go to games in the Championship/PL if we got there, but it would become more expensive and some fans might draw the line. Weren't Leeds United charging away fans close to £50? I wouldn't pay that just on the principal of it. Away tickets in the PL are capped at £30 (why there isn't caps in the football league is beyond me) but the price of tickets at Premier League teams is ridiculous.

Problem Two: Disconnect

This is a bit of a strange one, but I feel the higher up the leagues you go the more of a disconnect you feel between yourself and the club you support. I'm guessing fewer local lads we currently have could cut it at higher leagues, and they are the players a lot of fans feel a connection with. A mercenary player on £60,000 pounds a week would be harder to love for me (and I stress for me, maybe I'm weird)

I love the fact we are bringing through players from the academy and have local players in the team. I would hate to lose this.

Problem Three: VAR

Currently just in the Premier League, but it wouldn't surprise me if it found its way to the Championship. I think this is the one thing that would, sadly, just see me stop attending live matches although it would kill me. Michail Antonio said last night he doesn't want to celebrate goals anymore because of VAR. I attend football for an escape from life, hoping for that moment of elation of a last minute winner. Even if they somehow "fix" VAR to actually work, it takes this moment away, I couldn't justify keep spending money to go to games as it just depresses me. I've been to games officiated with VAR, and let me tell you, it's awful. A ref running to a little screen to look at a slow motion replay because a players foot may have been "dangerous" in a tackle? forget it, I'm out.

Problem Four: Commercialisation

I just want to turn up at the football, have a pint, watch my team, and go home. I don't want a cannon firing t-shirts into the crowd, cheerleaders, "light shows" and all the other Americanised crap Premier League teams often do these days. I don't want to sit next to someone with a foam finger who doesn't know who any of the players are. I want to stand next to a lad called Darren who is 5 pints deep and screams for KR to put Agyei on.

As I say, I would love promotion and this football club to do as well as possible. It's just I can't pretend I don't have some niggling concerns about being taken over by billionaires who take us on a "journey." I look at a club like AFC Bournemouth and just see them as a bit of a soulless joke, spending £20m on average players on silly wages, their entire crowd sat down at games in near silence. I would hate that to be us.

To be honest, I'd rather be in league one, in the Jim Smith Stand, newly turned into a safe-standing terrace, singing chants led by the ultras who have come back bigger and better.

Feel free to tell me I'm a pessimistic idiot, but I'd be interested in other fans views on how they would feel if Oxford ever did get to the Championship/PL
This echoes some of my own fears, particularly your point about the disconnect and the commercialisation.
We already see some of this nonsense creeping in when we draw a big club in the cup in front of the TV cameras.
It’s also soiling other sports too.
 
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