Wandering Yellow
Well-known member
- Joined
- 10 Aug 2019
- Messages
- 5,433
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
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