Sing when you're winning
We'd like to welcome our latest signing, David Newton of Norwich, joining us on a Bosman free.
My original intention was to write an article with the aim of starting a longish term discussion on the merits of restoring limited areas of standing terraces to football stadiums (stadia?) to counteract the destruction of partisan atmosphere that the all-seater has brought about. As a graduate of the Cricket Field Stand when it was standing only in the early 1960s (and thus having a condescending attitude towards ‘Longsiders’), and as one with still vivid memories of those heady Turf Moor nights against Napoli et al, I feel that I could put together a fairly convincing argument as to how clubs have unwittingly given away home advantage, and in fact handed the opposition a distinct edge, if they attend in any significant numbers.
There are, however, two reasons why I have lowered my sights from what I realise is going to be a Quixotic cause. Firstly, I can’t see anyone at Burnley or anywhere else giving it a go, because they will immediately quote the standard ‘security risk’ answer. ‘If people can be identified by seat numbers, we can obviously root out troublemakers, etc, etc’ will be the party line, even though I don’t recall seeing anything about the identification, expulsion, and banning of the Burnley ‘fans’ engaged in missile-throwing against Sheffield Wednesday. Surely the infallible all-seater panacea should have sorted that one, shouldn’t it? Just like the undersoil heating – works every time.
The second reason is that there isn’t time to engage in such a debate, when in one game’s time, our home form could well be worse than our away form. Can anyone remember when that last happened, and can anyone explain it when we have arguably the best side and club set-up in the past 25 years?
I can explain it quite easily. It’s because the atmosphere at Turf Moor is non-existent, because those who want to sing and shout can’t sit together, unlike the away supporters, who can. Ludicrous, isn’t it? And it’s such a significant problem that even a club with in excess of 65,000 home supporters, Manchester United, have done something about it. Does anyone at the Turf realise that? Anyone who was at Barnsley last Saturday must have seen the effect in reverse. OK, there were a few Barnsley ‘singers’ behind one goal, but I bet they’ve got the same problem as us. The Burnley end was engaged in constant singing and chanting, but when those same people go to the Turf, they’re spread around all over the place.
What surprises me about this situation is that it’s so simple to remedy, and if something was done about it now it would, in my view, give us an extra goal for all of our remaining home games. All we have to do is ask existing season-ticket holders if they want to move to a singing area – we only need two or three thousand to make it work. It could be a less attractive area than the dead centre of the Harry Potts Longside – say, the eastern end of the upper tier. This would enable some of the current occupants of that end to get a ‘better’ seat, and the increased noise would hopefully galvanise some of the Jimmy Mac folk to get behind the team more. And if some of the non-singers don’t want to move? Well, tough! As a season ticket holder in the old Cricket Field End, I don’t recall anyone asking me if I minded losing my favourite place in the name of progress and the good of the club. It didn’t happen when I got turfed out of the Bee Hole and the Longside either.
And how do you gauge support for this? Simple. Announce a couple of weeks before a reserve game at the Turf that an experiment is being conducted to gauge the popularity of a singing area. Entrance will be free, and would all would-be singers enter via turnstiles X,Y and Z. Or, given the certainty that our Board will do nothing about it this season and effectively hand points to Preston, Wolves and Coventry (you mark my words), then suspend season ticket sales in a certain area and try it out at the first pre-season game at the Turf.
Of course, the simplest solution is to designate the Cricket Field End as a singing area, and give the Bob Lord to the away fans, but that will never happen for fear of upsetting those who’ve been in the same seat for 30 years, and who’ve paid good money to moan and whinge at the Manager and players every other week.
The main administrative and logistical problem with this is the ‘walk up’ fans, who pay on the gate on an ad hoc basis (presumably because other commitments prevent them from attending every game, or possibly because they don’t want to sit next to the same arms-folded whinger every week), who want to sing. Well, they’d be no worse off than they are now, because it’s pot luck as to where the sporadic singing may or may not break out now, so if X rows of the singing area were allocated to ‘walk ups’, they could at least always get a seat in the singing area if they turned up on time, which is better than they get now. This could easily be achieved in the current Cricket Field End.
There are so many comments about the lack of atmosphere at the Turf that you’d think the Board would have realised that these were not just fanciful comments to be filed somewhere between ‘Balti Pies’ and ‘Bertie Bee’ (bad example, as they both begin with ‘B’, but you know what I mean). These comments are, I strongly believe, a groundswell of genuine concern that the club, like many others, has surrendered home advantage, and in fact made it much more likely that any significant number of away fans will give their team greater support. Surely this is a crucial performance-related issue which needs to be addressed urgently. When Nik was injured, we had a replacement within a week, but the Turf has been dying for years, and nothing has been done about it. This is not an exaggeration if you know what it used to be like when we were last in a similar league position. What’s worse, any comments about it made to the official website are met with the usual bland and inane comments about ‘keeping the faith’, when a hard-headed practical solution is needed. Not when the Cricket Field End is redeveloped, but now, or certainly before next season.
In a recent article, Barry Kilby accused Burnley fans of having ‘power without responsibility’, meaning presumably that we can moan about anything we like because we don’t have to carry the can. But, in not addressing a serious issue which gives advantage to away teams, is Mr Kilby not exercising ‘responsibility without courage’? Conduct a survey, Mr Kilby. Not a referendum, just a survey.
I won’t hold my breath, as my e-mail dated 10 January to Andrew Watson asking him if he’d like me to approach former Claret Alan Taylor, who I have regular chats with in his newsagents shop, with a view to his being a half-time guest, has not even been replied to. A fan trying to help the club! Power without responsibility, indeed.
David Newton
February 2002
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