Lincoln City are not the villain in the piece, Liam Scully is not affecting the culture shift the whole of the country is experiencing. The game is changing and crucially, the club is growing. As we do so, things have to change. Take the ST announcement again. Yes, it was short notice and yes, it might have been communicated better, but next season fans will be ready for a February announcement. At some point, if that change was going to be made, it was going to hurt. It’s like having a tattoo you don’t like. If you want it lasered off it’s going to hurt, but once it’s done it’s done.
All around things are changing. Pricing structures change and some feel disaffected, but what if that pushes up the average ticket price by a couple of quid? Not everyone is paying more, but it’ll please some and not others. It’s the same with catering, with the club shop, with sponsorship and other policies. We need more revenue, if we’re to go up there has to be more money coming in. That might mean changes in some areas, it might mean decisions that aren’t immediately popular, but a failure to grow at the right rate would see us come straight back down if we do manage to go up.
We don’t rely on one benefactor, were not building an empire on foundations of sand. It’s frustrating to see Mansfield snatch Tyler Walker and Jorge Grant from under our noses for huge sums of money, but that’s our model. We’re ensuring everything we built is done so properly and in line with longevity, not a get promoted quick scheme with dire consequences if it fails.
Our club is completely different to that of three years ago. Not just financially, but the structure, the way we do things and the status. The Football League demands more from us, charters, supporter liason officers and some form of conformity. Not everything the club does is by choice either, I remember the year the website had to change to be like all of the other club sites across the country. I was hugely pissed off because I liked the old site. Growing pains.
We all want Championship football, do we not? We all certainly want League One football. You don’t get that by standing still, by training on a local park and only appealing to the same 2,000 hardcore fans who have followed you through thick and thin. Those supporters, like myself, sometimes will feel nudged out. I admit it, I was unhappy with the short ST window but to call it ‘disgusting’ or a ‘disaster’ would be strong. You know what was a disaster? Administration. You know what was disgusting? Seeing Colin Murphy try to take us to the Second Division on 14 players. It’s all about context.
I want to snap out of this malaise I’ve been in. The stuff on the field I won’t change my attitude about, I will still spend every Saturday afternoon nervous. I don’t get excited by a match day, I get apprehensive but it doesn’t mean I don’t get my kicks from it. It doesn’t mean I’m not a fan, it’s just how I care and how my support manifests itself.
What I will look to do is continue to support the club against accusations of become too corporate, a ‘one cap fits all’ accusation that is as generic as it is incorrect. Expanding revenue streams, building a business and growing the club is a fact of life, it has to happen if we’re going to get to where we want to go. It’s like growing up and having a family, eventually you and your other half have to leave the little two bed house you bought together, your first home and symbol of your progression. You’ll move to a new house and it’ll feel less ‘real’ than the first place but eventually you’ll grow to love it, you have to.
Sure, you’ll reminisce about the good old days, sitting by the fire watching the box or something like that, but progress happens. What you have to do is not blame each other for that, just like the club and the fans cannot blame each other for the progression we need to make. We have to stick together, recognise things will change and that ultimately, even if it hurts at first, it is for the best.
Maybe, if we do go up, we can become an established League One side for the first time since the early eighties and beyond that, maybe Danny and Nicky have an eye on emulating Bill Anderson and taking us one step further. They just can’t do it on 2,000 hardcore fans and nostalgia.
Much of this fades away if the team does the stuff on the pitch. That’s what generates the euphoria and it’s been missing lately, that’s what generates the togetherness and of course the excitement and the enthusiasm. Come on you Imps!
Gary,
A good article. In effect I think the message that could be taken back to the supporters board meetings is this.
It is not what you say. It is how you say it.
Essentially there have been bungling press releases, which are later rowed back upon slightly, or significantly and there appears to be not enough thought go in to them sometimes. It is as if no one proofs them, to see how they may sound to the majority.
Communication is the key. The club as a whole needs to work on this, to ensure that they can emulate our management team on how to communicate effectively with the fan base. On too many occasions in the last 18 months, this has been the issue.
If the message is delivered in the right way, even if it is ‘bad medicine’ well, then that spoon full of sugar will help the medicine go down, in the most delightful way.
I remember a Social Geography lecturer telling me about the so-called ‘Community Spirit’ of the back-to-back housing in Manchester that was pulled down in the ’60’s. He was heavily involved in the process and stated that there wasn’t any ‘Community Spirit’ until a street was identified as having to be cleared, that was what created the togetherness. External factors bring otherwise disparate groups together, but only temporarily. The more people involved, the more room there is for different agendas. It is all part of the growing pains of moving from a lowly supported non-League club to Championship wanabees. It is just natural evolution that we will all have to get used to.
Excellent article Gary, always nice to hear a reasoned opinion, rather than the knee-jerk ramblings on social media.
A couple of wins & the positivity will come pouring back.
Two wins from our next two games will paint an entirely different picture, of that I’m sure.
Keep up the (very much needed) good work.
Dan.
best article yet people have to expect change and if we get promoted to have to pay more for the privilege of watching a much better standard of the league. remember we lost 20 000 pounds a week last season and that cant go on indefinately, lets support Liam Scully in his efforts to bring us into the 20 th century.