'The Ninetieth Minute' is where you can let your hair down and basically rant on about a subject picked from the well researched list of topical and interesting subjects right at the cutting edge of football today (or it could be just whatever our ickle brain cells could muster on drowning our sorrows after the Saintees game). So, if you have a rant to rant, send it off to us at ninetiethminute@queenstrust.org The only thing we ask is that what you say is printable for a family audience!!
The Extinction of the Dinosaurs |
| Aug 28 2006 |
It might give Creationists a few sleepless nights, but I think most of us would accept that the dinosaurs died out because they were unable to adapt to their changing environment. These days as animal species disappear faster than you can say 'global warming' the business world has become a similarly fast changing and dangerous environment for any 'dinosaurs' who happen to be hanging around.
Continuing on the evolution theme, it's generally the business who adapt the quickest to their rapidly changing situation that survive. Those that don't can disappear faster that a .dotcom.
The business that is football is becoming no different. Football clubs are finding the 21st century a very tough and harsh place to be. A falling population, fewer kids playing football, football saturation on television and competition for peoples' attention are just a few of the items one could list as reasons why football chairmen should continue to look at the structure of the business they are trying to sell.
When I first started watching football over 30 years ago, after squeezing through the turnstile, I remember standing on the terracing with my uncle. I remember queuing for a pie at half-time and, looking at those in front of me that had had the forethought to actually get into the queue well before half-time, wondering whether I would get my pie before the second half started. On the rare occasions that Rangers or Hearts appeared at Palmerston, you just didn't even contemplate heading to the hatch for a pie unless you were prepared to miss most the second half.
I didn't mind though because I lived and breathed football. My parents didn't have a car, so thankfully come Saturdays, my parents had no notion to travel 80 miles to the nearest Ikea or, even worse, visit Auntie Sophie in Broughty Ferry. My Gran lived in Ashfield Drive so even if both my parents were working, I was dropped of within a stone's throw of the Portland Drive end. Since I lived, breathed and slept football there was only one place I would head on a Saturday afternoon, and that was round the corner to Palmerston.
Thirty five years on, due to a cholesterol charged diet and beer, I can barely squeeze through the turnstiles, but I can still get the same pie on the same terracing and I can still queue for the whole of half-time to taste said pie. Despite attempts to get us all to sit down, shut up, nothing's changed there then.
However, kids have changed and so too have many parents. Some kids will spend a whole afternoon MSN'ing their pals (who are probably only around the corner!), rather than go and see a football match. They have PS2's, PSP's,i-pods, money in their pocket and shops to go to. The MTV nation don’t need to go far for their entertainment fix. Most parents are quite happy as long as their kids are happy and not annoying them.
To compete against this Football Club directors need to think much more 'out of the box' around ways to get kids involved in their football clubs. The more youngsters are involved in and around the club, even for non-football related events, the more likely they are to turn up on a Saturday to watch their local team.
People's idea of a Community Club can vary a great deal. From Football clubs who visit schools and run football in the community programmes away from the Stadium to those where everything from karate, to learning how to use a PC to Arts projects and sports activities are all integrated into the Football Club itself.
Even visiting away matches can be a turn off for families. Our recent visit to Almondvale gave us an insight to the horrors that await families who support an SPL club (or in this case an ex-SPL club but close enough). Two adults and two children with a car buying a programme, two horrible cups of coffee, two cartons of juice and 2 packets of crisps would not have seen any change from �60 and that's not including your petrol.
The nearly empty stadiums we visit every other week are testament to a business that's getting something wrong. The customers are not not turning up because the SFL doesn't have a sponsor or because the league isn't the SFL Division 1 rebranded with a nice SPL 2 moniker. No. It's because clubs are not trying hard enough to win the hearts and minds of the customers. The mindset that simply putting a good team on the pitch is no longer good enough for the 21st century. Those clubs that make progressive moves to work out what customers want, may prosper. One thing for sure is that those who stand still will follow the Dinosaurs to extinction.
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