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Three years ago, a bus load of football fans screamed at me to “’eff off home” for a solid ten minutes. This was a surprising new experience for me, and left me wondering if the A-League has a fan problem.
My first hand experience was while heading to an A-League game a few years back to see Sydney FC play the Central Coast Mariners.
As I left Central Station I decided to jump on a special event bus instead of walking up the Foveaux Street, a decision I would come to regret.
The bus, while noisy, reached an intense crescendo when I hoped on. At first I though some guy was doing something awesome up the back so I looked on to see what the commotion was, only to realise that it was me!
Yes, I had got on a bus with 50 other people, all of them dressed head to toe in blue, screaming at me, dressed in yellow.
My initial feeling was definitely fear. I am not a physically imposing person and for a few moments was very worried indeed. Fortunately this was only for a few moments, since it was clear that the guys screaming abuse at me, were not a threat.
It wasn’t because they weren’t drunk, or because a lot of them were young enough to still have braces on their teeth.
It was because most of them were smiling and laughing while they sang to me about how rubbish my team was, how I needed to eff of home, how much they were going to win by and how small my man gear is.
They were in the midst of the highlight of their week, and were having the time of their lives.
When we arrived at the SFS 10 minutes later I hoped off to meet my mates and they headed off to join ‘The Cove’, who managed to give a fairly empty stadium a cracking atmosphere for the entire game.
Thinking back, the experience on the bus was something I had never experienced before going to games for other codes. I have sat on buses heading to Bledisloe Cup games, NRL finals and international cricket matches and never experienced a coordinated carve up from following fans.
Most sports had been like the dog and wolf in the cartoons, walking to work together as mates, belting each other silly all day before heading home later as if nothing has happened.
But the A-League has brought something new to watching sport in Australia. Each team now has a group of hardcore dedicated fans that travel to the game as a pack, sit in a big clump and make a big ado all game long.
The difference they make to a game day experience is significant. Compare sitting in the SFS with ten thousand fans for a Roosters game compared to a FC game and it is chalk and cheese.
The constant songs, chants and noise from the blue mob at the Paddington end more then make up for the fact Football doesn’t have the constant opportunities for fan cheering that regular points scoring provides.
It also makes Football in Australia like football in the rest of the world. Flick on any game in Europe, Asia, South America and you can hear fans singing, chanting and getting involved. If A-League crowds sat there more passively the experience would be significantly poorer.
But none of this made standing there on the bus to the SFS any more fun. I can imagine someone less used to being yelled at by teenagers could have got pretty shaken or upset. Similarly, I was fortunate enough to have a bunch of teens ripping into me; I can imagine the adult crew would have been far more threatening.
I have no doubt that with a different person on that bus, there would have been angry phone calls to shock jocks and more ‘fan problem’ articles in the press.
Is this the cost to the A-League of having a genuine football experience?
Is being singled out for rough attention in the press and regular high handed dross from Rebecca Wilson or Peter Fitzsimmons the price to pay for having a great atmosphere at the game?
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.