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The Newcastle Jets, led by new owner Nathan Tinkler, announced that they would be changing the team colours from their gold to a sort of Knights-heavy, Barcelona-light, blue and red kit. Tinkler appeared to make this decision without any community or fan consultation. The guy is a straight-up genius.
Judging by comments on this website and in The Newcastle Herald, this is a divisive issue and many die-hard fans feel that they have been cheated. In his article on The Roar, Adrian Musolino stated that “the last thing the A-League needs, at this critical juncture, is for clubs to alienate its active fans.”
The thing is, Nathan Tinkler doesn’t need die-hard fans. The wonderful, vocal supporters of the Jets, who are the very reason the club and the league exist in this country, are going to come to the games anyway – they love the team and they love football, and the thought of our city without a football team is too difficult to bear.
Die-hard fans die hard – if they didn’t, they’d just be called “fans”. They will protest, and pontificate, and write on message boards about the decline of football culture in Australia, then they will buy the new kit, and sit in the stands and cheer for Nikolai Topor-Stanley, who still dons the gold… sorry, the blue and red jersey – no doubt thanks to Tinkler’s own intervention.
The new owner has no need for die-hard fans. What Nathan Tinkler really needs is… well… me. He needs me and my group of well-adjusted friends who are starting families and gaining an appreciation for football, and will soon be watching their sons and daughters run around the pitch on a Saturday morning. And he needs their group of friends.
He needs Knights fans (and I don’t purport to be one of those) who have now been presented with the option of affordable dual memberships. Tinkler needs the frustrated rugby union lover, who flicks past a soccer show and mumbles, “Gee, that was a good goal.” He needs me, who would be too scared to light a flare if I was on a sinking ship, to respond “yes” to my flatmate, who just sent me an email saying, “Hey, with all this jersey talk, we should go to the game tonight.”
Nathan Tinkler saved the Newcastle Jets and has committed to a 10-year lease – something no business person in their right mind would describe as a risk-free venture. In the process of doing this, he has brought David Beckham and Frannie Jeffers to town, saved Topor-Stanley from the slavering jaws of Sydney FC, and taken measures to ensure there will be no repeats of the “us-versus-them” stadium saga which plagued the Jets’ schedule during 2010.
Given his commitment, he is within his rights to make a decision like this. The fact that Tinkler chose not to consult with the Jets community before making this decision actually demonstrates his business acumen. Anybody with the commitment to attend a meeting discussing this proposal would have – of course – voted no.
I have never owned a gold Jets shirt (and perhaps people will judge me on this alone). Yet I’m looking forward to buying myself a shiny new red and blue one – complete with gold trim! I might even splurge on a membership (one of the most affordable in the country, thanks to Tinkler’s intervention), because I am excited about the future of the Jets.
I am a fair-weather fan, sure, but there is a growing number of us who appreciate the commitment and savvy of the new owner, whose feelings of guilt at missing games is getting bigger all the time, and who understand the need for our city to have a professional, competitive football team.
I feel sorry for the gold-wearing supporters who have made the club what it is, and who feel cheated by this development, but next year you might have a few extra friends by your side. And our shirts will match the seats!
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