By snaderson
July 6 2006

And so the fallow summer period continues: as we alternately swelter and drown in this typically English weather, it's time to reflect on the season past and look forward to the one to come. Snaderson takes a deep breath and comes up with one fan's perspective on Sale's greatest season.

Sale being justly crowned the champions of England was easily the best moment of an excellent season. Over the course of the year, however, things hadn’t always gone as smoothly as that. A particular problem that cropped up when we were due to travel away to play Munster got me thinking about how the relationship between the fans and the club, as a commercial entity, actually works: what drives each side of the relationship and what they can do for each other.

The problem was to do with the distribution of the limited number of away tickets allocated to Sale using a so-called ‘lottery’. The management had high-handedly decreed that there would be a draw to claim places at Thomond Park and that only season ticket holders (STHs) would be allowed to enter. A further implication was that the STHs, being loyal fans, were bound to snap up the lot. This system neglected any consultation with the fans or the SSSC, treated families and friends amongst STHs indiscriminately, ignored the fact that we would have to break all previous records for travelling support in order to use the allocation up, and simply felt arbitrary and unfair (especially to us poor non-season-ticket-holding mites stamping our little feet because we had already booked our flights). It felt to us that the powers that run the club were dealing with us more as if we were some abstract numerical problem to be solved than as if we were human beings who might mind being treated so dismissively.

Looked at dispassionately, a draw might, in the end, have been the best way to manage the allocation. Nonetheless there was some ill-feeling from the fans at the suddenness of the decision and the lack of consultation. Another aspect to the ill-feeling was the way the management was separating the fans into different classes. It was explained this way: there were followers, those people who rarely come to a game; rugby fans, who aren’t particularly committed to Sale and only come to big games against big clubs; and supporters, who were further subdivided into regulars and STHs. Out of these, the STHs, thanks to their up-front commitment, would always come first in the club’s concerns. It was further stated that the management’s aim, for the benefit of the club, was to try to convert those it described as followers and rugby fans into, at the very least, regular supporters, but best of all, STHs.

To start to understand the management’s behaviour, the first thing to note is that the club itself has a number of different facets too, each with its own motivation. There are the players, who just want to get out there and play to win; in this aim they are closely supported by the coaching staff and their teams of physios, etc. Then there is the business (‘the management’ in other terms), driven by the need to maximise income, an aim that is intimately linked with sporting success. Finally, there are the fans who support both those aspects by cheering the players on and spending their cash through the ticket office, shop and so on. The fans want a fair deal from the business, and, from the players, the excitement and entertainment they’ve come to expect.

All these parts of the club naturally share a desire for success on the field, the primary goal of any sports team. However, the business doesn’t seek sporting success purely for its own sake. Along with it, success brings financial rewards thanks to such things as sponsorship, corporate hospitality and more direct types of income (like ticket sales, merchandising and on-site food and drink sales – particularly if you’re drinking Diet Coke!). In attracting sponsors (who form a huge part of the club’s income – witness McAfee’s massive investment), STHs and regular supporters are particularly valuable for the business. They guarantee the consistently big crowds that sponsors are after – they want the largest target market possible – and therefore the business encourages as many fans as it can to sign up.

Though Brian Kennedy has pointed out that you don’t buy a rugby team to make money, this won’t stop anyone trying, especially as investment from a successful business can promote even more success on the field. This can be achieved through such things as developing and buying players, and improving the players’ facilities for training and injury rehab. Investing in facilities for the fans, who come in greater numbers when the side is winning, can also pay back by making their experience a pleasant and enjoyable one, which will encourage them to repeat their visits. To draw people in, the club also supports a number of external initiatives, such as players’ evenings and training camps for school children. These help foster a ‘community’ across all aspects of the club making the largest part of it – the supporters in all their guises – feel closer to the most public face of it – the players – so that, for the public involved, Sale becomes ‘their’ club. These types of investment, which all fans directly or indirectly support, go on to produce greater financial rewards by attracting bigger crowds – with all that entails – and delivering more sporting success.

Supporting Sale means being loyal to the club. But what are the fans loyal to? In simple terms we would say we were loyal to the players: they’re the ones who put their bodies on the line for us and go out on the pitch to win the game. But players change, new ones are signed, others move on; coaches are appointed or get head-hunted. So you can’t be loyal to a set of people in particular when the make-up of that set keeps changing. Instead we’re buying into what, we hope, is a steady and unchanging ethos belonging to Sale – a style of playing, a type of ambition, a way of engaging with the fans – that persists throughout any personnel changes. Whoever comes into the club – players, coaching staff, people who run the business, owners – inherits this ethos and, in time, passes it on to the next set of people.

Sometimes, if this ethos seems under threat, it can cause ructions. This past season we have had some tough words about ‘winning ugly’, winning at all costs even if it means a tight, forward-dominated game plan that seems at odds with Sale’s traditional running rugby style. This has obviously been a very successful formula, purely in terms of results, but nevertheless we still demand, as has been suggested ‘good’ fans should, that we not only win but win in a good way. We’re committed to supporting Sale through thick and thin but the management cannot expect our unconditional support for whatever’s going on at the club. If we think they are moving the club in directions that go against the ethos that brought our support in the first place, we have a right to speak out. We have to desire the best, the ideal, even if we end up with something less than that (though of course ‘something less’ could still mean great sporting success). On the other hand, we don’t want to become a bunch of doom-mongering, nay-sayers, like the old bloke behind me at the Bath game who, every time Bath had the ball, said ‘they’re going to score from here’ (it was almost as if he wanted Sale to lose – and of course they didn’t, absorbing all the Bath effort then punishing them in the last five minutes). We have to be critical but not negative, realistic about our chances but encouraging of the team. Our behaviour is part of Sale’s ethos and we have our own part of the tradition to hold up too.

The club is becoming successful. We progressed to the Heineken Cup quarter-finals, topped the league table at the end of the regular season, and destroyed Leicester in the Premiership play-off final. Edgeley Park regularly sells out; there will soon be as many season ticket holders as there were seats at Heywood Road. The support at away fixtures is gathering momentum, thanks to the tireless efforts of the SSSC and the experience of those amazing European games. Taking 15,000 fans to Twickenham would have been unthinkable even last year. The future is looking bright and, seeing what can be done when we went to Limerick, at the Wasps semi or especially at the Twickers final, who wouldn’t want to be a part of it, shouting for the Sale cause?