By Andy Morgan
November 15 2005

With the Holidays just around the corner and thoughts of merchandise firmly in the minds of even the most hardened Christmas cynic, what better time than now to examine the club’s commercial wing to see whether it is the fans or the club that genuninely profit from it. In recent weeks this issue has been further highlighted by a growing discontent amongst the fans against what they see as the cynical opportunism of the club. That they no longer get value for money from a monolithic corporate structure that is retreating further and further from its roots.

This feeling of fan detachment is not new and is present at the majority of Premier League clubs, from the Glazer protests at Manchester United to the declining gates at the majority of grounds, including our own. This has been exasperated by the Sky TV megamoney deals that not only force ticket and merchandise prices up in order to afford the wages of players, but also result in match kick-off times being rearranged for reasons of profit.

Many fans therefore see themselves as having been neglected, left to float behind the steaming cruiser of market factors, just another route to revenue, another commodity to have, another cashcow to milk until it’s all been dried up. In short, many fans feel that they are being used, that their loyalty is being abused and that the club offers very little in return.

Others feel that it is no longer ‘their’ club but that it is run by a consortium of disinterested businessmen looking for their own profit, as distanced as any other high-street company from the consumers who support them. Thankfully at Middlesbrough we have Steve Gibson in charge so that accusation can not so readily be made but even then the club still has a certain distance about it, even if all that equates to is its standing alone in Middlehaven for the last ten years, which is as good an analogy as any.

In his column a couple of weeks ago, Steve Goldby discussed the poor attendence for the UEFA Cup match against Dnipro on 3 November. He argued that the best way to increase the attendences at the Riverside for these matches is to follow the policy adopted by Jack Charlton upon becoming Boro manager in 1973, i.e. 'embarking on a promotional campaign at grass roots level’.

All well and good but my fear is that the PR department at the club have lost touch with the fans to such a point that they no longer know where that grass roots level is, nevermind knowing how to orchestrate a campaign involving it. Granted the fans have been listened to on a couple of occasions- the replacement of the white band on the home shirt being one such example. But was this done to solely accommodate the fans or was there the sound of ringing cash registers in the ears of the commercial department?

After all give the customer what they want and the money will roll in, right? Am I being unfair and cynical here? Probably, if the fans want it then at least they implemented it but how many other times have they genuinely listened to the fans? Because from the fans that I have spoken to there appears to be a marked cynicism against the commercial department of the club and if this cynicism exists in what is the most successful period in our history then I dread to think how bad it would be if we were truly struggling. So it seems to me that despite the initiatives the fans are not really being won over and this is why I question whether they truly understand their fan base.

If this is true then the club can utilise a source that *should* have a greater knowledge of the local community and of opinion in the area- the local media. The club already have a deal with the Evening Gazette but it appears to me on occasion that the local rag is somewhat conservative in its opinions. Indeed many fans appear to dismiss the Gazette as a valid source of Boro reporting because it sometimes fails to report games in their true light, always putting a positive spin on things when the fans see something different.

I do not know why this should be the case, nor do I know the deal between the Gazette and the club but part of the cynicism generated about football on Teesside derives from the fact that what the Gazette sees and what the fans see are often two different things. So the club is not wholly at fault for the loss of grass root fans as the local media must take some responsibility in trying to drum up support for the team.

Indeed this is where the club should target and to do this a stronger, symbiotic relationship between club and media must be generated. This is particularly the case with respect to the lack of support Boro TV had carved out for itself and we must combat the cynicism of the national press with strong unwavering local support.

But the whole point of support is the right to be critical and to demand change when the needs arise and this is something I do not believe the Gazette fully does. Indeed a little more constructive criticism by the press would not only help bring the fans back to the club but also allow the club to learn a few lessons it might not have learnt elsewhere.

Everyone has an opinion and I accept the management’s at the club is paramount but if the fans are not listened to then they will stay away. And then there would ultimately be no club. Give the fans a forum to show their views and the belief that their views are at least being considered and maybe the fans will jump back on board.

Let me state another example. Ambling through Middlesbrough last week I was struck by a massive poster in the window of a sports shop advertising the sale of Everton’s new away strip for the 2005/6 season. This got me thinking. Liverpool is 200 miles from here and Everton, despite their pretences to the contrary are not really a big club. Well not any more at least.

Indeed in terms of success and size I would argue that Middlesbrough was certainly of equivalent size, if not bigger. So why can I buy an Everton shirt in Middlesbrough when I cannot buy a Middlesbrough shirt in Liverpool? I accept that Everton were big in the Eighties and that they may still retain some of their glory supporting fans of that era - gradually sinking into a mediocre-based depression one would guess - but I hardly believe that there are throngs of Evertonians on the banks of the Tees.

Yet if we are to emulate such clubs, if we are to become a bigger club than Everton, then surely we must emulate their marketing policies- by allowing our shirts to be sold outside of Middlesbrough. Indeed we should let our shirts be sold outside of the club shop, nevermind outside of the town as the only place you can buy a Boro shirt is at one of the two club shops.

Why? This suggests to me a policy of narrow-minded commercialism. I would hazard a guess it is because in selling the shirts through their own outlets the club can retain maximum profit from those shirts as they do not have to give a cut to any secondary agency, such as the sports shops. Fine. I accept this. I also accept that the majority of Boro fans can probably get into Middlesbrough at some point as this majority lives within the Teesside conurbation. I accept this too.

But I cannot help but think that if Boro shirts and other merchandise were on sale at the various sports outlets across the region it would not only give the club more profit as more shirts would be sold but it would also raise the profile of the club too. It would put the club in your face, jostling with the Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea shirts and would probably result in more impulsive purchases as at the moment, to get a shirt you have to have some purpose for walking into the club shop.

Furthermore if our aim is to eventually emulate the top three clubs then this decentralisation of marketing surely is a necessary advancement, one that, as I say, can increase profits and prestige. I also believe that there are plenty of fans in Darlington, Redcar, Hartlepool and the like who would rather not go into Middlesbrough to buy a replica shirt but would buy one on their own doorstep.

Indeed the idea of making a journey into Middlesbrough may be such an inconvenience as to prevent them parting with their money. Now you may say that they are fickle fans as if they went to the home games they could pick up a shirt but if finance is the name of the game, surely the club making money is most important, irrespective of who buys the merchandise.

Furthermore after spending £25 on a ticket it is less likely that you will want to spend £40 on a shirt on top of that as opposed to buying the shirt at another time when the spending does not seem so drastic. This is basic marketing psychology. I accept however that the policies of the club are based on market research - at least I hope they are - and as I am not aux fais with the studies I assume the club has done its research diligently.

But if one thing this website has taught me is that there is a presence of many ex-pat fans in various corners of the country and if this army is big enough - which it might well be - then, as long as the overheads are low enough, I do not see why this centralised merchandising policy should remain.

I accept it’s a niche market and niche markets have to comply with specific economic factors but how much of a niche market is it? How localised is it? I don’t think it is that specific to warrant adopting such a policy. If this were to be jettisoned, giving more competition in shirt prices and allowing greater fan choice then maybe the fans would feel more rather than less enamoured with the club, which in turn may enable them to come back...

Part two appearing tomorrow