If anyone had ever wondered what watching football might be like in an empty stadium, it may have been even more bland than they could have imagined.
We’re all familiar with the phrase “football without fans is nothing” and actually, whoever really did say that knew what they were talking about. Due to COVID and (hopefully) once-in-a-lifetime circumstances, we’ve actually experienced that to be the case.
Fans are football’s most valuable asset.
Why then, out of all the many stakeholders of the game we love: players, managers, clubs, their owners, sponsors, broadcasters, the FA, the Premier League, the English Football League and so on, are fans the only one guaranteed to finish every season with a negative P&L?
Something’s not right, it hasn’t been for some time and there is a growing disconnect between the group of other stakeholders and the fans that form the foundations of the entire industry.
Take supporters out of the equation and professional sport no longer has a saleable product. Yet increasingly, this group is viewed by some of those other stakeholders as the money tree that keeps on giving.
Our sense is that fans have had enough – they have no more to give and they are done with being taken for granted. Thanks to this experiment involving empty stadiums, fans should be more aware than ever that the game needs them even more than they need their weekly fix of supporting their team. If ever there was a moment to drive a change, that has to be now.
The FanHub vision is that rather than finding themselves at the bottom of the foodchain, fans are the major beneficiaries of their own loyalty, attention and content.
We see a better way forwards, one where fans are recognised and rewarded for their contribution to the game that they love rather than funding it to the benefit of corporate balance sheets.
Following our roadmap to bring that vision in to a reality is what #fansfirst means to us and if you believe what we believe, then you are very welcome on our journey. Read more on our mission here.
Ultimately it is markets that drive change, not regulators, policy makers, corporates or rights holders and when our mission to put #fansfirst has gathered enough support, then change will come.
Join us on our journey to put fans first.
