Have we lost it forever?

cfloo

There are many of us today who think we have lost the traditional andunique support we used to have and the thing that worries us is that wemay never get it back.
Our club was built with the support of theworking class residents of Liverpool and the surrounding area. As awool, OOT, call it what you like, coming up from Wales in the 70's thiswas clearly in evidence, but not any more.

Yeah, we had supportfrom all over the country and indeed all over the world but ourtraditions and history were all taken from the local support which wasunique in more ways than one and which made up the great majority ofthe weekly attendance.

There are several reasons why oursupport has changed over the years. Probably the biggest reason wasIstanbul and the run up to the final. The games against Juve andChelsea and were shown to a national audience as usual but the factthat the underdog (which is what we were then) came through to win andthe fantastic and unforgettable atmosphere that accompanied these gamesopened a lot of people's eyes.
Then, of course, there was thatnight in Turkey that really gave us superstar status the world over.What this did was open everyone's eyes to Liverpool including thethousands of non-match-going fans all over the country and Europe. Youcan imagine sitting watching your TV as an armchair Liverpool fan inplaces from Dorset to Denmark and looking at the Kop in full voice for90 mins and the 40-50 thousand redmen in the Attaturk stadium.

Whatit did was awaken a sleeping giant. All of a sudden all those folks whowere Liverpool fans spread throughout Europe wanted to come and see forthemselves what a magical place Anfield was, and so begun the demise ofour support as we knew it.

Now before you all have a go, I'm inno position to question anyone's eligibility to be allowed to come towatch the reds, in fact I'm very proud that we have such a wide andvaried fanbase,  but I do agree that part of the reason for the pooratmosphere at the ground these days is the fact that the young locallads don't seem to be turning up in such numbers as they used to, andmany of our fans nowadays are not well versed in the tradition andhistory of the club in any way.

One of the worrying things forme at the moment is that it is clear that you are more likely to get aticket if you apply for yourself, your missus and a couple of kids, orif you are travelling from a big distance.
If you're coming withkids of if you are making a rare journey to watch a game then there isobviously more chance of you spending money buying merchandise from theclub. This is what the owners love. They don't give a toss if there'sany atmosphere in the ground or not. They don't understand our game andnever will, we all know they're businessmen out to make big profit andthey'll take it any way they can.
The sound of the cash tills inthe official shop means much more to them that any tradition or historyso they're quite happy having it this way.

The only chance wewould ever have of getting our support back to what it was is if weever get the new stadium built and if someone buys us for the prestigeand not just for a money making machine, which we now know it willprobably never be.
This now looks impossible and even if this happened the things we would need to do are just a pipe dream.

Thins like freezing the prices of the tickets for a couple of years, making it more affordable for the man in the street.
Setting aside areas of the ground for families and daytrippers to watch the game the way they want to.
Makingthe Kop an area with safe standing and make it clear that it is theplace to support the team and not the place to be if you want to takephotos, text your mates all through the game, email on your frigginblackberry, etc. etc.
Making more tickets available for localyoungsters at lower prices. The young kids are our future and maybe amodified version of the boys pen from long ago would be a good idea.
Whenthe Kop was made all seating it changed the way of our support forever.Groups of friends who always stood together found themselves separated,and we all know that being surrounded by strangers contributes to aquieter atmosphere. The bigger capacity would allow fans to choose whothey sit with much easier and this would be a major contribution to animproved support.

As I said, this is now a pipe-dream, and thechances of anything like this happening are probably close to zero butI honestly can't think of any other way we are going to change theimage of the greedy, unforgiving, motionless mass of ungrateful fansthat we now portray to the rest of the country.
To be honest I'mfed up with the piss-taking chants of visiting fans every week, thetrouble is I can't argue with what they're saying, that's the worstpart.