The unasked question that probably lies behind this thread is this: are we gathering an ever larger TV/web-only audience, many of whom are likely to be 'glory-hunters'?
And I trust the responses on this thread have answered that question quite succintly. For what it's worth, I started supporting Tottenham at the very end of the 90's, during some of our ****piest years. Why on Earth would I, or any other sane person continue to put myself through that when so many more successful and often more easily accessible clubs were available for me (and most other kids my age in my city) to support? Why would I wake up at the oddest hours to watch matches, wear an old T-shirt no one in my neighborhood could associate with, get picked on in the schoolyard for being the only school supporter of a team like Spurs in the early and mid 2000's, and generally put myself through all the heartbreak that came with supporting Tottenham alone?
I grew older, but I could never get closer to the UK, and once I graduated from my university, I could never quite earn enough to justify making trips to WHL. Still can't, as a matter of fact. And now, as a bloody adult, I'm expected to deal with deadlines, decisions, business travel at GHod-awful hours, the rent, the endless bills, and a whole lot more. Yet I still wake up at strange hours to watch matches. Still head down to my local sports bar when I can to catch the game with the few other bloody-minded individuals who share the same team I do. Still get moody and despondent when we fail. Still tear up when we eke achievements out of the hard fabric football throws at us. Still laugh when Arsenal **** up somewhere. Still swear when Chelski do something reprehensible, like they usually do.
I'm fairly certain that I will probably never be a regular visitor to WHL, to London, or even to the UK. I live in straitened times, with straitened means, and until that changes I will be a weary business traveler who has a small home in Canada he will likely not move out of for a long, long time to come.
Yet for some strange reason, the travails and tensions of eleven men on a grass field some 4000 miles away, across raging oceans, icy poles and vast continents, still moves me in a way that few other experiences in life can. The actions of entities I have no control over and have never directly associated with can still move me to tears, or make me run down the street in joy, or make me want to drown myself in my pint. Why is that?
I suspect it is the same reason Storky reserves time off on Euro Thursdays. The same reason Raziel deals with horribly odd hours. The same reason El Guepardo supports the team from far away. The same reason par_18 gets up at 4am on weekdays. The same reason tommysvr even contemplates spending five thousand dollars to watch ninety bloody minutes of twenty two wealthy men punting a ball around a grass rectangle in a run-down district on most probably a grey, overcast day.
That reason unites us all, no matter where we come from, what we do, who we are or what we can afford.
We are Spurs. We will be here when players come, and players go. We will be here when the stadium goes up, and we will probably be here when Abramovich leaves and Chelsea go down. We will be here when Spurs slip into oblivion, and we will be here on that glorious, sunny day when a Spurs player lifts the Premier League trophy in triumph. We will be here. Always, wherever we may be.
All of us.
) so the arguments, the playground matches, etc were between both us and the gooners - there were not United, Chelsea, City fans. It is a global game now and a business so it's is financially something that needs to happen. The internet too has opened up many avenues to gain that interest (be it through forums like this or streaming footie). Maybe it's the nostalgia of the playground I miss...
