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One Soci’s view on limited membership
Written by: Amanda
With Jordi Cardoner’s announcement on Thursday afternoon that moving
forward, FC Barcelona would be placing new restrictions on the club’s
membership, it seems that the club has instead taken a decided step
backwards. What are the reasons behind this decision? Are they valid
concerns, at least from a global perspective? As one soci terribly
disturbed by this news, upon examining the issue I’ve attempted to
look for some answers, or at least formulate a decent counter-argument
against this new plan.
There were many reasons given by Cardoner for limiting the membership
to families of members, children under 14, or people that have
previously been members. One of the main reasons given was the
unavailability of season tickets, with a lengthy waiting list of
9,500 people with an average waiting period of 42 years. On the
surface, a valid reason. Less clear was the idea that limiting members
”is a way of protecting what FC Barcelona represents. . . . Being a
member will be even more prized. There will be a better balance between
the number of seats and the options there are to fill them.”There are
other reasons which seem to be implied by Cardoner’s statements.
Before these new rules came into effect, it was very easy for anyone
around the world to become a soci. An application, ID, photo and
payment and you were in! With the club’s huge success in recent
seasons, there has been even greater demand for membership from fans
outside of Catalunya. Many local fans of the club seem to have became
troubled by this, worried that the Catalan identity of the club would
be lost with transient fans or even worse (as Ramzi so eloquently
described in May), that foreign members would become so dominant they
could take over the club via the elections.
But the big question is, do any of these arguments hold water?
Let’s start with the problem of season tickets. Except for the biggest
games, there are always empty seats at Camp Nou. Looking at the numbers,
so far this season, the best attended game at the Camp Nou (which seats
98,772) was the Gamper Trophy, with a crowd of 96,195. Possibly sold
out, but with more than 2,000 empty seats still. Other than that, no
other game has been nearly as full: Super Cup come-back against Sevilla
(67,414), loss to Hercules (79,363), huge triumph over Panathinaikos
(69,738), win over Sporting Gijon (66,947) and finally the tie with
Mallorca (79,085). Seats in the stadium only seem to be hard to come
by for the biggest games, like the Clasico, later and more critical
Champions League games, and games against bigger teams like Saturday’s
clash against Valencia.
Are new or non-local members taking the seats of would-be season ticket
holders? Going strictly by the numbers, it doesn’t appear that way based
on the empty seats. Almost all non-local members couldn’t afford the
cost of travelling for an entire season. So perhaps the club needs to
change the way they approach ticket sales instead of membership regulations.
How could the club appease these 9,500 people waiting for season tickets?
They could place harsher restrictions on season ticket holders’
attendence (a person must attend a certain number of games or give
up their seat for the games they miss). Season ticket holders could
purchase their tickets before single tickets go on sale or more seats
could be designated for season ticket holders only (though even
Barcelona-based members would have issues with both of these options).
Another quesion seems to emerge with the dominance given to the season
ticket holders: does the club want the stadium filled only with local
fans? It would feel rather strange, especially as the team itself
consists of players from all over the world.Another issue begging
attention is the argument that the club has too many members. However,
it appears to me at least that these numbers would be self-regulating.
The team has been playing so dominantly in recent years, it seems natural
that more fans are interested in joining. In lean times, when the club
doesn’t perform as well, these numbers will naturally fall. And also,
with so much debt hanging over the club, why would they want to limit a
viable source of income? Assuming the club has around 190,000 registered
members, that would provide about 28.5 million Euros to the club just
with yearly membership fees alone. While not much compared with more
lucrative sponsorship or television deals, it is still something,
especially if the club’s finances are as precarious as we have been
led to believe.
One of the proposed plans is instead of new fully-fledged members, fans
of the club would be able to get a ‘supporter’s passport’. What would
the differences be? You would have to assume that because tickets to the
stadium are an issue, that this passport would not be any help in getting
tickets. So what would it do? What would this fan registration cost?
Perhaps I just distrust anything that sees its origins in Real Madrid
(yes, you read that right, Real Madrid), where they have two levels of
fans: those carrying a soci card and those with ‘carnet madridista.’
You would have to assume that these fans would also be without voting
rights, another fear that seems to emerge from this new policy. Some
may believe that if you have too many members from a different country,
that they will wish to take control of the club with their voting power.
The solution to this is very simple and already in place. Continue to
have the socis vote in person. At the last elections, numbers in the
middle of the day indicated that 80% of the voters were from the
province of Barcelona, 11% from the rest of Catalunya, 5% from the
rest of Spain and only 4% from abroad.
This goes along with what may be the biggest issue behind the membership
changes - the feeling of a threatened identity. There’s no denying that
the club does mean something special to the people of Barcelona (though
not all, as I’m sure some Espanyol fans would confirm). The club was
a source of comfort and freedom for Catalans in a period when oppression
was the name of the game. But times have changed. Though the old wounds
haven’t completely healed, the world and Catalunya have moved on. FC
Barcelona is now a global club. They tour the world, their games are
broadcast worldwide, they have dedicated fans in all corners of the
globe. Does that mean that if you don’t have that ‘special’ regional
bond that you can’t have a deep, profound connection with club? What
would Iniesta say to that? Messi? Ronaldinho? Rivaldo? Luis Enrique?
Cruyff? Even Joan Gamper himself?
I can only look at myself as an example. I applied for my membership
in February of 2009. It was perhaps the darkest period of the treble
winning campaign (but, of course, there was no treble at that point).
Barca had just drawn with Betis 2-2, and would go on to tie Lyon 1-1
in the Champions League, and lose to both Espanyol (1-2) and Atletico
Madrid (3-4). But the results had nothing to do with why I wanted to
join the club. I loved the slogan – ‘Mes que un club’, the bold
display of Unicef on the shirts, the charitable and philanthropic
works of the club, and the players themselves, especially those that
emerged from La Masia. Adding to that the work ethic and humility
instilled in the entire team, the amazing stories of the legends of
the club, and the history and spirit embodied in the team, which all
became a part of why I wanted to join the club, be on an equal footing
with anybody lucky enough to be able to attend every match in person.
Be able to influence the future direction of the club. Nowadays, I
live and breathe Barca, spending hours every day working on this site,
joining my local Penya, working my schedule around Barca’s first and
B team games, studying about the history of Catalunya and even learning
Catalan. But if I had discovered the club a few years later than I did,
joining wouldn’t have even been an option. Does my loyalty count for
less because I wasn’t born in Barcelona? Because I discovered the
wonder of football and FCB later in life? Because my family didn’t
follow the sport before the emergence of computers or even cable TV
would make it possible from 4,000 miles away?
With this latest news of limited membership for what feels like hollow
reasoning, it certainly begins to feel that way.
--
http://twitter.com/barcastuff
Poll result:
"What do you think about the limitation of new club members
imposed by the Barça board?"
Bad 79% - Good 21%
[sport]
--
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※ 編輯: Petrie 來自: 111.240.210.126 (10/17 04:56)