Jam Tomorrow

I don’t know how familiar everyone is with the concept of ‘jam tomorrow’ from Alice In Wonderland. The idea behind it is the constant promise that the workers will get jam ‘every other day’, that ‘today isn’t every other day’ and that, therefore, the workers will never get jam; they only get the promise of it coming tomorrow. That seems ridiculous when explained in such a way, and it is. How anyone would stand for it seems alien to us, surely? Yet that is the situation Spurs fans find themselves in, as the workers being promised ‘jam tomorrow’ by the ‘queen’. The most ridiculous thing about this situation is that we ourselves use such an incentive to such an extent ourselves that the club barely even need say it any more. The club can screw us and screw us over and over again and the heart and soul of the this club, the fans, will tut and say the equivalent of ‘jam tomorrow’. And everything is okay. In case you think I’ve gone mad and am writing on the wrong site please bear with me I’m getting to it!

This is, of course, the equivalent of a phrase that has become so commonplace over the last few seasons at Spurs that I am finding myself thoroughly sick of. This phrase is used by the club and by the fans all too often and recently I’ve found myself wanting to strangle anyone (and, therefore, everyone) who utters it. I can totally understand why people say it, and it does make sense, but can we please step back a second and review what has become conventional wisdom?

The phrase I am referring to, some may already have guessed, is the oft repeated ‘when the new stadium comes’… often followed by words to the tune of ‘everything will be better’. ‘Everything will be fine and dandy when the new stadium comes, just wait and see’.

It comes out when referring to all sides of the game: financial improvement, football quality, ticket prices lowered, atmosphere increased and the ability to compete on all these levels with the teams around us at the top. These are all true and I have no problem with these statements, they make sense. However, I feel that the new stadium, and through it paralleling the inferior size of the Lane, has been the main reason the club has been able to treat our fan base so shockingly over the past few years. Ticket price hikes combined with a lack of investment in the club has seen huge amounts of discontent from the fanbase over the past few years and it seems like it’s only going to get worse from what I can see. That is, until the new stadium comes, then it will all be perfect, apparently.

“Why not just batten down the hatches and wait?”, I hear you say. The wait for the new stadium will be worth it if it’s all it’s cracked up to be, surely? I’d rather wait a bit and have the new stadium than move to Stratford and that massive, soulless Olympic stadium. Anything’s better than that. So we have to suffer a bit, so what? We’re Spurs! We’re good at suffering!

Fair enough points, once again. But what message does that send to Mr. Levy? That we’ll stand for a weak compromise that involves screwing us with our pants on over ticket prices, among other things, at the Lane in the years leading up to the arrival of our saintly new stadium! You think once the ticket prices have been raised far beyond the wrong side of the £50 per game mark that the club will just shrug its shoulders and say ‘yes, now we have a new stadium we’re going back to £25 tickets again, with concessions for everyone, everywhere’? As is constantly pointed out, often along with the ‘when the new stadium comes…’ quote, we have a 40,000+ strong season ticket waiting list! While we may struggle to sell out the smaller games, the big game prices will be upped massively and we will be in exactly the same situation we are in now. Also plus the fact that we will be in the Arsenal situation of having huge stadium debt and will, therefore, continue not to invest massively in the team… leading to more complaints like we are seeing at Arsenal every time they lose.

Earlier in the year I started a page on twitter called ‘Spurs Youth Supporters’ (@OurClubsFuture) to unite young fans and to give ourselves a vague form of representation with the club as a group of people (very roughly aged 16-25) who are being squeezed out of the game by pricing. The main point of this article is that, for us in that age bracket, ‘when the stadium comes’ in 2017 (or god knows when), will not be soon enough, or good enough. Look around you at the Lane; what used to be a crowd made up of a lot of younger fans is now largely middle-aged people and older, often with their kids. Why? Because we can’t afford to go anymore, for obvious reasons. An entire generation is missing out on going to the Lane at the age we should be going because of high ticket prices, lack of concessions for us, dull atmosphere etc. and the list goes on. What’s my point? My point is that by the time the stadium comes most of us will be alienated from the club, either having been before and stopped because of the expense, or simply never having gone because of prices in the first place.

My personal opinion is that the club is being short-sighted in alienating a large proportion of its loyal, or potentially loyal, fans like this. When Spurs inevitably fall from the heady heights we are hitting at the moment, where will our support come from? The generation of fans missing could be the difference between a full stadium and a half empty one. Even more if crucial if we have such a large stadium to maintain and pay back. Short term greed will be the downfall of all top flight football clubs in the future I am sure of it. There is a financial incentive for treating your fan base well and this must be made clear to Levy & co along with any protests we might make.

My final point is that of atmosphere. My opinion is that The Lane is poisonous, dull and boring these days for all but a few games a season and there have been a number of ideas floated about to try and stop the rot and get it going again. However, once again, the reply to these often is that, ‘It’s too difficult to organise anything at the Lane, we might as well wait for the new stadium to come.’ Is this really the way we want the once mighty Lane to go? To be demolished and abandoned after 10+ seasons of mediocre atmosphere and dourness? I don’t know about you, but my answer is emphatically ‘No!’.

My point is that the revolution starts here. Not with the new stadium and not in a few years but here and now. Let’s use brilliant fan-led initiatives like the 1882 movement and bring back some atmosphere to the Lane. Let’s band together for cheaper ticket prices and concessions because we know what’s best for this club, and will never give up in trying to give every single Spurs fan the opportunity to afford to do what they love and watch Spurs play. Reforming Spurs currently will be difficult, sure, but don’t let the potential new stadium stop you from trying until its last game to improve THFC as a club whilst at the Lane and beyond.

How do you do this? Get involved with the 1882, and our Spurs Youth Supporters movement as much as possible and keep an eye out for events etc. Most importantly, join the official Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust who are back up and running and need as many members as possible to be able to make a difference (follow @THSTOfficial on Twitter for details) as well as getting involved in the Football Supporters Federation’s various schemes. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, we CAN make a difference as fans. Watch this space.

[author name=”Gabe Farrell” avatar=”https://si0.twimg.com/profile_images/3591958311/8712ccc25e179c77f689ac4f3cea0679.jpeg” twitter=”OurClubsFuture” tag=”GabeFarrell[/linequote]