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Supporting Spurs from 3,500 miles away

6 min read
by Scott Matthews
Scott Matthews makes his debut by looking at what it's like supporting Spurs from across the Atlantic.

I admit that it is a little silly to support a club in a different country, whose matchday I’ve never experienced and with a culture to which I have no connection beyond the one actively seek to create. So, then, why do I support Spurs?

Why have I latched onto a club that plays 3,500 miles from me?

Why do I wake up at 7:00am on a Saturday, still drunk from the last night, to watch an away loss?

Why do I spend 2 hours of my only day in London taking a tour of White Hart Lane?

Why do I take the time to consider and vote on Tottenham Supporters Trust initiatives?

Why insert myself into a North London-based community when I live in a very comparable New York City, with its own clubs?

Most importantly, how can my long-distance support of Spurs contribute something positive to the supporter community?

The simple answer is that, by its combination of culture, identity, quality, style of play, history and accessibility, Tottenham Hotspur embodies something unique to which I have developed a close connection. In this day and age, proximity is only one factor. My end of the bargain is that, like any supporter, I need to be an active contributor to the Spurs community.

[linequote]Given the top-down relationship between American franchises and fans as well as the distance of clubs, location is relatively meaningless when it comes to sustained, dedicated support[/linequote]

For longtime Spurs fans from the London area, it may seem strange that fans may choose to support a club so far removed from their homes, but it really isn’t for many of us. Local, multigenerational support for one club is not extremely common in the United States and clubs treat fans more like consumers than supporters (and fans oblige).

For example, the local professional team I grew up supporting is the NBA’s Sacramento Kings. They moved to Sacramento when I was 4 years old and thus have a very short history in the city. Former owners credibly threatened relocation multiple times, almost moving to Southern California and Seattle over the past five years.

I get to see the Kings once or twice a year when they play in New York, but there is only a smattering of away fans. (Sacramento is 3,000 miles away from New York, almost equidistant as London is to New York; funny enough, there are certainly more Spurs supporters than Kings fans in NYC.) While I still wholeheartedly support the Kings and do actively participate in the community where I can, there is an unfortunate literal and figurative distance between the club and me. There is little space to create a substantial supporters culture.

Many sports fans in the United States have a similar dynamic with their teams. Given the top-down relationship between American franchises and fans as well as the distance of clubs, location is relatively meaningless when it comes to sustained, dedicated support. For such support, there must be a deeper connection, a connection that is frankly impossible with many American clubs.

Of course, a solution to a dearth of local fan culture in the United States is to create that culture ourselves, to cultivate a Spurs-like ethos in whatever clubs are nearby. This is true and many Spurs fans, including myself, have season tickets to local football clubs. Many fans also participate in local club’s supporters groups.

However, in the United States, the nature of Major League Soccer’s ownership structure, its short 20-year history, and the arms-length relationship many ownership groups have with fans, makes this difficult to achieve on any level comparable to what is in England. This does not excuse passive local participation, but it does explain why it’s not likely that non-local supporters can create a similar atmosphere for their hometown clubs.

[fullquote]The positive of Spurs’ international reach is that people with many different backgrounds can unify and support a wonderful club[/fullquote]

Like many populist movements, English supporters culture matured in a different era with closer connections between supporters and clubs. Frankly, that is one of the reasons people around the world are enamored with Spurs and English football. We should still do what we can to achieve it locally, but also understand the limitations of the modern era.

That said, there are many football fans who couldn’t be bothered to attend local club matches in the United States because of the supposed lack of quality in those sides or, as they perceive it, the empty fan culture in the United States. I can’t speak for them, but I hope that they are at least doing something active to cultivate Spurs supporters culture and keep an open mind about attending local club matches.

For better or for worse, Spurs are a global brand and the Premier League has a global scope. Spurs receive a great deal of support from international sources – be it television money, merchandising, coaches or, most importantly, players. Without being a global presence, Spurs would not have its wealth or success; or rather, it would not operate at such a high caliber.

It is very reasonable to wish that the Premier League maintained much of the old trappings of the League – Rule 34 (search “Rule 34” online and you will find that it has an additional, racy meaning) and more robust international player restrictions – to limit profit-mindedness and increase the relevance of academy development.

Unfortunately, Spurs and the Premier League – as businesses – do not mind diluting the fanbase quality for increased worldwide market share. But that corporate attitude does not need to filter down to supporters who care deeply for the club and its community. The positive of Spurs’ international reach is that people with many different backgrounds can unify and support a wonderful club, but that privilege also comes with a responsibility to understand that the shirt (not selling shirts) comes first.

[linequote]In an era that overvalues consumption over community in sports, it’s important not to forget that without active participation, supporter culture dies[/linequote]

Much like with local fans, there is a right and wrong way for non-local fans to interact with a club. This centers on respecting the players as competitors and actively contributing to the fan culture. A fan in Japan or Denver should prioritize player health over meaningless play and not demand excessive travel for a mere friendly. Part of being a long distance supporter is accepting the limitation of such distance, which means that you should expect to come to see the club play as opposed to the club traveling to see you.

It is equally important for long-distance supporters to not rely on other fans to be the active contributors to Spurs’ culture. Otherwise, we might contribute to diluting the very culture that attracted us to Spurs in the first place. To this end, I think that there is an excellent breadth of contributions – from city-specific supporters groups to international podcasts – that enriches the Spurs community (and one of the reasons why I started supporting Spurs).

Distance makes it easier to be a passive supporter who only sees their club as a product without giving back to the culture, but it does not fit within the ethos of the robust tradition that attracts many of us to English football – and specifically Spurs – in the first place. In an era that overvalues consumption over community in sports, it’s important not to forget that without active participation, supporter culture dies. This is true whether you live 1 or 3,500 miles away from White Hart Lane.

All views and opinions expressed in this article are the views and opinions of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of The Fighting Cock. We offer a platform for fans to commit their views to text and voice their thoughts. Football is a passionate game and as long as the views stay within the parameters of what is acceptable, we encourage people to write, get involved and share their thoughts on the mighty Tottenham Hotspur.

Scott Matthews

9 Comments

  1. Kevin Evans
    12/08/2015 @ 4:38 pm

    Well written article with which I agree for the most part. Having being born in Tottenham but living in the USA since 1977 and Florida now…I understand supporting Spurs from far away.

    I disagree (at least locally) that MLS teams are “distant” from their fans (at least from the Orlando City standpoint where we have season tickets). OC is very much active with their fans. Maybe that is why we (at least currently) pull in 30K+ fans for every home game.

  2. Shikari
    12/08/2015 @ 4:48 pm

    Another nonsense article, better than that one about Stoke randomly earlier.

    • Kevin Evans
      12/08/2015 @ 7:39 pm

      If that is so, why don’t you tell us why?

    • tarjeik
      13/08/2015 @ 4:13 am

      It took until I saw your comment to come across anything nonsensical here… Being from Norway, now residing in Australia I can fully appreciate where the article writer is coming from but I noticed from the pod these last two weeks that there seems to a sense that supporters from abroad need to justify why they support Spurs. I don’t understand why this is even an issue… Supporting a club is about emotions and who is to say that my emotions are less valid than those living in North London?

      • HobokenSpurs
        14/08/2015 @ 7:50 pm

        Agree completely. I fail to see why fandom (or authenticity of fandom) is tied to geography. I love Spurs, I’ve been to the pub where my local supporters club meets, I watch all the matches early on Saturday or Sunday mornings and I feel the sting of defeat when we don’t get our three points. We’re all fans of the same club; there should be no reason to classify levels of fandom by where we live.

  3. InTheCity
    12/08/2015 @ 5:54 pm

    The nearest MLS team to me is about an 8 hour drive away in Chicago in a city that feels no more like home to me than London. I feel a strong connection to our football club despite living an ocean’s length away and have never been more passionate about anything in my life. I really do feel like the Nashville Spurs home pub is our own personal little slice of White Hart Lane. Because of this club, I have made lifelong friends the world wide and feel proud of the wonderful fan base we have across the globe. TTWD.

  4. Andreas Yiangou
    12/08/2015 @ 6:46 pm

    Great to have an ever increasing fanbase ,and I think choosing Spurs says something about the people who choose us.All the Spurs fans I know wonder why we put up with all the happenings at WHL, cause the stuff that happens to us doesn’t seem to happen to other teams. After a discussion on what team we would support if we could have our choice again, everyone said we would choose Spurs , a million times again. I love my club because of the history, the legendary players we’ve had, WHL stadium, the fans ,and although the area is very rough, and a bit of a sh-t hole, it is our sh-t hole and we have a multiracial, multicultural fanbase which I love. Supporting Spurs is like having two wives I suppose, always keeping you on your toes, and giving you a headache.We are different to chelski, and the gooners they are gobby little twats.

  5. Scott
    13/08/2015 @ 1:38 am

    Thanks for the comments, guys!

    Kevin, yeah, I hear that Orlando has a great crowd. I’ll see them when they play the Red Bulls next month. Surely there will be a lot of snowbirds in attendance to support Orlando; looking forward to seeing their passion.

  6. HobokenSpurs
    14/08/2015 @ 7:13 pm

    As another member of the worldwide Spurs community — living in the New York area, just as our author — I can honestly say that I am so thankful to have Spurs in my life. I’ve been blessed enough to have seen one match at WHL (13 November 2010; we smashed Blackburn Rovers) and was completely and totally convinced that I had found an outlet for my love of football.

    Though I wasn’t raised with the sport nor the team, they are as much a part of my life now as anything else and I am doing my best to ensure that my son (and the other son I have on the way at the end of the year) will share this passion and love I have for Super Tottenham from the Lane!

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