Wow.
Just when I was thinking maybe the owners deserved a break...
At what point, exactly does a club's fan-base become a customer-base? I was arguing this yesterday, funnily enough. Surely, the answer is 'never'. We're not customers. Yes, you can make an argument that the flow of money indicates we are, but not one fan feels that way and if you force it, you'll lose what makes this special.
It's not drugs.
It's not TV.
It's not utilities.
It's not a fucking subscription model.
It's closer to Patreon that any of those. But that's massively over-simplifying it. It's a crowd-sourced community-building model that specialises in sports entertainment. The whole thing is built by the fans and their money, and it works because of their ongoing efforts in attendance and exposure (to name just two). It's not beyond reason to say that it often amounts to charity more than anything else.
Turning the supporters trust into a support chat-bot is fucking despicable.