…which is sad.
If you win you will become a successful brand and people will queue up to be “supporters”. If you don’t win they’ll drop you.
There was a time when you supported a club because you had a connection with it, not because of results.
Innit.
I sometimes wonder what our worldwide supporter numbers would be like if we got relegated a few tiers like Leeds or whatever. I'd still be around like (albeit massively pissed off at the running of the club and incurably bitter and cynical at that point
) 'cause this is a family matter for me; if/when I have kids, they're gona be Reds whether they like it or not - one might slip through the net and become a bluenose for whatever fucked-up reason they make up, but that's as far as it'll go, so I reckon local support and attendance levels would remain very strong, perhaps growing even stronger with the increased affordability and availability of tickets, because it is very much a matter of tribal civic pride, cultural inheritance and all that.
Obviously fan numbers in Asia and that would drop like a fucking stone, but wouldn't we still be a 'strong' globally-recognised 'brand', whatever our woes? I actually think many(?) of our American fans, even those without scouse family connections, sort of
get what supportership of a football club like this means, and would likely still call themselves Reds (but maybe choose another premiership club to cheer on TV, with perhaps some inappropriate choices).
My point is, I really don't think Yanks need the yankification of our club to persuade them to become Reds. Maybe an increased sense of familiarity with sporting customs does help, but I think North Americans getting into footy are attracted to the slightly alien qualities of it, the 'novelty', for want of a better word ('cause I'm not saying that makes them fairweather fans). I reckon they fall in love with the multifaceted European & South Amercan flavours of it all, the sheer cultural variety, and can take or leave all the attempts at American-friendly influences, personally. I could be wrong.
Not that I'm utterly raging at the fact we have an American-styled mascot in the first place, or Dunkin' Donuts as a major commercial sponsor, etc. That's all very
meh to me, a mild irritant at most. I just don't think any of it really has a significant impact on attracting new fans of whatever age. And if we really must have a mascot for the kiddies, something with a bit more of a local flavour could have been much better, without bastardising the mythical Liverbird that adorns the club's historic crest, and watches over the city, for those purposes. We could've done something with the Anfield Cat.
