JoshOWTB Posted March 23, 2013 Share Posted March 23, 2013 http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-21893570 Load of rubbish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astottie Posted March 23, 2013 Share Posted March 23, 2013 (edited) http://www.bbc.co.uk...hester-21893570 Article on the BBC Asian network today. Not exactly an in depth piece of journalism but still should be an interesting topic for us, using the word 'interesting' with one hand over my eyes and the other with fingers crossed. Not sure where their 20% of the population comes from, I would suggest they must have been looking at a specific area and not including wider areas where some latics support comes from. I think the idea of latent racism still existing is a valid one but.the point about people having work commitments is general and not ethnicity specific therefore a bit weak. The idea of it being traditional for local people is probably more relevant. Danny Bakers idea that you support the team whose floodlights you can see from your bedroom window as a kid.Main thing is that if there is no familial link, probably you watch games on sky therefore you are going to follow the teams that are on there and win things rather than bother with going to the local club where it costs money and you are not guaranteed glory Edited March 23, 2013 by astottie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewBlue Posted March 23, 2013 Share Posted March 23, 2013 It would be lucrative to bring in fans from the Asian community and good for the town if the racists (of which there are some who go to matches as we've all witnessed) don't create tension and hostility but I don't really believe it's a racism issue that Asians don't tend to attend. I think it's more that most Asians support the big teams and don't feel a connection or pride or loyalty to where they live which makes teams like Latics unattractive. Sad fact is that there are very few Asian fans that go to the games, there's very few Asian player and unfortunately it probably won't change, either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky_Latic Posted March 23, 2013 Share Posted March 23, 2013 There's very few Asian players because they simply aren't good enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oafc-latics Posted March 23, 2013 Share Posted March 23, 2013 maybe the club need to offer initiatives to those communities to come to Boundary Park. Give that club from the article the chance to play on the pitch at half time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
singe Posted March 23, 2013 Share Posted March 23, 2013 Recently , in one of my local leagues, a club was set up from the Bangladesji community, called Sporting Bengal. They struggled, big time, but move to Essex LEague and are faring a little better. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sporting_Bengal_United_F.C. http://www.fchd.info/SPORTIBU.HTM Could be amodel, fi it is something to develop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeP Posted March 23, 2013 Share Posted March 23, 2013 What a pointless article. The timing seems bizarre. Apart from the results, the brilliance of the cup run was the ITV shots of many Asians in the crowd, against both Everton and Liverpool, celebrating and supporting Latics. At the moment, the club aren't in a position to command interest from the Oldham public, regardless of race. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghostofcecere Posted March 23, 2013 Share Posted March 23, 2013 Slightly unrelated, but loved the two Indian guys wearing turbans with Scotland scarfs on singing flower of Scotland at the game against Wales. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaticsSideOfLife Posted March 23, 2013 Share Posted March 23, 2013 I personally think the racism blame is an excuse not to go. I know a few Asians and they say they don't go simply because Latics are :censored:. They don't feel the £20 they would pay to get in is justified. No matter how much I try to convince them, they still have none of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drphibes Posted March 23, 2013 Share Posted March 23, 2013 Well the straw poll that they ran was rubbish because we have been taking a young Asian lad with us for the last two seasons. Reporting like that is very poor because we all know that most of the people of Oldham wont watch Latics until they get some success. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Latics_Fanatic Posted March 23, 2013 Share Posted March 23, 2013 I think a lot of people are far too quick to criticise the article here. I agree with it and think that there is a lack of Asian fans at our club, especially considering the towns multicultural population. However, football on the whole suffers the same fate really - whilst other clubs may have more support from the ethnic minorities than Latics, there still isn't a proper representation of the percentage population. Football on the whole and Latics could and should do more to encourage this - ultimately, if we appealed more to Oldhams Asian population, we may see an increace in ticket revenue, merchandising etc. Just a thought, anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonesyOAFC Posted March 23, 2013 Share Posted March 23, 2013 (edited) Well the straw poll that they ran was rubbish because we have been taking a young Asian lad with us for the last two seasons. Reporting like that is very poor because we all know that most of the people of Oldham wont watch Latics until they get some success. Exactly, it's not just the Asian community who are put off watching the club. Oldham has a population of 103,000 (according to Wikipedia) and yet we average 3000, many of whom travel from neighbouring town's and cities as well as further afield. People generally just aren't prepared to pay a considerable amount of money to watch a poor 3rd tier side. We won't start attracting new fans of any creed or colour until that changes. Edited March 23, 2013 by JonesyOAFC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
palmer1 Posted March 23, 2013 Share Posted March 23, 2013 I know this is only part of the problem, some may not agree but I ask - How many white children at any age group play for Red Star Bengal's? the 2 communitys do not mix "One day, when we have an Asian player at Latics, a lot of Asian people will flock to the club to support him." Is that what its going to take? an asian player in the 1st team before the asian community support the club from the town they live? what if he leaves after 12 months for Tranmere, do they all go and support him there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Ritchie Posted March 23, 2013 Share Posted March 23, 2013 How did you get into football? Your dad took you didn't he? You tagged along with your mates? It's a cultural thing. Only the more recent generations of British Asians have been into football. Our way of football is a whole drink, football, drink thing. Not something a primarily muslim culture would embrace. Plus there is a money thing. Asian communities tend to be poor and family orientated. Usually meaning that £20 for a football game on a Saturday isn't the ideal way to spend their money. It is the same across all sports and not just Football and certainly isn't exclusive to Oldham. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rudemedic Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 (edited) Tweeted the author of the story, pointing out the young Asian lad in the video jumping all over Smith sold me my programme at the Hartlepool game. I'm not denying its a problem and we should try to get more of the local Asian community involved and coming regularly to watch Oldham play football. But quite simply there are lots more significant reasons why very few members of the local Asian community don't watch us than perceived racism. It strikes me as a badly researched bit of sloppy journalism and says almost as much about the reporter as it does about us. Edited March 24, 2013 by rudemedic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaticsSideOfLife Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 I think the cost is a major factor in this. No matter the colour it's the same price for everyone. Ask yourself has the entertainment, the results etc justified paying £20 or so a game to watch us? The answer is mainly no. Taking the FA cup games out of the question it's been a poor season this season. The fan base is still there and the FA cup games have proven this. Make it affordable and people will come back. If we made season tickets say £200 an adult and kids the same price, how many season ticket holders would we need to break even? Around 5,000? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nohairdontcare Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 That BBC article is a flimsy crock of :censored:e. The word 'racism' is sprinkled through it - and it looks to me that the piece was put together with racism as a theme in mind before any "straw poll" was carried out. I think a piece like this on the BBC is damaging. The innuendo is that Oldham Athletic is a racist club - utter crap. As with any club there may be problems etc, but this piece stretches that to the point of fabrication. For example the "straw poll". The words "racism hangover" are highlighted in a sub-headline - but why not the words "too expensive"? The reason is cos too expensive makes for a crap story. Stick in the racism bit and the BBC feel like they are making a point - at the expense of our club's reputation. If you are going to put up, for all the world to see, a blatant innuendo that a club or organisation or business is racist, I'd have thought you would need plenty of ammo to back that innuendo up. Clearly the BBC don't think so. And if any Asians who hadnt been to a match before were thinking about going to our next home game - what chances of them going if they see a piece of crap like this? Racism is a serious issue, one that affects many clubs in many sports in many walks of life. I think an article like this discredits the anti-racism cause such is its shoddy cobbled together nature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leeslover Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 I'll stick my neck out and say that I reckon I work with as ethnically/racially diverse a workforce as anyone the reporter has met, and that's in London. It's pretty cheap to focus on remote Northern towns, what about West Ham, Luton, Port Vale, Stoke (yes, I know...), Aston Villa, Orient, Crystal Palace to name a few if you want to see clubs whose attendance doesn't reflect the community. A lot of my colleagues from different communities support one club or another, but yes it's Premiership, and no they don't go. Roger Ritchie makes similar points to ones I have made before as to why I think it's so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slider1 Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 My wife is Bangladeshi so I have a fair amount of contact with her side of the family, even taken a few of the kids to latics games on occasions. They all support Utd or Liverpool though. The main reason us they'd sooner support a top club then their local one. I just don't think they have the same connection to the town that they live in. They look upon themselves as Bangladeshi's rather than Oldhamers, for example if a Bangladeshi team came over to play a match I think you would find quite a few that would attend. This is just my impression I get when speaking to my wife's family members on the subject. I also usually get met with surprise when I say I support Oldham, comments such as "why do u support them, they're rubbish" kind of sums it up for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oh Heck C-Beck Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 90% of Oldham's white population don't go either ;) I guess if the Asian population have no history watching Oldham they arent going to be tempted to come down to BP while the club is at the bottom of league 1. I am sure this would change if we had some sustained success. If we could bring a local Asian player through as well I am sure it would have a positive effect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opinions4u Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 Yep, like the lad celebrating with Matt Smith: I've seen him around for the last few years, think he used to sell programmes. I think he posts on here occasionally Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longtimeblue Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 Tweeted the author of the story, pointing out the young Asian lad in the video jumping all over Smith sold me my programme at the Hartlepool game. I'm not denying its a problem and we should try to get more of the local Asian community involved and coming regularly to watch Oldham play football. But quite simply there are lots more significant reasons why very few members of the local Asian community don't watch us than perceived racism. It strikes me as a badly researched bit of sloppy journalism and says almost as much about the reporter as it does about us. Agreed it's hardly cutting edge journalism and there's nothing in there we don't already know. To be fair to the journalist though, he doesn't say we don't get any support from minority groups, just that it's not representative of population. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctor evil Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 I think he posts on here occasionally We could do with more like him :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opinions4u Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 Whatever the reasons are, there's a real opportunity there for Latics if they can crack it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave_Og Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 Apart from the so called straw poll I can't see what's to criticise. It says that it's that there may be perceptions that racism from the old days may still exist, that the club want to do something about it but don't know what more that they could do, that it's expensive, that work commitments get in the way and that the lack of tradition means they are more likely to support bigger sides - effectively agreeing with all the points on here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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