Post by Finnish Gas on Jul 16, 2014 9:21:05 GMT
BRISTOL ROVERS BLOG: G is for Gas - Divide and rule
By The Bristol Post | Posted: July 16, 2014
By Martin Bull
“If the kids are united, then we’ll never be divided“. So bawled the people’s poet laureate, Jimmy Pursey of Sham 69.
At a time when unity is needed, Rovers fans seem to be split apart more than ever more. Whilst this situation may be tolerable in the short run, if it continues it may make sustained improvements at our club an even harder prospect.
We seem to be in an atypical ‘divide and rule’ situation, as usually it is the ruler who can be ‘blamed’ for shrewdly instigating divisions amongst dissenters. This time it is the fans who are voluntarily dividing themselves. Indeed the board gave us fans the perfect chance to come together when they brusquely axed the official fans forum.
A new Bristol Rovers Independent Supporters Association (BRISA) has just been officially launched. In the longer term I suspect that this venture is the sole split in the fan base that could prove imperative for long-suffering Rovers fans. It is acutely important that the official Supporters Club is challenged, along with its all too cozy relationship with pillow talk partner BRFC. Competition in life generally leads to progress. BRISA will obviously never be able to compete with the Official Supporters Club as a supplier of practical fan services like away travel and ticket sales, and nor will it try to do so, but if well supported and managed fittingly it should be able to provide a strong voice of advocacy for the many frustrated Rovers fans who want the club to be run in a fit and proper manner, and to be responsive to pertinent feedback and requests from the supporters.
A separate group of fans have met together several times. This group has eloquent, visible leaders, and has garnered an impressive amount of press coverage, but hasn’t plumped for a name yet.
Even the internet forums are now split. After the Board unceremoniously disenfranchised thousands of members of the official fans' forum in May at the click of mouse button, many supporters piled over to the Independent Forum which had been running, in various guises, for many years. But a new forum was soon set up, thus splitting the fan base yet again. The first chance to have all cyber space Pirates in one vessel was scuttled within a week.
This is all starting to remind me of the scene in the classic Monty Python film ‘Life of Brian’ when the opposition to the Romans splits into the People’s Front of Judea, the Judean People’s Front, the Judean Popular People’s Front, and finally, the Popular Front of Judea, consisting of a lone bearded old man.
There will not be a revolution at Rovers. A company that is 52% owned by one man will rarely fall to a peasants revolt. And alas, if a substantial chink in the boardroom armour did emerge, us fans are not currently showing ourselves capable of encouraging unified, game changing, pressure on this board. Everyone wants to be a leader; no-one wants to be a follower.
But hold on, this is democracy. Everyone should be able to say what they want, instigate different groups, set up new forums etc? Of course they can, and each individual opinion is just as valid as another, but if this variety of groups really want any chance at affecting change, rather than being comfy clubs where pretty much everyone agrees with each other, and the ones that don’t quite agree are sitting on the grass outside next to the Popular Front of Judea, they have to try to come together and live within any possible differences.
The bottom line is numbers. The reason the official supporters club has even a miniscule say on the board is because of its high membership numbers. And it has high numbers partly because the club have allowed it to offer a tangible benefit; priority purchase on scarce tickets. It’s a dreary circle of trust. Funnily enough the original meaning of a ‘revolution’ is precisely that; smoothly revolving from A and coming back around to A again, like the turn of a wheel, with no, or little, change.
1978 was a quiet year, with no sizeable revolts, but to the revolutionaries yet to reach maturity, Sham 69’s advice was apt: “They can lie to my face, but not to my heart, If we all stand together, it will just be the start”. Hardly the prose of Shakespeare, but powerful, uncomplicated words of unity.
Read more at www.bristolpost.co.uk/BRISTOL-ROVERS-BLOG-G-Gas-Divide-rule/story-21644405-detail/story.html
By The Bristol Post | Posted: July 16, 2014
By Martin Bull
“If the kids are united, then we’ll never be divided“. So bawled the people’s poet laureate, Jimmy Pursey of Sham 69.
At a time when unity is needed, Rovers fans seem to be split apart more than ever more. Whilst this situation may be tolerable in the short run, if it continues it may make sustained improvements at our club an even harder prospect.
We seem to be in an atypical ‘divide and rule’ situation, as usually it is the ruler who can be ‘blamed’ for shrewdly instigating divisions amongst dissenters. This time it is the fans who are voluntarily dividing themselves. Indeed the board gave us fans the perfect chance to come together when they brusquely axed the official fans forum.
A new Bristol Rovers Independent Supporters Association (BRISA) has just been officially launched. In the longer term I suspect that this venture is the sole split in the fan base that could prove imperative for long-suffering Rovers fans. It is acutely important that the official Supporters Club is challenged, along with its all too cozy relationship with pillow talk partner BRFC. Competition in life generally leads to progress. BRISA will obviously never be able to compete with the Official Supporters Club as a supplier of practical fan services like away travel and ticket sales, and nor will it try to do so, but if well supported and managed fittingly it should be able to provide a strong voice of advocacy for the many frustrated Rovers fans who want the club to be run in a fit and proper manner, and to be responsive to pertinent feedback and requests from the supporters.
A separate group of fans have met together several times. This group has eloquent, visible leaders, and has garnered an impressive amount of press coverage, but hasn’t plumped for a name yet.
Even the internet forums are now split. After the Board unceremoniously disenfranchised thousands of members of the official fans' forum in May at the click of mouse button, many supporters piled over to the Independent Forum which had been running, in various guises, for many years. But a new forum was soon set up, thus splitting the fan base yet again. The first chance to have all cyber space Pirates in one vessel was scuttled within a week.
This is all starting to remind me of the scene in the classic Monty Python film ‘Life of Brian’ when the opposition to the Romans splits into the People’s Front of Judea, the Judean People’s Front, the Judean Popular People’s Front, and finally, the Popular Front of Judea, consisting of a lone bearded old man.
There will not be a revolution at Rovers. A company that is 52% owned by one man will rarely fall to a peasants revolt. And alas, if a substantial chink in the boardroom armour did emerge, us fans are not currently showing ourselves capable of encouraging unified, game changing, pressure on this board. Everyone wants to be a leader; no-one wants to be a follower.
But hold on, this is democracy. Everyone should be able to say what they want, instigate different groups, set up new forums etc? Of course they can, and each individual opinion is just as valid as another, but if this variety of groups really want any chance at affecting change, rather than being comfy clubs where pretty much everyone agrees with each other, and the ones that don’t quite agree are sitting on the grass outside next to the Popular Front of Judea, they have to try to come together and live within any possible differences.
The bottom line is numbers. The reason the official supporters club has even a miniscule say on the board is because of its high membership numbers. And it has high numbers partly because the club have allowed it to offer a tangible benefit; priority purchase on scarce tickets. It’s a dreary circle of trust. Funnily enough the original meaning of a ‘revolution’ is precisely that; smoothly revolving from A and coming back around to A again, like the turn of a wheel, with no, or little, change.
1978 was a quiet year, with no sizeable revolts, but to the revolutionaries yet to reach maturity, Sham 69’s advice was apt: “They can lie to my face, but not to my heart, If we all stand together, it will just be the start”. Hardly the prose of Shakespeare, but powerful, uncomplicated words of unity.
Read more at www.bristolpost.co.uk/BRISTOL-ROVERS-BLOG-G-Gas-Divide-rule/story-21644405-detail/story.html