(from Kicker magazine's Premier League supplement, September 18 2023)
Fan culture in England was once considered mythical, but
commerce has changed it too. For some clubs it's now about the atmosphere
again.
Tottenham Hotspur sent their thousands of season
ticket-holders and members an important email this summer.
It wasn’t asking for advice on who to appoint as manager
after going through three last season – Antonio Conte, Cristian Stellini and
Ryan Mason – as the club failed to qualify for Europe for the first time in 14
years.
Nor was it about the England captain who still hit 30 goals
during the campaign, taking him past Jimmy Greaves as Tottenham’s all-time
leading scorer.
Harry Kane’s “one of our own” spell at Spurs would end of
course with a £100million move to Bayern Munich, although a painted mural in
his honour remains on a brick building around the corner.
What club chiefs wanted to hear from fans instead was how to
improve the atmosphere at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which opened in 2019
on the footprint of their old and now-demolished White Hart Lane ground.