The Grand Stand Overhauling Sydney FC, Part 1
“Form is temporary. Class is permanent.”
When I first followed Sydney FC I had no idea what sort of impact they would have on my life. I was one of those what people call “Eurosnobs” and basically took no real notice of Australian football until a few years ago where I was lucky enough to be taken by a friend to attend a Sydney FC game. That day absolutely changed my life and now I devote my time, money, passion and tears for this club and will continue to do so until the day I die. You can find me singing for the club for 90+ minutes sitting in bay 22 or at the REH before and after the game. True love is unexplainable and I can’t explain why I love Sydney FC.
But there is a storm coming towards Moore Park and times will be tough. How we get out of this will be up to the fans to hang in tight and come together as one, as we realise now that we aren’t the ones who run this city anymore…never did. This disillusionment realised last week, has caused fellow bloggers Joey, Boris and myself, to start something. We want Sydney FC to have an identity, something to be proud of and something that represents this city. Not just an old (though brilliant) marquee that has come here to play out his career and enjoy the lifestyle. No player is bigger than the club and the idea of a marquee player goes against that.
The major idea we (Joey, Boris and myself) will be addressing is what we want the club to represent and what the club needs to do to represent its fans. It might take weeks, months and years even, it might not even work, but we’re prepared to risk it. This club and its fan base deserves something more and we are here to make a difference.
Yeah, we might sound like a bunch of idealists or dreamers, maybe even radicals. But name one conservative who changed the world for the better? Martin Luther King had a dream once, which changed the world. Johnny Warren had a dream, which changed Australian football forever and millions of lives have changed from one idealist, one man with a vision. It only takes one person to make a difference so why can’t we?
What we want for this beautiful football club is to actually start operating like a football club. We don’t want it operating like a conventional business like it does today; it seems it’s most important goal in the short-term and the long-term is profit, and uses conventional marketing techniques to do this. But the problem is football clubs are both a service and a good.
The football game that is played on in the pitch, watched by tens of thousands of people is a service. The idea is to promote it so it can develop a loyal fan base, to come in again and again, week after week. Get the loyal fan base to come in week after week (normally the season ticket holders/active supporters) and then encourage new customers to become a part of the loyal fan base and so on.
A good on the other hand, is promoted differently because it is consumed/bought once then must be promoted again and again to new customers. In a way a football club is a hybrid of both a service and a good. Basically what I’m trying to say is, the way Sydney FC has been functioning recently is very much like a conventional business: very short term, trying to stay afloat in the red, make sure it’s profitable for the next season, the next month, the next year, and so on.
Yet the fans are here for the long term. We aren’t customers. We are supporters, brothers, followers, disciples. We will follow this team to hell and back, wherever they go, but we need some support as well. What’s the point of following a team if you’re being ignored or worse, treated badly?
(P.S. if I somehow find this article on the internet 20 years from now and I’ve become a conservative someone hit me.)
Part 1 – The image
“Remember who you are, what you are, and who you represent!” – David “Rocky” Rocastle, Arsenal FC Legend.
What is identity?
Identity in the footballing sense is what is the first image/word/thing you think of when someone says “Sydney FC”? It’s a difficult one but for me it’s all about class. But sometimes the club doesn’t operate that way, the way it treats coaches, players and fans does not reflect the way I see the club sometimes and this is what upsets me.
In recent history, Ian Crook, Pascal Bosschart, Jason Culina were all treated with disrespect. The Cove barely get any say let alone any other ordinary fan. I can almost 100% guarantee this whole entire project done by myself, Boris and Joey will get ignored by the club but I’m hoping I’ll be surprised. Sydney FC have sacked many coaches as the number of seasons we’ve played. The club is a merry-go-round, a basket case, whatever you want to call it, and it needs to be fixed.
A home. A place where I belong. Sydney is the city. Sky blue is the colour. We have the beautiful harbour, the city skyline, the beaches, the bipolar weather, the culture, the sun, the women. There are so many things that you can identify with Sydney, but what creates that special bond is when you yourself can identify yourself with those things.
The Crest/Emblem
Probably the most important change is the club crest or emblem.
I did a little bit of research into what is the difference between a Crest and an emblem: http://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question124439.html
“A patch is a piece of cloth sewn onto a garment, presumably in this sense this cloth is embroidered with a symbol, which one frequently sees on military or sports uniform. The symbol/emblem could come from many sources, such as a company logo, a tribal symbol, a heraldic charge (from a coat of arms) or from the crest that sits above the shield in a coat of arms.
The crest originally was an object placed on top of a knight’s helmet, which might have been inspired by the symbols on his coat of arms, but which could also be something different. Animals as crests, for example were often modelled from painted boiled leather!”
This example also shows how different the crest is from the overall coat of arms, which is why the popular use of “crest” is inaccurate.”
More information on Emblems: http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/misc/emblem-history.htm
More information on Crests/coat of arms: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms
Based on that extract, it’s best we call what we want for Sydney FC is an emblem, something that represents Sydney FC, a team that represents all of Sydney and not just one area, no matter what people like to think. Something that represents what we think, what we believe in, what we do. Something that reminds you who you are, what you are and who you represent.
So this is what we have right now is this:
What I’d like it to be changed to is this:
Above is SFCU’s (The Cove) crest. I call it a crest because it’s something hardcore Sydney FC fans tattoo on themselves, which is probably the modern day version of a knight embroidering a coat of arms on himself. It seems to mean more to Sydney FC fans than the current official emblem and I think it should be used as our official badge. Maybe change the colour of the wreath to light blue and then it’s perfect, the wreath and ship are symbols that represent Sydney.
Colour
The colours the club uses:
Sky blue –Sydney is Sky Blue is the marketing hashtag the club uses on social media. Half of the Cove’s song has “sky blue” in them and all the flags, banners, merchandise on game day have sky blue in them. Sky blue represents Sydney FC. Sky blue represents the colour of the state, New South Wales as well.
Navy Blue – Navy blue is used as a 2nd shade of blue and goes well with sky blue
Orange and White is used in contrast with blue.
The colours I would use and why:
Sky Blue – It would be too hard to get away from a colour that is synonymous with the club. The team’s nickname is “The Sky Blues” and changing it would be disastrous.
Royal Blue – The colour signifies royalty, class, tradition and I think it will go well with Sydney FC and especially with what I think Sydney FC means to me. Royal Blue is predominately used in football for many, many clubs around the world including; Birmingham FC, Leicester FC, Chelsea FC, Everton FC, Rangers FC and Schalke FC have the nickname “The Royal Blues” and it would be nice to share the same colour with those clubs.
Cobalt – just my personal choice. Cobalt is my favourite word and colour. Might not necessarily be used on the emblem but maybe used for future jerseys (like away kits and 3rd kits) and for flags etc. Also who cares if Melbourne Victory uses it? According to Wikipedia “Cobalt blue is the cool blue color of the pigments made using cobalt salts of alumina. Cobalt blue pigments are extremely stable, and have historically been used as colouring agents in ceramics (especially Chinese porcelain), jewellery and paint. Transparent glasses are tinted with the silica-based cobalt pigment smalt.”
Chemically, cobalt blue pigment is a cobalt oxide-aluminium oxide, or cobalt aluminate, CoAl2O4. The compound is made by sintering finely ground CoO and Al2O3 (alumina) at 1200 °C. Cobalt blue is lighter and less intense than (iron-cyanide based) Prussian blue.”
There seems to be a large number of the Sydney FC fan base that like orange on our kits, but mainly because they were probably forced to because it has been on our kit and other merchandise since season 1. This might be controversial but I think orange should be removed; its only there to contrast the blue and has no place in Sydney FC.
And lastly White must be included.
The Jersey
Unfortunately I don’t have a creative bone in my body, so I can’t design a jersey that illustrates what I think represents Sydney FC on the pitch. Sky Blue home, Cobalt away. Black and white to complement and there we have our jerseys!
But Sky Blue should always be and will always be our primary colour.
Summary for Part 1
So basically the idea I have is I want Sydney FC to finally represent whom it should’ve represented from day dot: the whole of metropolitan Sydney.
“From the Hawksbury,
to the Shire Shores,
there is a team who we adore.
From Bondi’s beach
To the Mountain’s blue,
We’re the Sydney Cove
Forever true”
And I’m probably going to cop abuse from Western Sydney fans who think the area of Sydney refers to pretty much Auburn and east of but this is in actual fact the City of Sydney (yes, including Penrith and Liverpool and Fairfield and Blacktown), and this is therefore the area of which Sydney FC SHOULD represent.
The title I chose for this blog “Form is temporary, class is permanent” is an old football/sport saying of when teams/players are off-form and the people put faith in them knowing that they have enough class and skill to get out of their bad rut and come back to being good, but I used it as the title for this blog because I think Sydney FC is the opposite, we lack the class, ambition and long-term planning that I desire and I think every time we have won the A-league or had a good string of wins it’s only been form. We can win with class and lose with class but we have to obtain that class first.
Stop being such a mediocre club that is saved by world-class marquees over and over again, now it’s time to win as one. Even though we have just won 4 in a row for the first time ever in the club’s history, Joel Chainese scored the clubs 300th goal and there was a very poor crowd attendance of only 14,803 to see it.
What is it about Sydney FC that isn’t capturing the hearts and minds of fans? Both clubs, Sydney and Newcastle Jets were in-form, had big-name players such as Del Piero and Heskey starting for their respective crowds. There was a music festival on at the same time but I doubt all those people missing were there. Our average this season has been around 18,000-20,000 people, which means 4,000-5,000 Sydney FC fans were at a music festival; is that possible?
There are some things though that will come naturally, such as our club songs, club culture and club legends, but there are some things we can change.
We are now in a battle with Western Sydney over all the areas west of Parramatta to capture the hearts and minds of the people living in those areas but we can’t even capture the hearts and minds of those people living in to the east of Parramatta. Why? We need an identity. And this is something that Boris, Joey and myself will try and put forward to the fans and to the club.
Remember we are a club that’s only 9 seasons old. There is lots of room for improvement and lots of room for growth. But we need long-term vision and direction and having an identity would be a start.
Part 2 will be a further continuation on many of the points I made, and will discuss and analyse how I would personally try to implement the identity I want Sydney FC to portray.
To be continued…
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