Watching football in a stadium is about as HD as you can get. Mark Grehan tells us why no pub will have the same atmosphere as a League of Ireland ground. While Dr Groove looks at sport and marketing.
A few pints are to be had before a match. This is to wet the vocal cords to either chant for the team or roar abuse at the match officials. There are a few opposing fans here, a few of the younger ones are dressed like English football hooligans. They look as hard as Danny Dyer. Pints drank its time to head into the stadium. Its not quite droves of people heading in, more will be in various pubs watching Man Utd play tonight. This is a refuge from the hipsters. Anyone wearing glasses in this stadium actually needs them. The stadium announcer speaks out as the teams run on to the pitch. Each team’s fan group’s raise their banners. The fans put a lot of time, skill and energy into making these banners each week. They serve as a sign of the devotion of the fans and a signal to the other fans. Each fan groups banner display will be talked about in the week ahead by other fans.
One thing you learn early when you start going to football matches is that referees all have the same genetic code; they are all baldie bastards and blind. The quality of the football is pretty good despite what some Irish fans of foreign football teams say. Many here tonight support football teams from abroad as well. They will always choose to go to a live game rather than sit at home to watch their other teams when there is a clash. The queue for the chip van begins a few minutes before half time. Some people enjoy their second half better after a carton of curry chips. The rest analyse the half. Halftime entertainment is U10’s playing out on the pitch. It’s a big experience for them. There is very little that can beat the jubilation of your team scoring.
Back to the same pub as before the match. The match, players and officials are analysed. We don’t need Eamonn Dunphy’s opinion, or even worse Jamie Rednapp’s. We’ve had the view of the entire pitch for the match. We’ve seen the movement off the ball and the efforts of the players. In the pub after the match we are the pundits. Our analysis made, we head off for home. We’ll be back again at the next home game.
Sport: More Than A Marketing Tool.
Revelations Ch:18 Verse 2. ‘…Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.’
Jello Biafra in his prediction of how marital law would be declared said that sport casts would continue as normal. The new opiate of the people is live sports piped into your life via flat screens. In the 21st century, professional sports is the engine that drives a train of marketing weasels, brands, and products. At the upper levels it is a stage of vampires who speak the hateful language of TV revenues, sponsors, agents, win bonuses and bids. If not resisted and if left in the hands of these demons they will kill sport entirely.