Here's a thought! I have seen Handball and Basketball on the Freeview Sports Channel here. I have seen FC Barcelona Handball teams and Real Madrid and FC Barcelona basketball teams. Whenever these team play, the arena is always packed to the rafters. These matches are shown throughout Europe as well so people in Russia, the Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia and elsewhere are aware of these sporting clubs. Would it help Southampton to become more high profile if it adopted a handball, basketball or dare I say an ice hockey team that could play under the Southampton FC sporting banner thus raising the club's profile nationally and internationally?
How about rugby - I hear there's a bloke, Clive Woodward or something like that. Alternatively I hear there's a chap called Lowe who has a penchant for normal hockey!
Easiest way to widen the appeal of Saints is to win something major and turn the club into a proper brand. The immediate catchment area was researched several years ago and it is potentially enormous. The wider scope is as big as the club wants to try for. But marketing and merchandising will only take the club so far. That ambition thing again has to be real and not just talk.
When Southampton got into the top flight that lasted 27 years and previous to those times, somehow or other they had supporters all over the world. People that had little or no hope of ever seeing Saints in real life . This was probably because of their showing in battles against the bigger clubs in the cup matches. It may sound incredible and unbelievable but this is very true trust me. It is also true that it was also because of the likes of Kevin Keegan, Alan Ball, Martin Chivers, Terry Paine etc just to name a few. Household names during their prime and of course through the World Cup. During my journeys from the 60s through my travelling career until I retired I was always surprised where I would come across a Saints shirt. I have mentioned some of these surprises in previous threads. In truth unless you have household named players, (like Mattletiss) or you start to win major trophy's on a regular basis you are not going to be as well known as those that have or do. It would seem we have started by opening a few football academy's in Australia and Even the states. Maybe they need to move into China and other parts of Asia. Should be interesting times ahead.........
I think we should also open an academy in South London, population in the "greater area must be over 6 million and must be awash with untapped talent that is missed by the likes of Chelsea. In the past some or our wonderful talent has come from London ... Stevie Williams, the Wallace brothers, so it is about time we tapped into that area again.
Handball and basketball are certainly forms of branding for Barcelona FC and Real Madrid. Just surprised that EPL clubs haven't tapped into this market. Imagine a Southampton FC handball team taking part in European Cup competitions every year, because Saints footballing side hasn't qualified on a too regular basis until now. To my it would widen the appeal of the club beyond just being a football club located in the South of England. We would be in the heart of Europe in some shape or manner.
It may come as a surprise to one or two younger or newer supporters but Saints have qualified for Europe on several occasions. Each time (apart from once when English clubs were banned) the club has failed to push on simply because they had reached the limit on investment and ambition. This time there should be no such limitation. There's plenty enough money in the club. I just hope we aren't handicapped by FFP.
I can see the thought process here but I don't think those sports are popular enough in this country for it to be worthwhile. I've just looked around at handball sites online and I suppose there's technically an opportunity - a little research shows Southampton University have a handball team that play in the second tier of the English handball league. However it's worth noting that the best English handball teams only play in the third tier of European competition and this season none of them won a game in that competition. In fact they all got hammered in their only match. So it would be a long road to any sort of serious European success. I don't know much about basketball and can't be bothered to look that up as well as handball but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a similar story there. To be honest I think success on the football pitch is far closer and would reach far more people.
Hammarby IF (the largest supported club in Sweden avg attendance 26k, who I've never heard of) are a multisport club...with clubs in sports I've never hear of, including; Bandy, Floorball, Goalball.
Bandy's a great game. Like ice hockey, but with a small ball and played on a football pitch. My kids played it when I lived in Sweden and thoroughly enjoyed it. Sadly, there's not a lot of ice in Southampton (anymore - since they closed the Top Rank down. Didn't we used to have an ice hockey team in those days?) - bring back the ice rink, I say! Lots of happy memories there - met my first girlfriend on a blind date there . Well, she must have been blind .........
There's a reason why football (soccer if you like) is played everywhere in the world, while other team sports often have limited appeal outside a narrow cultural base. To put it another way; handball? Basketball? Wtf?
It's happening as we speak. We first need to break into the US, which we are looking to do. Then China/EU.
I don't think having a handball team will do much to raise our profile, unless we play in Spain or somewhere which would be a bit weird. I'd love to see ice hockey back in Southampton though. I used to be pretty good at volleyball. That would raise our profile
Our players need to have famous WAG's. Models, singers, actresses. The more controversial and in the media spotlight the better.
Yeah. I am trying not to, but slowly getting to the point where football is the only sport that is interesting.
I'm doing my best here in Serbia. The town of Novi Sad will soon be a hot-bed for Serbian Saints supporters! I've nearly cracked a 10 year old Chelsea fan who last week said " you're only better than Chelsea because you have Tadic!" I'll get him wearing red and white by the end of next season!
We barely utilized Harry Reed last season. We would of been better off pimping him off with one of those little mix girls
