I think you have a good idea there, Channon. We should have to earn stripes which we sew onto our sleeves. Long service awards should get you epaulettes. Purple hearts if you've burnt your mouth or lost an eyebrow to a pastie. Newbies should be herded into shame corner until they earn their first stripe after say three years. Might stop new people coming, but we don't want their money anyway, do we?
Maybe fans should have to learn the game in the same way as players do. You could start off as a kid only allowed to watch youth teams, with more promising fans occasionally given a few minutes of watching a grown-up Sunday League game. When you reach 17, the cream of the crop have to spend a season or two watching League 1 or 2 teams and only the top 10 per cent graduating to the higher leagues, with every season a few hundred or so reaching the promised land of a ticket to watch Southampton.
Glory hunters are annoying - my elder nephew (who's 10) likes Manchester United, he has all the merchandise, and I do get my ear bent, every time he sees me, about how United are great (even though they have won nothing this season ) and Saints are crap! I have to remind myself he's just a kid and probably bowing to peer pressure. His stepdad also follows ManYoo, despite being raised as a Saints fan. No excuses there! But then, I guess it's just human nature.
