Changing Nature of Fandom...

[montys_menXI]

Hi again, final question from me!

With the games now being broadcasted and the highlights released on youtube, people are able to watch and support Hibs from anywhere around the world... Moreover, with social media and online forums such as Hibs.net: it seems to me that fandom has in some ways transitioned from the places and spaces the clubs are situated in to virtual spaces.

Do you agree with this perspective? Do you think that this view applies to being a fan of Hibs? Or is being a fan of Hibernian FC still connected to Leith and the city of Edinburgh?

[ancient hibee]

For those that physically and financially have the opportunity the only way to follow a team is to go to the games.

[Carheenlea]

There’s a difference perhaps in being a fan to a supporter.

When you are there on a match day either at Easter Road or away, you’re as big a part of the match day fabric as the players on the park, and ultimately, without you, Hibs aren’t going to be competing at the level they do, which in turn benefits those who are watching live streaming or live televised coverage be that from afar or closer to home.

I’ve been travelling to Ireland regularly for the best part of 20 years, and in the beginning, to get any Hibs footage meant only if a Hibs game was on Sky or similar, and then the big challenge was finding somewhere that would show it. I remember visiting internet cafes to hire some bandwidth to catch up on the news on Hibs.net! It felt like all things Hibs were a million miles away and you kind of felt detached from it.
Fast forward to now, and I’ll be travelling over for Christmas and New Year, and will have provision to view all three games that I’ll be absent from starting on Saturday. It’ll still feel like match day - I’ll be thinking about it all morning, checking for team gossip and line up announcements before sitting down to watch. While not exactly the same as being there, you’ll still go through the emotions as the game pans out and messages of analysis and critique will be shared back and forward with my group of Hibs friends. For those in attendance I can actually forward clarification on dodgy decisions, penalty calls etc in pretty much an instant.

It’s definitely progress, and despite the options available to fans to view games without having to actually go, the attendances have increased in many cases. I’ll enjoy having the luxury of being able to watch the next three games ftom the West of Ireland, but I’ll be itching to get back proper in the New Year.

[linlithgowhibbie]

For those that physically and financially have the opportunity the only way to follow a team is to go to the games.


Might not agree with you after travelling to Perth last weekend with grandsons!!!!:confused::flag:

[ErinGoBraghHFC]

There’s a difference perhaps in being a fan to a supporter.

When you are there on a match day either at Easter Road or away, you’re as big a part of the match day fabric as the players on the park, and ultimately, without you, Hibs aren’t going to be competing at the level they do, which in turn benefits those who are watching live streaming or live televised coverage be that from afar or closer to home.

I’ve been travelling to Ireland regularly for the best part of 20 years, and in the beginning, to get any Hibs footage meant only if a Hibs game was on Sky or similar, and then the big challenge was finding somewhere that would show it. I remember visiting internet cafes to hire some bandwidth to catch up on the news on Hibs.net! It felt like all things Hibs were a million miles away and you kind of felt detached from it.
Fast forward to now, and I’ll be travelling over for Christmas and New Year, and will have provision to view all three games that I’ll be absent from starting on Saturday. It’ll still feel like match day - I’ll be thinking about it all morning, checking for team gossip and line up announcements before sitting down to watch. While not exactly the same as being there, you’ll still go through the emotions as the game pans out and messages of analysis and critique will be shared back and forward with my group of Hibs friends. For those in attendance I can actually forward clarification on dodgy decisions, penalty calls etc in pretty much an instant.

It’s definitely progress, and despite the options available to fans to view games without having to actually go, the attendances have increased in many cases. I’ll enjoy having the luxury of being able to watch the next three games ftom the West of Ireland, but I’ll be itching to get back proper in the New Year.

Flight or ferry? I’m heading over on Saturday morning as well


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[basehibby]

There is nothing quite like being there - in person at the match - and no amount of technology will ever change that. While technology has provided some useful tools for connecting with other fans and watching matches remotely, the main attraction remains the raw experience of attending games, immersing yourself in the atmosphere and supporting your team in real time with chants and songs and by roaring encouragement straight from your mouth into the ears of the players on the pitch.

[Carheenlea]

Flight or ferry? I’m heading over on Saturday morning as well


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Friday evening Ferry - Cairnryan to Belfast, then a long drive to Galway. Allows plenty time on Saturday to organise viewing facilities.

Where are you bound for yourself?

[tonyrougier123]

Keeping options open is smart business by any club in this tech age,and reaching far and wide making the brand stick would grow the club around the world. But bread and butter will always be the paying and attending supporters,that’s what makes football engrossing. With hibs there’s masses of hibby’s that don’t attend games for various reasons but make no bones about it if the team is firing and up there challenging the club is as best placed as it ever has been to be a vibrant colourful and well attended experience.

Hibs will always be associated with leith and we are an Edinburgh club, that’s pretty much set in stone as the identidy and foundations of what Hibernian is from it’s inception til today.

Nothing beats going to see the hibees play!

[ErinGoBraghHFC]

Friday evening Ferry - Cairnryan to Belfast, then a long drive to Galway. Allows plenty time on Saturday to organise viewing facilities.

Where are you bound for yourself?

Ah I’m the early morning Saturday ferry to Belfast, hour up the road to Derry and then settle down with a Guinness to watch the game. Enjoy mate [emoji106]


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[Carheenlea]

Ah I’m the early morning Saturday ferry to Belfast, hour up the road to Derry and then settle down with a Guinness to watch the game. Enjoy mate [emoji106]


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A great city - always enjoy a visit to Derry :agree:

It’s so easy now to watch games that you often forget how difficult it was in the past to keep up to date with how things were panning out. If you could somehow find a link to radio coverage then that was deemed a major treat, but often as soon as 3pm came the coverage was blacked out for non uk listeners.

Many occasions I’ve had to rely on friends to provide updates via texts and the service would be reciprocated when they were unable to attend a game. All very different now.

[Victor]

Personally I have never lived in Leith and don’t really associate Hibs with the area (is Easter Road even in Leith!) I support them because my Dad did. My son and grandsons support them because I do and I think a lot of the international audience will support the Club because of familial ties. Attracting a new international audience will be dependent on Hibs featuring more on television, something that occurs very rarely at the moment due to the likes of Sky and TNT concentrating primarily on the Old Firm. We will have to feature more in high profile competitions for this to change. Personally I would like to see the club highlighting the fact that we are an Edinburgh team, because the City has global appeal and ‘brand’ recognition. Attracting more foreign visitors to Easter Road would also be a way to increase our International profile.

[EGL2000]

Personally I have never lived in Leith and don’t really associate Hibs with the area (is Easter Road even in Leith!) I support them because my Dad did. My son and grandsons support them because I do and I think a lot of the international audience will support the Club because of familial ties. Attracting a new international audience will be dependent on Hibs featuring more on television, something that occurs very rarely at the moment due to the likes of Sky and TNT concentrating primarily on the Old Firm. We will have to feature more in high profile competitions for this to change. Personally I would like to see the club highlighting the fact that we are an Edinburgh team, because the City has global appeal and ‘brand’ recognition. Attracting more foreign visitors to Easter Road would also be a way to increase our International profile.

I often think Hibs miss a huge trick here with getting tourists in for games, they make it so difficult for them to get tickets. Whenever I visit another town/city I always look to see what games are on and go along. There is a large proportion of people who just enjoy football who would do the same I have no doubt.

[Victor]

Agree. I watched Nice play PSG and had no problem getting tickets. I bought the tickets prior to travelling. If we are selling via Ticketmaster an International Company, I don’t see why we couldn’t allow non registered ticket buyers to buy them in their own country. I appreciate that some Old Firm types would use this as a back door to get tickets, via a VPN, but I think the pros would outweigh the cons. I do think I saw a poster advertising Hibs at Edinburgh Airport, but cannot remember if it was in the public area or airside.

[McD]

I often think Hibs miss a huge trick here with getting tourists in for games, they make it so difficult for them to get tickets. Whenever I visit another town/city I always look to see what games are on and go along. There is a large proportion of people who just enjoy football who would do the same I have no doubt.



Especially with the festival coinciding with the start of a new season, massive opportunities to get people in the door who might not ordinarily be inclined or local

[linlithgowhibbie]

Especially with the festival coinciding with the start of a new season, massive opportunities to get people in the door who might not ordinarily be inclined or local

Give the day trippers a dedicated section of the South Stand, cuts the Rantic allocations which is what we all want. It would also mean they get a close up of the bile and bigotry they spread through the country.:thumbsup:

[VoltaireHibs]

Hi again, final question from me!

With the games now being broadcasted and the highlights released on youtube, people are able to watch and support Hibs from anywhere around the world... Moreover, with social media and online forums such as Hibs.net: it seems to me that fandom has in some ways transitioned from the places and spaces the clubs are situated in to virtual spaces.

Do you agree with this perspective? Do you think that this view applies to being a fan of Hibs? Or is being a fan of Hibernian FC still connected to Leith and the city of Edinburgh?


I think the fragmentation of modern society has a lot to do with the continuing success of football crowds in Scotland. If you think of where society was 50 years ago, which in societal terms was not that long ago, we had far more communal ritual in our lives, whether than be a church, community and even things like Top of the Pops where everyone watched it on a Thursday night and it was the talk of the playground the next day. Those, and many other things, have gone from our lives in our rush toward the new improved future.

The one thing I do believe is that human beings need, and seek out, communal rituals, and this is why Scottish football attendances have stayed strong and in fact have generally risen. The classic match day experience is about so much more than watching Hibs. A lot of folk who go to games will have their own wee rituals on a Saturday, lucky scarves/badges etc, meeting the same folk in the same pub for pre match pints, then the game and then back to the pub for the dissection of the game. These are things that remain solid and true in our lives when lots of those other things have fallen by the wayside. Hibs give me a sense of permanence, in good times and bad, and in some ways, Hib's performances are the least important thing on the day. The other thing, for a fan of any club outside the uglies, that supporting Hibs etc gives you, is a healthy dose of stoicism, and that is useful in many ways, although I do wish it wasn't delivered on such a regular basis...

Hibs are a church when we no longer go to church, a community when we have lost so much of that, and if the announcer plays Teenage Kicks then we're also a cracking Top of the Pops. We need these things in our lives, and I thank Hibs that we have them.

[Paul1642]

Personally I have never lived in Leith and don’t really associate Hibs with the area (is Easter Road even in Leith!) I support them because my Dad did. My son and grandsons support them because I do and I think a lot of the international audience will support the Club because of familial ties. Attracting a new international audience will be dependent on Hibs featuring more on television, something that occurs very rarely at the moment due to the likes of Sky and TNT concentrating primarily on the Old Firm. We will have to feature more in high profile competitions for this to change. Personally I would like to see the club highlighting the fact that we are an Edinburgh team, because the City has global appeal and ‘brand’ recognition. Attracting more foreign visitors to Easter Road would also be a way to increase our International profile.

I’m not sure we are ever going to be a big enough club to have any meaningful non local interest. Like you pointed out, all of our existing overseas or even down south support comes from people who either moved away from Scotland as existing Hibs fans or at best their children.

Anyone outwith Scotland (and mostly the Lothian's and borders) is going to have their own local team that they support and in many cases, especially non European nationals are going to have one or more European clubs that they support. These are naturally going to be historically big clubs and champions league contenders.

I don’t think any amount of effort or investment from the club would ever make someone oversees with no existing ties to the club have any interest in us whatsoever.

[wookie70]

Hi again, final question from me!

With the games now being broadcasted and the highlights released on youtube, people are able to watch and support Hibs from anywhere around the world... Moreover, with social media and online forums such as Hibs.net: it seems to me that fandom has in some ways transitioned from the places and spaces the clubs are situated in to virtual spaces.

Do you agree with this perspective? Do you think that this view applies to being a fan of Hibs? Or is being a fan of Hibernian FC still connected to Leith and the city of Edinburgh?

I have no idea why anyone would support a football team they cannot go and watch live. Watching virtually having picked Hibs because of Sunshine on Leith or you visited Edinburgh makes no sense to me and I am not sure I would regard them as Fans unless they are making the trip to ER on a regular basis.

I think we are still supported, quite rightly by supporters who live in a fairly small radius of Easter Road, maybe 15 miles. Outside that I guess most will have moved from that area or will have parents or at the most grand parents who were from that area. There is only two reasons to support a team and that is location and family history and I think the vast majority of our fans will fall almost certainly in the first criteria but a majority will likely fall in both.

[LancashireHibby]

I have no idea why anyone would support a football team they cannot go and watch live. Watching virtually having picked Hibs because of Sunshine on Leith or you visited Edinburgh makes no sense to me and I am not sure I would regard them as Fans unless they are making the trip to ER on a regular basis.

I think we are still supported, quite rightly by supporters who live in a fairly small radius of Easter Road, maybe 15 miles. Outside that I guess most will have moved from that area or will have parents or at the most grand parents who were from that area. There is only two reasons to support a team and that is location and family history and I think the vast majority of our fans will fall almost certainly in the first criteria but a majority will likely fall in both.
As someone who has no family ties to Scotland and literally supports Hibs because of a childhood visit to Edinburgh, I suppose I better cancel my trains for the Motherwell game. And tell the wife that she best turn off her Hibs Twitter alerts and to forget going to ER again because we “aren’t fans”. Apart from one last visit to take back our Hibs related Christmas presents.

[wookie70]

As someone who has no family ties to Scotland and literally supports Hibs because of a childhood visit to Edinburgh, I suppose I better cancel my trains for the Motherwell game. And tell the wife that she best turn off her Hibs Twitter alerts and to forget going to ER again because we “aren’t fans”. Apart from one last visit to take back our Hibs related Christmas presents.
But you sound like you are going to games so that does indicate a level of fanaticism if you have no real underlying reason for supporting Hibs.