The Religion.
OMG…
OK, so the season has reached the halfway point,
due to the half season tickets going on sale for the last half, and so far,
there appears to be a vast expanse of no man’s land between what we were promised
and what has materialised.
With only two or three exceptions, the games at
home so far have been poor. The boredom has already set in and it’s not even
Christmas yet. Wishing I hadn’t spent 640 of my quids is often at the top of my
list of things I shouldn’t have done this year, and nothing I have seen has the
remotest hope of even slightly changing my mind.
Also, with the majority of the Season Ticket games
on a Sunday, I have started to lose interest in this game. This is a sad day
for me, as I’ve followed the game for years, even before the Steelers were
invented. For me, this season has pretty much taken the icing off the cake and
in some ways thrown the cake away as well. I now feel as if it’s a chore, just
to get ready to go out to watch a game. If I didn’t have a season ticket, I
just wouldn’t bother.
The problems with the game, the players, the
coaches; the same lame excuses, coming from the same mouths; the rantings and
abuse from someone who should know a damn site better, have, over the past few
weeks, finally driven the nail in. I am now at a stage where I’m beginning to
wonder why I even bothered at the start of this year.
The on ice performances have left a lot to be
desired. No excitement, no passion and not even any spark to turn it around
when frustration enters the rink. I am one of the old time fans, used to seeing
blood on the ice, sheets of plexi falling out, shirts with half a sleeve
missing and Andy Akers wondering why he has a dozen broken sticks to raffle off
the following week. This new style of hockey is not my cup of tea, it’s not
even a cup of Horlicks. If this is the way forward, then it seems to me, that
the old time fans are being pushed away from the game, and the really
disappointing bit is, no one seems to care, as all the mouthpieces do is to try
and hype up the new soft game we are witnessing at the moment to a new breed of
fan who obviously hasn’t seen the real game. If they can sell it year in year
out to these new fans, then that’s how it seems they want to build their
business, but in my opinion, it’s going to alienate a lot of the old time fans
who, like me, still want to see the Zamboni out to scoop up the broken bones
and piles of teeth, every other game. I started watching the Steelers, as and when I could, my shifts allowing, 20 years ago. As my shift patterns changed, I sometimes got to watch more games, sometimes less, which was frustrating. But throughout that time, I wished for the day when I could go out and buy a season ticket. Well, my circumstances changed a few years back and the miracle happened. I got my first season ticket in April 2009. So in just 4 years, they have managed to take away from me the thrill of actually owning a season ticket, to how I feel now. They may think this is a remarkable achievement, but personally, I am so disappointed with what has happened. Like I said, it's a sad day.
Just being associated with the name “Steelers”
meant you had accepted a role of warrior and everyone else was the enemy. Being
one of these warriors meant you pulled on a shirt and made sure the enemies got
a close up view of it as they were left in a daze. The logo on the front of the
shirt has changed over the years, but often told you what was expected, for
example, lightning, fists, girders, gears.
Look at the front of your shirt guys next time you
pull it on. There’s still the girder there. It takes a lot to shift a girder. I
want to see that back on the ice.
Change is needed, and quickly.
I do not believe (at the moment).
Mart.
