Where have the crowds gone - Lack of crowds for NFL a concern in Goa

The crowds have done a vanishing act. The crowds have become choosy. The crowds shell out money where they think they will find their money’s worth. Certainly the goan football fans have become choosey and pick the ninth National Football League matches which fits the bill. Matches wherein they get entertainment value. Value in terms of sheer high quality football.
Six teams from goa in the National Football League have also taken off the gloss from the event. The enthusiasm seems to be lacking in the crowd response.

Goan clubs do not have a fan following like the Kolkata clubs wherein a Mohun Bagan-East Bengal match attendance hover around 70,000 to 100,000 spectators. Goan clubs fans following fluctuate with the performance of the team for a particular season. Few among them would be die hard Dempo, Salgaocar, Churchill and Vasco supporters. Majority of the football fans loyality borders on swinging with every season swinging from dempo to Salgaocar or to Churchill, Vasco, Salgaocar or Fransa Pax. Clubs Sporting Clube de Goa and Fransa Pax FC are recent entrants in the soccer scene in Goa. That does not matter for the majority of the Goans who appreciate any good performance on a particular day or for a season or for a particular tournament.

Vasco Sports Club have been the only club which has an uninterrupted sting in the Goa football circles ever since the Goa league came into being in 1961. Vasco enjoys the biggest fan following in the state. Vasco SC four years back tried to use the fan following they had at their command to increase their membership. They tried to sell their merchandised products of the club to the fans.
Sadly the concept which had high aims in mind failed to take off. A few die hard fans supported the cause by buying the teams colours and other accessories like club flags. The initiative needed much more active support of the many other younger fans but sadly it failed to take off.
Ironically with Vasco SC not performing to the best of the level in terms of points against their name this season in the NFL. The Vasco fans are disappointed a lot and have not been able to galvanize their vocal chords. Vasco started with a bang winning the governors cup. Sadly the Vasco management realized that performance at the local league and local competitions is no granter for greater sucesss in the much wider and grueling NFL.

Dempo Sports Club have been on the top of the list this season for the crowds. The Federation Cup triumph, the all pleasing short passing game mixed with occasional long passes have given the football fans to cheer their favourite club.
The recent loss to Fransa and the draw against Salgaocar have not dampened the Dempo fans.
The Dempo fan following traditional have been the other side of river zuari but not forgetting pockets of Salcete. Dempo headquarters being based in the capital the bardercars have a lot of affiliation for Dempo.
Traveling all the way to Margao for all the NFL matches involving Dempo SC is thus a difficult proposition for this fans. So they come far and few between.
Dempo SC need to fill in the void of late Cristiano Junior upfront. Depending solely on another Nigerian recruit Ranty Martins to breach the rival defense time again and again and match after match is demanding too much from him. Every player has a day off and in his match against Fransa, it was one such off day for Ranty and so was for Dempo. The first loss for Dempo in the NFL.

Next on the favourite list of Goan clubs this season is Sporting Clube de Goa and Fransa Pax FC. Both the clubs are recent entrants on the football scene and have a relative minuscule fan support.
The fan support of the two clubs cannot be taken for granted. Come any day when the any of the club is playing against the Kolkata club the fans will rally behind the Goan club to bring the roof down on the Kolkata club in the NFL.

Goans fans know their football teams in and out by the back of the hand. They back a team which plays good on its day. The Goans do not mind jeering their own club if they have not lived up to the standards on that day.

Salgaocar Sports Club traditionally has enjoyed the support of the largest crowd in Salcete after Vasco SC. The team this year has been inconsistent this season in the few matches they have played so far. A jump in performance by few notches will get the Salgaocar fans to their feet firing his cylinders in all directions with a full flow of moves on the football field by the green and white brigade.

Churchill Bros the family club of the Alemao family has enjoyed supports across political lines and the fan following is concentrated on the coastal belt of pockets of Salcete. The red and white coloured coca cola T-Shirts fluttering in the stands of the Churchill sponsor are a sign of the largesse distributed by the Alemao family to their die hard fans.

Most of the goan clubs are Institutions clubs supported by Industrially houses. Dempo, Salgaocar are supported by industrial houses of Dempo and Salgaocar. Fransa Pax is owned by the former Benaulim MLA and former sports minister Francisco (Mickky) Pachecho. Churchill Bros is also politically linked to the Alemao brothers, Churchill who is a south Goa MP while Joaquim Alemao is MLA from one of the south Goa constituency Cuncolim. Younger brother Kennedy Alemao is a zilla parishad member from benaulim constituency.
A constituency which had elected Churchill for last few terms but showed the door to Churchilland paved the way for Pachecho. Pachecho recently resigned with three others from the membership of the assembly to set the tone of the political turmoil in Goan politics.

Vasco sought to make the difference by terming itself as a peoples club but the people response to the peoples club has been far from encouraging.
Most clubs are not peoples club but companies club which make fans contributions to the club at the minimum. Involvement with the club is ruled out for a common fan.
Sporting Clube de Goa is run by Peter Vaz a panjim based builder. He and his group of friends and well wishers from Panjim who pull in the resources to keep the club afloat.
Sadly there is no Marketing division associated with any of the NFL clubs and not even Gfa marketing division. This is one grey area that the GFA and the NFL will work to romp in more funds and manage their show on a more professional lines.

Goans have been basking in the glory of six clubs in the NFL. It is Kerala which is getting the maximum crowds for the all NFL league matches in Calicut. 35,000 spectators have been coming regularly for the SBT home matches. Good revenue for Kerala, good gate collection returns for the NFL teams and good motivating factor for the clubs playing before packed galleries.
Kerala example is a sign for other to emulate and work how the magic works for the crowds in calicut. Calicut old time players now turned coaches with different clubs recall that the old magic for the crowd response still works in Calicut.
If we in Goa have our sports ministers demanding 1000 VVIP passes for each of the NFL matches, Calicut throws up the book in your face. The entire VIP stand tickets of 1000 are each sold for Rs.250 each, while the tickets for all other stands are priced at Rs.40.

Come on lets join the race and be sporting enough to support our teams and support with little bit of pinch, little bit of purpose, dedication and with full vigour and just lip service. Lets all be a sporting bunch for other to emulate.