Re: Heart's half-price deal to AFL fans
Originally Posted by
Lantern
What's the go here people -- are we Hearts or Victory people? It's tricky setting up two teams in the same town where both of them don't really have a specific identity.. they both sort of represent Melbourne, so you want to support both, and it's hard to hate either.. it's not like Liverpool and Everton where they represent different parts of society, or Real and Athletico Madrid, or Barcelona vs Espanyol, with socialist/monarchist overtones in those respective rivalries.
It's difficult, because we don't want to inflame any of the old NSL ethnic type crap, but it's a truism that a lot of the great soccer rivalries around the world are fought along class lines, or some historic ennui, or something or other.
Maybe Victory can be the real soccer fans team, and the Heart can be like the 'bandwagoner's' team, or vice versa. Or Victory can be the team of the working man, and the Heart is like the inner city fashionable team, or vice versa. You see why this is tricky? They could be anything to anyone. I mean, I'll hate Sydney first before hating either of the Melbourne clubs -- now THERE'S a derby.
Good post.
I have been to about 7 - 10 Victory games each year and all of their finals in Melbourne. I take my 8 year old son to the games.
After supporting an underdog team for all of my life, I was considering switching allegiances to the Heart. I asked my son if he wanted to barrack for the Heart, and he was straight to the point saying Dad, we can't swap teams. I was pleased to hear that from him and now know that however bad the dogs are going, he'll always be a dogs supporter.
For those who were always the underdogs and wore it as a badge of honour.