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FC United of Manchester

Although the cool area of London is constantly changing, the east has become a desirable place to live and work over the last decade. This cool status, the influx of young creatives, and the demand for housing was a driving force in West Ham’s Upton Park being knocked down to make way for flats – the cheapest of which is £360,000. The 112-year-old ground is now no more than rubble, a fertile bedrock for yet more flats in London. The new utopic vision for the area comes with an equally quaint and pretty name: Upton Gardens.

Their ground managed to survive being bombed in the Second World War, but succumbed to the ruthless hands of post-Thatcher neoliberalism. That they have been cast aside, now merely borrowing a place to play, means that any aggravation or any loss is magnified exponentially by the fact that the fans feel like strangers in their new home. If you bully a dog into the corner, expect it to bite.

Gentrification is simultaneously a symbol of growth and modernisation, and a by-product of the cut-throat rise of the neoliberal economics of the 1980s. To think that it wouldn’t reach football was rose-tinted optimism from fans and long-game thinking from the Tory politicians who plotted to stamp out any semblance of working-class solidarity, whether through music, football or any other subculture.

Gentrification happens everywhere, so why should football fans expect preferential treatment exempting them from change? Should we be listed by some kind of heritage law, protected as custodians of a culture? Well yes, in a sense we should. If you don’t understand the importance of holding onto a footballing culture and retaining our stadiums as a place of community, then you were never one of the dedicated fans anyway. Unfortunately, it is these people leading the procession of change.

New grounds are built to make lawyers, doctors and fans of Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch feel comfortable, to reassure them that they are taking part in an authentic match day experience. The homogeneity of these grounds ensures that their experience is no closer to life than a safari trip is to seeing lions run in the wild.Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium plan revealed their strategy to create a setting more attractive to certain classes.

FC United of Manchester

FC United of Manchester

Manchester United / FC United of Manchester