Karl87
New Member
(I started writing this as a response to CarpyCov84's post about pitch protests, but went off on a bit of a tangent so thought I better start a new thread)
The subject of pitch protests is being discussed more and more on here, and with good reason. However, I believe we need more interesting and creative protest ideas to capture people's imaginations.
Unfortunately there is almost no way of staging pitch protests without resulting in some kind of violence. Even if 90% of the crowd were peaceful and just dodged the security and sit down, you would always get a minority looking for a scrap. This minority would make a louder noise than the rest of us.
In a post-Hillsborough age every press and media organisation would be terrified of being seen to endorse this and they would either A) Tone down the reports, play it right down, force the story into short paragraphs and bite-size chunks, giving us a wide berth to steer clear of any trouble or B) Report what is happening, but with a strong anti-Coventry fans bias to make it absolutely clear that they don't encourage it.
In Stratford, the Royal Shakespeare Company went through a period where protestors would invade the stage in the build up to shows, in protest against the company's BP sponsorship:
http://www.stratford-herald.com/local-news/5578-protesters-invade-rsc-stage-again.html
These protests were interesting because the theatre world is not used to stage invasions and are not set up to deal with them in the same way as the football world. As a result the theatre allowed the protest to take place and continued their performance slightly later than normal. It succeeded in gaining attention and spreading their message because they did something unexpected and out of the box (and also creative - they performed their own skit).
The world of football is very different, IS used to pitch invasions and if so IS set up to deal with pitch invasions. Obviously a large enough number would be successful in overpowering security, as we see at the end of season celebrations around the country. However there is nothing new, nothing different and nothing creative about this as a form of protest. An uninterested newspaper reader would glance over headlines reporting a pitch invasion, roll their eyes and mutter "bloody hooligans" and carry on their day. BUT if you can capture their attention more imaginatively then you will surely capture their support at the same time.
I'm not a big eco-warrior and don't know much about ice drilling, but when Greenpeace scaled the Shard last month, I immediately read about it and then signed the petition. They had to do something big to get my attention, but once they did, they had it.
I'm still trying to work out what an effective, outside the box and imaginative protest would be, but I am convinced it needs something unique to it. Something like the ribbon idea, but with more bite (think Gail Porter being projected naked on the side of Parliament by FHM!) My thoughts so far are:
The subject of pitch protests is being discussed more and more on here, and with good reason. However, I believe we need more interesting and creative protest ideas to capture people's imaginations.
Unfortunately there is almost no way of staging pitch protests without resulting in some kind of violence. Even if 90% of the crowd were peaceful and just dodged the security and sit down, you would always get a minority looking for a scrap. This minority would make a louder noise than the rest of us.
In a post-Hillsborough age every press and media organisation would be terrified of being seen to endorse this and they would either A) Tone down the reports, play it right down, force the story into short paragraphs and bite-size chunks, giving us a wide berth to steer clear of any trouble or B) Report what is happening, but with a strong anti-Coventry fans bias to make it absolutely clear that they don't encourage it.
In Stratford, the Royal Shakespeare Company went through a period where protestors would invade the stage in the build up to shows, in protest against the company's BP sponsorship:
http://www.stratford-herald.com/local-news/5578-protesters-invade-rsc-stage-again.html
These protests were interesting because the theatre world is not used to stage invasions and are not set up to deal with them in the same way as the football world. As a result the theatre allowed the protest to take place and continued their performance slightly later than normal. It succeeded in gaining attention and spreading their message because they did something unexpected and out of the box (and also creative - they performed their own skit).
The world of football is very different, IS used to pitch invasions and if so IS set up to deal with pitch invasions. Obviously a large enough number would be successful in overpowering security, as we see at the end of season celebrations around the country. However there is nothing new, nothing different and nothing creative about this as a form of protest. An uninterested newspaper reader would glance over headlines reporting a pitch invasion, roll their eyes and mutter "bloody hooligans" and carry on their day. BUT if you can capture their attention more imaginatively then you will surely capture their support at the same time.
I'm not a big eco-warrior and don't know much about ice drilling, but when Greenpeace scaled the Shard last month, I immediately read about it and then signed the petition. They had to do something big to get my attention, but once they did, they had it.
I'm still trying to work out what an effective, outside the box and imaginative protest would be, but I am convinced it needs something unique to it. Something like the ribbon idea, but with more bite (think Gail Porter being projected naked on the side of Parliament by FHM!) My thoughts so far are:
- A walking march from the Ricoh Arena to Sixfields - google maps estimates it would take roughly 13+ hours to walk a safe route (avoiding A-roads and Motorways). If we attempted this crazy feat and filmed it (the struggle, the people who inevitably fall by the wayside), we could show the world JUST HOW FAR the move is.
- Only watching Coventry City Ladies - would make a statement not just about our club but about the state of professional male football in general
- Different games at the Ricoh - this idea could run out of steam very quickly, but the Ricoh could continue to book alternative games for us to attend. Former players one week, Coventry Sphinx the next, successful local teams the next, local schools teams after this.
- Standing with our backs to the pitch - probably an unpopular move because it would involve actually attending a game at Sixfields, but we could pack the stadium out and spend the whole game with our backs to the pitch. Might get a bit boring though!
- Clever seating - tactically sitting in Sixfields in patterns to spell out "SOS" in the stands
