A few weeks back I had the pleasure of taking my twin sons to their first ever live football match. They’ve been brought up following the same team that I do and therefore naturally the game was at my team’s stadium. Seeing them enjoy their first game and be in awe of the size of the stadium, be taken in by the noise of the crowd and the excitement of the game brought back memories of the first game that I attended at this stadium.
I was roughly the same age then as my sons were for their first game however attending the game at the stadium was a very different experience then as my first game was in the early 80s. Going to an English football game in those days was much different to how it is now.
This particular stadium has increased its’ capacity hugely over the last 30 years and is much more convenient to get to and from. Generally, the stadiums in England these days are much more geared to family attendance as well. For example, smoking and drinking alcohol was allowed pitch side when I first went, but is not permitted now. The stands are much safer as they are all seater stands now (my sons saw much more of the game than I did in my first game!).
I’m not going to debate whether these changes have taken away some of the experience of the game away from the fans as that is up to the individual and their point of view. However; there was one thing about the stadium experience that was the same for my first game and for the first one that my sons attended.
The stadium announcer was the same person for both games. He has been doing this job for 47 years. He started out in 1971 and is still going strong. He started out as a 25-year-old after speculatively applying for the role of stadium announcer when the Club just happened to be looking for a new match day voice.
Listening to him at the game made me think of how much he must enjoy this job to be still doing it after all this time. Obviously, the perks of the job are pretty good as he is in effect paid to watch the team that he supports and he gets summer off but the hours of the job vary week to week and can involve unsocial times.
A recent survey by YouGov looked at how the British public viewed the rewards of the role compared to how they feel about the role when they asked: ‘would you rather have a job you hate that pays well, or a job you love that pays poorly?’. The majority of the responders (64%) stated that ‘they’d rather have a poorly paid job they loved’ compared to just 18% who’d prefer a well-paid job they hated’.
Obviously, the best possible scenario is to find a job that pays well and is a job that you love too but how many people can say. According to the survey results, 2% of British workers have got a job that they love and that is well paid, but 62% of responders did say that they like or loved their job.
The other aspect of the survey looked at the reward associated with their job and 47% of responders felt that their job paid ‘fairly well or very well’. A fortunate 33% of those who answered the survey said that they are in a job that they like or love and that is fairly or well paid. For the other 66%, we may have the answer.
Given how much time we actually spend at work shouldn’t you be in a job that pays well and that you enjoy? We at Amoria Bond can help you find that type of career and here are some of the roles that we’re working on currently which can be viewed here.
As for my team? It’s Liverpool and you can see an article from the BBC here on who the stadium announcer is and his career to date.
