In the buildup to their Ligue 1 encounter with champions Paris Saint-Germain, Toulouse have made it clear they want “real” fans only at the game.
“The team needs to play in front of a public that encourages them, not with a public that comes to the opera,” Toulouse general manager Olivier Jaubert said.
When Toulouse published the season’s fixtures on their Web site in June, they put jokey logos next to the names of opponents. Lorient, from a Breton port city, had a fish, Stade de Reims a bottle of champagne. PSG and Olympique de Marseille received a dig in the form of Footix, the mascot of the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France.
Photo: AFP
In France, Footix has become the term for what the English call “glory seekers” — fans who switch teams according to the results. Toulouse, whose only honors are a trio of Ligue 2 titles, have built their marketing strategy on “real fans” since they were bought in 2020 by a US investment fund.
The last time PSG visited in 2019, the club upset fans by pricing tickets from 70 euros (US$70). This time the cheapest seats are 30 euros.
For the visit of the champions and their three tenors, Neymar, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe, Toulouse have structured sales to keep “Sunday fans” out of the stands.
The club sold match tickets first as part of a package with the visits of Lorient and Reims.
It also gave preference to season-ticket holders, fans who are members of official supporter groups and fans who came last season when the club won Ligue 2.
“The people who came to see Toulouse-Dunkerque, Toulouse-Quevilly or Toulouse-Niort are people who fundamentally love the club and the game we play today,” Jaubert said.
This approach could be repeated in February next year for the visit of Marseille.
“Some teams have support just about everywhere in France,” Jaubert said. “The risk, if you don’t give priority to your fans, is that your stadium will not be in the colors of your club.”
“It was frustrating and problematic,” Jean-Baptiste Jammes, the founder of a Toulouse news site LesViolets.com said.
“It was even worse for Marseille’s matches than PSG’s,” he said. “The club has since put things in place so that the stadium is purple and not blue or white.”
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