The Legacy Opportunity: Why Football's Future Depends on Its Past

Football’s most loyal fans aren’t a fading past – they’re a strategic advantage. It’s time clubs started treating them like one.

Photo by Ben Black on Unsplash

There’s a blind spot in modern football strategy. In the scramble to court Gen Z and build global brands, clubs are overlooking one of their most valuable audiences:

Fans in their 30s, 40s, 50s, male and female.

Not just valuable in terms of history or heart – but in pure strategic, economic terms. So-called legacy fans represent one of the most underleveraged assets in football today.

And if clubs want to future-proof their business models, they should start treating the 30+, hell, especially the 40+ demographic not as a dwindling past, but as a growing opportunity.

Let’s start with a bit of marketing reality: most consumer-facing brands would kill for a group of customers who buy year after year, evangelise your product without being paid to, and continue spending well into retirement.

That’s football’s 30+ audience.

These fans are already deeply invested – emotionally and financially.

While not every football fan over 30 is in a financially privileged situation, there are many who are in stable careers, with disposable income and the time to spend it. They pay for season tickets, away travel, merchandise (often for the whole family), and digital subscriptions. Crucially, they spend not just for themselves but on behalf of others.

They are what economists would call a high-value cohort. What strategists might call a brand's dream base.

So why are they being deprioritised?

The post-2010 boom in broadcast and commercial income made local gate revenue seem less important. Clubs began shifting focus from long-time supporters to global audiences. And yes, there is logic to growing your fanbase. Of course clubs should connect with younger generations. Of course they should innovate digitally.

Clubs are under pressure to scale globally. The 30+ demographic is geographically fixed and ageing. Many executives (especially in American-owned clubs) see the youth market as the only scalable path and focus on them – rightly or wrongly.

But too often this happens at the expense of core supporters. Core Football culture is being swapped for the netflixization of matchday. Football matches are rebranded as WWE-style events, seemingly justifying ticket prices hiked above inflation. Season tickets are capped out of fear “too many season tickets will cause an older fan scene in the future”. Concession discounts are scaled back or shunted to less attractive areas.

This isn’t just short-termism. It’s a missed opportunity.

Because while Gen Z offers promise, it’s the legacy fans who currently drive stability. According to recent studies, post-COVID attendance rebounded fastest among older supporters. Gen Z was the most content to stay at home.

That’s a huge behavioural insight. And a signal for where long-term value still lies.

The behavioural patterns of older fans are gold. They are habitual match-goers. They build their lives around fixtures. They keep going even in lean years, even in lower leagues, even when the football itself is dire. They represent retention, not acquisition. And while some might disagree, I believe retention is everything.

Compare that to the average Gen Z supporter: more fluid, less club-loyal, less willing to commit cash or time to a single club. This doesn’t mean they don’t matter. It means they need different strategies. Gen Z are loyal, but in a different way: player over club, digital-first, experience-driven. This is a challenge for clubs, especially traditional, non-UCL.

But: You don’t grow by replacing loyalists with casuals. You grow by creating tailored pathways for both.

Take Germany. While far from perfect, the Bundesliga got a lot of things right.

The Bundesliga’s supporter base is over a decade younger than in England. Not because they chased Gen Z at the expense of legacy fans. But because they invested in both. They kept tickets affordable. They made room for both season-ticket holders and occasional fans. They protected standing areas. They preserved culture.

Result? A matchday experience that is loud, loyal, and full of energy. A vibrant mix of old heads and new converts.

This is the model. Neither pure nostalgia nor Gen Z-YOLOing. But smart evolution.

Clubs can have atmosphere and analytics. They can court influencers without alienating fan clubs. They can honour the past while innovating for the future.

In fact, some younger creators are already pointing the way forward.

Yes, there are cringeworthy examples – vloggers who seem more interested in their thumbnails than the actual game. Cough Visca Barça cough. But there are also creators like MDEZ, who treat the game with reverence. Who add context, who champion community, who reflect the values of the terraces.

Football doesn’t need fewer young voices. It needs better bridges between generations.

And that means valuing creators who understand club culture, not just content.

I don’t know a single 30+ football fan who enjoyed the IShowSpeed-Infantino-link up. And everybody under 20 definitely got the wrong impression of what football really is about from that travesty.

The best way to attract new fans isn’t to replace the old ones. It’s to show new fans what the old ones already love. Because the old ones shaped football culture as we know it. And it’s this football culture that makes football a business opportunity in the first place (for more on this, read my piece Money Loves Football Culture. But It Hates The People Shaping It.).

Legacy fans aren’t stuck in the past. They are carrying the past forward. And they want to bring others with them.

They are the ones still turning up in their 60s, introducing their grandkids to the club, spending on hospitality for milestone birthdays. This isn’t a fading segment. It’s the foundation of sustainable growth with a lot of untapped potential.

Smart clubs will find ways to retain and even empower this group – not alienate it.

Football talks a lot about legacy. It should start investing in it.

Because in an era of volatility and short attention spans, it is the fans over 30, 40, 50 who bring patience, passion, and predictability. They are the heartbeat. The memory. The long-term revenue.

And best of all: they’re still here. Still watching. Still willing to give. Willing to show the young ones why the stadium experience cannot be replaced by a selfie video in 9:16.

You just have to stop pushing them away.

---

Housekeeping: I will be taking a break from writing in June. Normal operations with weekly articles will resume in July – so stay tuned. Have a great summer.