Out of sight, out of mind? Being far away geographically used to mean being out of touch. Not anymore. Here is how it has evolved from my point of view.
When I first left the UK for the USA in 1983, the best news on the U's I could get was buying the Sunday papers and seeing results a day late and with no other commentary. Occasionally, if you were lucky and knew which newsstand to go to, you could buy a 2-3 day old English newspaper and hope they wrote about your team.
The big change happened in the mid-90s when the 'net provided written commentary from fans sharing their thoughts and experiences about the club, matches and players.
For U's fans that was via the Moosenet mailing list as well as the unofficial website set up by Andrea.
TV in the States ignored football until the growth of cable TV with footie specific channels. Daily round-ups of English football started in the late nineties with highlights of the goals from most League games. That evolved into live games, initially shown on pay-per-view but now offered free for most Premiership games. For the tiers below, Fox soccer channel offers a round-up of footie news and highlights several times a day.
So what is it like today being a U's fan?
We have the best website outside of the League, which is a credit to Andrea's tireless work getting insight, views and written info about daily happenings with the club.
I can listen to the games over the Internet with the superb commentary from Mark Johnson and Steve Line. Their upbeat, knowledgeable comments are often hysterical, biased, and with enough energy to give a heart attack.
I was listening to the first game of the season vs York when I had to take a break in the 90th minute. I came back into the room to hear "Goal!!" being screamed out. I cursed - an equalizer in injury time! #@&! - but it was actually Burton equalizing against Histon instead!
From business seminars, I've learned that communication is 50% visual, 30% tone and volume, with just 20% being the words that are said.
Being 5,000 miles away, I used to get a few words a few days late. Now we are at the stage with as much up-to-the-minute information online that any of you can get, plus live commentary from the games. All that we need now is to be able to watch the game live! If I could only get Setanta to broadcast more games live. Until that happens, a stop gap has been Will Jones making copies of a few games that he has been so gracious to send me when he can.
The other aspect of being away is the time zone difference. Living on the west coast means we are eight hours behind, so every Saturday there is the ritual of getting up and logging on to listen to games. By 9am it's all over.
A good result means a long day of happiness, multiple phone calls across the Atlantic to hear various people's views of the game, along with local calls to my friend and fellow director Adrian Hanauer to discuss what went right, wrong and who scored or played well. The wrong result means a very long day...
I am fortunate to work in the travel industry, which has allowed me to visit Britain several times a year. That gap of not seeing games is bridged by seeing 10+ games a year. Andrea, Mark, Steve and all those I call, fill the rest.
It's a good time to be a United fan, even 5,000 miles away.
Paul Barry
Director
Has the Internet provided a lifeline between you and Cambridge United at any time? How do you follow the U's from a distance? If you'd like to share your experiences as Paul has done here, we'd love to hear from you! Drop a line to web@cambridge-united.co.uk
Paul Barry, Lee Power and Adrian Hanauer
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