as well as meaning fake, the term plastic also started being used for those fans that had only ever seen their team play through a TV screen (i.e. on a plastic box making them a plastic supporter).
By definition, back in the day (and to a large extent now), the only teams that anyone could regularly see on the TV were the big teams (since there was hardly any live football) and so the 'plastics' or 'armchair supporters' (which means much the same thing) always chose a team that was on TV more often than the others.
So teams such as Liverpool, Man Utd etc had a lot of 'plastic' supporters - supporters that had never visited the ground, had no real reason to support the team (they didn't come from that area for example) but just decided they were the team they supported (on the TV).
By definition, our supporters from the US etc , much as they (in my view) are very welcome, are plastics. They have chosen a team that they can watch and support on the TV and who are, therefore, a 'big' team (the Swans may seem like a 'small' team in PL terms, but they are a big team in reality, just not as big as the top 6 or 7 - I bet there are not many in the US who have decided for no apparent reason to support say, Bury or Hartlepool).
It is likely that if the Swans were ever to go back down through the leagues, those supporters (or most of them) would support someone else instead (some may truly get hooked and continue their support and become 'real' fans of course - Dav is an example of a 'real' fan from the US).
These days, plastic will also be used to mean people that only support a team if it is good (even if they watch the team live) - but it's a hangover in usage from the TV supporters.
Ironically, a lot of the people that are most vociferous about our style of play, are the very definition of 'non plastic' -they are people that have supported the team for years and from when we were in the bottom leagues, playing pretty badly most weeks.
Sorry if that's a bit dull !! |
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