Apps and Spurs
This might be an odd one to write about, Apps, in particularly Spurs “SpursGo” app, but here goes.
Apps came out in the early part of this century and quickly caught people’s imagination. Now anybody worth their salt has one advertising their product, and if you are a fan of a particular product, you will probably have one on your smartphone. That is if you have a smartphone.
There is believed to be 2.1 billion Smartphone users in the world, with the prediction that by 2019 that number will be 2.5 billion and growing.
I am one of those Smartphone users and I need my Spurs apps to give me up-to-date information, more so when I am travelling such long journeys, as most supporters do.
Tottenham Hotspur FC, not a club to take up new ideas immediately, as they were one of the last clubs to embrace advertising on shirts and hoardings around the ground. Nevertheless, the old Tottenham Board, the Wale Family, made way for the modernising Irvin Scholar in 1983, who started bringing the club into a new era. Sadly things didn’t ultimately work out as he took the club into near bankruptcy, but the club was saved by Sugar and Venables, then Sugar alone (with the help of a law court), who then made way for ENIC/ Levy & Lewis.
New technology was taken on to enhance the Tottenham brand and the smartphone and social media was a direct way to getting to the supporters swiftly.
Any news about fixtures, new players, events or even Tottenham branded goods for sale can be directly and quickly made available to the supporter through their app. That way the supporters are on top of events immediately. Other apps like TheSpursWeb (independent) can also give up-to-date news and articles from reputable sources etc. But when it comes from the horse's mouth, it is the club that can inject into the veins of the dedicated supporter immediately, before it is picked up by outside sources, unless there is a leak.
So it puzzles me and thousands, if not millions, of Spurs users/ followers from around the world, that they have had no access to their “SpursGo” app in recent times. It has been deactivated, it is not in use, a dead parrot. It no longer communicates to its core support. Bad business practice.
Two of the main apps I always check are “SpursGo” and “The SpursWeb” to get my fix, as millions of Spurs supporters around the world do (they are not the only apps, but two of the main ones).
Of course, it still exists and is probably on your phones at this moment in time, but click on it and you will get this message “New App Launching Very Soon,” and “Keep notifications turned on and we will let you know”. But nothing for a long time. The app does suggest that you turn to Twitter to keep you updated (which is limited), but that isn’t the point. It also doesn’t look good when all the other clubs in all the other leagues and across the world have a full and active app working for their supporters 24/7.
Now I am guessing here, that they were hoping to relaunch it when the new stadium opened. All well and good… well, not good, as they should have foreseen delays. Wouldn’t it have been better to close the old one down nearer the time they definitely knew that they would have lift off?
And this isn’t the first time that problems have arisen with the Spurs app. A few years ago it was intermittent. I did, at the time, write on their app review section that it was a great app, when it worked. I accept things do go wrong, but as I said, silence on the matter doesn’t look good for the owners (i.e. Tottenham Hotspur FC) and contribute to its good name.
Maybe this is just a small thing to some, but a small dent can get larger and bring questions to the more significant whole. Just saying!
By Glenn Renshaw
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